When chips are down it's a tasty treat
TRADITIONAL chippers are struggling to survive in the cold climate of recession, health concerns and competition -- as every newsagent and filling station in the country battles them for fast-food customers.
Italian families who have been serving up the one and one for generations say it's never been tougher. Today, Irish Traditional Italian Chipper Association shops are hoping to woo the public with half-price offers to mark National Fish and Chips Day.
Rita Aprile, of Aprile's in Stillorgan on Dublin's southside, is the third generation of her family to work in the family chipper.
Her grandparents, who, like most of Ireland's chip shop community, hailed from near Monte Cassino, first started a business in Stillorgan, and her newlywed parents then arrived in 1965 to take it over and relocate to its present site.
Rita and her sisters grew up over the shop and helped out from an early age, with Rita's Italian husband Massimo Caira taking it over when her parents retired home to Italy a few years ago -- a dream followed by many of the original immigrant chippers.
Rita said: "There's a lot of opposition to fried food now, but at least it's fresh food that you're cutting up freshly and cooking every day."
Although they offer fish alternatives, such as plaice and ray, customers continued to prefer cod, she said, although burgers and fried chicken are also popular.
Irish-Italian chippers have been operating in Ireland for 125 years since they arrived here in the 1880s, said Peter Borza of the Irish Traditional Fish and Chips Association. He said the fact they had remained family businesses was the key to their success.
- Aideen Sheehan
Irish Independent
