History Of The Wisconsin And Milwaukee Fish Fry

Some of these brewers like Fredrick Miller, August Pabst, Joseph Schlitz and Valantin Blatz went on to produce giant breweries which went on to make make Milwaukee the beer capital of the world.These breweries were giants and produced not only sprawling breweries in Milwaukee but the competition of these breweries led to great hotels being built and many opulent "beer parlors" which were very upscale places to socialize and of course have a stein of beer. In addition to these hotels, these breweries built amusement parks to help establish their brand name early in the next generation of beer drinkers.

Pabst owned the Whitefish Bay Resort on the corner of Ardmore Ave and Henry Clay St in Whitefish Bay which had an attached amusement park. In competition with Schlitz at the time. Pabst wanted a way to bring in more people to the resort and since Lake Michigan had so much inexpensive whitefish, they Life Lessons From SpongeBob Squarepants decided to offer whitefish for cheap on Friday nights. It was a huge hit. People soon flocked to the Whitefish Bay amusement park and resort on Friday's and later on the weekends for a fish fry and soon after Schlitz and others followed as well.The breweries owned many of the taverns and restaurants in Milwaukee and soon saw the opportunity to offer the fish fry as bait to sell more beer. By keeping the price low on the inexpensive fish dinner, it brought people into their branded bars and consuming their beer further cementing the brand with Milwaukeeans. They then shifted to free fish lunches to further instill their brand and build loyalty. A free fish meal and a couple pints of beer will do that for the laborers at the time.Prohibition put an end to the beer although some taverns survived by keeping the tradition going. As restaurant and bar owners needed to keep customers coming back, they expanded the days that the fish fry was offered and made the fish fry a family thing to do. This helped to cement the fish fry as a tradition. Luckily prohibition ended and soon ice cold beer was once again able to be served.The fish fry was offered on Fridays as an alternative to meat when abstaining in observance of the Catholic tradition. This eventually took it from the bars and restaurants were it had become so popular and started appearing at local churches as well. Originally it was probably started to offer parishioners a an alternative to the fish fry in taverns and bars but also let families participate in a family activity but also built close ties between the church and it's members. This tradition remains strong to this day.Many churches offer a Friday fish fry and during Lent many more take part. Lent which starts on Ash Wednesday and run the forty days before Easter (not counting Sundays) and is meant to be a time of reflection and doing without. Originally it was a time of fast but since forty days is a little long for most people to observe going without food, it was cut back to not eating meat on Fridays. Fish turned out to be a perfect alternative. During Lent, many restaurants and some churches and bars also offer a fish fry on Wednesdays as well stemming from Ash Wednesday. This lets people have another day to enjoy fish and not have to brave such long lines that are typical at most restaurants and churches.The most popular choices of fish are perch, walleye, and cod although there are many other choices offered as well now. You can get your fish seasoned, dipped in flour and a pan fried deep fried.