Garry Risteski started his hospitality career peeling potatoes at the age of 10 in his family's fish and chip shop on the Central Coast.
Old habits die hard. It's a task the restaurateur still takes very, very seriously.
Risteski and his wife Mel have just opened an upmarket fish and chip shop at Warners Bay called The Swordfish Co, a sister restaurant to the original of the same name at Budgewoi. The pair also own The Kingfish Honeysuckle and Blanca Honeysuckle.
The Swordfish Co occupies an enviable corner shopfront opposite Lake Macquarie and across from the busy Warner Park Playground.
"I used to go to the fish and chip shop on the corner as a kid," Risteski tells Weekender.
"And then a couple of years ago I was looking at it and I was like 'Man, I'd love to own a shop on that corner'. If you want takeaway food in Warners Bay, you go there."
The Swordfish Co's menu is eat-in or take away. There is alfresco seating outside, looking across to the lake, and an "intimate" dining space inside. All the classics are present - Pluto Pups ("with chicken salt"), potato scallops, pineapple fritters, calamari, fish cocktails, battered sav, prawn cutlets - plus a gourmet burger range, seafood platters and even house-made gelato.
"Swordfish is the epitome of your local fish and chip shop. It's that step before a restaurant; the best you can get in a fish and chip shop," Risteski says.
"Potato chips and scallops are close to my heart, and people laugh at me because I have a couple of restaurants but everyone knows me for my fish and chips.
"My family bought their first fish and chip shop when I was 10, and that's when I started peeling potatoes. All of my restaurants and fish and chip shops sell fresh-cut chips and scallops; they are cut and prepared in-house.
"The chips are like what you had you were growing up. Nice, thick, imperfect potato chips, that's what we do."
He's surprised at how popular the burgers have been since opening Swordfish a month ago. Choices include The Whole Lot (grass-fed beef, grilled bacon, American cheese, fried egg, oak lettuce, beetroot, tomato and onions) and The Halloumi (grilled halloumi, tomato, oak lettuce, beetroot, onion and spiced tomato sauce) as well as The Prawn Roll (fresh king prawns, pickles, onion, iceberg lettuce and smoked chilli mayo).
There are seafood packs which hero salt and pepper squid, fish cocktails or crumbled calamari, and fish fresh from the grill including salmon, snapper and barramundi.
"We do a $59 and a $99 hot and cold seafood platter, sold in nice takeaway packaging so you can eat in with a beer or a wine, or just take it home," Risteski says.
"We use St Malo in Sydney for our burger buns and everything else is done fresh in-house, including our sauces - even the burger sauces.
"And the gluten-free range has been going off. We do gluten-free battered fish and chips and use a separate fryer and separate utensils, which is pretty rare for most fish and chip places."
As for the gelato, it's also made in-house.
"When we decided to put a gelato bar at The Kingfish I was adamant we had to make it ourselves, from scratch. I didn't want to purchase gelato made by someone else," he says.
"That's just me.
"We make it fresh, and it's done the traditional Italian way where we pasteurise the milk, we age it, we churn it ... it makes me so happy to give a good product to our customers."
