A fish and chip shop have shunned traditional fizzy pop in exchange for a more upmarket taste – Britain’s best English wine list.
Olley’s Fish Experience stock nine separate English wines from the south coast including bottles from Sussex, Kent, Hampshire and Dorset.
The bottles made from English grapes and produced entirely in Britain, have been matched with fish dishes.
Owner Harry Niazi, 55, has run the takeaway and restaurant for 30 years but only began stocking the native wines last month – after shunning traditional chip shop drinks like Dandelion and Burdock and Shandy.
So far customers to the posh chippie in Herne Hill, south east London, have reacted positively to the new wine list.
Harry, who has also taken the step of adding the wines into the fish batter, said: “It is about finding these beautiful English wines and they are getting better and better.
“The customers come in and we give them a wine list and we encourage them to try it and say they should try them and have either a glass or a bottle.
“It is an awesome product that compliments the fish and chips, the customers have appreciated it and know we suggest something quality we have had nothing but positive responses.”
The wines are paired with hake, salmon, haddock, cod and herring dishes and have an acidity which compliments the dishes.
Harry added: “I am really proud to be able to serve a traditional fish and chips with English wine.
“We still sell normal soft drinks, but we don’t put coca cola on the menu so people don’t just go straight for it.
“I’ve matched wines with hake, salmon, line caught haddock, cod and herring.
“English wines seem to have an amazing floral acidity to them, like a squeeze of exotic lemon with our fish! And they add a new element to the toasty butteriness of our batters.”
The full wine list includes a Ridgeview Fitzrovia Sparkling Rosé from Sussex, the Litmus Bacchus/Chardonnay from Surrey and Jenkyn Place Brut from Hampshire.
RELATED
Roast dinner restaurant opens in Shoreditch with gravy microbrewery
