Steve Borgmann, the coordinator of the Lenten seafood dinners at Holy Spirit Parish, strode to the middle of the parish gymnasium and began banging an empty pot with a large metal spoon. The clanging immediately quieted down several hundred diners. Borgmann was ready to make his announcement. He was, per usual, hawking raffle tickets. The prizes for the weekly raffle?
First place is dinner for eight at the Lenten feast on the forthcoming Friday. The winner and guests sit at a round-top table (at left), distinct from the cafeteria seating for the plebeian diner. The meal is served on china, as opposed to the Styrofoam plates for the non-winners. And finally, the meal is served to the winning diners by the cheerful parish Girl Scouts (below, left). (Third place, incidentally, is being allowed to butt to the front of the chow line.)
It’s a little bit hokey, a lot adorable, and par for the course at what might just be the best fish fry in the Lou.
Holy Spirit is tucked away on a Maryland Heights street that is easy to miss. Parkwood Lane takes other names, in fact, as it meanders through industrial, residential, and commercial zones, shifting randomly from one nondescript backdrop to the next. When you see the huge sanctuary of the church complex, though, there’s no mistaking you’re at the right place.
The church is big because it has to be – it’s the gathering place for parishioners of three former churches that became Holy Spirit when the County expanded Lambert Field in 2004. Bridgeton’s St. Lawrence the Martyr, forced to abandon their holy corner, joined with St. Blaise, which was located on the site of Holy Spirit. A big chunk of the St. Mary’s membership, which had to vacate for the same reasons, joined the parish, too.
The merger was not just of three bands of Catholics, explained Borgmann, but of three cabals of church-lady cooks, pooling their kitchen “secrets” to form a potent hybrid-force, capable of churning out some bang-up meals for the parish.
That may sound like hyperbole, but for the fact that the food at this makeshift Lenten cafeteria – if you know what to order – outclasses that of many brick-and-mortar restaurants.
Start with “Father’s Weekly Specials,” recipes furnished by Holy Spirit Rev. and inspirational gourmand Rich Bockskopf. If you’re a Holy Spirit regular, you may have already enjoyed recent specials like the New England clam chowder and the crab soup. The latter, we hear, “tasted like five dollars worth of lump crab” priced at three dollars a bowl. If you’re a newbie, you still have time to sample the gumbo (March 9), the lobster-and-cheese ravioli served with Italian salad (March 16), the parmesan-encrusted tilapia (March 23), and the pasta tutto mare with clams, crab, and seafood (March 30). Father’s Specials typically sell out well before the 7 p.m. end-time of each Friday’s dinner, so you’ll want to arrive on the early side to enjoy them, but those last two, the tilapia and the tutto mare, are so popular that you actually need to call or physically place a pre-order to secure them.
If you miss the boat on the specials, do not despair, my child. Holy Spirit’s fried cod, that Lenten standard, is dandy. Volunteers hand-cut 500 lbs. of the stuff into filets on Thursday night, said Borgmann, in preparation for Friday.
And the cod is swell, to be sure, but Holy Spirit’s fried catfish (above right) is divine.
The extremely tender catfish melds with the flavors of a simple, spiced corn-meal batter and fries up perfectly. To put tartar sauce on it would be a (venial) sin. It’s just way better than you expect from a church cafeteria.
The grilled shrimp absorbs the flavors of the grill and comes out tasting excellent. Buy a single skewer ($5) to go with the rest of your meal.
The complimentary, from-scratch potato/sage dinner rolls are great – so much so that they disappear before the end of service, too.
The Lenten meals at Holy Spirit go beyond the typical fish-fry, and indeed, the church prefers to call them “Seafood Dinners.”
If you’re in a rush, you can enjoy that seafood dinner via a delightful Holy Spirit option, the drive-thru. By pre-ordering dinners and picking them up on the side of the church, you can join the 75 to 80 cars that do the drive-thru option weekly, reported Borgmann. “It really takes the pressure off our carry-out operation,” he added.
But of course, much of the charm of fish fry’s is going into the gym, and meeting your neighbors at communal tables. Last week, your intrepid Relish reporter met a variety of friendly types at his table, including one brave diner who ordered off-the-menu to create a death-wish of a sandwich, consisting of fried cod, cocktail sauce, cole slaw, dill pickles, and hot sauce on buttered rye.
Please pray for him.
Lenten Seafood Dinners
4:30 to 7 p.m.
Fridays through March 30
Holy Spirit Parish Gym
3130 Parkwood Ln.
Maryland Heights
314-739-0230
