Caleb Westphal hasn’t missed a Friday fish fry since 2013. Follow his never-ending adventures—sponsored by Miller High Life—HERE. This week, fish fry #549: Union Park Tavern in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
It was a balmy evening in the courtyard of Union Park Tavern on July 13, 2019, when I took the patio with Devils Teeth to close out Handlebars and Bars, an all-day bikes, bars, and bands extravaganza in Kenosha. After a spring and early summer marred with some mental malaise, I was in need of rejuvenation. A strict exercise routine and the jettisoning of alcohol for over a month had helped me rebuild, but there is nothing quite as rejuvenating as playing a show where you feel “on,” when you are in sync with your bandmates, when you just float, when everything else melts away. The night was pure magic. As the sun went down, the sweat flowed and the reverb and pounding drums took hold. The mental malaise subsided, and rejuvenation, if only for a moment, washed over me. It was one of the best nights of the summer. That’s the power of rock & roll.
On July 5, 2024, I once again was in need of rejuvenation. This time there was no mental malaise; instead, I was feeling a bit wiped from the week, was tired from climbing and ziplining at Boundless Adventures, and it was Friday, so naturally I had “fish brain”—the phenomenon when my brain stops working properly on Friday afternoons until I get a fish fry.
Union Park Tavern (4520 8th Ave.; 262-652-6454), located directly across the street from Kenosha’s one-square-block Union Park, has been standing for around a century (it’s actually three buildings put together), and was first known as Union Park Tavern at least by the year of the lifting of Prohibition, if not before. That’s the name it had until around 1984, when it became Parrish’s Paradise for about a decade. By 1996, the building was owned by Brenda and Petar Zekovic and known as Pete’s Place. It was well known for its Friday fish frys. In February 2017, Angie Cook and Ben DeSmidt bought it. They kept the name Pete’s Place at first, but changed it to Union Park Tavern—its erstwhile longtime name—right around the time that I played there in 2019. While they changed the name, they kept Pete’s Place’s Friday fish fry, which has been voted one of the best in Kenosha. In fact, Union Park Tavern’s menu boasts the restaurant has been voted the best fish fry in Kenosha County every year since 2012.
“Oh, you can already smell it!” one of my stepsons exclaimed, as we approached the Union Park Tavern. Good nose, I thought, for I also smelled fried fish. When the boys, my wife, and I walked inside around 5:10 p.m., we found that my mother-in-law and father-in-law had already procured a large table at the edge of the barroom, separate from the main dining room and not far from the entrance. Thankfully they had scooped up this prime seating, because there soon was a wait for those wanting to get a table in the main dining room.
This was not my first time eating at Union Park Tavern. I had a two-piece Broasted chicken and Mojos dinner before my show in 2019. But that was a Saturday, and this was a Friday. The seafood options at Union Park Tavern on Fridays are hand battered prime cut cod (two-piece for $15/ three-piece for $17), baked prime cut cod (three-piece for $18), hand battered walleye pike ($18), lightly breaded gourmet lake perch ($18), and lightly breaded jumbo tail-on shrimp (five-piece for $15/ eight-piece for $17). Additionally, there are combo dinners where one walleye fillet, two battered cod fillets, one perch fillet, and four shrimp can be mixed and matched: choose two for $25, three for $30, or four for $35. Dinners come with coleslaw, Texas Cut Cardinali’s Italian Bread, and a side of french fries, sweet potato fries, baked potato, seasoned wedges, onion rings (add $1), or the potato of the week (add $2, it was German potato salad this past week). All of the fish fry options are also available to purchase à la carte—the fish, the shrimp, the potato sides, the coleslaw, and even the bread. I ordered my usual Brandy Old Fashioned Sweet, chose the perch and cod combo dinner with french fries, and tacked on a cup of clam chowder ($3).
The Old Fashioned ($6) was fruity and cherry forward, with the juice of smashed cherries and oranges bubbling up through the ice. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but in my estimation only a few sentences are needed to describe a good Old Fashioned. Nonetheless, the photo of this week’s Old Fashioned, which was very good, says it all:
The force was strong with the overall flavor of the chowder, and also within each individual component—the carrots, celery, potatoes, and clams all blossomed with flavor when bitten into. The chowder had a somewhat thin base, but there was no skimping on the clams, and some were quite large, too.
What can one say about a big ol’ slab of Italian bread? With its imposing existence it drowns out talk of its lack of relevance and for its dismissal, and when, as this piece was, it is fresh, and unique—in the whoa, this isn’t rye bread for once sense—then it’s up there sitting shotgun with the rest of the meal, instead of getting ignored in the backseat. Meanwhile, the coleslaw was a piquant, marinating-in-the-juices blend of 99 parts square-cut cabbage and one part carrot. The skin-off, straight-cut french fries were light on the salt, mashed-potato soft in the middle, and consistent from one to the next.
This was week two of a perch and cod combo, and what mesmerized me the most is how two things can be both different and the same—different in that the perch and cod from the week prior was unlike that of this week, and the same in that the fish was great both weeks. How many ways can a good thing be done, and yet be different?
The large perch fillet was juicy and easily broke apart, with a breading of a similar nature that was thin, lightly crisp, and buttery. It was the kind of perch that is eaten with a fork, not picked up with the hands. The cod had a home-cooked quality, like mom and dad battered it up and tossed it in the deep fryer themselves. Like the breading on the perch, the batter on the cod was lightly crisp, but was just a teeny bit soggy at its bottom. Like that of its freshwater counterpart, the fish and coating easily broke apart. The tartar was on the money, with the right blend of sweet and tangy in a mayo base.
I don’t know if Union Park Tavern has the best fish fry in Kenosha County, but it’s a solid one, and it’s not surprising it would be in the running. While its combo dinners can get rather pricey, the perch and cod combo hit the spot, particularly on account of each fish and its respective breading or batter. Just as I was rejuvenated at Union Park Tavern in 2019 by playing a show, I was rejuvenated at Union Park Tavern in 2024 by eating a fish fry. It’s the simple experiences that can jolt us out of the doldrums, reassure us, and make us believe in life again. Playing live music and eating fish frys are two of the experiences that have consistently done this for me. How about you? What will make you believe in your life today?
Takeaways: Excellent muddled, fruity forward Old Fashioned; large slab of Italian bread from local bakery; many potato options; buttery, lightly crisp, and easily-breaks-apart perch and cod; cash only, but ATM on-site; most of the rest of the menu shuts down on Fridays, so good luck ordering one of the salads.
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