Friday Fish Fry

Madison is the most Friday fish frying-est place I've ever encountered.  I think almost every restaurant in this area (and there are a lot) has a Friday fish fry.

I recently subscribed to the Madison magazine.  The most recent edition contains the Madison "Best Of" list.  Of course one of the categories is "best fish fry".  The top three, in order, are:
1.  The Avenue Bar (been there, but not for fish fry)
2.  Quivey's Grove (been there, but not for fish fry)
3.  The Old Fashioned (been there many times, but not for Friday fish fry)

A couple Friday's ago, Scott and I decided to start in the middle and go to Quivey's for their fish fry.  Of the top three, Quivey's is the closest to us and probably the most easily accessible.

Quivey's Grove.  There are 2 buildings/restaurants on a plot of land in what I believe is probably the town of Verona, just outside Fitchburg and about 20 minutes from our place in Stoughton.  Verona is like a suburb of Madison.  There is a lane leading back to the "barn" building at Quivey's Grove.  The "barn" is the more casual of the 2 restaurants

  image from mmm-yoso.typepad.com



This house/building sits in the front property and has the more formal dining, or so I've been told.  I've never been in there.  I've only been in the "barn", which is to the right and behind this building.

  image from countryinns.com

 


I've heard there is an underground tunnel that connects the house-building above and the barn-building.  I found this picture on line.

image from roadfood.com



Interesting, but I get claustrophobic just looking at it.

Scott and I discovered that the Friday fish fry at Quivey's Grove is so popular, they set up a big tent in front of the barn building to accommodate the crowd.  They put up a bunch of tables, serve food and have a small bar set up.  The tent appeared to be the place most of the families with small children flocked to, probably so the kids could play in the nice green space surrounding the tent. This isn't a Friday fish fry, it's a wedding, but it gives you an idea of the tent set up.


image from citydictionary.com



Tent with a bunch of kids on a day that was 95 degrees?  No thanks.  Scott and I went on inside. 

Here is another picture of the barn building that I found on line.

   image from wisconsinhistory.org

The inside of Quivey's Grove is rustic.  There is a bar and some dining on the main floor.  Scott and I were seated upstairs this time.  This is the upstairs dining area.

And a picture of the stairs heading back down to the main floor.  You can't see it very well in this picture, but you don't want to get too tipsy upstairs at Quivey's and have to walk down this staircase.

The picture above shows the natural lighting that comes in the upstairs dining area.  Very nice.

Since we had gone for the fish fry, we of course ordered fish.  It came with traditional sides of cole slaw and bread.

Both were good.  On the plate with the fish were parmesan hashbrowns.  Those bad boys were flippin' awesome.  The fish was good too.  Best in Madison?  I don't know about that.  But decent.  Although, I have to admit:  I think I made some better fried fish at home last weekend with fresh fish Scott caught. 

Speaking of Scott and fishing:  did I mention Scott caught 41 fish over the course of a few days last week and into last weekend?  Um...yeah....he did.  And he brought them all home and cleaned them in the garage/driveway.  That's a nasty process and one that I certainly don't watch.  And now I have more flippin' lake fish in the freezer than I know what to do with.  Neighborhood fish fry anyone??