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 #606, at Squidy’s 2 in Palmyra, Wisconsin.
Small talk is a usual part of appointments, but it’s not the easiest when the topic is fish frys and it comes up right before your dental hygienist starts sticking instruments into your mouth. For fish frys are actually big talk, not small talk, and it’s hard to get much more than a sentence out about their importance between each insertion of a mouth mirror and scaler. At least this was my experience when I was getting dental work done earlier this year. But listening is often more important than talking, as was the case here, when my new dental hygienist told me they knew of a place that had a good fish fry that I wasn’t familiar with: Squidy’s 2 in Palmyra (102 N. 2nd St.; 262-495-2588). I had thought the paragon of Palmyra fish frys was the Nite Cap Inn, a place I’d been a few times and wrote about in 2018, so when I learned there was another place in the village that got around by word of mouth, I took note.
The time seemed ripe for making it there on July 11. I was outside of Eagle with my wife, daughter, and one of my stepsons, and we were going to head to Squidy’s 2 after my wife finished her photo shoot. But then it looked like bad weather was rolling in, and a Tornado Watch was issued. I started firing off emails to Milwaukee Record:
5:51 p.m.
“Hey! I might have to do another buy [sic] week this week. We are out in Eagle waiting for a photo shoot to start, and were planning on hitting up a place in Palmyra after, but bad weather is coming in. So we might head back to Milwaukee and I might just pick something up again. If you don’t see me check into Squidy’s 2 (looks awesome, btw), it’ll probably be another week off from the column. Thanks!”
6:40 p.m.
“We are at Paradise Springs and some teens are pulling in foot-long trout, taunting me. They’ve got four so far! The sky is starting to rumble, and so is my stomach. Fishanxiety is setting in. This might end up being a Packing House night. It appears the weather is okay in Milwaukee, but if the power goes out everywhere I’m frying up smelt with the generator.”
We made it back to Milwaukee and we made it to the Packing House drive-thru. Back home, I snapped a picture of the fish fry at 7:54 p.m. Squidy’s 2 would have to wait until another time, until a time when the weather was better and when I had another chance to make a 50-minute drive. That time came this past Friday.
Squidy’s 2 was born out of Squidy’s. Mike “Squidy” Squire opened Squidy’s in 1998. Mike had previously worked in the bar when it was known as Sadie’s Tavern, and bought the business when the owners retired in 1993. On December 5, 1996, a fire ignited in one of the above apartments in the two-story brick building known historically as the Tisch House. Sadie’s and two other businesses were damaged, and five of the upstairs apartments were destroyed. When Mike reopened on February 21, 1998, after purchasing the building and renovating, Sadie’s became Squidy’s. Mike ran the bar until passing away in July 2017. The legacy of Mike “Squidy” Squire lives on in Squidy’s 2.
I peered into the dining room after walking through the bar. A worker asked if I was there for pickup, and after I said I was looking for a table for myself, they gestured towards the room, encouraging me to take one of the many open tables. I took the closest one to the salad bar.
I soon had a menu. The pricing and options under the “Friday Night Specials” are simple. There is “All-U-Can-Eat-Breaded Fish,” baked cod, breaded walleye, baked walleye, and breaded perch, all priced at $15.50 and coming with the salad bar and a choice of french fries, baked potato, or homemade potato pancakes. A six-piece jumbo shrimp dinner ($13) or four-piece stuffed shrimp dinner ($14.50) is also available. I asked what kind of fish the “All-U-Can-Eat-Breaded Fish” was and was told it is a “type of cod, a white fish, a pollock, a fillet not a chunk.” That sounded fine to me, so I ordered it with the potato pancakes, and was soon off to the salad bar.
With my first plate I took a little bit of this and a little bit of that, making a salad pinwheel with bean salad, potato salad, coleslaw, seafood salad, macaroni salad, and Watergate salad, and also grabbed a piece of Italian bread. It was about as expected: everything was satisfying but nothing was extraordinary. I went up for another round—just slaw and bread this time, just the usual fish fry fixings. The bread was exceptionally soft, the slaw saucy and sweet, but also tangy. There ended up being enough time for a third trip, but I held off for the all you can eat component that mattered most.
The fish and potato pancakes came out in a basket and I transferred them to a plate. The pancakes were extra thick, with a crisp yet somewhat greasy exterior. Their appearance was reminiscent of a fast food hashbrown. Other than the flavor of potato, they were quite mild; I didn’t taste any onion, nor find much else for seasoning. Instead of the usual two pancakes, I was given three. I also gathered that they were all you can eat like the fish.
There were three pieces of fish as well. Long and slender, they had a thin breading that held close to the fish. It was finely textured, with a pleasant yet mild flavor. Although the fish was slender, it was still meaty. I filled a bowl with tartar sauce from the salad bar. A standard but first-class tartar, it had relish and a small amount of herbs whipped in it, and was an ideal companion to the fish.
The third pancake stared me down after I finished the third piece of fish. I had hit a wall early. Maybe it was the salad bar, or maybe it was because the fish fillets were so big. Whatever it was, my initial round of all-you-can-eat fish became all the fish I could eat. In hindsight, perhaps I should have gone with the perch or walleye over the pollock. But the pollock was no bottom of the barrel fish, and hit all the marks. The fish and tartar, along with a salad bar with near-endless possibilities, made Squidy’s 2 a memorable fish fry as a whole.
I‘m not going to make the call as to if Squidy’s 2 or Nite Cap Inn has the best fish fry in Palmyra. My suggestion would be to get both and decide for yourself. Or don’t decide and just enjoy them both for their own merits. What I will say is if your dental hygienist suggests a fish fry, check it out. Also, pay attention to the weather. I may have escaped bad weather on July 11, but little did I know that about 36 hours after dining at Squidy’s 2 on August 8 my basement would flood with about four inches of water and I’d be using the generator to pump out my basement, not to fry smelt. But that’s a story for another day, as is the one about the time my childhood home flooded and exploded on a Friday the 13th. Enough of that. May all your Fridays bring sunny skies and fish frys.
Takeaways: “All-U-Can-Eat-Breaded Fish” or perch or walleye; solid fish, breading, and tartar; comes with salad bar with many offerings; great price; come for the fish fry, stay to GET SHIDDY.
Want more Caleb? Hire him for all your 100%-vinyl DJ needs and follow him on Patreon.
RELATED ARTICLES
• Enjoy Every Fish Fry main page
• Enjoy Every Fish Fry: Wisconsin fish fry reviews
• Enjoy Every Fish Fry: The best Milwaukee-area fish frys of 2024