Week 1: St Procop's

We began the 2008 Fabulous Fish Fry Tour of Northeast Ohio on the first Friday of Lent, of course (Feb 8, 2008) at our one and only annual stop: St Procop's Catholic Church.

St Procop's is located at 3181 West 41st Street, Cleveland, OH 44109.
Ten bucks for an adult meal, if I remember correctly.

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How can you not love the food there? Omigosh, the menu is extensive--I had baked fish, three pierogi (each one weighed the same as my Saturn Ion, I swear) with sauteed onions on top (optional), coleslaw, applesauce, a roll with butter, french fries and a piece of cake.

Giving up meat on Friday has never been so easy! (I think I probably gained four pounds!)

Two of my favorite notes about the night:

a. St Procop's serves a free hot meal to hungry, perhaps generally homeless, people of the neighborhood most of the Fridays during the year. A number of those "regulars" didn't realize that "their" meal had been shifted to Thursday nights during Lent, and were showing up for their usual dinnertime. I wished I'd brought some extra cash to get someone a meal like the rest of us were having.....but was at least glad to be able to share the information that there would be a hot meal at the Catholic Worker Storefront (near 44th and Lorain, so relatively close-by) at 7pm. I would seriously value there being some way for more of the "usual" Friday night crowd at Procop's to be able to share in the Fish Fry extravaganzas there.....I don't know how to make that happen, though....

b. After we'd finished up our own meals, we took a meal over to our friend Mammy--who was one of the instigators and eternal-companions for the Fish Fry Tour--at St Augustine Manor. She was sound asleep when we arrived, but woke with joyful anticipation when she realized that if she couldn't join the Tour, the Tour would come find her!

Anybody else got any thoughts, stories, observations, favorite things, etc, about the Procop Fry that you'd like to share with the rest of us?

Stay tuned for Week 2: Sagrada Familia!