EATERY OFFERS GRANDMA'S HOME-COOKED BATTER RECIPES
Businesses and non-profit organizations regularly open and move in Saskatoon. Today Don Rice talks to Taral Purohit, who together with partner Hiren Sanghani recently opened Fin City Fish & Chips on Circle Drive East. Fin City offers several different types of fish, cooked with the batter recipes of the grandmother of their founder, Matthew Taylor.
Q How did Fin City first come to be?
Matthew Taylor I opened the first Fin City Fish & Chips in Orillia, Ont., in 2017. I actually also owned a pita shop and a Mr. Sub at the time. I grew up Down East in Newfoundland. That's where my grandma lives. She's done fish and chips there for years.
I decided to run a Good Friday fish and chips promotion out of my pita restaurant one year. It was so popular, we ran out of fish and chips. The next week, multiple days throughout the week, I had people coming in asking for me to do the fish and chips again. The next Friday I ended up doing it up again and sold out again. So I continued to go with it.
It all started with my grandmother's batter recipes. That's what we focus off of. We realized we had a good market because everyone was really enjoying the food. We opened a few other locations. Everywhere we seemed to open we were winning awards from community votes to Reader's Choice awards and through the Chamber of Commerce.
Q Fin City uses your grandma's home recipes?
Matthew I took everything that I knew from helping my grandma (Barbara Symes) as a kid, up to where I am now. I take her advice on anything new we bring in because she has a good palate. I always loved eating her fish and chips going Down East to visit. She's a great baker, great chef. As much as we are a franchise now, we cook our fish more like homecooked meals. You would think it was that single mom and pa kind of store.
Q Why did you bring Fin City to Saskatoon?
Taral Purohit We found much demand for fish and chips in Saskatoon. Looking for good options for fish and chips restaurants online, we came across Fin City. There was quite a good store in Ontario. We inquired about that store, and they were doing really well. We found out there was one in Regina as well and we decided to open here.
Q What makes Fin City stand out?
Matthew The biggest thing with Fin City is that we use top quality ingredients and we make it from scratch. We're not buying pre-battered fish or pre-frozen fish that's already pre-cut. We actually do the cutting on site. We'll make our own tartar, we'll make our own coleslaw, we cut our own fish. And then we source the best fish that we can. Our halibut comes from Alaska. The haddock and cod is from the Atlantic East Coast. Then we wanted something local as well in a freshwater fish, so we source our pickerel from Lake Huron. You can't get any fresher, really. If it were any fresher it would be swimming.
Taral What really stands out about Fin City is our unique recipe, the homemade fries and that everything is prepared fresh. We have a large variety of options and appetizers, too. It's not just fish and chips. We have a huge menu where the customer has options if they don't want fish and chips. Then we do our own gluten-free options for the fish and the appetizers, too. If someone wants a gluten-free order, we specially cook the gluten free. We use a separate fryer and separate utensils. Everything is separate.
Q Everything is prepared fresh daily?
Taral We prep everything in the morning. If there is anything left over, we throw it out. We cut the fish in the morning and the coleslaw and tartar sauce are prepped every morning for lunch and then there is a new prep done for supper.
Q How did you decide on the Fin City name?
Matthew I like fish puns — something that goes with fish, like Just For the Halibut. I thought of the Codfather or O My Cod. Fin City is like Sin City.
It's a very catchy name. I put it out there for the customers to decide. We did a little raffle draw on it and Fin City won by a landslide. It's a short, catchy name and at the same time people get the aspect of it being like Sin City.
What are your most popular fish?
Q
Taral In Saskatoon, pickerel and halibut are more popular. The cod has a real fishy taste. The older crowd like the cod but the younger generation like more of the pickerel and the halibut which has a less fishy flavour and is really soft when it comes out of the deep fryer.
Matthew Across Canada, Halibut is our most preferred fish by far. It's from Alaska so you get that nice tight, flaky fish that people want that is more mild in flavour. Some people say it tastes like chicken in a way. But it's fish and chips. Halibut is preferred because it's a lighter, flakier, mild flavour compared to haddock and cod where it's more strong and less flaky.
Haddock and cod is a good seller as well. It's a stronger flavoured fish. It's meaty. And because we're from Canada we're used to a lot of freshwater fish and pickerel is what they consider the candy of the fish.
It's not sweet by any means but it's a prized fish. So people enjoy knowing they have a freshwater fish and it's coming from a good, reliable source.
Q What else is on your menu?
Taral We have over 15 appetizers including battered shrimp, deep fried pickles, calamari, wings and battered mushrooms. We also make our own gluten-free onion rings in house in fresh batter. We have a huge variety of poutines made out of our in-house homemade fries. Our most popular poutine is the beef poutine and the pulled pork, plus there is a chicken bacon ranch poutine that people love.
Q Do you offer desserts?
Taral We offer a gluten-free
dessert which is a strawberry champagne cheesecake and turtle cheesecake. They are even more popular than our other desserts, which include an apple blossom pie and double chocolate brownies.
Q Fin City specializes in gluten-free and healthy options?
Matthew One thing I realized with the market is that you get a lot of people that are celiac or just choosing a healthier lifestyle. People enjoy fish because it is one of the healthier options for fast takeout. So we wanted to offer gluten-free.
I again talked with my grandmother to come up with a gluten-free batter recipe. She knocked one out of the park. It's something that a lot of people enjoy, knowing that when they come to our stores, it's celiac safe. There's not going to be any cross-contamination. We have a dedicated gluten-free fryer. So we really hit that market of customers that wanted that healthier alternative.
Taral We make the gluten-free batter in house. We mix our own spices and everything together. We do a beer batter too that is also gluten free. And all our batters are dairy free and there are no eggs used in any of the batters.