The Taste Bud: When in Green Bay, Don’t Miss the Maricque’s Fish Fry

Definitely get the bone-in perch. Photos by Kevin Gibson

From the outside, Maricque’s Bar in Green Bay looks like exactly the kind of dive bar you’d do well to avoid. On the inside, it’s a slice of delicious, warm hospitality and tradition.

The fish house and tavern, which opened in 1932, opens at 4:30 on Friday for the weekly fish fry. My travel buddy Butch and I arrived around 5 p.m. to find the parking lot nearly full. When we walked inside, we noted there were a few open tables, but we opted for a pair of seats at the quickly filling bar. The place was hopping.

We ordered a round of beers and started chatting with a local who was picking up a carry-out order and finishing off a bottle of Schlitz beer (I didn’t know they still made the stuff). He told us before leaving, “This is the most Green Bay bar in Green Bay.”

He wasn’t wrong.

Beer signs and football helmets were the key items of décor in a wood-filled throwback space that feels like a time warp to the 1960s. The menus are basically just printed-off sheets of paper listing a variety of fish available – all fried – along with a few sides, such as cheese curds and onion rings. Our bartender, Alli, explained that you can order a single, which is three pieces of fish, a single with an added piece of fish, a double, which is six filets, or a triple, which drops nine pieces of fish. She explained that we also could order a split-single of four, with two different types of fish. That last one’s 44 bucks, and we weren’t quite that hungry.

We both decided on a split single of bluegill and perch, to which Alli asked, “Bone in or bone out?” That sentence is one used often at Maricque’s (which is pronounced like “MERR-icks”) when perch is ordered, we would learn. She ultimately convinced us to get one split single with bone-in perch and one without so that we could try both. She said the conventional thinking among regulars was that the bone-in version offered more flavor. Also, no sides come with the fish orders other than a single piece of rye bread and a slice of onion.

De-boned. Thanks, Alli.

Confused yet? Because we were.

Our fish came out in plastic baskets with red and white parchment paper, and both Butch and I were curious about the best way to eat the bone-in perch, so Alli put on a pair of plastic gloves and showed us how to remove the spine and the fins on the lower body. What was revealed was beautiful, white meat that had us salivating.

She also explained that by using the rye and some onion, along with a piece or two of fish, one could make a version of a Belgian sandwich. A Green Bay version. “You eat it kind of like a taco,” she said. We did, and the sharp flavor of the rye, crunchy and savory onion and the clean taste of perch did indeed make for a flavorful experience. Oh, and one other thing: At Maricque’s, you aren’t issued silverware. Locals eat the fried fish with their fingers. There wasn’t a fork in sight, and we loved it.

In short, Alli made sure our first-ever visit to Maricque’s was a successful one.

“She took us under her fin,” Butch would quip later. (Feel free to groan. I did.)

And she also was correct that the bone-in perch is the way to go when at Maricque’s. The filets were tasty as well, but we truly got the full-on flavor of the slightly sweet fish with the bone-in versions. It was less greasy, for sure – not that the fish at Maricque’s leads with grease. Also, be sure to eat the crunchy tail, which is a salty, savory treat. Meanwhile, the bluegill was bluegill – clean and meaty tasting while not being fishy. I have always loved the full flavor of bluegill and order it whenever I’m in Wisconsin.

And that split-single? It was about two-thirds of a pound of fish. Four pieces of perch and I counted at least eight or nine pieces, albeit fairly small pieces, of bluegill. Sides? Who needed sides? Full disclosure, we split an order of cheese curds as our side and barely touched them. There was that much fish in those two baskets. It’s no wonder the place, by 6 p.m., was completely packed. And Alli insisted it was a slow night.

Tourists that we were, we each got a t-shirt to take home to better remember the experience we’d had. We only wished we could stay another week to re-live the experience. We plan to go back again next year in coordination with Green Bay Packers training camp. And when we do? It’s all-in for bone-in. And we may not even need Alli to help us this time.

Perch and bluegill filets.