Nearly two years after a fire devastated Ish & Chips, the restaurant is back in Waterloo – this time on wheels.
On Friday, June 27, the Ish & Chips food truck had its grand reopening, and was set up near the King and Bridgeport intersection for the afternoon. Kamil Mytnik, son of the restaurant’s owners, said it has been a long road since the fire to today.
“Well it wasn’t hell and back, but it was tedious. A lot of different things were happening,” he said. “As you can imagine we had nowhere to really turn to for a source of income, other than get everything finalized with insurance.
In August 2012, a blaze destroyed the restaurant, along with a neighbouring convenience store and apartments above them. Since then, the family has been adamant on getting the business reestablished.
Last October the family opened a location in London, which Mytnik said took about a year and a half to set up. However, he said their hearts belonged in Waterloo.
While they were setting up the restaurant in London, they were also working on the food truck. Mytnik said he noticed the popularity of the trucks and thought it would be a quick solution to reopening in Waterloo.
“It didn’t really happen quickly because it’s been almost two years,” he said. “Things just kept getting postponed and postponed … as you can imagine it’s been a long, hectic ride between the food truck and the London locale, but we’re happy it’s all finally done.”
Mytnik said he believes the food truck following will be an advantage to them, because they can be “anywhere and everywhere with the truck at any time – within reason.”
The mobility of the business is already proving to be valuable; at the reopening there was no shortage of customers – Mytnik noted there had been more people there than the first day at the London location.
“Everyone is really excited over food trucks. It almost seems like a little niche cult following. It just seems to be booming,” he said.
When asked if the family ever plans on reopening a permanent location, Mytnik noted it was still on their “to-do list.”
“It was a prime location for us. We got a lot of props from people coming in telling us how much they loved the design and atmosphere of our interior. We’d love to bring that back,” he said.
“I know my mom is still pretty devastated over the fire, but it’s definitely there that we’d like to come back.”
For now, Mytnik said his family plans to get the truck involved with the festivals in the region, including the upcoming Uptown Waterloo Jazz Festival in July.
“There’s a lot of opportunities for us to sort of reach out to the community, further away from just the uptown. So being mobile is a huge plus,” he said.
It was a tedious process for the Mytnik family, but the wait for their famous fish and chips is finally over.
