The Slovenian National Home club room is a carefully coordinated scene of chaos on any Friday during Lent. Polka bands noisily play in the corner while 130 seats are filled with hungry diners, with servers weaving between tables and delivering platters of fish, pierogies, beer and more — along with bagged takeout orders at the back entrance.
Like many local nonprofits, fish fry events are some of the organization’s biggest business days of the year. Each one supports the 100-year-old organization’s mission to create a community and share Slovenian history in Cleveland.
This year, the Slovenian National Home has more than 1,000 dues-paying members, according to Shelli Slapnik March, the Friends of Slovenian National Home president. “People drive from all over,” she says. “They try to come to at least one or two, sometimes three.”
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Those dues, for the first time in the Slovenian National Home’s history, will increase this year due to rising costs in the service industry, Slapnik March says.
“It has been $2 for almost 80 years, maybe 90,” she says. “It’s going to be $5 for this year. For any function that we have throughout the year associated with the club room, you have entrance with the membership.”
However, the dinner prices will remain the same: $20, which includes a choice of fried flounder, baked cod, fried shrimp or pierogi — all of which are paired with clam chowder, french fries or home fries, homemade coleslaw, dessert and coffee.
Seating for dinners takes place at 5 p.m., but doors open to the club room’s full cash bar at 4:15 or 4:30 p.m., according to Slapnik March.
For Slapnik March, the Slovenian National Home has been her lifelong home away from home. She’s served on the board of directors since 1999.
“It’s always been a part of my life,” she says. “I grew up in the neighborhood. I am Slovenian; my mother grew up right behind Slovenian National Home, just south of the hall, back in the day.”
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On a fish fry Friday, you can find Slapnik March managing the tiny kitchen space inside the club room of the Slovenian National Home, helping to serve up anywhere from 400 to 500 dinners a night between those dining in and taking out.
“We have a very small space that we work in, but we know what our jobs are. We know which way to go, and it’s busy, it gets a little crazy, and we just keep pushing out the dinners. It’s a lot of work, but it’s fun and it’s worth it,” she says. “In the end, when that last dinner goes out, we take our aprons off and go ‘phew,’ and then we all look at the clock.”
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The past year has marked a major milestone for the Slovenian National Home when the organization celebrated the 100th anniversary of its hall opening — and the 110th anniversary of the organization’s founding.
Now heading steadily to its 101st year in March, the organization continues to be a major player in the impressive local fish fry scene.
“There are so many nonprofit fish fries throughout the city during Lent. They say Cleveland has one of the largest Lenten fish fries in the country.”
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