The neighbourhood fish and chipper has helped launch many a West Australian food story.
The impossible-to-book Marumo in Nedlands, for instance, can trace its origins to Leeming Fish and Chips when owners Marie Oo and Moe Oo started hosting weekend omakase nights. Chicken rice syndicate Chilliz Express, meanwhile, began life as a side hustle at the combined deli and fish and chipper at the Karawara shops. Before she opened Alberta’s with her partner and fellow Noma alum Ben Ing, a 15-year-old Kirsty Marchant got her big hospitality break at her local fish and chips spot in the northern suburbs.
Yet in the story of Anisha Halik and Jacob D’Vauz – the couple behind popular pop-ups Special Delivery and Magnolia – the fish and chipper wasn’t (just) a means to an end, it was their end game, full-stop.
And after sharpening their skills at a wide set of venues ranging from fine-diners to bowl clubs, Halik and D’Vauz took the plunge in December and purchased Gwelup Kebabs & Fish. Not only was the shop close to the fan base they built up during their residency at the Doubleview Bowls Club, fish and chips is also close to their hearts.
“It [fish and chips] just brings people together,” says Halik.
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“Fish and chip night was my favourite of all the takeout nights. I remember all of us sitting on the floor, unwrapping the fish and chips parcel and just eating while watching TV.”
Halik liked fish and chips so much that she spent a decade tending working at Lansdale Fish and Chips before moving onto Sealanes in Fremantle, where she oversaw things for three years on-and-off.
Which is a roundabout way of saying that she’s well-versed in the arts of battering, frying and running a ridgy-didge neighbourhood fish and chipper. (During their Special Delivery residency at the Doubleview bowls club, Halik kept the recipe for her batter a secret, even from her Rockpool-trained husband, D’Vauz.)
So when the couple (re)open the shop in February, expect to find all the classics on the menu: think crabsticks, potato scallops, squid rings plus being able to order fish crumbed, grilled or fried. (Yes there will be a Filet-O-Fish on offer too.)
Crucially, the fryers will also be filled with – avert your eyes, vegetarians and pescatarians – tallow, aka beef fat, the genre’s traditional frying medium of choice that’s prized for its flavour and higher smoking point. In classic fish and chip shop fashion, rotating fish specials will also be available, demersal fish ban allowing, of course.
But in trademark Halik and D’Vauz style, all this edible Australiana will be offered alongside dishes and flourishes that reference their shared Nusantara heritage. Early ideas include prawns grilled with sambal and brightened with calamansi, plus developing chilli-infused vinegars and other condiments to sit alongside the usual chicken salt and malt vinegar suspects. Collaborations and kitchen takeovers starring other chefs and businesses, naturally, are also going to be part of Gwelup Fish and Chips’ new identity.
Listening to Halik and D’Vauz talk, it’s clear that they want the shop to be a traditional fish and chipper serving local families. Yet at the same time, investing in their own place was equally about looking out for themselves as a family too.
Gwelup Fish and Chips will double as the base for future Magnolia pop-ups (including D’Vauz’s February takeover at Wildcard, a natural wine bar in Singapore) while the shop’s trading hours (initially just nights and from Wednesday to Sunday) are a good fit with the couple’s current stage of life and looking after their daughter Naia.
“I told Anisha, this is your shop and your passion project, you run it how you want,” says D’Vauz. “I’ll help out wherever needed to make it happen.”
Gwelup Fish and Chips (Shop 8, 707 North Beach Road, Gwelup) is due to open in February.
Max Veenhuyzen is a journalist and photographer who has been writing about food, drink and travel for national and international publications for more than 20 years. He reviews restaurants for the Good Food Guide.
