Friendship Restaurants Where Friday Means Fish Fry

Friday night in this part of Adams County means fish fry, and for a village of 648 people there are a surprising number of kitchens frying fish: the golf course clubhouse, the corner bar on Main Street, the diner where WIS-21 meets WIS-13, a Polish bar and grill out by the lake. Friendship restaurants are small and spread out, between Main Street, the highway north toward Roche-A-Cri and the east shore of Castle Rock Lake.

Everything below was checked as open when this was written. A few places that still show up on old restaurant lists, including the Friendship Cafe and Brothers Pizza on Main Street, have closed, so do not drive over for them.

Where to eat in Friendship

Friendship's places to eat fall into four groups: Main Street in the village, WIS-13 heading north toward the state park, the lake side to the west and southwest, and Adams, a mile south, which shares the same Main Street.

Nearly all are bar and grills or family restaurants, priced around $10 to $20 a person. Expect burgers, fish fry and pizza more than anything fancy, and plan around the hours, because kitchens here close well before the bars do.

Main Street in the village

Main Street has a 1935 corner bar, a burger pub a few steps away and a coffee bar, all within a couple of blocks of each other.

A few steps away at 305 Main, Last Call Pub & Grub makes Black Angus burgers hand-packed from fresh beef, plus gyros, with craft beer and cocktails. It is closed on Mondays and runs until 2 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, with TVs for the game and a kids' menu.

For coffee, the coffee counter inside Main Street Mercantile opens at 7 a.m. on weekdays, 8 on Saturday and 9 on Sunday. The menu runs from espresso to loaded lemonades, dirty sodas and Red Bull infusions, with mini donuts, and Fridays are Bakery Fridays. There is a pay-it-forward board on the wall, where you can buy a drink for whoever comes in next.

Breakfast and family diners

For a sit-down breakfast in Friendship, there are two choices: a diner on Friendship Lake at the north end of Main Street, and a family restaurant at the WIS-21 junction north of town.

North of town, the second breakfast option runs a different special every day of the week.

Up WIS-13 toward Roche-A-Cri

Between the village and the state park, WIS-13 has two pizza-and-bar stops and, farther north on its own lake, a fish fry that pulls people up the highway.

Pour Decisions Pizza & Brew, 0.7 miles north of the village, serves stone-fired pizza and smash burgers with craft cocktails and local beer. It is closed on Tuesdays, and it delivers free from Monday to Thursday.

At Inn of the Pines, 3.6 miles north, the bar on the inn’s property makes handmade stone-oven pizza and gyros with fries, has an arcade, and opens at 2 p.m. on weekdays and 11 a.m. at the weekend, which makes it the easy dinner if you are staying at the inn. Some nights are karaoke nights.

Mo's Bar and Grill sits on Big Roche-A-Cri Lake, 6.3 miles north of the village. It is known for its fish fry, including walleye with waffle fries, and for prime rib, with live bands through the summer, outdoor fires and pool tables. It is a couple of miles past the petroglyphs at Roche-A-Cri, so the two make a natural afternoon.

The Friday fish fry

Almost every kitchen in and around Friendship does a fish fry, but the ones people plan their Friday around are the golf course clubhouse, Mo's on Big Roche-A-Cri Lake, and the lakeside places to the west.

The rest of the Friday list: the Corner Bar's fish fry on Main Street, 2 Brothers' Friday fish menu, Family Affair's lake-view dining room, and out by the lake, Dellwood Pavilion and Rustic Ridge's Friday Night Fish Fry. If you have a big group, Family Affair is the one that takes reservations.

Out at the lake

The lake-side places sit 4 to 7 miles west and southwest of the village, along the roads above the east shore of Castle Rock Lake, and they are worth the drive whether or not you are boating. The launch and the county park are on the east shore of Castle Rock Lake, and these kitchens feed the boat crowd.

The Polish kitchen at Dellwood Pavilion, 6.2 miles west, makes Polish sausage and pierogies alongside burgers and a fish fry. It only opens Thursday to Sunday, from 4:30 p.m.

Closer to town, the Bloody Marys at Spot in the Woods are the signature order, 4 miles west of the village. It opens at 8 a.m. every day for breakfast, then moves on to pizza and fish fries.

Down by the water, Rustic Ridge Restaurant and Bar is a supper-club style place with prime rib, a salad bar, a deck over the lake and boat docks, plus a Friday fish fry and Sunday fried chicken. The Slip Inn nearby is a walk-up lakeside bar for an Old Fashioned and a pizza. Both are about 7 miles from the village.

A mile south in Adams

The village of Adams starts a mile south of Friendship on the same Main Street, and its end of the street adds a bakery and an old tavern.

The bakery counter at Becky’s Sugar Shack, at 158 South Main in Adams, sits inside a family restaurant that cooks from breakfast through dinner, with omelets, burgers and pizza.

At 154 South Main, Rank’s ham sandwiches are what the tavern is known for, along with pool, darts and local and regional bands.

A little farther south on WIS-13, Connell's Cedar Shack is a family bar and grill with a Friday fish fry, prime rib and a salad bar, a fireplace and live music.

Good to know before you go

Kitchens close long before bars in Friendship. The Corner Bar's kitchen stops at 8 p.m. while the bar runs past 2, so eat early if food is the point.

Watch the days, too. Family Affair and Last Call are closed on Mondays, Pour Decisions on Tuesdays, and Dellwood Pavilion only opens Thursday to Sunday. The menus lean heavily on meat and fried fish, and several reviewers note that vegetarian and vegan options are thin at the bars.

A meal here usually fits around a climb at the park or a day on the lake, and the rest of a Friendship weekend stretches from the stairway to the fairground.