It’s 12:50 pm on a Friday, and tables are set up in the quiet gymnasium in preparation for one of the state’s longest-running fish fries. These seafood dinners are rooted in the tradition of honoring Christ on Friday’s by abstaining from eating meat. Seafood is a common substitute. At St. Ferdinand’s Catholic Parish and its school, All Saints Academy, in Florissant, the fish fry has been a weekly dining experience for the community for nearly three-quarters of a century. The school has been run by the archdiocese since 2017.
What started in 1953 as a once-a-month fundraiser at the Old St. Ferdinand Shrine, now called St. Ferdinand’s Catholic Parish, grew into a weekly fish fry operation after the parish’s 1957 move to its current location on Charbonier Road. Before the current building was completed, the frying used to be done in a shed behind the school.
In those early days, all the workers were volunteers, and the fry was a significant fundraiser for the parish. Families who had students attending the school were expected to work one Friday every couple of months. Now, the parish considers the fish fry a self-sustaining business rather than a fundraiser. Each Friday, manager Jayda Lucas oversees a crew of around 40 people, most of whom are paid employees.
The St. Ferdinand Parish on Charbonier Road celebrated its first mass in 1955.
Some of these workers have been a part of the team for decades. In fact, there have only been seven managers in the 73 years the fry has been in operation. In Jayda’s office, which she shares with the school’s physical edu- cation teacher, her desk is surrounded by hockey nets, Hula-Hoops, and three carts of basketballs. This is where she oversees weekly food deliveries, worker schedules, and everything else it takes to serve more than 300 people each week in what is essentially a pop-up restaurant inside a school that’s housed in a parish.
“I think when people think ‘fish fry,’ they don’t imagine we’re doing as much as we’re doing,” Jayda says. But people have come to expect excellence from the St. Ferdinand fry. It’s widely known to have exceptional fried fish, with loyal customers to prove it. In 2025, the St. Ferdinand Fish Fry was honored in the St. Louis Post- Dispatch Headliner Awards. The newspaper recognized favorite local businesses, services, and professionals, as
voted on by the community.
The secret to the fish fry’s popularity and longevity isn’t just the flaky, flavorful fried cod. It’s also about the people attending who are passionate about supporting the operation, showing up every week because they understand some traditions are worth the drive.
Each week, the parish office hears from people who used to frequent the fish fry 20 or 30 years ago and are traveling back to visit, making sure it’s still open so they can get their fix of fried fish from a place that feels like home. And the parish plans to keep the fish fry going as long as possible, even if changes are needed along the way.
Other fish fries across the area have closed in recent years, unable to find enough volunteers. St. Ferdinand’s solution was to transition to a mostly paid staff. It’s not customary for a fish fry, but it has allowed them to endure. It takes around 25 people to run the three serving lines and another 15 or so in the kitchen. Rising costs and reduced patronage have cut into profits over the years, but the fish fry continues to help fund the parish’s ministry.
2 pm: Serving 120 Pounds of Spaghetti Noodles
As students of All Saints Academy walk through the gym to their last classes of the day, workers begin to trickle into Jayda’s office to clock in for the night, pulling on their aprons before heading into the kitchen. Employee Michael Klein buttons up his crisp chef’s jacket before stepping up to the stove to start cooking spaghetti.
He comes in earlier in the week to parboil, or partially cook, the noodles. On busy nights, he’ll go through 120 pounds of spaghetti noodles. The prepared noodles are stored in two-foot-tall pots in the fridge, ready to be finished with a German-style sauce made from a recipe the parish has used for decades. “This is the time-honored recipe. I just stepped in to help them keep it going,” Michael says.
According to the scrapbook of news articles, photographs, and handwritten cards Jayda keeps in her office, many of their secret recipes came from St. Ferdinand’s fish fry founder Henry Laws. He owned a local restaurant, Mrs. O’s Cafeteria, and many of his recipes are still used at the fish fry today, including the meatless spaghetti sauce, fried fish coating, and coleslaw.
2:30 pm: Stacking Trays of Desserts
In preparation for the night’s customers, trays of desserts on small Styrofoam plates are stacked onto a rack, ready for restocking the busy line later in the night. Desserts used to be baked from scratch in the kitchen, but as the fish fry grew and the demand on the school kitchen took toll, they had to switch to outsourced desserts to keep up.
Manager Jayda Lucas serves desserts to customers.
Sharon Fletcher, 83, started working at the parish in 1981 and has contributed on and off as both a volunteer and an employee until a few years ago. She used to come in at 4:30 am on Thursday mornings to start making pie crust and preparing desserts for the following Friday.
“There was a man who came in every week, and he had to get his pumpkin pie every Friday all year round, so I had to make sure it was ready,” Sharon says, laughing.
Customers have become family in this way, showing up each week to share a meal, and regulars are missed if they aren’t there one week. Camaraderie is present.
2:45 pm: Frying the Fish
The air in the gym is chilly with the air conditioner on full blast in preparation for the night’s rush. Anything that can be done ahead is prepped earlier in the week, and no shortcuts are taken with the fish.
The fish shipment arrives on Wednesday mornings, and volunteers come in at 3 am on Thursdays to trim and cut it, sometimes slicing more than 1,500 pounds of fresh cod and catfish. Despite increased costs, St. Ferdinand has remained committed to bringing in the high-quality fish customers expect, and they trim it carefully, even though that means there is up to 9 percent waste each week.
On less busy weeks throughout the year, the team will go through 600 to 800 pounds of cod weekly.
At a signal from Jayda, kitchen manager Gabe Stribling drops the first of the freshly breaded cod into the fryers. He and his team will cook nonstop for the next five hours.
Gabe worked at the fry in high school, went away to college, and then came back, partly for the people and the connections he made there, and partly because he enjoys the work. “I appreciate the pure satisfaction of emptying that full fridge of fish by the end of the night and making sure it’s all perfectly cooked,” Gabe says.
The frying team manages seven fryers, monitoring supplies to ensure each plate is served steaming hot. The fish is light and flaky, with the mild, sweet flavor of the cod shining through a simple breading; it’s golden and crisp on the outside, tender and buttery within.
The employees serve cod, pictured here, catfish (regular or Cajun-style), shrimp, chicken tenders, and five sides.
But their job is more than just frying fish. The team is running a beloved institution, and they are serious about protecting the blend of nostalgia and comfort food that feels like home to so many members of the community.
Tom Stretch has worked at the fish fry for 20 years, and he says it hasn’t changed much in that time. His wife attended school at St. Ferdinand, and his mother attended the parish. “I’m making the same slaw I made 20 years ago. That’s what people want, and we don’t change it,” he says.
2:50 pm: Forming a Long Line
A significant line has formed outside. For safety reasons, customers aren’t allowed in the building until the students have been dismissed for the day. But the early arrivals don’t seem to mind. Many of the night’s first cus- tomers are regulars who live nearby. They come early to grab food to go before the biggest rush begins, happy to wait in the sunshine and catch up with one another.
Some customers in the early bird line have driven across the state or even from as far as Colorado or Oklahoma. It’s a homecoming of sorts for former locals who have moved away but make reoccurring trips back. Some weeks, people even gather here for anniversary or birthday parties.
For those who can’t make it back, the cod can be carefully packaged and mailed to them overnight.
3 pm: Opening the Doors
The line moves forward. A small bar is set up near the entrance, and some customers grab a beverage while they wait in one of the three serving lines, talking with those around them and waving across the room when they see a familiar face walk in the door. The bar serves draft beers, soda, lemonade, water, and tea.
On busy nights, people can wait over an hour for their turn to grab a tray and place their order, but on slower nights, customers can walk right in to get food.
Nancy Nolan, who has worked the front serving lines for over 10 years, started by serving sides and is now head of the line. She begins each customer’s order by weighing the fish, either catfish or cod, and butterfly shrimp.
Unlike many fish fries that are priced by the plate or an all-you-can-eat meal, St. Ferdinand’s fish is priced by the pound. “We cut the vast majority by hand, so the sizes vary. It would be harder to charge a flat fee for a plate without over- or undercharging someone,” Jayda explains.
Customers choose their pieces of fish, then Michelle Findall carefully weighs them.
A single-serving plate with sides usually comes out to around $12 per person. The per-pound pricing also works well for takeout orders, some customers leaving with arms stacked high full of carryout containers that are filled with several pounds of food to take home and share with family and friends. The per-pound à la carte pricing also helps the parish keep prices more affordable for those on a budget, especially for families who serve the meal family style, sharing fish and sides rather than buying individual meals for each person.
“We keep it open for people to come year-round and do our best to make it affordable for them. It’s an outreach for the church to the community,” says pastor Father Lijo Kallarackal.
“The people who come are the heart of the fry. It’s not just for our parish or just for Catholics. It brings many peo- ple together to share in this good experience,” he says.
6 pm: Finding a Family
The fryers continue to work overtime, the line still going strong, and most of the pans from the fridge have been emptied and moved to the dishwashing station. The stove is splattered with tomato sauce, and hundreds of cus- tomers have been served. It’s been a night that reminds everyone why the fish fry is still here.
Ethan Hetlage drops fries and hush puppies into the fryer.
Darlene Bomar, who has worked at the fish fry for nearly 30 years, shares her favorite memory of just how special the St. Ferdinand fish fry is to the community and loyal customers who gather each week.
“One night, we had an older gentleman who wasn’t feeling well,” Darlene says. “He ended up collapsing and hitting his head on a table. We had to call an ambulance, and they got him on the gurney and ready to leave, but he told them he wasn’t leaving until he got his fish. So, the EMT came back in, and we got him a container to go so they could get him to the hospital.”
To her, the fish fry is a family, a place where everyone can come and share a table and have a good meal.
“That’s why I continue to work here. It really is some of the best fish you’ve ever eaten, but we’re not just selling fish, we’re getting to know each other as people,” Darlene explains. “It’s what really brings people together.”
All photos by Melissa Shipman.
This article was originally printed in the June 2026 issue of Missouri Life.
