'We fled conflict and opened a chippy - now it's 50'

"When we came over to England and we started cooking fish and chips, it was luxury for us."

Mike Konstandi was born in Cyprus in 1969 and, although his childhood was content, his family were poor and he recalls, at one time, only having one pair of clothes.

His family fled the island in 1975 to escape conflict after Turkish troops had invaded the year before, moving to the UK and setting up home in Nottingham.

Later in the same year, with the help of a relative, they opened a fish and chip shop on Sneinton Dale, which Mike now runs and is about to celebrate its 50th year in business.

While Mike enjoyed an "easy enough" upbringing living above The Dale Fish N Chips, as it was then known, life before was in stark contrast.

"I remember being out on the streets playing with my friends and then, all of a sudden, we saw planes and we could hear bombs, and that was scary," the 56-year-old says.

Mike's dad, George, had worked on British military bases in Cyprus and the family was able to use his connections to seek refuge.

"Fleeing our village, again, all I could hear was the sound of bombs, and then we were refugees in the British bases," he says.

"It was the British who [taught] me how to count."

When the family arrived in the UK, Mike's uncle, also called George, collected them from the airport and drove them to Nottingham.

"I remember seeing planes and I got scared, and my uncle said to me 'there's no need to be scared here, they're not bad planes'," he says.

His uncle, who lived in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, at the time, had his own business and used his industry knowledge to help them open their fish and chip shop.

Mike says it was a "culture shock" when his dad swapped out Mediterranean fish for the fried takeaway classic.

"But he took to it well, and he loved his fish," he adds. "I remember him loving his fish.

"Back in those those days, we used to close at 14:00 for a two-hour period.

"Any fish that was left there, my dad would demolish it. He would never throw any food away."

Mike also enjoyed eating fish and "did not like meat" as a child.

"I love both the chips and the fish - that's something that I miss having if I go too long not having it," he says.

While the penchant for fish passed from father to son, the love of working in the chip shop did not - at least, not at first.

"I hated it at the start because I was a 14-year-old," Mike says.

"I was shy, and my dad used to call me downstairs at 23:00 when the pubs used to come out.

"We used to have a queue out the door, and I'd help until the queue was out, so I hated it."

However, as time passed and Mike entered the business full-time, he developed an appreciation for the job.

"I love interacting with the customers, that's my favourite part of the job," he says.

"Talking to customers, cooking my food, showing off my food."

Mike took the business over in 1994 and his dad died of a heart attack five years later.

"My dad was a grafter, he knew nothing but work," he says.

"He retired, but he was still coming in, I'm very grateful to him and both my parents."

Mike found it difficult to adjust to working at the fish and chip shop after his dad's death.

"I used to see items of his, like his glasses where he used to store them, his apron, so I found it very hard to come back to work," he says.

"My instinct was, well, I've got to change this, so we had a refit and I renamed the business after him.

"Georgio's is after my dad, basically, because it will always be his."

When the shop opened in 1975, a portion of fish and chips cost 35p and customers had to bring their own newspapers to have their orders wrapped.

Now, a small portion of chips costs £3.40, while a small cod is £6.80 and the same size piece of haddock is £6.50.

Mike says businesses like his are now in "the hardest years" the industry has faced, with prices rising across the board.

He says the price of wheat, used to make flour, went up after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

His shop's electricity bills have also risen from £1,000 per month to £3,000 per month in recent years.

He has also had to adjust his business offer due to changing tastes, with his shop now selling more kebabs than fish and chips.

Undeterred by the recent challenges, Mike is preparing to celebrate the fish and chip shop's 50th birthday on 28 July.

Special events are planned to mark the occasion, including a pledge to donate half of the day's takings to two charities - Nottingham Hospitals Charity and the Alzheimer's Society.

Much of the celebrations have been planned by Mike's daughter, Maria, who is studying at university but still helps out her dad.

"We saw how hard our parents worked to give us everything," the 22-year-old says.

"We saw that our parents and grandparents didn't have that, it was a very different upbringing for them.

"I was a bit nervous working with family when I first started working here, now it's different. It's nice to spend time with [my dad]."

Although Maria has no plans to take over the family business, Mike says his youngest daughter, aged 12, wants "to start working as soon as she can".

"In another 50 years, who knows what's going to be happening here," Mike says.

"All I can plan for is the next year, and God willing, if I'm here in 50 years, we'll be good."

Additional reporting by Megan Bourne

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