Fish fries heat up long standing traditions

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) - The first Friday of Lent kicked off Louisville’s fish frying season.

Volunteers at St. Augustine Catholic Church on West Broadway fired up the kitchen at 7:30 am. People lined up 45 minutes before the doors opened at 11.

No one seemed to mind the cold.

“I love it and I know it’s made with love,” Michelle White said. “All this food is cooked with love.”Baked, fried, buffalo, catfish and whiting.

There was something for every fish lover as the crowded kitchen bustled with activity.

“Alright, hot stuff coming through. Hot stuff coming through,” one volunteer said as he cleared a path for a freshly fried platter of fish.

St. Augustine will host six fish fries during Lent. The events are the parish’s biggest annual fundraiser.

“We are not the richest church in the Archdiocese believe me,” volunteer Lee Ewing said in between stirs of frying potato slices. “We struggle to meet our bills. And this is our most successful fundraiser throughout the year.”

St. Augustine volunteers will sell 5,000 dinners over the next six weeks.

It has become part a Louisville cultural fish-frying phenomenon.

“It’s something that’s been going on for generations about fish fries,” St Augustine fish fry coordinator Ann Gardner said. “People like fish.”

To find other fish fries in our area, click here.

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