French’s is a Must
French’s Fish Shop, established in 1923, is situated on the quayside of Wells-next-the-Sea and only yards from the sea. The view is one of the best in Britain, with the 100 year old sailing ship moored opposite. The shop is now in its third generation of the French Family, with Marcus French taking over the business in 1984.
Fresh fish is delivered daily to the shop, including skinless and boneless cod, haddock, and plaice, together with rock and skate when available. Alongside the fish they only use fresh British potatoes which are also prepared daily and everything is fried in pure vegetable oil which is filtered daily.
Marcus had been using a four year old fryer in his shop but he had been experiencing capacity problems with this for some time and it couldn’t keep up with the demand of the shop. After trying to sort out the various issues that he was having with the manufacturer and not getting anywhere he became extremely disillusioned and decided that he needed to look elsewhere for a new range.
He got talking to friends and colleagues about their range experiences and found more and more were telling him to look at Florigo ranges. Marcus contacted Frying Solutions and spoke with Robert Furey: “I found Robert to be extremely helpful and we struck up a good relationship. He’s a man that most definitely thinks outside the box and he came up with some really good design suggestions and ideas about my new range that I hadn’t even considered”.
Robert advised Marcus to have a ‘U’ shaped island range for the shop which consisted of 3 high efficiency fish pans, 4 high efficiency round chip pans, 1 high efficiency (2 basket) snack pan all with timer controls, 2 chip boxes, 2 scrap boxes and 3 bain maries, together with a Henny Penny filter tray. This was complemented with a hand crafted, stainless steel island counter with shelving below and a sneeze guard above and incorporating a flap and gate.
The front of the counter was enhanced with colour coordinating back lighting that also complimented the décor of the premises. The counter was finished with toughened glass panels with polished edges and lit from behind, highlighting the ‘Frenchies’ logo detailed across the middle of the counter glass frontage.
Marcus is extremely happy with his new Florigo range saying “I can now keep up with demand. Beforehand I had to think ahead to keep up with the queues in the shop, especially in the summer time – now I don’t. I can produce consistent, good, hot food quickly and efficiently”.
To the front of the shop there’s a smallish seating area where you can watch the world of the quay go by while consuming French’s fare. However, eating fish and chips from French’s shop and sitting on the small quay wall is definitely a must for anyone who visits Wells-next-the-Sea.
Read more about their shop on the website