Cod Almighty!

I’d never heard of fish fries before moving to Pittsburgh from California. But here, it’s big business.  

Nappies Food Service, a food supplier in Oakdale, goes through 440,000 pounds of cod and haddock during Lent, when Catholic churches and community organizations sell fried fish sandwiches leading up to Easter.

Penn Avenue Fish Company, a restaurant and seafood market located in the Strip District, gets 50 percent more foot traffic during Lent as people buy more fish to cook at home, owner Henry Dewey said.  

The business sells its own fried fish sandwiches during Lent, and Dewey supervises the kitchen. I tried the sandwich, but because I’m an impartial journalist, and not a food critic, I won’t tell you that it was really, really good.  

But where does fish fry fish come from? The Mon? Nope. Try Iceland. Also, the Bering Sea, off the coast of Massachusetts, and the Faroe Islands.

When I set out to find the answer, my goal was to get as close to the ocean as possible. I wanted to talk to a fisherman. But I learned a lot of that information is proprietary. Businesses don’t want to advertise their suppliers, for competitive reasons.

Here’s what I did manage to find out:

1. In the Pittsburgh region, cod is the most popular fish fry fish. Haddock is also popular.

2. Fish is more expensive these days, said Angelo Napoleone, owner of Nappies Food Service. In February 2026, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization recorded an 11.8 percent increase in its Fish Price Index compared to the previous year. The index measures monthly changes in international prices. Whitefish increased by nearly 10 percent.

3. A lot of Atlantic cod goes through Boston first and is then trucked to Pittsburgh. From Boston to Nappies in Oakdale, it takes about three days.

4. It's not just Catholics peddling cod for God.  

“In Pittsburgh, it's more of a cultural thing,” said Alisha Crose, who runs the fish fry for Allegheny Elks Lodge, located on Pittsburgh’s North Side.

When I asked Napoleone to introduce me to a fisherman, he considered connecting me with importers based in the Northeast and then changed his mind.

“I don’t think that’s a great idea,” he said. “I don't think that I can give you sources like that, because it's... kind of like confidential who we buy our fish from.”

He said they use six or seven different importers.

But I did get close to talking to a fisherman. Dewey connected me to one of his main cod distributors — Bergie's Seafood Inc in New Bedford, Mass.  

“They get a lot of boats right in the back of their store,” Dewey said.  

This, I thought, sounded magical. A fish distributor where boats deliver the fish? I called.  

“The [fishing] boats pull up right alongside of our back door, and we unload from inside the building,” said Ron Pontbriand, sales manager for Bergie's Seafood Inc.  

The cod is fished around 100 miles off the shore, he said.  

“Could I possibly talk to one of those fishermen?” I asked.

“They’re kind of difficult to talk to,” Pontbriand said. “They’re a different breed.”  

I asked him to leave my number, just in case.

“I don't think you're going to get a response from them, but I can leave your number anyhow,” he said.

FYI, I will still pick up if you call.

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Hannah Frances Johansson is a reporter for the Pittsburgh Media Partnership newsroom. She holds a master's degree from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. Reach her at hannah.johansson@pointpark.edu.

‍The PMP Newsroom is a regional news service that focuses on government and enterprise reporting in southwestern Pennsylvania. Find out more information on foundation and corporate funders here.

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Header image: Henry Dewey, owner of Penn Avenue Fish Company, holds up a piece of cod on Feb. 9, 2026, which arrives fresh from Massachusetts. The optimal time to eat a fish is two or three days after it’s caught, according to Dewey. “I tell people it’s like a banana,” he said. “You got to let it ripen up a little bit.” Hannah Frances Johansson / PMP Newsroom