Mary Scheidel has a plan when she starts her annual tour of Northwest Indiana’s Lenten fish fries.
After many years of trial and error, she knows that her parish’s contribution to area Catholics at St. Mary Church in Griffith isn’t the place to hit the first Friday of the season. Not because it isn’t good, because it always is, she said. It’s just that after being away for a year, the kitchen needs to get its groove back.
“You never come the first Friday,” she said while she and her mom, JoAnn Thompson, of Schererville, dug into to ample slices of chocolate cake on a recent Friday. “You can tell they’re still working out the kinks that first day. But after that, it’s great.”
Between Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, Northwest Indiana’s churches open their doors on Fridays to the faithful and feed them the staple all Catholics either love or loathe, but eat nonetheless: the fish fry. And the faithful and all religions in between eat it up not just to practice, but to relive happy times and pay a fraction of the cost of a restaurant.
On this particular Friday, pictures of Sharon Pollock’s head were stuck to the overhead fan in St. Mary Hildebrandt Hall’s kitchen. The pictures, attached to sticks, were created by Pollock’s kitchen mates to celebrate her birthday.
Her birthday was three weeks ago, but that didn’t stop the group from pausing in the middle of serving dinner to hundreds of people to sing rousing renditions of “Happy Birthday” to her at least three different times in an hour.
The exasperated Pollock, of Griffith and a member of the Fish Fry Kitchen Team for five years, smiled.
“It’s been the longest birthday ever,” she said. “I think they’re trying to get rid of me.”
The operation, packed with volunteers, moves as a well-oiled machine during dinner. St. Mary School students take the orders and bring them to the kitchen runner, who brings them to the kitchen. Volunteers at each station fill the plates with freshly fried fish or shrimp, choice of baked potato or fries, and slice of fresh bread while the men manning the fryers work non-stop to keep the plates moving.
“It’s a top-secret recipe, but made with love,” insisted Eric Sims, who had the important task of frying the fish. “Love makes it better.”
More Top Picks Blog
Mindy Lawson, of Merrillville, wasn’t quite as vague as Sims with regard to the recipe, even after George “Old Man” Troksa told her “Ixnay on the secretsay!” A kitchen member for three years, she was in charge of breading the fish.
“It’s all in the batter, but all I know is it’s this stuff and beer,” Lawson said, pointing at a giant plastic bin full of the dry breading that makes all the difference. “Working the kitchen’s the best because it’s so much fun.”
Kathleen Vanek, a Griffith resident for 37 years, started helping out with the fish fry about years ago, when her kids were attending St. Mary School. She stopped for a bit, but then found her way back into the fold after her husband died.
Vanek was checking the orders before they made their way to customers. For her, the fish fry is a way to give back to the church that was responsible for educating all six of her kids.
That’s how a lot of the volunteers came to the fish fry, according to St. Mary Principal Rebecca Maskovich. St. Mary’s contribution started 24 years ago as the brainchild of Barb and Mike Colas, and it morphed into a full-congregation affair. While the adults work the kitchen, St. Mary students are required to set up Hildebrandt Hall for the fish fry, she said. Then they take orders, bus tables and make sure the salad bar and dessert tables are well stocked.
Finding meaning in fried foods
Sister Cecelia Claire Stoffer never understood the power of the fish fry until she came to Northwest Indiana from Minnesota.
There were fish fries where she grew up, sure. But because her family lived on a lake, they were more of an “eat-fish-out-of-the-lake-at-home” kind of family. And they definitely didn’t have their choice of where to go.
“I’ve never seen every church have their own fish fry,” Stoffer said. “I’m impressed.”
Sister Marlene Shapley, on the other hand, couldn’t imagine Fridays without myriad choices for a meat-free dinner. And she learned from the best: her dad.
“My dad knew where all the best fish fries were, that and the best church chicken dinners,” Shapley said. “For me, fish fries always bring back good memories of Sts. Peter and Paul (in Merrillville) and the way (fish fries) bring the church families together.”
Sister Aline Schultz always loves to come back to St. Mary, her home parish, as well. She remembers the days before there was a fish fry at every parish and her family, too, had little from which to choose.
“I grew up before Vatican II, so our dinners were cheese toast or tuna fish. Then St. Mary started the fish fry, and it was like yeah! Something different,” she said. “It’s just good memories of growing up, plus it’s a good way to see people you see in church in a more relaxed setting.”
Or see them at all, according to Mary Scheidel.
“This is way we know spring’s coming for sure,” she said of the fish fry. “And you always see someone you know. My dad always knew someone, either through his parish or the (American) Legion or sports, and we were always the family to close the place down.”
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
Grab a plate
St. Mary-Hildebrandt Hall
5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Feb. 20 through Good Friday
525 N. Lafayette St,, Griffith
http://www.smgriffith.org/home.htm
Knights of Columbus
4 p.m. to 7 p.m. every Friday during Lent
1104 Knights of Columbus Drive, East Chicago
219-398-6700
St. Elijah Serbian American Hall
4 p.m. to 8 p.m. every Friday
8700 Taft Street, Merrillville
http://www.stelijahhall.com/fishfry.php
Casa Maria (St. Maria Goretti)
4 p.m. to 7 p.m. (through Good Friday)
500 Northgate Drive, Dyer
http://www.stmariagorettichurch.org/index.php
Moose Lodge
4 p.m. to 8 p.m. every Friday through Lent, then every 3rd Friday of the month
1200 N. Indiana Ave., Crown Point
219-663-1302
St. Bridget
4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Feb. 20 though Good Friday
107 Main St., Hobart
http://stbridgethobart.org/lent/
More Top Picks Sony Xb10
Rittenour Senior Living
5 p.m. to 7 p.m. March 18
1300 Vale Park Road, Valparaiso
219-531-2484
Grab a plate
St. Mary-Hildebrandt Hall
5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Feb. 20 through Good Friday
525 N. Lafayette St,, Griffith
http://www.smgriffith.org/home.htm
Knights of Columbus
4 p.m. to 7 p.m. every Friday during Lent
1104 Knights of Columbus Drive, East Chicago
219-398-6700
St. Elijah Serbian American Hall
4 p.m. to 8 p.m. every Friday
8700 Taft Street, Merrillville
http://www.stelijahhall.com/fishfry.php
Casa Maria (St. Maria Goretti)
4 p.m. to 7 p.m. (through Good Friday)
500 Northgate Drive, Dyer
http://www.stmariagorettichurch.org/index.php
Moose Lodge
4 p.m. to 8 p.m. every Friday through Lent, then every 3rd Friday of the month
1200 N. Indiana Ave., Crown Point
219-663-1302
St. Bridget
4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Feb. 20 though Good Friday
107 Main St., Hobart
http://stbridgethobart.org/lent/
Rittenour Senior Living
5 p.m. to 7 p.m. March 18
1300 Vale Park Road, Valparaiso
219-531-2484