A glistening bun, a breaded fish filet, and a generous swipe of tartar sauce — the Filet-O-Fish is one of McDonald’s most iconic sandwiches, but it almost didn’t exist.
What started as a way for a Cincinnati franchisee to boost sales during the Easter season has since grown into a yearlong phenomenon, with 300 million Filet-O-Fish sandwiches sold each year globally, USA Today reported in 2023.
It all started in 1962, when franchisee Lou Groen was scrambling to revive weak Friday sales at his Cincinnati McDonald’s, where many Catholic customers were skipping meat during Lent.
Groen believed a breaded whitefish sandwich could fill the gap and persuaded company leadership to give it a try.
McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc was initially hesitant to add fish to the menu
Kroc wrote in his memoir, “Grinding It Out: The Making of McDonald’s,” that the idea for the Filet-O-Fish was “born of desperation” and that he didn’t want to include fish on the menu because of the smell.
“I don’t care if the Pope himself comes to Cincinnati,” he wrote. “He can eat hamburgers like everybody else. We are not going to stink up our restaurants with any of your damned fish.”
Adding fish to the menu also meant a more complicated cooking process and the purchase of a whole new kind of protein, so Kroc came up with a different idea: the Hula Burger, a grilled pineapple slice topped with cheese on a bun.
The pair struck a deal to settle which item would end up on the menu. After Groen put together a prototype for the Filet-O-Fish in 1961, they decided that whichever sandwich sold the most would earn a permanent spot on the McDonald’s menu.
The showdown took place on Good Friday in 1962, according to Dann Woellert in his book “Historic Restaurants of Cincinnati: The Queen City’s Tasty History,” and the Filet-O-Fish beat the Hula Burger by a long shot.
Six of Kroc’s sandwiches were sold, while the Filet-O-Fish sold 350, according to the company.
In 1963, the Filet-O-Fish had a limited release and was an immediate hit with customers
Two years later, the Filet-O-Fish became the first permanent new addition to the McDonald’s menu since the franchised chain opened, debuting at just $0.29.
It was the chain’s only non-hamburger entrée before the McChicken was added to the menu in 1980, and chicken nuggets were launched in 1983.
And while its original mission of serving people during Lent still rings true, it’s also become a year-round favorite. The company reported that only a quarter of annual Filet-O-Fish sales occur during Eastertime.
Over the decades, the sandwich has also become a global staple, and is served in countries including Japan, India, and Russia.
The sandwich proved wildly profitable for Groen. In the years after its debut, he expanded to 43 McDonald’s locations across Cincinnati, employed roughly 3,000 people, and grew the business to about $60 million in annual sales.
Groen died in 2011 after retiring from the business in 1997, but his son, Paul Groen, continued the family legacy as a McDonald’s franchisee.
“My father exemplified Ray Kroc’s philosophy that you can succeed if you put the customer first,” Groen said, according to McDonald’s.
“Barely doing $300 in daily sales back in 1962, my father needed that fish sandwich to survive and compete against other restaurants,” he said. “He set in motion a framework of success that would benefit future generations.”
Today, the Groen family’s Archways Bluegrass Organization operates 31 McDonald’s locations. Paul Groen retired in October 2023, passing the business on to his two children, Grant and Erica.
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