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 #559: Mark’s East Side in Appleton, Wisconsin.
Every few years I get a fish fry in the Fox Valley with Walt Hamburger and Amos Pitsch. We went to Club Tavern in Menasha in 2017, and to Mark’s East Side in Appleton (1405 E. Wisconsin Ave.; 920-733-3600) in 2019 and 2021. A family funeral was bringing me to the Appleton area last Friday, so I reached out to the guys and we made plans for another trip to Mark’s. After spending the afternoon working at the public library and stopping at Amos’s new record shop, Odd Note, I met Amos and Walt, as well as Walt’s girlfriend, Jessica, at the restaurant.
Walt sarcastically refers to my usual 4:00, 4:30, or 5:00 Friday fish fry start time as his lunch time (“I dunno if I can get there for lunch”), and said that we should go at 7:00. Mark’s website says “We happily take reservations every single day EXCEPT Friday nights” and “Friday nights are first come first served,” but Walt has an in with Rhoda behind the desk, where she takes exceptional care of him and his guests. We may not have had a reservation, but when I arrived shortly after 7:00, we were promptly seated.
According to their website, Mark’s East Side has a history dating back to the 1960s. After the Normandie restaurant was purchased by Bill and Jan Dougherty in 1967, the couple reopened it as Chef Bill’s. Bill was the chef, of course, and Jan ran front of house. Their son Mark started off as a dishwasher and bus person, and began cooking at the age of 15. He took over management and business operations in 1982, and in 1987 remodeled the dining room and renamed the restaurant Mark’s East Side. Alex Shea became head chef and kitchen manager in 2015, partnered with Mark in 2018, and became the sole owner in 2021.
Another long-time resident of Mark’s is a catfish, which we were told Mark got in college and is now 46 years old. I’m no authority on catfish lifespans, but this seems like an awfully long one. Just think of the generations of its relatives it has seen get eaten on Fridays. Poor fish.
“You have to ask for the bread now, right?”
“Yes.”
“We’ll take some bread,” Walt intoned, shortly after we were seated in the smaller dining room.
A bowl with four dark rye rolls, soft and warm, landed like a flying saucer descending from the heavens, and we ripped into them, finding a modicum of sustenance before the fish. I also primed up with a Brandy Old Fashioned Sweet ($6.25), a nectarous, red cherry forward yet even-keeled concoction.
Mark’s has options for their fish fry, but I’ve never looked them over. This is all-you-can-eat haddock and french fries country, baby, so clear some space on the table and strap on a bib. Okay, if you are looking for something else besides the haddock ($19), here are the other options listed under “Friday Favorites”: lake perch (single, $25/double, $40), gulf shrimp (deep-fried or scampi, $25), dinner haddock (deep-fried or broiled, $21), frog legs ($20) and a fisherman’s platter (shrimp, perch, scallops, and haddock, $39). Each comes with a choice of baked potato, french fries, wild rice blend, or German potato salad. There’s also a “Specialty Seafood” section that lists Faroe Island salmon, walleye pike, mahi-mahi, cold water lobster tail, lump crab cakes, and fresh scallops. We all ordered the all-you-can-eat haddock and fries.
The first bowl of haddock arrived—its pieces too many to count—as well as a bowl of french fries, and we were off to the races. The fervor with which I wanted to get to the fish shows in the snap-and-go blurriness of the photo I took of the french fries.
There’s a jovial nature that bubbles up naturally every time I have a fish fry with this crew, which dovetails seamlessly with bowls of all-you-can-eat fish and fries. Quips, non sequiturs, and belly laughs punctuate between bites and while reaching back to the bowls. Fish frys already dispel the hell that sometimes arises in life, but all-you-can-eat fish at Mark’s with this company is an ebullient affirmation of life.
While I was eating the coleslaw, Walt reminded us of the superb coleslaw we had at Club Tavern. While the slaw at Mark’s can’t match it, it was just fine by me, being plenty creamy and mildly sugary at times. Mark’s really doesn’t need standout slaw because of how great their haddock and french fries are.
The fries were light, not greasy, and crisp but not crunchy. The salt level was low, but there was plenty of flavor anyway. If not for the fish next to them, I would have given them more attention. Still, we ended up getting a second bowl. You’d be hard-pressed to find crinkle-cut fries of this caliber on most weeks.
Chunks of haddock of various sizes heaped out of the first bowl. The bulky, fleshy-white chunks of fish broke apart into smaller chunky pieces, not into scraps or strings. They were covered with a moderately thin, consistent batter, and augmented with a trifecta of splendid thick-yet-light tartar, drawn butter, and lemons.
We should have ordered the second bowl as soon as the first was put down, but we waited until our waitress came back to check on us, when the bowl was just about gone. We quickly had a second bowl, with plenty more cups of tartar to go with it. Then we ended up getting a third bowl. We couldn’t quite finish it off, but Walt was given the blessing to take the leftovers home, so no fish was wasted.
In my 2019 article “300 Friday fish frys and counting: Summer catch-up,” I recounted my experience at Mark’s East Side that year: “As I’ve done before, I met Walt Hamburger and Amos Pitsch for a fish fry in the Fox Valley. They were a hoot as always. We had all-you-can-eat haddock—three bowls worth—until we couldn’t move.” I could have said essentially the same thing this time around and left it at that. But Mark’s East Side deserved an article of its own. Their haddock and tartar and french fries—indelible since the first time I had them—deserved it. If you find yourself in the Fox Valley, grab a few friends and get yourself over to Mark’s for some bowls of haddock and french fries.
Takeaways: Endless bowls of fried haddock and french fries—the haddock is meaty and comes with an equally satisfying tartar, and the fries are light and crisp; warm bread/rolls if you ask for them; nectarous & red cherry forward Old Fashioned; consistently good every time I’ve gone; shout out to Sara for the excellent service and keeping us replenished with fish, tartar, and fries; now is a great time to revisit the Songs for a Wisconsin Friday Fish Fry playlist I put together for Amos in 2021.
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