Posted on 02/27/2007 12:32:29 PM PST by Alex Murphy
In 1962, Lou Groen was desperate to save his floundering hamburger restaurant, the first McDonald’s in the Cincinnati, Ohio, area.
His problem: The clientele was heavily Catholic. Back then, most Catholics abstained from meat every Friday, not just during Lent, a 40-day period of repentance that began last week with Ash Wednesday.
His solution: He created a sandwich that would eventually be consumed at a rate of 300 million a year — the McDonald’s Filet-O-Fish.
“Frisch’s (the local Big Boy chain) dominated the market, and they had a very good fish sandwich,” recalled Groen, now 89. “I was struggling. The crew was my wife, myself, and a man named George. I did repairs, swept floors, you name it.
“But that area was 87 percent Catholic. On Fridays we only took in about $75 a day,“ said Groen, a Catholic himself. “All our customers were going to Frisch’s.
“So I invented my fish sandwich, developed a special batter, made the tartar sauce and took it to headquarters.”
That led to a wager between Groen and McDonald’s chief Ray Kroc, who was preparing his own meatless alternative.
“He called his sandwich the Hula Burger,” Groen said. “It was a cold bun and a slice of pineapple and that was it.
“Ray said to me, ‘Well, Lou, I’m going to put your fish sandwich on (a menu) for a Friday. But I’m going to put my special sandwich on, too. Whichever sells the most, that’s the one we’ll go with.’
“Friday came and the word came out. I won hands down. I sold 350 fish sandwiches that day. Ray never did tell me how his sandwich did.”
But the chain compelled Groen to modify the fish recipe.
“I wanted halibut originally,” Groen said. “I was paying $2 a pound for halibut. That sandwich cost me 30 cents apiece to make. They told me it had to sell for 25 cents. I had to fall back on Atlantic cod, a whitefish, and I added a slice of cheese. But my halibut sandwich far outshines that one.”
Groen wasn’t complaining.
“My fish sandwich was the first addition ever to McDonald’s original menu,” he said. “It saved my franchise.”
And fed it. By the time he sold his franchise in 1986, Groen owned 43 McDonald’s restaurants in Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky, about half the number the region contains today. But his prosperity didn’t include a slice of the Filet-O-Fish’s national sales.
“Not a penny,” he said. “I made my money by selling the product and being the best operator I could.”
Charles Faulks, operations director for McDonald’s Ohio Region, called Groen’s contributions legendary.
“Lou exemplified Ray Kroc’s philosophy that you can succeed if you believe in your brand, treat your people right and give back to your community,” Faulks said.
LOL. It's all about the buck.
ping
not sure how Catholic fasting works but wouldn't the cheese be a deal breaker?
Now that's assuming that what McDonalds calls cheese actually cheese...and it's not.
Dairy is ok during fasting, at least for Catholics.
but McDonalds is an EVIL, EVIL BIG CORPORATION!
/sarc
Perhaps one of our Catholic friends can chime in on this point. One will be around shortly, anyway - they'll be "anonymously" adding the keywords MOACB and/or FASCINATEDWCATHOLICS to the thread :)
Nah. In my pre-McDonald's childhood, we always had cheese pizza on Fridays during Lent. :-)
This is my first Great Lent since I was chrismated as Orthodox. It's not too hard to give up meat, but dairy is difficult.
Come to think of it, Orthodox could not have the cod or even the tartar sauce either.
Filet-O-Shrimp, anybody?
Nope, cheese is good...otherwise I'm in trouble for the grilled cheese I fixed last Friday night :)
My daughter's Catholic school serves cheese pizza on occasion on Fridays during Lent.
Cheese is fine. Meat is not. That's why there are so many Friday fish fry's around the country.
lobster sans butter... etc...
my wife is being very vigilent this year in keeping me on track with orthodox fasting...
goodbye coffee with cream.
i didn't realize orthodox and catholic fasting differed on that...
Do you guys fast from fish, but not from shellfish?
How about cephalopods (squid, octopus)?
Frisch's Filet of Sole (it was actually HALIBUT) was the BEST sandwich EVER!! When their store Prime and Wine burnt down, that was the end of the Halibut sandwich.....I still miss it!
Of COURSE you can eat cheese during Lent.
This article says it's OK for Irish Catholics to eat meat(corned beef) on Lenten Friday's that happen to coincide with St. Patrick's Day!!
Check out this New Zealander's catch. It could feed the entire Orthodox Church ...
This handout picture taken December 2006 in the North Pacific Ocean some 1,000 kilometers south of Tokyo, shows a specimen of a deep-sea giant squid. A New Zealand fishing boat has landed what is believed to be a world record squid weighing an estimated 450 kilograms (990 pounds).(AFP/National Science Museum/File)
Can one of the Orthodox explain why dairy is restricted during Lent?
I'm going to go out on a limb, here ... make a wild guess ... and suggest that huge squid would probably taste really bad. They have a significant ammonia content in their flesh.
Yep. That's the rule followed in my better half's family.
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