The First McDonald's Filet-O-Fish Sandwich Was Served In This Midwest State

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If you feel fortunate that you get to exist in the same timeline as McDonald's Filet-O-Fish, you should thank a man named Lou Groen. Now known as the inventor of McDonald's beloved fish sandwich, in 1959 he was a green business owner, having just opened the first McDonald's franchise in Cincinnati. 

In the beginning, times were tough for Groen and his wife, who put in long hours and still struggled to make ends meet. That wasn't just because the McDonald's name didn't carry much weight at the time. Before the second Vatican council wrapped in 1965, practicing Catholics abstained from eating meat not just every Friday during Lent, but every Friday, period. And the Groens lived in a very Catholic part of town. (Groen estimated the number was upwards of 87% in an interview with the Cincinnati Enquirer.) This meant that most of the population was skipping burger joints, opting instead for someplace they could have fish on Fridays.

Groen's main competitor, a regional restaurant chain called Frisch's, was situated right across the street. It was a burger spot that also served homestyle dishes like chili spaghetti, lasagna, and most importantly, a fried fish sandwich. (If you're interested, we ranked popular Frisch's menu items from worst to best.) In 1962, Groen got to work on a fried fish sandwich recipe that would ultimately change his life and McDonald's menu forever.

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The invention of the beloved Filet-O-Fish didn't simply happen overnight. Lou Groen undertook a process of trial and error, searching for the perfect sauce, the perfect fish, the perfect fry, and the element that makes the Filet-O-Fish unique: the pillowy steamed bun.

He went to McDonald's mogul Ray Kroc with prototypes of the sandwich on several occasions. However, Kroc wasn't immediately on board with selling the sandwich, afraid the fishy aroma would be off-putting. Nevertheless, Kroc got the ball rolling by asking Al Bernardin, the food technologist famously responsible for the Quarter Pounder With Cheese, to come up with a recipe based on Groen's work. 

Even after that monumental effort, Groen's fight to get the Filet-O-Fish on the menu wasn't over. Kroc insisted that he pit his own idea for a meatless sandwich against the newly developed Filet-O-Fish for a bit of healthy competition. Kroc's Hula Burger, a slice of grilled pineapple with a couple pieces of cheese slapped on top and loaded on a bun, proved to be an epic failure in a meatless battle held on Good Friday of 1962. The Filet-O-Fish was a hit, and in 1965, it secured its spot on the McDonald's regular menu forevermore!