Caleb Westphal hasn’t missed a Friday fish fry since 2013. Follow his never-ending adventures HERE. This week: fish fry #632, at The P&B Station in Muskego, Wisconsin.
The F.J. Dreyfus Bass Bay Hotel opened in 1904, about the same time that trains started running on the electric interurban line adjacent to it. The trains stopped running in 1939, and the tracks have now been replaced by the Muskego Recreation Trail, but the building that was the Bass Bay Hotel remains. For decades it was the Bayside Inn, often known by more specific names like Whalen’s Bayside Inn and Johnny and Jackie’s Bayside Inn. The Bayside Inn was the type of place that was offering an all-you-can-eat fish fry for $5.95 in 1993. In the 2000s, the building housed establishments such as Villa Pizza, Venezia’s Dine Inn, and Sauced Sports Bar and Pizzeria. Rebecca Rodriguez opened Pack N Brew in the building in 2016, and in 2019 the name was changed to The P&B Station (S78W16355 Woods Rd., Muskego; 414-235-9234) to better align with its history as a station along the interurban line.
I was considering going to The P&B Station on a Friday in December, until I learned that the Bass Bay Brewhouse, located less than a mile from it, was burning to the ground. At first I was unsure if the road to The P&B Station would even be open by fish fry time, but this feeling gave way to a feeling that it was just too heavy to go there on that day. The vibe was almost certain to shift because of the nearby tragedy.
I put a pin in the idea until this past Friday. The door opened to the dining room, and I spotted a sign on the other side of the room that advised patrons to check in with the bar. I walked past a staging area to the back room. There wasn’t a bartender at the large, inviting bar, just a few patrons, but when I turned back towards the dining room a worker greeted me and said I could sit anywhere except one reserved spot. I took a seat at a table in a small step-up room that overlooks the rest of the dining room. There were a few seats behind me, but most were visible in front of me.
A menu was on the table, and I flipped it over to the side devoted to Fridays, where the choices were extensive. The top section, “Friday’s Fish Fry,” listed fried cod ($15.95), fried perch ($17.95), a sea & lake trio (one cod, one perch, and three shrimp for $19.95), a fish & shrimp combo (one cod and four shrimp for $16.95), a shrimp dinner ($16.95), a fish sandwich ($13.95), and a Jr./Sr. fish fry ($12.95). The fish were listed as being available hand breaded or beer battered, and the dinners coming with coleslaw, rye bread, and a choice of fries, cottage cheese, or potato pancakes. The bottom section of the menu, “Friday’s Broiled & Baked Fish,” listed buttercrusted baked cod ($18.95), baked cod ($17.95), and broiled cod ($17.95), available in original, lemon pepper, Cajun, or garlic styles and coming with vegetables and a potato. A daily specials sign listed a few additional seafood options. The sea & lake trio interested me first, but I instead decided to go with the hand breaded perch, and opted for the potato pancakes.
There was no soup to bide my time—clam chowder wasn’t the soup of the day, beef barley was, so I left it in the kettle—but the wait wasn’t long for the fish fry. The plate was well organized, a pleasant presentation that was promptly uprooted by fork and hands. The bread was simple but effective, a piece of recently purchased light rye, halved and buttered. Cabbage was at the forefront in both visibility and taste with the coleslaw, but the carrots were not bashful when their turn arrived. Crisp, and well-seasoned and seeded, the slaw was like so many others, not lacking yet not breaking new ground. The potato pancakes were uniform in look, texture, and flavor, signaling they may have been store-bought, although the more I ate of them the less that seemed to be true. They were soft, with a greaselike moistness, and with a strong taste of onions.
There were two large perch fillets. They were meaty, mild, and flaked as larger perch should. As expected, they had a less distinct perch flavor than smaller fillets might have—although the perch stripes on their skin were unmistakable. The breading was thick and sturdy, and covered the perch well, being rough textured and almost mountainous at places. It was satisfying, yet salty. The slightly sweet tartar cut the saltiness and added flavor. The fish, breading, and tartar worked together. While the breading may have been too much on its own—too bulky and too salty—the fish matched it in size, but brought a smoother and softer texture. What was still lacking in flavor was rectified by the tartar. Put another way, the perch provided wholesome sustenance, the breading texture and salt, and the tartar sweetness and additional flavor.
It’s not possible to make a complete assessment of the fish fry at The P&B Station only taking into account one type of fish fried a certain way. For example, how would the beer-battered cod compare to the breaded perch? But going off of what I had, The P&B Station fits well within the parameters of being a place worth trying if you’ve gone to the same place over and over and are looking for something new. It also appears to be a place to go if you are looking for baked or broiled fish, with more than a few options available. Finally, if you are a devotee of the fish fry at Bass Bay Brewhouse, perhaps going to a place that was originally called the Bass Bay Hotel that is in the proximity of the Brewhouse’s ashes could be worthwhile as you wait for its return.
Takeaways: Cod and perch are the only fish on the menu, but there are an array of ways to order them; soft light rye; cup of crisp cabbage (and carrot) slaw; uniform, moist, and oniony potato pancakes; large meaty perch, mountainous salt-forward breading, and slightly sweet tartar.
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