Western Pa. fish fries serve up precaution as coronavirus concern deepens

From fire halls to churches, organizers of the region’s extremely popular Lenten fish fries are employing a variety of precautions as concern over the spread of the coronavirus continues.

“We are certainly stepping up our regular cleaning measures, which we take pretty seriously to begin with,” said Heather Dolhi, administrator at Community Church in Harrison City. “We’ll have someone cleaning regularly throughout the night, and we usually have someone at the door making sure people clean with hand sanitizer as they come in.”

Several fish fries in Westmoreland, including at Claridge Volunteer Fire Department’s Colton Hall and Immaculate Conception Church in Irwin, are switching to a takeout-only model for the foreseeable future.

Bob Gutwald, who heads up Immaculate Conception’s fish fry, said he is not concerned the change will affect the event’s business.

“What we do here — delivery to local businesses and a lunchtime fry rather than dinner — not many other fish fries do,” Gutwald said. “We probably average about 150 sandwiches delivered each week.”

And, while Friday’s fish fry still included dine-in options, that will change March 20 at Immaculate Conception.

A few miles south, officials at the Yukon Volunteer Fire Company were open for their weekly dine-in fish fry — but were about to consider some changes.

“I have people from our fundraising committee meeting shortly,” fire company President Kim Lofgren said. “We’re considering starting (takeout) only.”

“We are going to work with what we can do. We are already preparing for next week,” when Bishop Edward Malesic’s directive eliminating sit-down meals at the fish frys will impact Our Lady of Grace, said Fred Francese of Hempfield, who oversees the fish fry at the church.

Francese is confident that they will have good crowds when they can only serve take-out meals.

“We can get them in and out the door within five minutes. We have a big parish and we have a loyal group,” of customers, Francese said.

A Washington County resident was reported Friday as Western Pennsylvania’s first case of coronavirus. Most fish fries are employing some sort of additional measures to keep workers and diners safe.

“Generally, we’re just trying to take as many precautions as possible,” Dolhi said about Community Church’s fry in Harrison City. “We’re not pouring from drink dispensers, we have prepackaged drinks and we’re not doing a buffet line. Servers will bring food so that a lot of people aren’t touching the same things again and again.”

Click here for the Trib’s listing of local weekly fish fries.