Trade Names: Rose Doyle hears how the Beshoff take-away food business operates 'on the basis of simple, unpretentious food, well-cooked and value for money portions'.

Sitting on the sea wall in Howth, gulls squalling and dogs sniffing hopefully at my fresh prawn breakfast, John and Richard Beshoff tell me the story of their family and business.

It began with the sea, in the 19th century, when one Ivan Beshov fell foul of the mutinous and historic drama on the battle ship Potemkin. In the years between, the ocean and its bounty have been omnipresent in the Irish Beshoff scheme of things - happily in a manner more benign than it was to Ivan Beshov, grandfather of them all.

The shrimp, and a couple of portions of fresh cod, have been been brought to us from 200 yards away, from the Beshoff Bros fish'n chip shop on Harbour Road, Howth.

There's another, older shop on Vernon Avenue, Clontarf and Beshoff's retail and wholesale fish selling outlet (run by Alan Beshoff) is just down the road. Franchised Beshoff chippers are to be found in Westmoreland and O'Connell streets.

But for now we're talking about the original and, the brothers would say, best; the fish'n chip shop set up by their grandfather, Ivan Beshoff, in 1922.

Grandfather Ivan Beshov was born in the Ukrainian town of Odessa. His career in the Russian Imperial navy ended when he became part of the famously mutinous crew on the Potemkin. He didn't go home after the mutiny, moving west instead, across Europe until he fetched up on these shores sometime around 1914. The turbulent times caught up with him again here and he was interned in the Curragh, suspected of being a German spy.

Free again and undaunted he set up Russian Oil Products (ROP) but with the changing times he was, John says, "squeezed out of business". A survivor and a worker, and with good friends in the growing Italian community, he set up his first fish'n chip shop in 1922 on Usher's Quay. He opened a second in the North Strand in 1938 and, when the bombs fell in 1941 and put paid to that business, opened yet another fish'n chip shop on Sundrive Road, Kimmage.

Beshov had by now become Beshoff, and the Ivan part "John" to his friends. Ivan/John Beshoff met and married Noreen Mulcahy from Ballyporeen, Co Tipperary (daughter of General Richard Mulcahy) and they together reared five sons and one daughter. This first generation of Irish Beshoffs included Thomas, Louis, Freddy, Ivan and Anastasia. The youngest, Anthony, married Kathleen Emmet and the pair of them became parents to a second generation of Beshoffs, rearing a half dozen boys who included John and Richard (as well as Tony, Gerard, Gary and Alan).

The business expanded and diversified over the years. Of the five sons reared by Ivan and Noreen two, Anthony and Thomas, choose to go into the fish'n chip shop business. A shop opened on the Malahide Road in 1958 has been sold but one on Vernon Avenue, Clontarf since 1967 is still going strong.

Along with the relative newcomer; the nearby, stylishly tasty shop on Harbour Road which they opened in 1997, Vernon Avenue is these days run by the John and Richard Beshoff partnership.

They come from sturdy stock, the Beshoffs. Grandfather Ivan Beshoff died in October 1989, officially 104 years old. "He may have been older," John says, "because births in the Ukraine weren't registered in his day until children were three-to-four years old. Charlie Haughey visited him on his 100th birthday and Granda, whose own alcohol tolerance was very high, poured him such a stiff whiskey Haughey had to discreetly dispose of it into a flowerpot. Granda never touched vodka, only Irish whiskey. And he always had a glint in his eye for a pretty girl."

The fish'n chip business is unavoidably a family thing. Their mother Kathleen's grandfather came from the island of Malta to own a fish'n chipper in Derry. "She was, and is, a great cook," John says.

He himself came home to the business after years abroad, travels in Brazil, the US, Thailand, Cambodia winding their way back until, in the mid-1980s he returned to the job he'd been doing since helping out in the Malahide Road shop after school.

The business has changed, and the Beshoffs aren't sure it's all for the best either. Richard explains: "These days EU and government legislation take a lot of control away from the owner. There's endless paperwork, endlessly about how food is cooked and amounts and temperatures. Ultimately the cost has to be borne by the consumer."

John gives an example of customer preferences. "People prefer to get tartar sauce from a container but we're obliged to give it in sachets. It's to do with the 'best before' law. Yet people survived and ate well before all of the EU food laws."

The Beshoffs are proud of the characteristics they say distinguish their business. "We're slightly more expensive," Richard admits, "but that's because we believe in a good quality product and the proof," he eyes my breakfast, "is in the eating." There is absolutely no disputing this.

"We're distinguished in that we cook in vegetable oils," says Richard. "Either sunflower or ground nut. We don't cook in fats. This cuts down on the fat content and calories in our average portion. Our average cod and chips, for instance, has about 850 calories. A Chinese take-away has about 1,700 calories and a McDonald's Big Mac meal has 1,200 calories."

He's gloriously immodest about the value they give for money. "Our success lies in this use of best oil and the fact that our portions are bigger; our 7-8 oz fillets are skinless and boneless and we use a light batter."

There's also the fact that they use a great deal of fresh fish. "This of course depends on the weather," John says, "and is affected too by the way the Irish fish quota has been reduced over the years."

Richard takes up the tale of fish supplies. "It's become a more global thing," he says. "I got Hoki in from Chile yesterday. It's a lovely white fish, a bit like cod, and becoming very popular. We get hake from Cape Town in South Africa. People are eating more fish than ever, since meat's been getting such a bad press."

Other things have changed too. "The traditional fish eating day used be Friday," John remembers, "but Sunday's our busiest day now."

Richard says this has been their busiest summer ever. "The weather's suited," he explains. "Customers have enjoyed sitting here on the sea wall with their salmon and chips." Farmed salmon and chips cost €6.95 in Howth this summer. Beshoffs, in the 1960s, were selling wild salmon and chips for 2/9d.

"Our father had a trawler for a while in the 1980s and a couple of retail fish shops too. We learned a lot from all of that - you could say we grew up with fish," John says. "We certainly know the difference between fresh and fresh," he looks enigmatic, "there's fresh and there's fresh, you know."

Italians buying in the Howth shop this summer favoured Salmon and Calimari, French customers went for lemon sole and scampi, the English preferred haddock, chips and mushy peas. We ourselves favour fresh cod and long ray. "But it's changing," Richard says, "there's a home demand growing for haddock and haki."

The Beshoffs are unequivocal. Good fish and chips are the great staple food of all time. "We operate on the basis of simple, unpretentious food, well-cooked and value for money portions," John says.

"We're the most underdeveloped brand name around," says Richard, "a big disappointment recently was not getting a shop opened in the airport because of business complications. It's been a hard graft over the last seven years. Working 10-to-12-hour days is not uncommon, with seven-day weeks for the last four months. But we're planning to open nationwide in the next few years." John is more cautious about this, but doesn't disagree.

The cod and shrimps go down a treat. Old ways are proven in the eating - and the original is still the best in Beshoff terms.