‘We want you to have the meal of your life!’
TAKEAWAY IS NOD TO IWONA’S TOP MOVIE, DIRTY DANCING
A WOMAN’S love of the hit movie Dirty Dancing has inspired her first business venture – a street food takeaway in Burton.
Joint-owner Iwona Kowalewska has launched Hungry Eyes, in Hill Street, Stapenhill. The name is a nod to her favourite film, starring Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey.
The 1987 blockbuster is set in the 1960s and follows Frances “Baby” Houseman, who falls in love with her summer holiday camp’s dance instructor, Johnny Castle.
Iwona, who runs the takeaway with business partner Grzegorz Wilisowski, says Hungry Eyes is a Polish street food and kebab house takeaway, which she believes to be unique to the area.
The 37-year-old said: “The name of the business had been chosen through an emotional connection which I have with my beloved film, Dirty Dancing.
“It’s always been my favourite film, I can watch it non-stop and it can always fix my mood.
“The song ‘Hungry Eyes,’ by Eric Carmen, from the film is also one of my favourites .
“The film became an icon of the 90s, the years when I found out what love was. This idea transferred on to the restaurant and I wanted to serve the best food possible – with all my heart put into it. Our goal is to serve the most original Polish street food.”
“I worked in a kebab shop in
Poland 16 years ago, and my dream was to serve this unique kind of food to the people as it wasn’t fair to keep these delicacies to ourselves. We love sharing our culture with the people of Burton as we were raised to share with people from a very young age.
“We want to implement our passion to make our customers happy. We are always hungry for more.
“We wanted to open up somewhere where families could come and eat good food together and create memories.
“We are very close to Stapenhill Gardens, where many people visit daily with their families.
“Stapenhill is also very calm with many polite people, which makes it one of the best places to open up a business in Burton.”
Iwona has already been stunned by the amount of business she has enjoyed since opening last month.
She said: “It wasn’t easy, we weren’t expecting such high traffic from our Facebook page.
“However, we are very pleasantly surprised to have been accepted by the public.
“We put a lot of effort into the quality of our food alongside keeping it as fresh as possible.
“We even needed to make the working hours longer to keep our customers as happy as we could,” she added.