If you’re a practicing Catholic, you know that the Lenten season usually happens around the Easter holiday. During the time of Lent, the practice of eating meats like beef, pork, and chicken is forbidden. Fish, however, is deemed okay to eat. While that may bode well for seafood and pizza restaurants, restaurants that specialize in beef and chicken may find themselves struggling to appeal to meat-abstaining Catholics.
This was the case, Smithsonian Magazine tells us, for Lou Groen, a McDonald’s franchisee in Ohio in the 1960s. Groen’s restaurant was struggling at the time, especially during Lent, as most customers avoided the hamburgers Groen was selling. Groen knew that, if he wanted to keep his McDonald’s afloat, he would have to invent something to appeal to the Catholic masses. His idea? A breaded fish sandwich. Groen decided to take his idea all the way to the top, right up to head honcho Ray Kroc. Kroc, however, dismissed Groen’s idea at first, sneering that he didn’t want his restaurants to smell like fish. Kroc instead made Groen a proposal: If Groen’s fish sandwich could beat out Kroc’s own “Hula Burger” in sales, he promised to make Groen’s sandwich permanent on the menu.
As Reader’s Digest tells us, Kroc’s “Hula Burger” was nothing more than a pineapple ring between two buns. When one McDonald’s store began to sell Hula Burgers and Filet-O-Fish, over 350 customers purchased the Filet-O-Fish, leaving the fruit and bread sandwich floundering behind.
