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 #583: Sandpiper Inn in Campbellsport, Wisconsin.
“I want to work in revelations, not just spin silly tales for money. I want to fish as deep down as possible into my own subconscious in the belief that once that far down, everyone will understand because they are the same that far down.” – Jack Keroauc
I didn’t read Kerouac until I was 20, but his books—especially On The Road, The Dharma Bums, and Big Sur—resonated deeply, awakening a new awareness and reinforcing, expanding, and to an extent supplanting the punk rock ethos I had forged in my teens. His anti-consumerist and anti-conformist bent, beat-of-your-own-drum attitude, and reflective yet often hedonistic worldview drew me in, as did his streak of Catholic guilt—I was raised in a conservative branch of Lutheranism, after all. But it was the open road, of course, that promised the most adventure.
And so the road called, and in the years that followed I took cross-country road trips whenever I could make them happen. The closest I ever got—or ever will get, let’s face it—to channeling Neal Cassady and his ’49 Hudson was having a Friday fish fry at Jake’s Famous Crawfish in Portland, seeing Randy Newman play that night at the Oregon Zoo, closing down a dive bar, and getting up five hours later and hitting the road, where my cousin and I traded off the wheel and drove 32 hours straight, rolling weary-eyed into Chicago on Sunday evening, in time to see Roky Erickson play at Wicker Park Fest.
Life is more domestic these days, with Townes Van Zandt’s words in “I’ll Be Here In The Morning” ringing more true than ever. But there’s one place that the road always still takes me, and that’s to a fish fry every Friday. But this past Friday’s fish fry wasn’t a there-and-back excursion—it was a bonafide Wisconsin road trip. I was playing a show in Appleton with Devils Teeth that evening, and decided I’d get my fish fry somewhere on the road between Milwaukee and the venue. I turned off the highways and took a meandering path, and stopped a few miles south of Campbellsport at the Sandpiper Inn (W2992 Elmore Dr.; 920-533-6095).
The Sandpiper Inn has been serving Friday fish frys for decades, with a number of owners keeping the tradition going over the years. Eric Schairer took over ownership in 2023. At the time, he was also owner of the Barton House in West Bend. He was at the podium between the barroom and dining room at the Sandpiper Inn when I walked in on Friday, not long after 4:30 p.m.
“We’re kind of like a supper club,” he explained, telling me that guests order at the podium and are called to their table when their food is ready. I grabbed a menu and scanned it for the Friday special, but was charmed by everything else I found too.
The Friday special is simple enough: “All You Can Eat Broasted Chicken & Beer Battered Fish” with either pollock ($16.95) or haddock ($18.95). The potato choices are fries, baked potato, broasted potato, German potato salad, or American potato salad. Under the seafood section I also found 5-piece breaded perch ($15.99), 2-piece breaded walleye ($14.99), 5-piece breaded bluegill ($14.99), breaded haddock (three-piece for $14.99/ 5-piece for $17.99), jumbo fantail shrimp ($15.99), coconut shrimp ($15.99), and poorman’s lobster (small for $10.99/ large for $14.99). There’s also a seafood combo platter (choose two of the following for $17.99/ choose 3 of the following for $21.99): 2 perch, 2 walleye, 2 haddock, 2 poorman’s lobster, 4 fantail shrimp, and 4 coconut shrimp. The potato choices for all of these are the same as the Friday special, and a dinner roll is listed as well.
There were a number of other items on the menu that caught my eye, like the frog legs dinner ($18.99), and even the other days of the week had me turning my head—a tough feat on a Friday. The Wednesday special is another all-you-can-eat extravaganza: smelt ($14.99), smelt and broasted chicken ($15.99), pollock ($13.99), haddock ($15.99), or pollock and broasted chicken ($16.95). Then there’s Sunday, the day of rest, when you could be tasked with laboring through their “All You Can Eat Family Style Broasted Chicken Dinner” ($14.50), which comes with mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, coleslaw, and a dinner roll. It sounds exhaustingly delicious.
I ordered the all-you-can-eat pollock with french fries. I was asked if I wanted any chicken too, in such a way as if the question really was “Why aren’t you ordering chicken too? Our broasted chicken is to die for.” “I can always ask for some later, right?” I inquired. This was confirmed, and I said maybe I would. With that I was handed a restaurant pager, and awkwardly meandered off towards the bar, where all the seats were taken at the time.
Some seats soon opened up, and I took one. Not everyone was drinking Old Fashioneds, but most people certainly were. Words like whiskey, brandy, sweet, sour, fruit, olives, and fruit and olives buzzed past my head, and looking at the heavenly goblets made me want to break my sober streak and join in. But I ordered a Heineken 0.0 instead. Rather than clinking ice in a glass, I looked out on iced-over Lake Bernice—an important enough component of the restaurant that it is also known as Sandpiper Inn on Lake Bernice.
Friendly banter bubbled from the small L-shaped bar, and I joined in. (Throughout my time at the Sandpiper Inn I noticed that both the patrons and the staff were particularly friendly, with the staff being attentive, too.) About 15 minutes after I had sat at the bar, my buzzer went off and I headed to the dining room. With 10 numbered tables on a thin-carpeted floor, it reminded me of the dining room at Randy’s Neighbor’s Inn (RIP). Altogether, the Sandpiper Inn has somewhat of a supper club feel, but more informal and well-worn, yet not worn out.
Although coleslaw wasn’t on the menu, it greeted me as it has at almost every other fish fry I’ve had. A marinade of vinegar, oil, and something sweet coated some just-cut cabbage and carrot, the result being a coleslaw as vibrant in flavor and fresh to the crunch as they come. While I noticed rolls on some tables, and they were mentioned on the menu, I wasn’t given any, but I never made a point to ask about them. I wasn’t far past the slaw when the plate of fish and fries arrived.
The french fries were perfect crinkle cut fries, not burnt, not soft, but dead on, with the right amount of salt. It later dawned on me that I might not only have been able to order more french fries, but some of the other potato sides too, but it never crossed my mind at the time because I was thinking about pollock.
Yes, the pollock. The plate had four large pieces with a funnel-cake-feel of a beer batter. Sweet, buttery, and rich, it overwhelmed the fish in a good way. The pollock underneath was fine, not outstanding, but with enough merit to make me head back for more without question—although I wondered if the $2 bump up for the haddock would have taken the fish up a notch. Still, while I had gone for the cheapest option, it was what I envisioned, and pretty much what I wanted.
But let’s talk about the huge tub of tartar sitting on the table, shall we? Some of the best fish fry restaurants in Wisconsin have a big bottle of tartar on the table—places like Pat’s Oak Manor and Wendt’s On The Lake. I don’t know if places like this keep the bottles in the fridge at night, and frankly, I don’t care. I often describe tartar as being thick, and this tartar was so thick that I almost couldn’t get it out of the container. I usually just start getting to know a tartar and then it’s gone, but tub tartar is the gift that keeps on giving, and I didn’t shy away from this. This tartar cut away anything that was lacking with the fish and covered the rich, burly batter. Big, burly batters deserve big tubs of tartar, and that’s what we have here.
“Can I get one piece of chicken, a small one, and some more pollock?” I asked. A chicken thigh and one piece of pollock were set before me not much more than a minute later.
“I have a couple pieces coming yet,” my server said. Sure enough, in about another minute’s time there was another plate with four more pieces of pollock, piled up, yet curled up in a batter.
Crisp breading covered the succulent chicken thigh, and the chicken was so good that it now made sense why it seemed like the owner was wondering why I hadn’t ordered any from the start. It is almost like the restaurant wants everyone to have at least one piece of chicken so that they come back for the Sunday broasted chicken special. It worked on me, because I’ve already suggested to some family members who live in Fond du Lac that we should do exactly this sometime when I’m back visiting.
The second helping of fish hit the same way as the first. The fish was decent, the batter inviting, and the tartar tied it all together. But there was an “it” or “x” factor at play here too, something beyond the sum of the parts that made the fish fry at the Sandpiper Inn memorable and more than middling. But nine pieces of pollock and one piece of chicken was plenty, so I paid my tab and pointed my vehicle north into the night.
The Sandpiper Inn was an ideal place to stop for fish on my journey to Appleton, and it seems to be a place worth stopping at on your way anywhere, on a Wednesday, Friday, or Sunday, or probably any day they are open. But don’t snooze on it, time is fleeting, or as Kerouac might say, “life is holy and every moment is precious.” I’ll just say Enjoy Every Fish Fry.
Takeaways: Similar to a supper club; off the well-traveled path; overlooks a small lake; multiple potato and fish options, including all-you-can-eat pollock and haddock; marinated and fresh slaw; great prices; friendly and attentive staff; big and bold batter; outstanding tub of tartar (okay, maybe it’s just a big bottle); other great specials throughout the week such as all-you-can-eat smelt and chicken.
Note: Celebrate Friday Fish Fry Day today by getting yourself a fish fry tonight and joining us for the official Friday Fish Fry Day Afterparty.
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