I feel like I sold out a friend by including Hagen's Fish Market before The Fish Keg. It's nearly perfect. The first time I was there two 70+ ladies were trying to get their oysters double battered and were not making any headway with the young guy upfront. They asked for a gentleman in particular. If I remembered his name the story would gain in authenticity but I don't.
Let's just call him Harold.
Harold comes from the back and he's this huge guy who immediately
recognizes the ladies and of course agrees to double batter those
clams. The women in perfect crusty old fashion mutter to each other how
they've been coming every week for 60 years and getting double-battered
clams. As they mutter they make it clear that this inconvenience has
nothing to do with the establishement and the talk refocuses on how
good those clams are going to be. After 60 years... that's anticipation.
Half the game is anticipation. You pick your fish and they chuck it in the deep-frier - no trans fats! (Still realllllly bad for you). Then you wait. You look at the Mumbo sauce. You think about buying a shirt. By the time the food's nearly done you've committed to an extra cocktail sauce and a couple extra tartars... and by then you're famished. Driven crazy by the wafting musk of fried food. It's a race home before the crisp vanishes (don't worry- it never does).
The most recent bout included walleye, snow cod, clams and hush
puppies. Do I have to tell you that I liked it? Those old ladies have
been hitting this place every week for over half a century. That's the
endorsement.
Yes I liked it.
The Fish Keg
2233 W. Howard
Chicago
oh man why did you have to post about this deliciosity called fried fish? now i gotta go get some... bu thanks for this post anyway. :)
all along i thought this place was closed. i remember years ago seeing them dismantling the cool neon sign and wishing i could buy it. maybe it was coming down for a cleaning instead. :)
Posted by: gigi | February 28, 2008 at 12:00 PM
That place is glorious.
Posted by: Andrew Bleiman | February 28, 2008 at 02:01 PM
Yes... This place IS good. I still stop by from time to time when I have a hankering for fried scallops!
Posted by: Ms Tek | April 22, 2008 at 09:33 AM
I LOVE the Fish Keg, and have been going there close to 50 years...well, I'll be 50 in November, and some of my early memories are of waiting in line with my mom, during Lent, to get fried lake perch & shrimp. The place has not changed a bit in all those years...they even repaint the walls in that same color. A true piece of Americana, and Rogers Park history rolled into one.
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