ARDIES/Flipside

            When I started out with this Fish Fry blog, I envisioned a catalog of classic Wisconsin supper clubs, speak-easies, gin joints, and road houses (Swayze).  I never thought my travels would take me into a family restaurant, and yet, my hardy crew and I found our way into Ardies.  A La Crosse fixture right near Menards known to me for an excellent hangover breakfast and AUCE wing nights.  Ardies does have a dark alter-ego called “Flipside” where they dispense their liquor, trivia and Karaoke. 

                                                                    

                                                                    I Love the 'Yoke

         This is where my comrades and I were seated, in the “cool” section, far away from the grandparents and children where our Tinder discussions and hook-up stories couldn’t violate virginal ears. 

            Given the bar was only 15 feet away, we immediately took advantage of our locale and ordered the classic BOFS.  There is only one word to describe the Flipside BOFS: “Terrible”.  It was clearly made from too much syrup out of a Jero bottle, without bitters and only one Maraschino cherry.  The sickingly sweet spirits didn’t just lack taste…it lacked soul. I can’t blame the bartender for his ignorance of the finer points of mixology since 92% of drinks made in La Crosse, WI follow the formula:

RAIL LIQUOR + DIET SODA= DRUNK

Expecting a symphony from someone who plays the recorder is really a failure on my part.  

                                               The BOFS deserves ZERO cocktail glasses

I feel bad for one of my cohort who was at her first Friday Fish and experienced this travesty.  I apologized to her and promised better things to come…which was a terrible idea.  

            As for the food, there was no individual Friday menu or special, just the regular menu, which always included fried fish.  I imagine this is a sound business decision given their proximity to the UW-La Crosse campus and the variety of patrons they have to serve over a week.  However, unlike many places, Flipside added a chicken option to their fish dinners…Friday fowl fry?  It didn’t have the same ring.  I thought it was an excellent idea on paper, but reality proved a bitter chicken to swallow.  The pieces of fish and chicken were both fairly small, which is to be expected from a financial standpoint given the amount of stock the restaurant has to carry.  What I didn’t expect is that they were fried to a crisp with very little meat left on the chicken and the batter was really just mundane.  Not a strong effort on the entrée.

          What Ardies lacked in size of entrée they tried to make up for in tubers, that is, potatoes.  We got a huge portion of crinkle cut fries that were pretty soggy, likely from being left out under the heating lamp too long, or not being fried long enough.

Bottom Line: Maybe they had an off night, but their weren’t many redeeming qualities to the production of food or drink and the underlying quality was poor as well.  I give them ONE Bouy, but only because I’m having a hard time figuring out how to crop out half the bouy so I can give them a HALF Bouy.