It’s Friday; and, like many Fridays, Earl and I are planning where to go out to dinner. It’s become an end-of-the-work-week tradition.
Around here many restaurants serve up a batch of perch on Fridays, and we’ve been to more than one establishment searching for that perfect piece of perch. Of course, tastes different, so this restaurant review is based strictly on our preferences and is not meant to rival any culinary newspaper column.
We give our highest award – four fresh fishies – to Chaps, a restaurant in Douglas, which is about forty-five minutes up the road. It’s a long drive just for Friday night, so we save it for special occasions. Like birthdays with family. But Chaps has the lightest breading, the best flavor, and the most tender fillets.
Three-and-a-half fresh fishies go to a local Benton Harbor restaurant called The Establishment. It is as rundown looking on the outside, as Chaps is upscale. But don’t let that fool you. The Establishment is home to not only good perch, but also the absolutely positively best clam chowder in the area. The menu offers both sauteed perch and fried perch; and whichever one you choose comes on a fish-shaped plate.
Then there’s Clementine’s, where boaters cram the bar and the booths in summertime and clamor for a “mess o’ perch.” Off-season, it’s pretty busy too. Clementine’s keeps track of how many perch has served; and, while I don’t recall the exact number at my last visit, it was impressive. Three fresh fishies go to this restaurant.
Let it be said that we judged all three winners on the basis of their perch dinners alone and not on other things like ambience, noise level, or onion rings. Also, truth be told, Earl did all the sampling since I’m not really a perch lover in the first place. I simply noted his observations as I munched my fried chicken.
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