When the breaded white fish floats to the surface of the oil, it’s not done yet.
But when it pops to the top, a Coleman’s fish sandwich has been lightly fried to perfection. At least that is how Joe Coleman and his family have been preparing the most popular fish sandwich in the Upper Ohio Valley for more than a century.
Coleman’s Fish Market is located in the southern market house at Centre Market, and he and his employees welcome hundreds of customers most days. There are other items on the eatery’s extensive menu, but it is the legendary fish sandwich that requires an assembly line to keep pace with the in-person or phoned-in orders.
Coleman will discuss the preparation:
“To make a great fish sandwich, you have to start with great fish, and that’s what we do here,” he explained. “And it’s fresh fish that we get in every couple of days. And then, you have to have a good breading that doesn’t absorb a lot of oil. You do not want a greasy fish sandwich.
“You also have to have great oil to sear the fish properly,” Coleman continued. “You also need very good equipment and great people to put it all together, and we definitely have great people here. Many of them have been here for a lot of years.”
But he refuses to talk about the recipe.
“My grandfather came up with the recipe for the breading, and it is a family secret,” Coleman admitted. “I believe he created it in 1946, and we have tweaked it some since then because we are always looking for ways to make the sandwich a little bit healthier.”
Healthier?
“We have learned a lot through the years about what’s good for us and what’s not,” he said. “But it’s also important to keep that flavor in there. That’s what we’ve been known for since it all started 106 years ago.”
A Possible Alteration
The fish is battered in the morning before the lunch rush, and then it drains before it’s placed in the available pile. Then the next person places a couple of fillets between two white slices of bread, and then the employee wraps it, brown bags it, and snags the tartar sauce and whatever side dishes were included in the order.
One after another, those brown bags are delivered to the customers at the front counter, and off they go. If those customers return to their workplace, though, their co-workers immediately know what’s for lunch.
A change to the preparation, however, may be coming in the future, Coleman revealed.
“The white bread is just a standard white bread that we all grew up with for our peanut butter and jelly sandwich,” Coleman said with a grin. “But I have been thinking that one day we may make a change in the future. It’s possible we could change it to a whole grain white bread.
“That’s been in the back of my mind for a while now, so maybe in the future that change will be made,” he said. “The last thing we want is for people to stop coming to see us because they feel it’s not healthy. You really do have to think about that in this business.”
From One Pandemic to The Next
It was in 1914 when Coleman’s Fish Market first opened for business in the city of Wheeling, and the current owner insisted the business will remain in the family for generations to come.
The restaurant has a dedicated seating area in the market house, and they always feature a counter where fresh fish and seafood are sold. When children visit with their parents or grandparents, the young ones often pay a visit to the lobster tank.
It’s been that secret family recipe that has allowed Coleman’s the survive the coronavirus pandemic, but Coleman said he could have used a little more help from his grandpa.
“The recipe has been handed down from my grandfather, John Coleman, to my dad, Ray, and now to me,” he said. “But my grandfather sort of slipped up because he went through the big 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic, when the company was only four years old, but he didn’t leave the family any notes about what to do. That’s why I’ve left notes for my grandchildren and my great-grandchildren.
“The pandemic wasn’t easy, that’s for sure, but we did OK,” Coleman reported. “We took care of our employees and we were as careful as we could be to keep them and our customers as safe as possible.”
Although the pandemic continues to linger and health departments have continued to count cases, business has returned to normal at Coleman’s Fish Market, the home of that perfect fish sandwich.
