Fish fries and disappointments

I’ve blogged before about this crazy fish fry joint near Lake Beulah we’ve been going to for years. The place itself was totally charming in a 50s supper clubby sort of way and the food was great, you know, maybe not so gourmet and all, but potato pancakes, German potato salad, coleslaw, fantastic fish choice; blue gills (my fave), walleye, lake perch, cod and haddock, and great cocktails (I will take Husoor’s word on this, I don’t drink them). A few years ago it had a fire and the sisters who owned it and the Lake Beulah country club golf course, sold it. Side note: I recall the completely luscious feeling of being liberated from my restaurant and totally understood their wanting to be rid of it even if meant no more Friday nights for me, my family and friends.

The memory of that fish fry lived on in our hearts and minds and we’d recall it wistfully form time to time. So imagine our unending joy at discovering it had reopened after a 2 year hiatus when we thought we’d lost it forever.

The joy however turned not to be so unending. We went for the first time last Friday and I’m sad to report it was less than stellar. The food itself was mediocre, I’d say, and I could, but I won’t, complain about the service which was glacial but that comes with the Friday Night Fish Fry territory. More disappointing for me than the mediocrity of the food was the use of plastic containers. All of the side dishes, except the German potato salad, came in disposable plastic containers. I just cannot do that. Especially when all of it, the tartar sauce, apple sauce (no thank you) and coleslaw could be easily and probably more cheaply, served family-style. Each of the 7 of us got little plastic containers (with lids) of apple sauce, tartar sauce and coleslaw. Not one of us ate all 3 of those things. And all of it in the end went into the garbage when the meal was over, contents and all. Plastic waste, food waste, landfill. Just makes me miserable. So, for now, or until I get news that there are bowls of coleslaw on the table, I’m opting out.