Halfway down a quiet back street hidden away in the centre of town is not really the first place you’d expect to find a Welsh chippy with a difference. In fact, it doesn’t even consider itself to be a chippy. This is a fish bar, and it’s one that is wowing everyone who stumbles upon it.
Catch Cymru is the brainchild of Josh Gray and Rhianwen Lane, a couple who first met in school and have been together for a decade, and Rhianwen’s mum Jane Phillips. They’ve always been passionate about food, and have always wanted to open their own place, somewhere to bring their vision to life.
They just hadn’t found the right spot. Last August, down Red Lion Lane which connects Guildhall Square and the Jackson’s Lane area of Carmarthen, they found it. You can get the latest WalesOnline newsletters e-mailed to you directly for free by signing up here.
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“I used to work in Debenhams in town before it closed down,” said Rhianwen. “Then I worked for Barclays in Tenby and that closed down! But my family has run hotels so I have always worked in hospitality. Our business plan was quite niche. There aren’t many options in Carmarthen for fresh fish and we wanted to really concentrate on that, so it really needed to be the right place. We thought about doing it more like street food, serving from a van in town.”
“I happened to go onto the website of a local estate agent for a look and they had just marketed this place,” said Josh, who used to work in a chip shop in New Quay years ago before starting a career in IT. “It was perfect for us. It was all painted black inside and people told us we’d never be able to fit in a fryer and the fridges and everything we needed, but we knew it was perfect.”
And perfect it is. Catch Cymru is a tiny fish and chip shop, set in a quiet alleyway you wouldn’t think to walk through unless you knew Carmarthen. However, word of mouth has quickly spread about the food on offer and all roads suddenly seem to lead there. The online reviews from delighted customers tell their own story: “First time tonight and the loaded prawns and haddock were amazing,” says one.
“Gorgeous breaded sea bass and homemade tartare sauce, haddock burger delicious and best chips I’ve eaten in ages. Will definitely be back,” reads another. “Honestly the nicest fish and chips I’ve had! We also tried the halloumi fries on the side and the homemade coleslaw - both were beautiful. Would 100% recommend - well worth the trip up from Swansea!”
The emphasis on a wide variety of fresh fish has certainly struck a chord with local foodies, resulting in a small independent business thriving in a market which its owners were sure they could find a gap in. There’s a lot to choose from on the menu: cod, homemade fishcakes, haddock, buttermilk prawns, prawn-loaded fries, calamari-loaded fries, and you can even pre-order your own mackerel, oysters, cockles, mussels and salmon to take home with you. A lot of green energy is used here, too. The takeaway boxes are recycled, and the menu signs which hang above the counter are actually the protective slabs that came in the box the fridge was delivered in.
“We wanted to do a modern take on the chippy,” said Josh. “We sell a lot of line-caught fish as opposed to trawler-caught fish. We get as much as we can from local fishermen - we go to Milford or Swansea, we buy fish caught in New Quay or Tenby, we sell water bottled in Wales, our ketchup is Welsh, so we source whatever we can from Wales. We don’t want to sell frozen fish, it’s not the road we want to go down. We’re honest with customers and if some days we can’t get fresh cod then we won’t do cod. But we’re very excited about the summer, we’ll be having fresh lobster, fresh crab, and lots of different things.”
As for the tiny location, aided in the summer months by seating outside, surely a surge in popularity will inevitably result in a move to a bigger premises in a more prominent town centre spot? On the contrary, explains Josh: “You can lose your identity quickly if you change things too much. This is a quirky old place and people seem to really enjoy it. We’re extremely lucky."
Rhianwen agrees: “Some customers comment that we are a bit off the beaten track but that’s what we wanted. We have travelled quite a bit and when you go to European cities you realise they really make the most of their back streets, so we want to do the same. Last summer we had benches out at the front and they were full.
“We didn’t want anything over the top as it’s our first business together. This will always be our main hub I think. It works for the brand we want to create, and it wouldn’t be the same in a really big place. We’ve not really done any local advertising so it’s literally been through good old-fashioned word of mouth, people just telling their friends and their families. It’s lovely. We are genuinely mind-blown with how it’s gone in our first year.”
In this day and age where everything and everyone seems to be constantly online, the battle for acclaim and recognition is as intense as it’s ever been, whether it concerns a new shop, bar, restaurant or chippy. For Catch Cymru, in less than 12 months they’ve built up a reputation which suggests they’re here to stay - in their tiny and quirky fresh fish haven - for the long haul.
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