Another great year for Fish Fries and Fried Cod! Well if you love fish fries and fried Cod like we do here at Friday Night Fish, it's not hard to have a great year visiting fish fries. We truly love our Cod and fish fries! We love fish fries not just for the great food (OK sometimes average), but most importantly for the great sense of community that fish fries provide. It is great to see volunteers come together for their parish and raise money. So even if the food isn't always gourmet, the most important thing is the hard work the volunteers put in week in and week out. So now for the year end summary....
 |
| The "Tilapia Mafia" visiting St. Pius. |
Places we visited in 2014
March 5 - St. Joseph's, Clayton
March 7 - St. Pius, St. Louis
March 14 - Epiphany of our Lord, St. Louis
March 21 - Holy Trinity, Fairview Heights, Il
March 28 - St. Alphonsus "The Rock", St. Louis
April 4 - St. Anthony of Padua, St. Louis
April 11 - Our Lady of the Lake, Lake Ozark, Mo
April 18th - Mary Magdalen, St. Louis
A couple of comments about the places we visited this year. One, we did do a lot or repeats this year. Out of the eight fish fries, five were repeat visits. Of course, a couple of places we hadn't visited in over five years. Second, we were top heavy this year on St. Louis City fish fries. We strive to visit fish fries across the region, but kids activities are starting to encroach on our schedule. We no longer have time to drive 45 minutes out to St. Charles for a fish fry. Fish Fry Guy might be going into semi-retirement the next few years. The days of 8 new fish fries a year are probably over!
Fish Fries in the News
It was a big year for fish fry in the news. The local NPR station did a feature story on why fish fries are so popular in St. Louis! And Friday Night Fish was interviewed for the story! Unfortunately, we were also left on the editing room floor. Probably too many "uhms.." in our interview. Oh well.
Click here for a link to the story.
New Trends in Fish Fries
 |
| Balloon artists at Holy Trinity |
More fish fries are having entertainment or other events at their fish fries. Holy Trinity in Fairview Heights had a balloon artist at their fish fry which was cool.
Best Fish Fry in 2014
Well, we visited St. Pius. St. Pius has been our number #1 ranked fish fry for some time, and our visit again this year confirms their place at the top. Maybe not the best food out there, but very good. St. Pius excels by using real plates and silverware (and even real coffee mugs!) Plus their live music gives the whole place a coffee house vibe. They are sometimes the victim of their own success and it can get overcrowded. Plus, they usually have a welcome sign for "Friday Night Fish", so we are admittedly biased!
Best Art Work
 |
| Great sign at St. Anthony! |
A special shout out to St. Anthony of Padua in south St. Louis. They had the best fish fry sign we have ever seen. A colorful, artistic fish gracing their fish fry sign on the street next to their fish fry. Well done!
Honored Guests
As the top Fish Fry Blog in St. Louis, we often get asked for advice (OK, not really). But we did get invited out for Christ, Prince of Peace's "Soft Opening" fish fry earlier this year in Manchester. Christ, Prince of Peace was starting a fish fry this year for the first time. They had a "practice" fish fry and asked us to attend to give feedback. Great fish fry!
Fan Favorite Fish Fish
The voting and excitement for the Fan Favorite Fish Fry gets bigger every year! A record voting turnout resulted in a three way tie for the 2014 Fan Favorite Fish Fry because the voting crashed our on-line voting system. And for the second year in a row the winners were recognized in an ad in the St. Louis Review newspaper. The winners this year were:
See You in 2015!
We are looking forward to another great year in 2015! Be sure to like us on Facebook and continue to send us suggestions for places to visit for a great fish fry. We can't promise we'll make it there soon, but we'll try! See you next year!
.PNG)
