Why do McDonald’s locations sell the Filet-O-Fish, something of an ordinary menu choice for a restaurant based mainly around hamburgers instead of fried sandwiches or fish, particularly when it started out? Well, that stems back to a Catholic Lent tradition and one bright franchisee all the way back in 1962, less than a decade after Ray Croc started turning McDonald’s into the franchisee powerhouse it is today.
That franchisee was a man named Lou Groen, based in the Cincinnati, Ohio area. Mr. Groen realized that on Fridays, namely Fridays during Lent, his cheeseburger sales were down dramatically. Cincinnati is traditionally a very Catholic area, so it did not take long for Mr. Groen to figure out what was going on: thanks to Lent, the Catholics in the area were avoiding meat.
As background, a Lenten tradition in the Roman Catholic Church is giving up meat products, thus including hamburgers. So, the observant Catholics in the area, and across America more generally, were avoiding McDonald’s locations on Fridays for Lent.
Recalling what was going on when he figured it out, Mr. Groen recounted, “Frisch’s dominated the market, and they had a very good fish sandwich. I was struggling. The crew was my wife, myself, and a man named George. I did repairs, swept floors, you name it.”
So, Mr. Groen set about determining how he could still serve his Catholic customers on the Fridays of Lent by presenting a food option they could eat without violating their religious beliefs. What he came up with was the sandwich that became the Filet-O-Fish: a breaded fish patty on a bun with tartar sauce and a slice of cheese, thus avoiding the Lenten prohibition on meat.
Describing the invention of the sandwich, Mr. Groen said, “So I invented my fish sandwich, developed a special batter, made the tartar sauce and took it to headquarters.” Headquarters approved the sandwich, and it was off to the races for Mr. Groen, who unveiled it and started selling them for that Lent Friday.
The sandwich hit with customers: “Friday came and the word came out. I won hands down. I sold 350 fish sandwiches that day,” Groen recounted. But, despite the success, McDonald’s corporate compelled him to change the recipe to cut costs. “I wanted halibut originally. 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,” he said.
But, regardless of the change in fish type, the sandwich was a smashing success. In fact, Mr. Groen said that it saved his franchise: “My fish sandwich was the first addition ever to McDonald’s original menu. It saved my franchise.” And now, all these years later, McDonald’s is still selling the Lent-inspired sandwiches.
Featured image credit: By Dirk Tussing from Chicago IL, United States – New-McDonald-HU-lg, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=74002350