Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Local restaurants and churches are ready to kick off this year's fish fry season on the first Friday of Lent.
Giovanna Ferraina with St. Leo the Great Roman Catholic Church in Amherst says their volunteer staff has been at the top of the local game for over 22 years. Recently, they rolled out gluten free options as a way to help diversify their menu.
"Gary took the helm of the kitchen, and he's been going strong for 22 years. Last year he developed gluten free fish, gluten free shrimp, scampi soups, mac and cheese. It's been an amazing ride, and we're just looking to this year to even be bigger and better," stated Ferraina.
On top of their new gluten free options, Ferraina says they also have a regular beer battered, baked, and fried.
"We have homemade mac and cheese. We have a soup every single week, and our french fries and our portions are wonderful. And then we use Costanzos rolls, and we have a dessert. If you buy our fish fry at $16 presale, $18 a day of and it is just absolutely wonderful. We have a beautiful parish center that you can eat in, and we have wine, beer, pop and water available. It's a great community feeling," stated Ferraina.
All proceeds from the fish fires go directly back to the church to help maintain operation.
"We are a very busy, happy campus, and we do many, many different things. Last year, we had our all time high that we made, and the money goes towards taking care of and improving our buildings, improving our evangelization, improving our community service," explained Ferraina.
Ferraina says every week, for six weeks, they will be doing raffle, and a lottery tree.
"On the seventh week, we do a very humongous $500 worth of food for an Easter dinner plus, and it goes over extremely well. It's so well received and people look forward to it," explained Ferraina.
Ferraina says orders can be placed on their website, or at the parishioners office.
Mike McPartlan with McPartlan's Corner in South Buffalo says they sell fish fry every day, however, during lent, its a challenge to keep up the amount of orders they get.
"Lent is our busy time of year. As I like to call it, 'playoff season.' We have extra help. We have more takeouts. We've got our best game on for all the customers to come in the door. We've done this since my grandfather founded the business in 1955," stated McPartlan.
McPartlan says in order to make a good fish, the fish and frier oil have to be fresh.
"Our fish is always fresh and unlike a lot of places, on a busy Friday night, we have five full deep fryers going. We keep the grease clean. There's a lot of people here in Buffalo like chicken wings as well. It's always good to separate what you cook in what fryer. It makes a big difference," stated McPartlan.
Even outside of Lent's observation period, fish on Fridays is a staple for many local residents. McPartlan believes the trend was picked up by Irish Catholics, generations ago, when every Friday was considered meatless.
"The tradition was always to have a fish fry on Friday. It's a tradition that my grandfather took advantage of in South Buffalo 1955 and 70 years later, we're still doing the same thing. Maybe in a different location, but we're still doing basically the same thing we always did," stated McPartlan.