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Apr
Drake's Fish and Chips reopens Knaresborough restaurant
Drake's Fish and Chips reopened its Knaresborough site this morning (April 1), following a four-month closure.
The family-run chippy chain has kept its branding and style, but has incorporated a bright new colour scheme – with lots of pink.
Speaking to the Stray Ferret today, co-owner Karley Thompson-Drake, who is running the site with sister Sara, said:
It feels absolutely brilliant to reopen in Knaresborough. It was our dad who founded this site, then we leased it out, and now it’s back to the girls.
The popularity inspired us to reopen. We saw how upset people were that it was shut, so we thought, ‘yep, let’s give it a bit of a spruce-up and get it back open.’
We decided to go with pink because I think it’s the fact that the sisters are back. It’s just promoting that girls are as good as business as men.
Drake’s had been a long-standing member of the Knaresborough high street, operating uninterrupted for 25 years before its sudden closure in November.
The chain’s Ripon site also closed that month.
The Knaresborough closure was attributed to rising costs by the then-site owner, Jaime Wilkinson.
But the subsequent reopening has likely left many people relieved to have a dine-in fish and chips restaurant back in the town.
When the Stray Ferret spoke to owner Sara Drake in February, she said that, while the Knaresborough location would reopen, the Ripon store would be sold.
Ms Thompson-Drake was hopeful for the future of the Knaresborough store upon its reopening. She said:
We hope for it to be as busy as it always has been, and be Instagrammable. It’s going to stay as a fish and chip shop, it’s not going to change at all, so it’s just about getting everything back to how it was.
We’ve got the same staff – solid and reliable. The quality is spot on and we’re following everything that we do in our York business, which has been successful, so I think it will work.
Drake’s Fish and Chips has locations in York, Knaresborough and Leeds.
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