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 #592, at Danny Haskell’s Pub & Grill in Muskego, Wisconsin.
Several months ago, America’s Best Restaurants made a stop at Danny Haskell’s Pub & Grill in Muskego (W171S7260 Lannon Dr.; 262-679-9535), where a few dishes were featured, including hand-battered haddock with potato pancakes.
“Am I supposed to make a sandwich with it?” the host asks, seeing both rye bread and haddock on the plate.
“Oh no, no…” says owner Dan Addis, as he shakes his head, tips it to the side, and smiles, like a collective response from all of us Midwest-nice Wisconsinites.
“So the fish fry is something that you guys do every Friday?” the host asks moments later.
“Every Friday,” Dan and his wife Keri, who opened the bar together in 2008, respond in unison.
“This is a staple here?”
“In Wisconsin,” Dan clarifies.
Clearly, America’s Best Restaurants is not from Wisconsin. And that’s okay. Us Midwest-nice Wisconsinites accept them with open arms and a plate of fried haddock.
With a dock on Little Muskego Lake and the bar and restaurant just across Lannon Drive, Dan and Keri own the only establishment on the lake that serves food and drinks. Those of the older generations might remember it as being the home of places like the Lakeview Gardens tavern and Villa Italian Restaurant & Pizzeria.
No boats were docked, but the parking lot next to it was filling up when my family rolled up just after 5:15 p.m. this past Friday. I put our name in for a table, and breathed in the big, solid wood barroom, which may have been built by Paul Bunyan. Although the bar and tables were all but occupied, there was still plenty of space to move, and enough room for five gambling machines, a pull tab dispenser, jukebox, pool table, and dart board. Wall decorations included the usual sports stuff, including a signed framed picture of lawn-mowing lover Brett Favre riding a YT2050 Snapper lawn tractor, with “Brett Favre: Leader of the Pack” on the label. Country music from the 1990s came from overhead. In about 30 minutes, our table in the dining room was ready.
The music was quieter there, and there must have been a different station on—I heard Grand Funk Railroad’s “Some Kind Of Wonderful” coming through—but with all eight tables filled up, it was the voices of Friday fish fry diners that took over. I acquired a menu, setting out to join them in their Friday feast.
On the Friday portion of the menu, listed as being served from 11 a.m. – 9 p.m., is hand-battered haddock ($14.95), baked haddock (regular or Cajun/ $14.95), baked salmon (regular or Cajun/ $16.95), hand-battered lake perch ($17.95), jumbo butterfly shrimp ($14.95), and the fish sammy ($11.95). Combos are also available: shrimp and hand-battered haddock ($16.95), shrimp and baked haddock ($16.95), and shrimp and perch ($19.95). All dinners come with coleslaw, rye bread, and a choice of french fries, chive fries, or tater tots. A side salad can be substituted for a buck, or potato pancakes can be substituted for two. Add an extra piece of fried fish for $4 or an extra piece of baked fish for $8. Soups (cup $3.95/ bowl $5.95) are also listed: New England clam chowder, seafood bisque, and bourbon steak chili (seasonal). I chose the chowder, hand-battered haddock, and potato pancakes.
The chowder came out before the fish fry. The clams hit hard on the first sip, their essence spreading throughout the moderately creamy, soup-like base. Mainly clams and potatoes filled it out, with clams slightly edging out the potatoes in prevalence, but overtaking them by a mile in flavor.
There were a few moments to pause, and then came the rest. The halved and buttered rye had a faint swirl and the kind of substantive softness that allowed teeth to be readily sunk into it. The simple-cup slaw was pungently biting, but toed the line otherwise. Leaving a large footprint, but with a standard thickness, the potato pancakes were of the tried and true potato and onion variety, and had a better chew than most.
There were five pieces of haddock, at least I think there were—it was hard to tell where one ended and another started. This was all the more amusing because fish frys commonly come with three pieces, and because Danny Haskell’s charges $4 for additional pieces. The batter was crispy, yet had a melt-in-your-mouth quality, so it easily could break apart and be cut through. Sweet, salty, and savory flavors were all wrapped together in it. Beneath, the haddock was also sweet, and moist. The batter and fish seemed destined for each other. Relish brimmed from the tartar, with it being hard to get past its dominance.
“That was the right amount of food,” I declared, as I finished off the last piece of fish. One of my stepsons began singing the phrase “for the first time in forever” to me, taking a swipe at my apparent need to always eat more fish. I had no idea what he was singing, so I asked, and learned it was a song from Frozen, a song that has been streamed hundreds of millions of times on YouTube.
Some folks might not know fish frys are a given in Wisconsin on Fridays, but others might not have ever seen the animated children’s film Frozen. And that’s okay. With an infant daughter, it’s only a matter of time now before I’m singing “For The First Time In Forever” myself. With Danny Haskell’s Pub & Grill serving up sweet yet savory fried haddock with a worthy potato pancake accompaniment, the gospel of Friday fish is sure to continue spreading, too.
Takeaways: The only establishment on Little Muskego Lake that serves food and drinks; great place to view a lake out a window or a signed picture of Brett Favre riding a YT2050 Snapper lawn tractor on a wooden wall; clam flavor hits hard in the chowder; pungent slaw; rye bread and potato pancakes with satisfying mouthfeel; crisp yet melt-in-your-mouth haddock that’s both savory and sweet; additional pieces of fried fish are $4 each, but you get five (?) to start with, so you might not need to order extras.
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