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 #599, at Moonlight Tavern & Supper Club in Port Washington, Wisconsin.
Flashlights flickered through the darkness as water lapped the edges of concrete and rocks below, with the unknown looming beyond. It must have been the spring of 1996. I was 10 and was walking the approximately 2,500 feet distance of breakwater out to the Port Washington Breakwater Lighthouse. If not feeling full-throttled fear, I at least had mild trepidation, enough so that this memory is seared in my mind. There was more space to stand at the lighthouse, which provided some comfort, but there still was the darkness, the wind, and the end of the edge and the unknown beyond.
If we caught any smelt that night, I can’t recall, but it couldn’t have been many—by that time the smelt population in Lake Michigan was pretty low. We may have gone back another year or two, but again, time has weathered my memory. After that, it might not have been until 2017 that I saw the lighthouse again, when attending Port Fish Days. I made sure to make the walk out to it and reflect.
Last Friday, I was again in Port Washington, and found myself in Rotary Park, looking out at the lighthouse, which is currently being renovated, and thus covered with what looks to be a black tarp. This time I had a baby in a stroller, so I wasn’t going to attempt the walk out to it, and instead settled for taking a few pictures.
Naturally, the nautical theme is strong throughout Port Washington. Besides the lake and lighthouse, there’s the Smith Brothers Fish Shanty (and a sign with its name that rises above the street just north of it). There’s the marina and the building in it that displays salmon, trout, and perch on its facade. There’s also the Moonlight Tavern & Supper Club inside of the Port Hotel (101 E. Main St.; 262-235-1981), named after a tall ship that used to visit the port.
It wasn’t long after 4 p.m. when my wife, daughter, and I walked into the historic Port Hotel, built in 1902 as the Thill Hotel—and soon after known as the Mayer Hotel—and into the Moonlight Tavern, and overheard the man behind the host stand end a phone call by saying something to the effect of “Yes, we don’t have anything open until 7:15.” My anxiety rose, hoping that meant we could still get a table; we had to be somewhere at 6:15 and any sort of wait time would have thwarted my plans to have a fish fry at the Moonlight Tavern. From where we were standing it wasn’t possible to see how full any of the dining areas were, although arriving at 4 is almost always a safe bet. Not to worry. “We can seat you in the boat room,” we were told, as if I knew there was a boat room or what that meant.
We took a right and walked past a bar where a scattering of people were having cocktails, and then to the left to the boat room. At the time, all the tables in the room and in the area outside of it near the bar were empty, but they’d soon almost all fill up. Of course, the room is called the boat room because there’s a Richardson boat hanging from the ceiling. Why wouldn’t there be? We were seated next to a framed photograph of what appeared to be a sinking ship with a person still on board. I repeat: the nautical theme is strong in Port Washington—and apparently they like to wrap in a bit of impending danger with it.
The Moonlight Tavern opened in 2022 after Jim Read and Angel Tello renovated both the dormant restaurant and the inn portion of the building on the second and third floors. Wife and husband team Ashley Heun and Anders Dowd took over the restaurant portion in March 2024; they kept the supper club atmosphere and added a focus on whiskeys. Prior to being the Moonlight Tavern, the restaurant opened as the Port Hotel restaurant in 1973, also went through some ownership changes, and closed in 2017.
The fish fry section of the menu lists fried shrimp ($18), Great Lake perch, either pan-fried or battered & fried ($22), and haddock, available pan-fried, broiled, or battered & fried ($21). The dinners come with soup or salad, coleslaw, and a choice of potato. There’s no rye bread served with the fish frys, but warm rolls were delivered to the table before the rest of the food. The potato options are tater tots, french fries, baked potato, and potato pancakes. There might be a fifth option, but I blacked out when I heard the server say they had potato pancakes, so I can’t recall. I also was told about the seafood special of the evening, Ahi Tartare with Shrimp Ceviche on Fried Wonton. I ordered the battered and fried perch with potato pancakes and soup, and added on a relish tray ($9) because I was at a supper club and had done the same thing more than once when I had a fish fry at a supper club last year.
The relish tray followed the rolls and was a full plate of pickled peppers, pickled asparagus, tomatoes, dilled cheese curds, cauliflower, broccoli, and pickles, with a dish of ranch in the center. My server had mentioned one of the soup options as being clam chowder, but I overheard another worker talking to a customer in the other room about seafood chowder, leading me to believe my server must have misspoke. When it arrived, it was more orange than white, and it didn’t take long to find some salmon in it, along with the clams, and maybe even some other seafood. There were more pieces of salmon than clams, and some of the salmon pieces were quite hefty, too. There was a touch of spiciness to the chowder, and it had a moderately thick but smooth consistency. I embraced the unexpected salmon. After walking by the salmon display in the marina earlier, it felt appropriate.
The plate of fish came out about 10 minutes later. The coleslaw was the kind that’s dressed so heavily that the dressing turns purple because of the red cabbage that it’s covering. The coating obfuscated whatever else was going on besides the cabbage, but there appeared to be some red onion in the mix.
The potato pancakes were some of the thickest of recent memory, being doubly as thick as some I’ve had, yet were modest in diameter. They had an exterior reminiscent of a funnel cake at a county fair, being savory and a bit oily, with crisp edges. Inside they were a cross between fluffy mashed potatoes and hash browns, and had an abundance of greenery. Most of the flavor, however, came from the browned exterior. The wide contrast between textures and flavors on the inside and outside of the pancakes may have been the most memorable part of the meal.
At first glance, the perch portion looked meager. The pieces were small and there weren’t very many of them (there were five). But what became even more salient in my mind was my uncertainty if the perch was battered, as I had ordered it, or pan fried. It didn’t look battered or deep fried, and instead looked like it had a delicate breading, like it had been fried in a pan. I didn’t have the heart to ask. The coating peeled off easily, was neither greasy nor crunchy, but was soft, and almost moist. It had a candy-like flavor, with notes of cinnamon in it, as if it had been topped with something sweet. Beyond the delicate and sweet breading was a mild-flavored perch. The tartar was thick, and full of pickle chunks, yet mellow.
There’s a bit of an artisan approach to the fish fry at the Moonlight Tavern, with something unique about each component, unlike what you’ll find at most bar fish frys. In this way, it reminds me of the craftsmanship I found at Henry Flach’s a few months back. The perch was enjoyable, although the portion size was small and I wasn’t sure if I had gotten what I had ordered. All the other components—the relish tray, chowder, slaw, and potato pancakes—were all fine representations of their kind.
Whether walking the streets, going near the lake, or when visiting a restaurant, you’re sure to find something nautical in Port Washington. From a lighthouse, to an old fish shanty, to a display of salmon and trout, to a boat hanging from a ceiling, to a picture of a ship about to sink, you aren’t going to miss it. But while there’s no guarantee you’ll get any fish if you make the walk out to the lighthouse and drop a net, you’ll be sure to find some if you anchor yourself in the Moonlight Tavern.
Takeaways: There are a number of rooms in the Moonlight Tavern, like the garden room and library room, but I only saw the boat room; they have a lot of whiskeys; warm rolls instead of rye bread; big, chunky salmon in the seafood chowder, along with some clams; purple slaw; thick pancakes with savory, oily, and crisp exterior; I might have been given the pan-fried perch, but I still liked it.
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