Week #5: The Drive Through Experience. St. Michaels

A night on my own. I spent an extra long day in Dayton on Friday. A job site visit that I thought was going to take, at the most two hours, ended up taking four. So at 4:50 I was on the phone to my loving family telling them that they will need to be off without me.

Thom reminded me that it was Fish Fry night, which I knew, but I was sure that they could soldier on in my absence. He then suggested that I search out a location in Dayton to give it a try, but I wanted nothing more than to get back on the road to Columbus. I knew I would have to figure something out if for no other reason than the fact that I had missed lunch and was now running on vending machine cheese and peanut butter crackers.

On my drive home I remembered that one of my favorite Fish Fries also offers not only good food but a unique twist on the standard carryout experience: a Fish Fry Drive Through. I figured that this would be the perfect opportunity to try it out.

The location is St. Michael’s on High Street in South Worthington. My kids refer to this place as the fish hat place because most of the men run around with various fish hats on their head. When you pull into the drive there is signage directing you into one of two lanes, one for eat-in and one for the drive through.

There are two drive-through lanes with an attentive group of men, in fish hats, waiting to take your order. Very friendly guys come to your window. You need two people; one to take and process the order and one of the rather young, think 15ish, variety to run for your food.

I ordered the standard adult dinner, fried fish, French fries, and coleslaw. Each meal gets a roll, condiments (ketchup, tartar sauce and vinegar) and a beverage. Once my initial order was place, my runner was off like the wind. Now, I know that the kitchen is downstairs and through some hallways,so I figured I was going to have to wait. My order taker finished with my order (tartar sauce, vinegar and bottled water) and took my money ($7.50 for my whole meal), and before he was back from his short jaunt across the parking lot, my runner was back with my dinner. Very Impressive! All of this took about 10 minutes.

Once I was home it was time to see how everything held up. The fish was as good as I remember and still hot. St. Michaels is routinely one of our favorites. The coleslaw was tangy and creamy and the roll was fresh and soft. The fries fell short. They were a bit on the soggy side, so my guess it may have come from being sealed up in that Styrofoam container. They were still tasty though.

I would still give St. Michael’s “a thumbs up”. The drive through experience was excellent. But as with all fried food it’s better to eat it as soon as you can if you want it at its best.