HOSPITALITY
it seemed like a really good opportunity. And the more I looked into St Ives, the more I liked the area.” Set in a unit on a small retail park, alongside the dayglo frontage of mega brands like Subway, the new premises is a big departure from the quaint buildings which house the other two branches of Eric’s – presenting a challenge which has been relished by the team. “We looked at the design slightly differently, and tried to make it all fit a little bit differently,” Eric explains. “There are certain things in the branding that we keep repeating, like the Formica tables and tiled walls – so there’s familiar touches, but we want them to feel almost like they’re standalone restaurants. We didn’t to just repeat everything like some big chain.” As well as adapting the look and feel of the restaurant, another challenge has been appealing to a different clientele. In Thornham, the majority of customers are on holidays or popping in for a treat,
whereas the St Ives site is serving busy workers on lunch breaks and families from the area nipping in for takeaways. “I think the biggest thing is people understanding what we are,” he muses. “In the first few weeks there was a lot of people just trying us in comparison to their usual takeaway fish and chips, but we’re getting to a point now where there’s a lot more people coming in and using it as a sit-in dining experience. And that’s great - what’s always worked so well is that the kids love our fish and chip restaurants and all the little touches for them, but also the grandparents love it, because of the tradition. It’s a good place for all generations. Everybody’s happy with the offering – and that’s actually really unique.” With Thornham continuing to flourish and the new branches doing a roaring trade, is the ultimate goal to have an Eric’s on every high street? “I think we’ll sit tight for 18 months,” laughs Eric. “We want to concentrate on the operations of the business – to make sure the branches are running as well and as efficiently as they can. I’ve always thought there’s really good potential in it, but we need to see what’s right for us. We might just stick with the three. We might just look to expand a lot quicker. But the plan for now is to consolidate for a year, see where we’re at. I’ve always been tempted by Cambridge, Bury St Edmunds and Ely,” he adds, grinning. “And we’ve nearly signed on a site in Norwich a couple of times, so we’ve definitely got an eye on the whole of East Anglia…” Watch this space! ericsfishandchips.com
At the helm of this burgeoning restaurant collection is Eric Snaith, who cut his teeth in the hospitality industry cheffing at his family’s hotel near Brancaster"
ingredients. I was conscious that people knew me from the hotel, but I didn’t want to do a cheffy take on fish and chips. I wanted to do traditional fish and chips, but make them better. When I was researching, it seemed like most places were just trying to work on margin all the time, because it’s always been seen as a cheap dish, but the cost of produce is going up – and we just hoped that people would be willing to pay that extra pound or two for much better quality.” The first Eric’s opened in 2015 after a long search for suitable premises, and quickly became a must-visit along its pretty stretch of coastline. A year or so in, the team realised that the concept had the potential to roll out across more locations. “Holt was always one of our favourites: it wasn’t too far away, it’s quite an affluent area and a lot of our customer base was coming out of Norwich anyway, so it sort of bridged that gap. While we were setting that one up, an opportunity came up in St Ives, which hadn’t been a location we’d thought of. But the developers of the site knew our restaurant and knew the North Norfolk coast, so we got chatting, and
IMAGES Level up your fish and chips with a visit to Eric's; now with branches in Thornham, Holt, and St Ives
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ISSUE 03
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