Your Friday fish fry is legendary:People drive up from downstate for it. The fish is nice and fresh, we’re careful how light the batter is, and we fry to order.
How do you get that breading light as air?Dry batter in a thin light coating. We dip the fish in milk, then coat it in our little mixture.
Which is a secret?Of course!
Your soups are almost as famous:I get here at 2:30 a.m. to start making them. We always have the twice-baked potato made with sour cream, cheese, ham. I like to make soups like that – beef stroganoff soup, stuffed pepper soup – with the same ingredients as the dish.
What’s in Dinghy’s homemade tartar sauce?Mayo, sweet relish, boiled egg, a little mustard and lemon juice. If I’m feeling fancy I’ll put sour cream in it too.
Do people really eat more than one basket of fish?
Oh gosh yes. We have hearty eaters here. Sometimes there’s four or five reorders.
Fish dishes you love to make at home:I have a really good recipe for salmon. I bake it with a layer of spinach and a layer of cream cheese and mayonnaise, which sounds kind of strange but it’s wonderful.
Any secrets for getting to the front of the fish fry line?What I tell my family: if you don’t want to wait, be there by 4:30 p.m. Or order it takeout, you’ll get it faster.
Dinghy’s Restaurant & Bar is at 417 Main St., Frankfort, 231-352-4702, dinghysrestaurant.com.
Emily Betz Tyra is associate editor at Traverse, Northern Michigan’s Magazine.etyra@traversemagazine.com
Note: This article was first published in October 2007 and was updated for the web February 2008.