Friday Fish Fry appears as a signature dish in 3 United States cities. See each city's local variant and where to eat it.
Friday fish fry · Buffalo
Hand-breaded haddock or beer-battered fish, deep-fried and served with German potato salad, coleslaw, rye bread and tartar sauce. A Buffalo Catholic Lenten staple available year-round at most taverns, peak through Lent.
Western New York's heavy Catholic population (Polish, German, Irish, Italian immigrants) built the Friday fish fry tradition around Lenten meatless Fridays. The dish predates the wing by decades and remains the city's most-ordered Friday-night dinner from mid-February through Easter. Wiechec's, Romanello's and corner-tavern fish fries anchor the tradition.
Where to eat in Buffalo:
- Wiechec's Lounge
- Schwabl's
- Pearl Street Grill and Brewery
Wisconsin Friday fish fry · Madison
The Friday fish fry is Wisconsin's social meal: beer-battered or breaded lake perch, cod or walleye with rye bread, coleslaw, French fries or potato pancakes and tartar sauce.
Wisconsin's Friday fish fry began in 19th-century Catholic Lent observance, when the German and Polish immigrant population avoided meat on Fridays. Through Prohibition, taverns moved beer revenue into hot food, with the all-you-can-eat fish fry becoming Wisconsin's defining social meal by the 1930s. Today every Wisconsin supper club, brewery hall and corner tavern from Milwaukee to Madison runs a Friday fish fry; Madison's Tornado Steak House, Coopers Tavern and The Old Fashioned anchor the ritual with perch and cod every week of the year.
Where to eat in Madison:
- Tornado Steak House
- The Coopers Tavern
- The Old Fashioned
- Schwoegler's Park Towne Lanes
Wisconsin Friday fish fry · Milwaukee
The Friday fish fry is Wisconsin's social meal: beer-battered or breaded lake perch, cod or walleye with rye bread, coleslaw, French fries or potato pancakes.
Wisconsin's Friday fish fry began in 19th-century Catholic Lent observance, when the German and Polish immigrant population avoided meat on Fridays. Through Prohibition, taverns moved beer revenue into hot food, with the all-you-can-eat fish fry becoming Wisconsin's defining social meal by the 1930s. Today every Wisconsin supper club, brewery hall and corner tavern from Milwaukee to Madison runs a Friday fish fry; Lakefront Brewery's Riverwest hall with the polka band, established in 1986, is the city's defining version.
Where to eat in Milwaukee:
- Lakefront Brewery
- Five O'Clock Steakhouse
- River Lane Inn
- Blue Jacket
- Buckatabon Tavern and Supper Club