A Blackburn fish and chip shop, cherished by generations of families, has been recognised as one of the best in East Lancashire.
The Wellington, in Wellington Road, is one of 10 chippies named in the Lancashire Telegraph Best Fish and Chip Shop competition.
With 38 years of experience, Peter Zarac has operated shops throughout East Lancashire.
He relocated from his previous store in Stansfeld Street after it was acquired by the council through a compulsory purchase order for a new housing development.
Peter said: “It is prestigious. I have been doing it for 38 years, and I do what I always do.
“We just prep and do everything that we have always done, and you take as much care as you always have done and hope and pray customers come in, and they do.
“I have known customers who have come in since they were children, coming in with mum and dad and growing up and getting married themselves.”
Peter’s father, Jack, put his own unique spin on the Blackburn classic John Bull when he opened his shop, Jack’s, in 1967, which had people queuing around the block to try.
Peter added: “We are very traditional. My processes haven’t changed in 30 years.
"We are not on JustEat or Deliveroo, but we are a traditional word-of-mouth chip shop.
“I am a dinosaur in how I do things, and I am just traditional, and I should realistically be moving into deliveries and expanding the menu.
“We have a very simple traditional menu, which might be good for us or bad for us.
“You prepare to be busy and hope that you are.”
Fish and chips is an industry that has been hit particularly hard by the cost-of-living crisis and war in Ukraine, with the rising costs of gas and electric, cooking oil, potatoes and fish.
Peter also added that people’s habits are changing, which means that running a fish and chip shop is particularly difficult.
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He said: “It is challenging because things are going up faster than what you can actually put the prices on.
“Fish prices have doubled, and oil and other things like gas and electricity, it is challenging. It is as challenging now as it has ever been. I wouldn’t want to start a business in this environment.
"Things are changing, and people's habits are changing. Fish and chip shops are not a dying breed, but there are not many opening up across the country.
“The strong will survive, as in any industry.”
Voting in the Best Fish and Chip Shop competition is open until Saturday, June 14, and you can cast your vote by picking up a copy of the Lancashire Telegraph.
Over the coming days, each finalist will be profiled to show why it deserves your vote and to be named East Lancashire's best.
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