A MUCH loved chippie has been forced to temporarily close its restaurant due to a shortage of staff.

Barring the Covid pandemic, this is the first time that Fish ‘n’ Fritz, in Weymouth town centre, has had to close the 48-cover restaurant in its 26 year history.

Whilst the restaurant is temporarily closed, the takeaway side of the business remains very much open, owner Paul Hay said.

“We’ve taken the decision to temporarily close the restaurant because we want to do everything effectively and efficiently and if we can’t run the restaurant properly we have to temporarily close it.

“We’ve got a good reputation to uphold. Apart from Covid it’s never come down to this before.”

Mr Hay said Fish ‘n’ Fritz currently has eight members of staff but needs 18 people - a mixture of part-time and full-time workers - to keep the restaurant open.

“I think the issue with recruitment is down to a number of reasons,” he said.

“I’ve talked to many other people in hospitality and everyone seems to be trying to recruit more staff since Covid.

“It’s strange because we have an enormous amount of people from outside the area applying, but they don’t want to travel daily from somewhere like London.”

Another problem with recruiting staff is applicants’ expectations such as not wanting to work weekends and evenings, Mr Hay said.

“People say they want to work certain hours – everybody has got their own agendas going on.

“We say to people ‘come in and have a chat’ but we just can’t get them through the door.”

Fish ‘n’ Fritz, in Market Street, is a family orientated inclusive business that pays ‘excellent rates’, Mr Hay says.

It has been named one of the UK’s 10 Best Fish & Chip Restaurants and was also announced as one of the UK’s 50 Best Fish & Chip Takeaways 2021/2022 at the same time.

The awards were given by trade publication Fry Magazine after ‘mystery diners’ visited the chippie multiple times.

Mr Hay stressed that the restaurant closure is temporary and said it could be open again in weeks or months dependent on ‘getting people through the door’.

“We’ve been inundated with under 16s and the young people are excellent and so polite but they can only work so many hours.

“It’s the older ones we’re struggling to find.”