Lenten Fish Fry Ads – Feb. 19th, 1953

Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, marking the beginning of the solemn season of Lent.

Seventy years ago, Lent was roughly on the same schedule, with Ash Wednesday falling on February 18th, 1953. Consequently, the Lorain Journal was full of restaurant ads promoting their particular fish fry or Lenten specials on the very next day. 

Here's a sample of ads that ran in the paper on Thursday, Feb. 19th. First up is one for Lorain Diner, located west of town on West Lake Road. Today that stretch of U.S. Route 6 is known as West Erie Avenue.

I did several posts about Lorain Diner. The building is still out there today, trapped on an access road overlooking the relocated highway.

Next up, are a pair of eateries on Broadway: Stone's Grill at 818 Broadway, and Showboat nearby at Broadway & 8th Street. Both of these restaurants have been discussed on this blog. I like the fun fish graphic in the Stone's ad.

Note how the relatively new post-war craze – pizza – was served nightly at Showboat. And Stone's Famous Fish Fry featuring Lake Erie Pike sounds pretty good.

Just a little off Broadway at 3001 Elyria Avenue was the Hollywood Lounge, which was serving up its own Fish Fry. (I wrote about the opening of the Hollywood Bar back here.)

Lastly, we have an ad for a well-known restaurant east of Lorain out in Sheffield Lake: Vian's Barbecue (subject of a multi-post blog series back here). 

Vian's had its Fish Fry every Wednesday and Friday. Note it advertised pizza as well.

Today, Lorain's American Slovak Club has the most well-known fish fry every Friday – not just during Lent. 

A quick look at the online menu shows that things have changed a little over the years; you can't buy it by the pound (which we used to do) and you can't order take out over the phone (which we used to do as well).