Want a Little Taste of Britain?

Maybe you can’t fly “across the pond” to London this summer. But you can still enjoy authentic fish and chips, a cup of PG Tips tea, or a jar of Marmite, courtesy of Little Taste of Britain in Layton.

What started out as a small shop carrying foods from the UK has grown into a fish-and-chips restaurant with shelves of UK goods and memorabilia. I recently interviewed the owner, Mandy Island, for a Standard-Examiner story.

Mandy Island hails from in a small town called Woodend in Northamptonshire, England. Incidentally, her family name is Bodily, and she discovered that an ancestor, Daniel Bodily, was an early member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints who immigrated to Utah. Growing up, she remembers travelers who would stop and ask for directions to the home of Daniel Bodily, perhaps seeking genealogy information or paying homage to a pioneer ancestor. When she moved to Utah, she found many others with the last name of Bodily.

Mandy met and married Nick Island, who was serving at the U.S. Air Force base nearby. Originally from Kalispell, Mont., Nick eventually wanted to give his kids some of the things he enjoyed — mountains, fishing, the outdoors, said Mandy. So after 26 years in the Air Force, he retired and the family moved to Utah where he got a job at Hill Air Force Base.

“I’d been here three years, and I was missing home and my sort of food. Especially the chocolate,” Island said. Sure, American grocery stores carry Cadbury products, but the American-manufactured version seems more waxy and not as good as English-made, she said.

  So in 2007, she opened a small shop in Sunset, stocked with British products. She named it after a British TV comedy, called “Little Britain.”

“It’s appropriate, because we’re not a big business, but you get a ‘little taste of Britain,’ ” she said.

The shop found fans in people who had traveled to England, former missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, folks who had never visited England but were curious to sample its products, and of course, homesick immigrants like Mandy.

In August of 2008, she expanded the shop to a strip mall on Layton’s Main Street. That’s when she added the restaurant.

“People kept asking for authentic fish and chips. But I didn’t know anything about restaurants, I have an office background,” Island said. “So I went back to England to our local fish and chips shop, and they taught me everything I know.”

  The flaky cod is battered, deep-fried and served with traditional malt vinegar. Prices are pretty reasonable — two large pieces of battered fish, with a nice helping of chips is $11.99.

  The “chips” are pretty much American-style french fries. Some customers who come in will argue that these aren’t “authentic” chips. They expect little battered potato rectangles. But Island says those battered “chips” aren’t authentic. Americans just think so because they ate them at the Piccadilly Fish & Chips chain that was big from the 1960s to the 1990s, before going out of business. In England, authentic “chips” are like French fries, she said. (And if you’re looking for American-style potato “chips,” those are called “crisps” in England.)

Mushy peas are a British side dish with fish and chips, she said. These are made from a starchy dried pea called marrowfat. They’re cooked until they’re mushy, hence the name.

   In 2018, the business moved to its present location at 768 West 1425 North in Layton. It gave them better visibility and parking, and next door AMC movie theaters helps bring in customers.

Inside, dining booths resemble beach shacks labeled with names of English beaches, such as Blackmoor and Great Yarmouth. Outside, there are picnic benches for eating outdoors.

The back wall is decked with photos and posters of British royalty. Judging from the high number of Princess Diana photos, posters and books, it’s plain that Mandy is a Diana fan. She mentioned that she and Diana both grew up in Northamptonshire, so she feels a special bond to her. I told Mandy that I, too, am on Team Diana. Interviewing her personal chef about her favorite recipes gave me some interesting insights and helped make me a fan.

  Besides fish and chips, the restaurant also serves British specialties like sausage rolls, meat pies, clam chowder, and baked goods such as scones. These scones are the dainty biscuit-like pastries served at teatime in England. They’re NOT the Utah-style fried-dough, which Mandy discovered in her early years in Utah. She was bewildered when a co-worker at her job brought in what they referred to as “scones.”

Mandy and Nick turned most of the management duties over to their son, Daniel, about a year and a half ago. When I interviewed Mandy at the restaurant last month, Nick there watching their young granddaughter, so it’s very much a family enterprise.

Mandy said the past few years have been a struggle for small family-owned restaurants. First the Covid pandemic, and then skyrocketing food prices and labor shortages. “But we don’t want to raise prices, because it hurts the consumers,” she said. “As long as we can keep a roof over our heads and keep our people employed.”