St. Joseph's Catholic Church in York is once against hosting its weekly fish fry. Take a peek at its extensive operation.
Lent is here and St. Joseph's Catholic Church is once again holding its weekly fish fry — for the 24th year. Their largest year was 1,118 fried fish meals sold in one evening — that's about 12% of the population of York, according to the fish fry's coordinator Joe Morris. Not that 2024 is doing so bad. On Friday, Feb. 16, they planned to sell about 750 fish fry meals, according to Morris, who gave News-Times staff a detailed tour of the operation.
WILLIAM SWETT, NEWS-TIMES
St Joe’s does a total of seven fish fries each year. The first event happens before ash Wednesday. Each week, the day before Friday’s fish fry, people pick up the frozen fish and get it thawed out — it is Pollack and comes from the Pacific Northwest — and Friday morning people get the breading ready. Then 35 to 40 people work the event on Friday evening, Morris said.
WILLIAM SWETT photos, NEWS-TIMES
The fish is hand-breaded, Morris assured us, though the recipe for the breading is a secret. The fish is all purchased locally.
WILLIAM SWETT, NEWS-TIMES
In recent years the drive-thru part of the fish fry has come to dominate, Morris said, but they really encourage people to also come sit in the dining area in the St. Joe’s gym. “We love for folks to come in the dining room and visit and sit. We like to think of it is as a community event,” he said. “We have had a lot of people from surrounding towns too,” he said. They used to have 500 a night come through the dining room and they hope to return to those numbers, according to Morris.
WILLIAM SWETT, NEWS-TIMES
The drive-thru operates between 4:30 and 7 p.m. and the dining room is open 5 to 7 p.m. every Friday between Feb. 9 and March 22, 2024. In addition to the fired pollack and coleslaw, there is scalloped potatoes, bread and desserts available for $1.
WILLIAM SWETT, NEWS-TIMES
To feed 750 people, as they did on Friday, St. Joe's had to fry 840 pounds of pollack. Pictured here is the clean up crew.
WILLIAM SWETT, NEWS-TIMES
Student volunteers work at the fish fry as runners, waiters, cooks, and more. Some student volunteers get community service credit for volunteering. And while many are members of St. Joe's parish, many also aren't.
WILLIAM SWETT, NEWS-TIMES
Madonna Mohnsen, right, and Grenada Dooley, left, made cole slaw, which was one of the sides served with fish.
