The winners of Belfast Live and MyTyrone's favourite takeaway in the county have said they were 'shocked' and 'privileged' after they had found out they had won the vote.
As part of the MyLoves campaign, our readers voted Uncle Sam's Pizza in Coalisland as the overall winner of Tyrone's top takeaway restaurant. They beat off competition from some of the most popular takeaways throughout the county.
Owners Deirdre Murray and Kevin Donaghy took over the popular eatery on Main Street in the town six years ago and thanked their customers who voted for them in the competition.
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Speaking to MyTyrone as they were presented with their framed certificate to proudly display in the shop, Deirdre said they were 'shocked' to find out they had come out on top.
"We had no idea about the competition until one of our customers had come into the shop and said to us about it. By the time we knew about it a lot of people had been sharing it so we just went ahead with it," Deirdre said.
"We were so shocked then whenever we won. Tyrone is a big county and even in Coalisland itself here there is a lot of competition.
"We have great eating establishments here and we just felt privileged that people here thought enough of us to vote for us."
Kevin added it is not the easiest industry to work in but they still love coming in every day.
"We took over Uncle Sam's in 2016 and since then it has gone from strength to strength," he said.
"We have a really loyal customer base and they come in through the door every week. We're very appreciative of that.
"They come in and then tell their friends, then their friends come in and try it and we luckily get a lot of trade that way. We've been very lucky. It is definitely hard work and unsociable hours at times but we still love it."
"Uncle Sams was here about 10 years before we took it over and it always did well. It always had a good customer base.
"We just wanted to keep that going when we came in. To try to maintain what the previous owners had done and then try to put our own slant on things as well."
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