Kath Wetherill
Owner, second generation
Took the pot over from her dad in 2004. Does the buying on the quay at seven every morning.
About
A chip shop that grew a dining room.
Ray Wetherill opened a hatch on Pier Road in 1978 with one fryer and a slate. His daughter Kath runs both rooms now, and still buys off the same families of boats.
We buy small, and we buy first.
Kath is on the quay at seven, before the vans come down from the cities. Buying for 74 covers means we can take one box of the good stuff rather than a pallet of the ordinary. It also means the board is short and honest: six or seven fish, and no promises about the eighth.
5day boats we buy from by name
48years on Pier Road
74covers, two rooms and a terrace
How it works
From the tide to the table.
1
The boats land
Five day boats work out of Whitby and sell to us on the quay. Nothing travels further than the width of the harbour.
2
Filleted at eight
Sam fillets in the back kitchen with the door open, so you can watch it happen on your way past.
3
On the board by eleven
Whatever came in goes on the catch board with the boat and the skipper next to it. When it is gone, it is gone.
4
Cooked to order
Batter is mixed in small buckets through service. Nothing sits under a lamp waiting for you.
The people
Three of us you will meet.
There are fourteen on the rota through the summer, mostly Whitby and Sleights people who come back season after season.
Sam Airey
Head chef
Fifteen years in Scarborough kitchens. Writes the grill menu after he has seen what the boats brought.
Marek Nowak
Fryer
Runs the takeaway hatch. Reckons the queue tells him the weather better than the forecast does.
Fishing this coast
Small boats, and enough left for next year.
We take no undersized lobster and no berried hens, and we pay into the lobster hatchery on the harbour that puts juveniles back. The white fish we buy is landed under quota by boats that go out and come back the same day. Nothing here is flown in.
Food hygiene rating 5MSC chain of custodyFish and chip quality accreditedWhitby lobster hatchery supporter
Come and see which boat it came off.
Tables from 11:30, the hatch from the same time.