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Secret recipe draws diners to Friday night fish fry in West Dundee

Don't ask Robbie Robinson the ingredients of the batter for his popular beer-battered fish fry at the West Dundee Veterans of Foreign Wars post. He won't tell you because he says it's a secret, but assume it includes beer.

Other than that, just know the batter is good enough that he and his partner, Tony Calendo, draw crowds each Friday night in winter and spring to go through 50 pounds of cod.

Even before the deep fryers are hot enough to start cooking, diners start strolling into the First Street VFW post, find tables, take their seats to be the first to order what their friends and neighbors have been raving about for years.

"We've been doing this for seven to eight years," Robinson said. "Every week, we spend about six hours getting things ready. Then, we start cooking."

Fifty pounds of potatoes, 50 pounds of fish, more than a half dozen bags of rolls and a bucket full of coleslaw - don't forget the tartar sauce - are served on a pile of plates to tables at customers.

If you're lucky and you know him, Robinson will come out of the kitchen wearing his flour-splattered apron and visit with you while you're waiting for waitresses to bring drinks.

"We serve about 100 people a night for dine-in and takeout orders," Calendo said.

Some are Catholics observing the no-meat-on-Friday-during-Lent rule and other patrons are hungry for a friendly fish fry dinner.

"We have to be good because we have a lot of competition from (surrounding) bars serving fish frys," Robinson said.

And they have to be reasonably priced too. For $9, patrons receive two pieces of fish, their choice of french fries or home-fry style potatoes, coleslaw and a roll. For $12, patrons can have the same dinner, but they can have all they can eat.

If fish is not to their taste, diners can order other menu items, such as hamburgers, chicken fingers and hot dogs for different prices.

Here on a Friday night, though, fish is the favorite. Patrons come for it, but they stay for the conversation.

"We have people who come every week," said waitress Holly Swanson. "They have been coming here for years. They bring their families, meet friends and know they will run into someone they know. It's a friendly setting."

All that popularity does have its downside, though. People don't want to leave. The conversations continue while other patrons wait to be seated.

While all this is happening, the post's small kitchen gets crowded and hot.

"We only offer the fish frys from the first week of January until to the last week in May because the kitchen gets too hot," said Karen Welzien, another cook. "It's a small, old kitchen that was built in 1951. The cooks can't take the heat in the summer."

That's a good thing for Swanson and other waitresses. They need the other five months to get the fishy smell out of their work clothes.

"I serve so much fish that at the end of the evening I go home and take off my clothes and throw them in the basement to wash later," Swanson said. "They just smell like fish."

The fish fry is served from 5-8 p.m. Fridays at the post, 117 S. First St. For details, call (847) 428-9006.

At the West Dundee VFW fish fry, each meal includes two piece of cod, potatoes, a roll, coleslaw and tartar sauce. Courtesy of Gerard Dziuba
Wearing his flour-splattered apron, cook Robbie Robinson chats with early bird diners before the weekly fish fry at the West Dundee VFW Post. Courtesy of Gerard Dziuba
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