LEWISTON, MI – Take a classic Northern Michigan town, add a hotel and bar with plenty of history, then fry up a mess of fish on a Friday night, and you have the makings of a Michigan’s Best champ.
The Lewiston Hotel Bar is that place.
It was our winner of the Northern Lower Peninsula’s best fish fry poll as part of our search for Michigan’s Best Fish Fry.
It had almost three times more votes than the second-place finisher, the Keyhole Bar in Mackinaw City. (More poll results below.)
Owners Mike Lietzke and Meredith Larson, who bought the bar in 2015, are thrilled with the award, which they also won in 2019.
“We are super excited to win twice,” Lietzke said.
“We feel very honored to know our customers love our fish that much. Everyday customers would tell us, ‘We voted for you!’ Some of them I didn’t even know they had computers…. It’s a great feeling for us, and our staff, to win again.”
Lewiston Hotel Bar, which was built around 1948, had the most votes of any restaurant across our 11 regional polls.
You might say they are Michigan’s Best Fish Fry.
When we visited in 2019, we noted how busy it was, with tables full and fish flying out of the kitchen.
Michigan’s Best Reporter Amy Sherman wrote:
“It’s a classic Northern lower peninsula spot, crammed full of people who are happy to be done with the work week, excited to be with friends and family, and enjoying freshly made food together in a community gathering place. It’s kind of the perfect Friday night to be honest.”
READ: 3 places in the Northern Lower Peninsula for fantastic fish fry
That was pre-pandemic, of course.
We caught up this week with co-owner Mike Lietzke to see how they are holding up.
“We are both doing well,” he said in an email.
“We survived the year of the pandemic by doing take outs. We are very thankful for our loyal customers who kept us going by ordering not only fish, but all our other great menu selections and using our private dinning rooms — our version of outside dinning. We called it room service.”
With a long history as a hotel and bar, Lietzke said they used seven of the 15 rooms as part of “room service.”
“We took the beds out and put in tables,” he said. “It worked amazingly well.”
As for the fish fry, they use perch only and keep the recipe relatively simple with cracker crumb dredge, which leaves the fish with a light crunch and plenty of flavor. The five-piece perch basket comes with coleslaw and fries.
Even people who don’t like perch are surprised.
“I’ve had a few people come in and say they don’t like perch, and they order a salad or something else,” Lietzke said. “And I always bring them one piece of fish, especially on a Friday, and I say, ‘Here, just try it.’ And 100 percent they always come back and get the fish.”
Lietzke said they offer their perch dinners any day of the week, but on Fridays it sells for $8.95 – the same price as in 2019.
“We also offer a fish sandwich utilizing our famous perch,” Lietzke added.
What makes it so good?
“Good quality fish, a light batter and we use top quality fresh oil. Our coleslaw is homemade with my own personal recipe, and each and every dinner is served with a smile,” Lietzke said.
Even though they’re busy during the Lenten season, it gets busier in the summer months. It’s not uncommon for them to serve 350 dinners on a Friday.
Other items popular on the menu: Burgers, chicken sandwiches and wraps. They have four of them on the menu, including chicken bacon ranch, buffalo chicken, BLT and Philly. All of them are available as salads.
If you’re in the area this summer, the owners would love it if you stop in and say hello. They’re pretty much always on site, working, greeting and serving their loyal customers.
“We are looking forward to being normal again and seeing all our customers old and new,” Lietzke said. “We are anticipating a very busy summer.”
Northern Lower Peninsula Poll Results
1. Lewiston Hotel and Bar, Lewiston – 25.61%
2. Keyhole Bar, Mackinaw City – 9.78%
3. Sacred Heart Academy, Mount Pleasant – 5.13%
4. Cafe International, Prescott – 4.98%
5. Swamp II Bar, Frederic – 3.97%
Owners Mike Lietzke and Meredith Larson of the Lewiston Hotel Bar and Grill in Lewiston, Michigan, offer perch every Friday night year round. They were the 2019 Northern Michigan poll winner for Michigan’s Best Fish Fry.John Gonzalez
IF YOU GO
Lewiston Hotel Bar
2932 Olsen St., Lewiston, Michigan 49756
989-786-2333
Current Hours: 11 a.m.-11 p.m. daily. Closed on Tuesdays
More info: Facebook
If you have questions about our search for Michigan’s Best Fish Fry or you want to suggest a future search, feel free to email us.
Amy Sherman: [email protected]
John Gonzalez: [email protected]
Follow our Michigan’s Best adventures on social media:
@mlivemibest on Twitter
@mlivemibest on Instagram
Facebook at MLiveMIBest.
Join in by using the hashtags #mibest and #BestFishFry for our current search for Michigan’s Best Fish Fry.
In addition:
Amy Sherman is on Twitter @amyonthetrail, as well as Facebook and Instagram @amyonthetrail.
John Gonzalez is on Twitter @michigangonzo, as well as Facebook and Instagram @MichiganGonzo.
The Deck Down Under restaurant is located in Jerome, Michigan, just south of Jackson. It won the poll for Best Fry in the area.Mikayla Carter | MLive.com
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