Nobody seems to take the Fritz Appreciation Society seriously – and that makes Denis O’Malley smile.
But the society’s secretary says once people find out about the fun and laughs at regular pub luncheons featuring fritz and fine wine, they clamour to join.
We knock them back as membership is capped at 50. There won’t be a new member until one of us dies,” Denis says.
And women aren’t allowed – after all, we’re talking secret men’s fritz business here!”
After posing here, Denis O’Malley popped a $110 bottle of Moet & Chandon champagne to enjoy with the $4 fritz.
The Gawler-based society was formed three years ago after two of Denis’s mates, while reminiscing of fritz in their childhoods, flippantly suggested a fritz appreciation group should be formed.
Denis leapt at the idea. “We were really only after an excuse to have long lunches – anything for a giggle.
It started as a snowflake, became a snowball and it just kept growing.
I had signs and membership cards printed. Everyone is member No 1 because it was cheaper than printing cards with successive numbers, giving everyone bragging rights.
We had a dozen at the first lunch and after news of it spread by word-of-mouth, we’ve got 50 members with 35 or more at every lunch.
Members, mainly Gawler businessmen and retired gents, meet every six weeks at one of four pubs – the Kingsford, Bushman’s or Criterion in Gawler, or the Lyndoch Hotel in the nearby Barossa.
All stand to recite a secret chant while doing the society’s secret hand-signal. At Christmas lunches, Hawaiian shirts and Santa hats are compulsory.
It’s funny to see mature men go through the routine but that’s the power of fritz,” Denis grins.
Pub chefs have embraced the challenge of creating dishes with fritz, often using it as a substitute for more traditional meat.
Examples include oysters fritzpatrick, fritz wellington, wood-oven pizza with fritz topping, fritz kebabs, fritz quiches, mini bread rolls with fritz, tomato sauce and melted cheese, battered fritz fingers with chips, and fritz pluto pups.
The oysters were brilliant and the pizza was surprisingly good but my favourite so far is fritz pups, with battered fritz replacing sausage on a stick,” Denis says.
Premium wine plays a big role at the fritz lunches, with a winemaker from one of four Barossan wineries attending.
The pubs organise for a winemaker to give a talk strictly limited to five minutes and for his winery to donate the wine for the lunch,” Denis says.
In return, order forms are put out. Most of us usually make an order.
We all want two simple things – good company and good fun, and fritz has brought it together.
