Caleb Westphal hasn’t missed a Friday fish fry since 2013. Follow his never-ending adventures HERE. This week: fish fry #646, at Remington’s River Inn in Thiensville, Wisconsin.
The Milwaukee River has flowed into Lake Michigan for thousands of years, and past one particular brick building on Main Street in Thiensville for the past 99 of them. Opened as the Thiensville Recreation Parlor on Saturday, May 14, 1927, almost 99 years to the day before I visited this past Friday, it is now home to Remington’s River Inn (130 S. Main St.; 262-238-2697).
When the recreation parlor opened it had four bowling alleys, an ice cream parlor, and a barber shop. In the years shortly after it had a pool parlor and tavern (that pesky policy called Prohibition was in effect when it opened with its ice cream parlor). While the river and years flowed past, its ownership changed and it had names such as Katie and Earl’s Recreation Center and Gagliano’s Bowling Alley. The Fetzer family took over in 1965 and it was Joe and Elaine’s Village until Bob and Amy Ollman bought it and opened Remington’s River Inn towards the end of 2002. They closed in 2004, remodeled, and reopened in April 2005.
I’ve had a fish fry in Thiensville a few times. Thiensville is where this column started, over nine years ago, when I went to Chuck’s Place, following in the tracks of Bill Wisth. I also went to Skippy’s Burger Bar in 2022. After walking into my third Thiensville establishment to get a fish fry, I was led from the front bar area towards the back, through a stone grotto, to the rustic dining room, where pictures of wild animals and a few stuffed squirrels hang on the walls. It’s a deep building—there was a bowling alley where the dining room now is, after all—and beyond it is a deck that overlooks the river.
The Friday fish fry section of the menu lists beer battered cod ($17.45), pan fried or deep fried lake perch (market price, $26.75), and poor man’s lobster ($18.50). Each comes with coleslaw, rye bread, and a choice of potato. A few minutes after looking over the menu, I put in my order. I ordered the deep-fried perch and asked my server for the potato options. They began listing them. I blacked out about halfway through the list of 7 billion items, while I was trying to catalog them in my mind for the sake of this article, and then blacked out a second time towards the end of the list. I first lost my focus when they said coleslaw was an option, because I had seen that coleslaw already came with the meal. I lost my focus a second time when I heard potato pancakes being mentioned, since that’s what my mind wanted to make sure they had. I ordered a cup of clam chowder ($6.20) to go with the perch and potato pancakes.
The chowder came out first, and my first thought upon trying it was “classic!” All its components were proportionate, including its thickness, spiciness, and amounts of carrots, celery, potatoes, and clams. There are better chowders, but when this one is going down, there isn’t a reason to think of them.
As the fish fry was getting set down, I asked for some ketchup for the potato pancakes. As I waited for my server to bring it, I surveyed the fish fry and noticed there wasn’t any coleslaw. Maybe coleslaw had been one of the side options after all. It was taking a long time for the ketchup to come out and I was getting restless. Finally, my server set down a plate and said, “I’ve got some coleslaw for you too.” Sure enough, the plate had a cup of ketchup and a cup of slaw. That cleared up the great coleslaw mystery of the evening.
The coleslaw was typical, with a mild bite and sprinkling of seeds. There wasn’t anything that warranted me to give it so much fuss when I was anticipating if I’d get it, or in the paragraphs above, but I will leave no slaw behind, exemplary or not. The rye bread was thick and slightly toasted. It was light in color but strong in taste, drawing its power from caraway seeds.
The potato pancakes were thick, with crisp edges, and tasted like a meal. Their flavor was reminiscent of a doughy and floury pastry that’s covering a Cornish pasty, with the savory elements inside the pasty permeating the covering. Still, the most noticeable part was what appeared to be strands of carrot inside. Perhaps the carrots reinforced the aforementioned flavor, but if not, they at least provided a striking visual.
The seven pieces of perch were covered with a breading reminiscent of some of the best perch breading I’ve had, at least texturally. It was delicate, uniform, clung to the perch well, and didn’t have a hint of grease. The pieces of perch were not very large, but still had a plumpness. It was the texture of both the perch and its breading that were most impactful, while the flavor of both was more understated. This was not the case with the tartar, however, which was wildly potent, almost too potent for such a mild perch.
Taken altogether, Remington’s River Inn has a good fish fry that’s on the threshold of being better than good. It’s a fish fry for those who desire thick, savory potato pancakes with some carrot. It’s a fish fry for those who want delicately breaded perch with a plumpness, but want the breading and fish to have a mild flavor. Or it’s a fish fry for those who want milder perch but a strong tartar. The Milwaukee River has been flowing through the area that’s now Thiensville for thousands of years, but it’s only been for the past quarter century or so that it has flowed past Remington’s River Inn. So let it flow. Let the waters erode the shores, and let the years pass by, but most of all, let the Friday fish frys get eaten.
Takeaways: Satisfyingly proportionate clam chowder; coleslaw, it comes with this fish fry; slightly toasted and powerful rye bread; 7 billion side or potato options, including potato pancakes with carrot and the doughy savoriness of a pasty; excellent uniform and mild breading on mild perch.
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