Fish Frydays 2011 #3: St. James the Greater

And again and again.

Well, let me apologize for the lateness of this post! With moving stuff around, the new baby, and forgetting to get the pix off of my camera for three consecutive days…it gummed up the works…so better late than never eh? Life is just very, very hectic these days. I was told many times, but having a baby is quite an adjustment.

Anyway…this past weekend, it was just myself, my wife and our daughter again. The in-laws  had another high fallootin’ symphony to attend….(Note: I really miss attending the symphony at Powell Symphony Hall.)

We have been sticking to the schedule I made at the beginning of the Lenten season and we loaded up the car and headed off to St. James the Greater in the Dogtown section of the Clayton-Tamm Neighborhood of St. Louis City.  This was a fish fry of that I had zero knowledge of. Often times I’ll have heard something about what they serve, or their niche, and in some cases what beer they sell, but here we were cruising into the great unknown.

First off, I want to apologize everyone I bumped with our stroller…since she’s a newborn…and we forgot a baby hanger…it was hard and I’m very sorry.

The line.

We got in line around 5:45pm and there was a very long line ahead of us. Long lines usually bode well for tasty fish. It can also yield free beers….well, I am sad to report that there were no free beers handed out at St. James. I’m going to blame that on the efficiency of the workers. If your people are fast, there’s no reason to hand out beer. That’s the ratio and like many fish frys, it was held in the cafeteria of the church’s school.

It was an $8 dollar plate which purchased a very large piece of fish and two sides.  There were signs around the cafeteria advertising beer for $2. I’m noticing more and more that $2 beer always means the same thing: AB Products in a can. It turned out I was right.

They've got beer.

I chose fries along with pasta and white sauce to go with my fish. My biggest complaint about the menu is that there were really no choices for the fish. I guess to simplify it, they sold both kinds: fried and baked. It reminded me of the scene in Hot Fuzz…what’s your wine list? Well we have red and white….I chose fried.

We sat down and I went about getting our condiments and my beer. I didn’t get any lemons this time.. I forgot to go to the iced tea station because my wife wanted a soda..I think after the mystery juice we had at St. Gabes, she didn’t want to take any chances. At the beer station, which was located strategically by the front door…they had Bud, Bud Light, and Busch. Before I realized it, I’d ordered a Budweiser. As I was walking back to my seat, I began chiding myself for not getting a Busch…because that would’ve been funnier.

Fish dinner.

I began eating my dinner and the fries and pasta were pretty good. Nothing spectacular, but nothing to complain about either. Of course the fish is the star of this meal…and it was lacking.

I got a very large piece of fried fish, but it was over cooked. I couldn’t break the fish with just my fork..and as I didn’t have a knife…eating this fish became a challenge. (I didn’t get up because I’m a man of crazy principles and once I sit down and eat, I eat till I’m done.) Unfortunately, I didn’t really enjoy the food all that much at St. James.

My beer.

The sides were pedestrian. The fish was overcooked and seriously lacked choices. At least at St. Agatha their one fish was awesome. The beer selection was blah. This is just a fish fry I really cannot recommend. I have heard tale that during certain times of Lent they have received approvals to serve corned beef and cabbage instead of just fish. That might be a fun change of pace….

Going to St. James last week just made me ready to go out to another fish fry this week. It’s always a great bit of fun going out to new fish frys, but  this one left me wanting and disappointed.

Thinking out loud here…is it really too much to ask that the beer selection include more than Bud, Bud Light, and Busch in cans?