Fine-dining fish and chips is on the menu as a new eatery opens its doors to hungry foodies.
Taking over the fryers at what used to be Haarbour in St Andrews, the Dram and Haddock has opened its doors to local fish and chip fanatics on Alexandria Place.
Sister restaurant to the Dram and Haggis, a whisky bar which opened round the corner in April at the Kinnettles Hotel, the fine dining restaurant takeaway hopes to continue serving the town’s appetite for high-quality fish and chips.
Owner Fraser Ogston, who also has other ventures in the town including the Kinnettles Hotel, designed the layout and structure of the premises when it opened as Haarbour. He’s now adapted it for Dram and Haddock, which he also hopes will be able to serve whisky in the near future.
He says: “I designed the layout of the venue when it was first opened and have now decided to open it as Dram and Haddock, which is a fish and chip restaurant takeaway.
“We make our own whiskies and we are in the process of doing those at the moment for Dram and Haggis. We’ll soon be bottling that and selling our own Scotch whisky.
“We don’t have a licence for the Dram and Haddock at the moment, though it should be ready in about two or three weeks’ time, meaning we can sell alcohol there and will have a whisky display.”
Increasing popularity
Since opening its doors two weeks ago, Fraser is delighted with how popular it has been among local food fans, who have the option to sit in or take away their meal.
“It’s been very popular since we opened and every week is getting busier and busier,” he continues.
“We’ve got a 40-seater restaurant to the rear of the property and the takeaway to the front. So we do both sit-in and takeaway and both are served from the fryers in the middle of the restaurant.
“The aim is to basically be a nice high-end fish and chip shop.”
‘There’s a knack to it’
With a team of expert fryers taking the reins in the kitchen, Fraser notes that high-quality fish and chips is not easy to pull off but he has every confidence his team will succeed.
“There are chefs who think they can fry fish and chips but it’s a completely different thing than what you’d normally make in the kitchen,” he adds. “There’s a knack to it and a way of the batter, a way of cooking it. It’s not just a case of making a batter and pretending that’s your fish and chips.
“These guys need to be experienced and the fryers we’ve bought into the business used to work in fish and chips shops and know how to put the fish in the fryer, how to properly use the batter and how you nurse it in the fryer.
“It’s not just a case of coming along with a recipe and thinking you can cook fish and chips. You have to have 10-15 years of experience in doing so, which the Dram and Haddock guys all have. They’ve worked since teenagers in the fish and chip industry learning how to cook proper fish and chips.”
Heading up the kitchen
Heading up the kitchen team is chief fryer Adam Smith, who has 10 years of experience behind him.
He says: “I’ve been working in fish and chips for 10 years now and this opportunity came up, which I’m delighted to take on.
“One of my friends coincidentally just left a kitchen and had done this type of work for the same person who taught me how to do it years ago.
“So I’ve got him on board, along with a couple of other people. He knows where I want to go with the food and we have the same vision.
“I’m doing a bit of everything – wherever I’m needed I’ll go. I’ve worked in hospitality since I was 12 so I’m well versed in it.
“At the moment we just have fish and chips on the menu, with whisky expected to be sold in the next few weeks once we have our licence.
“People can sit in and takeaway, and we also do deliveries via EcoEats.”
For more information, take a look at Dram and Haddock’s Instagram page: instagram.com/dramandhaddock