Long standing, well established, recently re-furbished inside and out, fish and chip takeaway and dining room in Eccles. My favourite place to eat. I hope they never, ever demolish this place. It’s Wednesday afternoon. I am the only customer. The waitress is sitting alone in the dining room, she’s turning the page of a newspaper with one hand and clutching her mobile phone with the other.
I sit down. Couple of seconds later I hear “what are you having love?”. Fish, chips, peas and a diet coke is my reply. “One regular *Ban”, she hollers towards the kitchen. She says all this without looking up from her phone, or paper. My fish and chips arrive, freshly cooked. As the plate is put in front of me my iphone packs up. I can only describe what I would have photographed. Piping hot food, crispy batter on the fish –just the right amount, fresh chips, mushy peas. I smother the lot in salt and vinegar and pour my diet coke into the glass. Half way through my food I notice the can of diet coke has been taken away, I didn’t even see her do it.
Directly in front of me is the take away chippy part of The Regent. There is a rectangular window just above my eye line. In the window I can see the top of a cowboy hat moving from left to right. There’s a steady stream of customers in the chippy. The outside window is to my right. I can see a mobility car, Morrisons, a bus stop and the tram stop. Then I see my Dad; holding court at said bus stop. I notice from my Dad’s profile, that I look like him, a lot. I have started to resemble a 78 year old man.
The owner of the cowboy hat leaves and as he breezes past the window I observe that the rest of his get up is denim. He has a pony tail. Badges on his denim jacket depicting heavy metal artistes. I am disappointed; I had fantasies of him looking like Billy Ray Cyrus.
Ban appears and sits down opposite the waitress. I tell him the place looks great and his reaction is that of surprise; have I not noticed before now? He tells me it was re-furbished in the middle of December.
I gulp the last of my drink and stand up to put my coat on. The waitress collects my plate and says, “£4.65 love”. I hand over the exact money and as I snatch my bag up off the chair she tells me to be careful as my iphone is hanging out of it.
*Banico (owner of The Regent).
.
