doodledee

Last Friday I met the family and some neighborhood friends over at Saint Albert's for their famous annual Lenten Fish Fry-o-rama. I've read about it a few times but I wasn't really sure what to expect. Fried fish? Sure. Cole slaw? Sure. Tartar sauce? For damn sure. Folding chairs? Probably. Little old ladies keeping it real? Hopefully. The list goes on. It's a long list. It did not include $10 hand-painted medium-sized garden gnomes. In retrospect, it probably should have.

So I get there and find a place to park and wander around outside for a while until the rest my posse shows up. You can smell the fish all over the neighborhood. Literally. Everyone arriving also points this out. Literally. They pull up, get out of their cars, and yell "OH MAN I can smell the fish already!!" It was a riot. The wait flew by for this reason alone.

Onward. You go in this weird little side door. There might be another entrance on the west side of the building, but all I found was a door on the south side. It feels like it's gonna be small potatoes. Couple of people waiting by the door for their ride. They're done eating. It's like 5:20. Down a narrow flight of stairs to the basement and HOLY MOSES the place is packed! Church tables everywhere. Folding chairs. Little old ladies. Kids. Fish. Tartar. I was BUSTING. Like some crazy parallel universe. I mean there were obviously cars on the street outside, but it felt like a thousand people where down there. Total festival atmosphere. Like some sort of crazy Catholic speakeasy. Jackpot.

Get our tickets. $10 for adults, kids under-5 eat free. (Suckers!) Look around and notice there is no seating for out group of 8. Even 4 together would have been difficult. So I ask and OF COURSE they're willing to help us find a spot. Next thing I know I've got 3 people clearing places and putting down 'reserved' table tents. High chairs? "Yeah, we need two" I say, "and two boosters if you have them... we've been busy." One of the ladies yells "good Catholics!!" and turns to run to the high chair corner. Uhhhhh.

To the food. Multiple buffet lines working. Mashed or hashbrown potatoes, fried or baked fish, [meatless] spaghetti, and cole slaw were the basics of the mainline. After that you had your lemonade/milk table and after that you had the Little Ol Lady Keepin' It Real™ dessert table. All handmade. All so great. Seriously. They'd say stuff like "Would you like a brownie, deary?" I could have cried. If I wasn't so busy shoveling desserts onto my tray.

The line moves fast and we're all sitting and eating before I know it. Then I'm up/down/up/down. Taking pics. Eating fish. Breaking down the hand-painted gnomes with the Activities Director lady. Loving it. Taking kids to the play area in the corner. Shaking hands. More fish? Yes please. Did I say lovin' it? Meanwhile the microphone is blasting raffle info like every 5 minutes. I held off. I have 14 afghans already. Hardest raffle I've stayed out of? Some say yes.

Time to go. So soon? Uh huh. One last look at the gnomes. Goodbye gnomes.

Now let me be clear. None of the food was outrageous. It was all very What You'd Expect for this type of thing. So if you go don't be all "I've had better fish". Of course you have. We all have. But if what you're looking for is a church basement fish fry that would make Garrison's head explode, then by all means, check out the fine work of the team over at Saint Alberts.

Lent on.

Saint Albert the Great [saintalbertthegreat]