General News
25 November, 2025
Fast food icon passes the torch
THE sun has finally set on George Kondis’ storied career in the fish and chip game after he hung up his apron one last time at George and Kids Fish n Chips last weekend as he heads into retirement.
George earned a huge following in both Stawell and Ararat over the years, having owned several successful fish and chip shops in the region over the past three decades.
Nikith Mittapally is part of the new team that has taken over from the Kondis family, who have operated George n Kids since 2014.
Nikith said he was honoured and excited to be taking the reigns from such a beloved local icon, saying he went into the new venture he was fully aware of the big shoes he needs to fill.
“Yes, I did realise, I’d been looking at the Google reviews and all, and I have a friend who lives here and I checked with him,” Nikith said.
“I asked him and he explained to me how popular he is, that was when we decided to go for it.”
The new team is confident they’ll be able to live up to the George and Kids legacy, having trained for over three months with the master himself.
“Lovely, fantastic, he’s been really good with us,“ he said about George going above-and-beyond to teach the new crew.
“I think no-one would do that for anyone.”
“He’s a really good teacher, and his family as well, Antoinette, Christopher and Joseph, they’re all really good.”
Nikith said he’s going to adopt an ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ approach to running the popular take out spot.
“Some people are worried we’re going to change something from here but we’re not changing anything,” he said.
“We’re going to keep the same recipes, we’re not going to change the name of the shop, all the food is going to remain the same - Same quality, same quantities, everything is going to remain the same.
Read More: Stawell