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 #588 at Chances in Rochester, Wisconsin.
“Sir, do you realize that you are not drinking regular coffee, but Columbian decaffeinated coffee crystals?”
“What?”
“I said, you’re drinking Columbian decaf coffee crystals!”
“Why, you son of a bitch! You no good…”
From there, havoc ensues. A table is overturned, punches are thrown, pies fly, and bottles and plates break. This is the “Schiller Visions: Hidden Camera Commercials” skit from Episode 6 of Season 17 of Saturday Night Live, broadcast on November 16, 1991.
“Just so you know, there’s bacon in it.”
This is what I was told before I confirmed that I would like to have a cup of clam chowder at Chances in Rochester on Friday (205 W. Main St.; 262-534-2772). Was this a heads up to all who might not like bacon? Or a courtesy warning directed to Catholics who may be abstaining from flesh meat during Lent? It could have been either, but all I could imagine was that this was told to me because in the past someone had thought they were getting clam chowder and had instead been given a cup of this bacon chowder. They had not been forewarned, so after being told, “Sir, do you realize there are not just clams in your chowder, but also bacon?” they totally lost it, until tables were flipping and Old Fashioneds were hitting the fan and tin ceiling. They never got past the chowder to the Friday fish fry. An absolute tragedy.
But I ordered the cup of chowder ($4), despite the bacon, and didn’t flip any tables nor get knocked out at Chances before I was able to eat my Friday fish fry. I suppose I’ve encountered bacon in clam chowder about a quarter of the time, and if you’re a bacon boy or girl, this chowder is for you, because the bacon ran neck and neck with the clams, if not ahead of it. The pieces were big, too. Even bigger were the potato chunks, and the cup also had carrots, as well as a bit of celery.
Owned by Tom Schuerman and managed by his sister Suzy and daughter Sarah, Chances was established on May 13, 1987, as a plaque fixed to the outside of the building attests. The building itself dates back to 1843, when Peter Campbell built it as a hotel known as the Union House. Over the years, the building has been a hotel and a home to taverns and restaurants. There was a spring floor dance hall on the second floor—reputedly now one of the last spring dance floors left in the state—and claims have also been made that the Union House was part of the Underground Railroad, although that has been debated. Chances wasn’t the first restaurant in the building; Big John’s Village Inn preceded it, opening in 1970, and was known for its ribs. Chances specializes in ribs too, but has plenty else on the menu, which thankfully for me includes a Friday fish fry.
When one of my stepsons and I arrived around 4:45 p.m., I wasn’t sure what to expect for a wait time, since the website said they open for dinner at 4:30 and that reservations were preferred. We walked past the bar, which was already packed, down a hallway to the first dining room, which also was filling up. We were asked if we had reservations, and after I said we didn’t, the host popped their head into the adjacent dining room, quickly returned, and told us to follow. The room of a dozen or so tables was half empty, and we were seated at one of the tables in the corner.
Before any talk of clam chowder or fish, we started off with some Kiddie Cocktails. I asked for small ones, but we ended up being served them in official Chances pint glasses, the kind of pint glasses that have advertising for half the local businesses in a town of around 4,000 people. These weren’t as good as the Kiddie Cocktails I had with another of my stepsons a few weeks back at Clifford’s, during a week off from the column, but they were great nonetheless, and I embraced the pint glass.
The Friday fish fry specials at Chances are beer-battered or baked cod (three-piece for $15/ five-piece for $20), a half pound of hand-breaded walleye, bluegill, or perch ($17), and the Friday Fish Combo, with hand-breaded walleye, bluegill and perch ($28). Each comes with a choice of french fries or homemade potato pancakes, as well as rye bread and coleslaw.
Beyond the Friday specials, Chances has a seafood menu that lists pan-seared scallops ($28), Shrimp de Jonghe ($25), beer-battered walleye ($28), grilled shrimp bucatini pasta ($28), grilled salmon ($23), and 7 oz. lobster tail or twin tail dinners (market). Each comes with a choice of soup, salad, or spinach salad, and a choice of baked potato, sour cream & chive mashed potatoes, french fries, garlic butter gemelli pasta, rice, or vegetable. There was also a weekly seafood special: baked grouper with Cajun shrimp sauce ($26).
While the beer-battered cod almost drew me in, the pull of freshwater fish was too strong, so I settled there. But deciding between perch, walleye, and bluegill was too difficult an undertaking, so I had to go with the combo.
For starters, the plate had top-of-the-line rye bread. Thick, fresh, and full of flavor, it was as if it had just rolled up in a bread truck. Speckles of seeds gave the coleslaw most of its oomph and originality. Sure, in the end it was still pretty standard slaw, but at least there was something that could be said about it. The potato pancakes were excellent. Lightly golden, thick, and soft, they were cooked to the perfect doneness, even at their hard-to-reach core. Fresh green onions added some spunk.
Two pieces of bluegill, two of perch, and one of walleye made it a combo. All had the same breading, which had a close-to-the-flesh cling, a rough-grained grit, and enough flavor to make its presence known but not be overbearing. When it came to the meat of it, one of the pieces of bluegill tasted like it had just been caught out of a lake in northern Wisconsin, while the second was a bit milder, as if the two fish had swum in different schools in different lakes, and been caught from different boats. Like the second bluegill, the walleye and perch were also on the gentler side, but still retained their individuality. All the fillets were fresh, and neither dry nor too watery. The walleye was not as intimidatingly meaty and thick as some of its kind, but made the most of the real estate it had, and not a single bone could be found in the whole fillet, something that cannot be said of even some of the best walleye fillets. The extra thick home-whipped tartar was a boon, and I could see how it perhaps would have served the beer-battered cod even better than the breaded fish.
With big $2 Kiddie Cocktails and a $15 three-piece cod dinner, there’s a way to get a fish fry on the cheap at Chances. At almost double the price, the Friday Fish Combo might bring on some wariness, but I had no regrets about going for it. I had no regrets about taking the long drive down Highway 36 to Rochester either. Let the tables flip and pies fly elsewhere—I like what they’re setting down at Chances.
Takeaways: $2 Kiddie Cocktail pints; clam chowder with bacon; plenty of fish and seafood options; historic building; rye bread done right; excellent thick, soft, and green onion sprinkled potato pancakes; breading with rough-grained grit and close-to-the-flesh cling on three tasty freshwater swimmers.
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