Good Friday: Popular Wirral chippy prepares for hundreds of customers

It’s tradition to eat fish on the Friday of the Easter weekend, and many chippies across the borough will be expecting a surge of customers as families queue up outside their local chippies for fish and chips.

Pisces Takeaway on Milner Road in Heswall is expecting to see “500 plus” customers walk through its doors this Friday (March 29).

Pisces Takeaway in Heswall (Image: Pisces Takeaway)

Owner of Pisces, Cos Michael, has worked 24 years of Good Fridays and says Easter is the busiest day in the industry with preparation being key to a successful day.

He told the Globe: “There’s an absolute ton of prep involved but it’s mainly done on the day itself so that’s why the day becomes so hectic itself.

“Good Friday means a very early start for us. We start at 6am to gear up and start prepping ahead getting all the fish filleted off.

“It’s the standard set up but it’s ten times more the volume than what we’d usually do on an absolutely mental Friday.”

Pisces Takeaway prepping the fish (Image: Pisces Takeaway)

The takeaway is open for a two-and-a-half-hour lunch window from 11.30am until 2pm and then closes again before reopening for the evening shift.

Cos said: “We’re usually open 4pm until 8.30pm for tea time but we’ve extended the hours for Good Friday to try and get everyone in so we open an extra half an hour on either side to spread the load and give everyone a chance to get through the door.

“We could see an excess of 500 plus customers over Good Friday easily and that’s just orders but obviously an order could be for 10 people so the actual number of heads is hard to say.”

To help the operation run smoothly, Pisces operates a pre-order system that allows customers to order online or over the phone to collect for a specific time slot.

Last year's Good Friday queue at Pisces Takeaway (Image: Pisces Takeaway)

Cos said: “We have priority on the online orders so anyone who has ordered online will be given a specific time slot for when the food will be ready to collect. It’s the most popular way people order.

“Because of the volume, it allows us to plan ahead because we can see what is being ordered.

“So what would normally happen if we didn’t have that is we’d have a queue at the door with a one-in-one out but with a pre-order system it only delivers your order to us ten minutes before your due.

Pisces Takeaway (Image: Pisces Takeaway)

"So everything is cooked live and fresh so by the time you come to collect your order is hot and ready and boxed up.

“So you don’t have to queue up to make an order and wait for it to be cooked where you could be sitting in the queue for an hour on a good Friday. That way it just speeds it up and gives everyone peace and comfort.

“We have limited slots so we have a flow rate system involved so we know at full capacity how many orders we can churn out in a five-minute window.

"The online system gives you a five-minute window slot and it will allocate up to four orders every five minutes.

"So for example you book your slot for 6pm it will allow four orders for 6pm once they’ve been used up it will only offer you the next available slot.

Pisces Takeaway in Heswall (Image: Pisces Takeaway)

“So we’re handling those online, then 10-minute windows on phone orders, and then as many as many walks in we can accommodate in the shop as well.

“People may just see a queue but we could have 50 lives cheques that we’re dealing with at any one time in a 10-minute window.”

So far, the takeaway has received 70 pre-orders before Good Friday has even started and Cos says the number is increasing by the day.

He said: “It’s chaos but it’s a nice community feel as well on Good Friday because you see everybody.

“Easter is the busiest day in the industry entirely because it’s so traditional and it’s obviously a religious occasion for most as well but even if you’re not fish Friday is a British thing.

"You find that everyone and his dog wants to have his fish and chips on a Good Friday.”