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Lent's Own Fast Food Sandwich

Posted by Lia Bulaong, February 26, 2007 at 11:14 AM

"In 1962, Lou Groen was desperate to save his floundering hamburger restaurant, the first McDonald's in the Cincinnati area. His problem: His clientele was heavily Roman Catholic. In those days, most Catholics abstained from meat every Friday, as well as during Lent, the 40-day period of repentance that begins this week with Ash Wednesday. His solution: He created the Filet-O-Fish -- a sandwich that saved his restaurant and eventually would be consumed at a rate of 300 million a year."

I've never really given much thought to the classic items on the McDonald's menu so it was a trip to discover that the Filet-O-Fish was invented by a franchise owner and not headquarters--the same is true of the Big Mac and the Egg McMuffin, as it turns out! And while it seems like a no brainer to me that Hawaii leads the US in weekly Filet-O-Fish consumption, I'm kind of surprised that Ohio comes in at number two, even if it is the Filet-O-Fish's home state!

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Tags: fast food, Filet-O-Fish, fish, Hawaii, Lent, McDonald's, Ohio, religious restrictions, sandwich, seafood