The local 'chippy' in the UK is a national treasure. A place where the community thrives around the time-honoured tradition of deeply battered fish and potato. Here in Australia, we've taken to the culinary export like a seagull to a couple of spare chips, but for those yearning for the tastes of home, the options have previously been quite limited.
Cue Northern Soul. The quaint black-painted corner shop in St Kilda.
Led by two Mancunians (Manchester natives), Jess Tosh and Joe Grimshaw, the pair have imbued the new local chip shop with tastes and flavours from all over the UK. Be it battered fish, a buttered barm (bread roll), mushy peas and baked beans, chips and curry sauce or the signature pork sausage roll.
'We're not fish fryers by trade, I'm an interior designer, and Joe's an electrician, we just fancied the idea of having a food truck one day and creating something for ourselves, says co-owner Jess Tosh.
After purchasing a caravan and converting it into a fully-functional food truck the pair took Northern Soul on its maiden voyage to Pitch Music Festival. 'We completely underestimated what was involved, we lost a lot of money but it was the biggest learning curve, and we wouldn't change it for anything,'
Straight after their inaugural venture, the pair were both saddled with the COVID lockdowns, but the pivot was potentially a catalyst for their now cult status around town. 'We had heaps of stock left over so we ended up making UK-style sausage rolls and pasties, advertising it on Instagram and delivering them all over Melbourne to the Mornington Peninsula.
Now a brick-and-mortar operation on Inkerman Street, Northern Soul has cemented its reputation amongst ex-pats and locals alike.
'We have people from all over the UK coming into the shop and they all chat about what they had in their fish and chip shops back home, it's a really nice community that we've got'.
The aesthetic of Northern Soul takes its inspiration from the influx of soul to England during the 70s which sparked the region's first thriving all-night party scene. 'All the discarded records from the US used to rock up to the docks in Liverpool and all the kids used to scramble for them...the music kicked off a real movement'.
This extends to the shop which echoes the 70s feel with the orange and cream swirl-painted interior and curved type sign on the storefront window. The entire menu is a homage to former 70s Manchester soul music venues—take the 'Wigan Casino' which is their staple fish and chips of battered hake with fried hand-cut chips, tartar sauce and mushy peas.
Other regional specialties include 'The Blackpool Tower' a fish finger butty (sandwich) with slaw, chips, Sriacha and tartar sauce to the 'Golden Tower' a hefty battered Irish pork sausage with chips and your choice of curry sauce or gravy (or both).
"It's a feral feed, it's definitely enough for a family of four but people tackle it in one go," Jess laughs.
The sentimentally continues outside of the kitchen, the drinks fridge is lined with cans of Scottish Irn Bru, the beloved Irish Club Orange and Manchester's Vimto, a fizzy grape, blackcurrant raspberry soda.
Both Jess and Joe have worked tirelessly chasing perfection, "the chips are equally as important as the fish" which the pair dedicated countless hours testing finally landing on a mixture of potatoes depending on the season.
There's also a strong sense of sustainability, Jess detailed the responsibility she and Joe feel as young business owners to do their best and this shines through with produce sourced from local Victorian farmers and only utilising fish suppliers with ethically-caught catches.
"The whole idea of what we're trying to do is to bring back a little bit of UK nostalgia".
Northern Soul is open now at 6 Inkerman Street St Kilda, find out more over here.
Check out all the latest food news in Melbourne here.
Image credit: Annika Kafcaloudis