Closing its doors
Water Street Fish and Chips restaurant to close at end of this month
A restaurant that prides itself on serving some of the best fish and chips in Charlottetown will be closing its doors at the end of this month.
An announcement of the closure of Water Street Fish and Chips was released to the public on Facebook Monday afternoon.
Owner Hamid Sanayie said the restaurant is set to close on May 28 since the building has been purchased by a new owner.
Sanayie said he was initially hoping to renew his lease with the new owner and then aim to get one last summer in before closing.
However, after negotiations with the new owner, Sanayie
“We’re kind of like a family here. The owner, his wife and children are all really nice people so I’m really going to miss working with them.” Brenda Marshall
said it appears that won’t be the case.
“I wasn’t expecting (to close) because I always paid my rent on time and was a good tenant, so I thought the lease would be renewed. But, the new owner wants to open his own restaurant,” Sanayie told The Guardian.
The timing was also undesirable for Sanayie and his staff, with the closure coming just after a successful Burger Love promotion and during the transition into what’s expected to be a bustling summer season.
Sanayie said the restaurant did more than $350,000 annually in sales while also employing about a dozen people year round and an extra four in the summer time.
“We’re all very sad,” said
Sanayie.
Waitress Brenda Marshall has been at the location since it opened and said she was sad to see it close just before its sixth season.
“We’re kind of like a family here,” said Marshall.
“The owner, his wife and children are all really nice people so I’m really going to miss working with them.”
Sanayie moved to P.E.I. in 2007 from Yorkshire, England, where he learned his trade.
He opened up Charlottetown’s Brit’s Fish and Chips in 2008, which he later sold around the time of establishing Water St. Fish and Chips in 2012.
He also operates a seasonal restaurant in Cavendish, which he plans on opening again this summer.
However, he said it will be too late to find a Charlottetown location for this summer.
He’s unsure if he’ll open another restaurant in the future.
“Right now, I’ll have to put everything in storage because we won’t be able to open another place this summer. But we’ll see what happens,” said Sanayie, adding that he appreciated the loyalty and support of customers over the last five years.