GRAND LEDGE, MI - By day, he’s a diesel mechanic.
But by night, especially during the busy Lenten Fish Fry season, Lee Burmeister becomes “The Codfather.”
“It just happened accidentally,” said Burmeister, who with his wife, Abbie, runs the Hard Knocks Food Truck in Grand Ledge. “A few years ago after a busy Friday fish fry, I was cuttin’ it up with my kitchen staff and told them they can call me ‘The Codfather.’
“Much to my surprise, it stuck,” he said.
Now, every year during Lent, the ‘Codfather’ makes an offer you can’t refuse -- the offer to serve you Michigan’s Best Fish Fry.
“It’s become my alternate identity,” Burmeister said.
That “Codfather” identity and a loyal following landed the Hard Knocks Food Truck in second place as the Lansing area’s Best Fish Fry as part of our search for Michigan’s Best Fish Fry. (Bear’s 105 Diner in Perry took the top spot in a close vote.)
READ: The winner of Lansing area’s Best Fish Fry is located at a truck stop off I-69
Burmeister is a foodie at heart, said his wife, who stands next to him on those Friday nights parked at Sanctuary Spirits in Grand Ledge.
She belts out a laugh every time she calls him “The Codfather.”
“We’re making as many as 10 cases of fish on a Friday night in only four hours, so yeah, he’s ‘The Codfather,’” she said. “He thinks it’s hilarious.”
The Great Lakes Walleye at The Hard Knocks Food Truck in Grand Ledge, Michigan.John Gonzalez
Since it’s a food truck, the menu is limited. They sell two kinds of fish, Great Lakes walleye and cod, of course. But they sell a lot of fish in a short period of time. They’re cranking out 200 to 300 orders from their tiny food truck parked off East Saginaw Highway (M-43) at the entrance to Sanctuary Spirits. (Yes, you can take your food indoors to eat it, assuming they have available tables. Pro tip: Go when the food truck opens at 4 p.m. to get your fish early and try a beer or specialty drink.)
The walleye has a nice, dry breaded crust, which is red with a hint of Cajun seasoning. It’s not spicy, but packs plenty of flavor. The fish is tender, making it a great contrast of flavors. “The thing with the walleye is we start with the best fish,” Burmeister said. “The breader just makes it a little more exciting.”
The beer-battered cod at The Hard Knocks Food Truck in Grand Ledge, Michigan.John Gonzalez
The beer-battered cod is deep fried in a Drake’s mix with Pabst Blue Ribbon and comes out super flaky as the batter just crumbles off the fish. “It’s pretty simple,” Burmeister said. “The trick, though, is to let the beer get flat before you mix in the breader and always make ahead so the flour and beer can become friends.”
Dinners include large portions and a bag of French fries, as well as coleslaw and tarter sauce. The cod sells for $13. The walleye for $17. You can add on extra fish. Cash only.
The food truck, which opened in July of 2020, has bounced around from Mason to Carson City, as well as nearby Mulliken, where the couple lives. They plan to take the truck on the road this summer and open up for more than one day a week. They’re getting requests from all over Michigan.
But for now, they are happy to have a home at Sanctuary Spirits, which is probably better known for another food truck, Pancho’s Taqueria, which has been on site for years. Originally Pancho’s was parked up front, but was moved to the back to ease congestion at the entrance.
“I double as taking orders and parking enforcer, making sure people don’t clog the way,” Abbie Burmeister said. “But we’re both there on Fridays. Dueling food trucks. It’s all good. They buy fish from us, and we buy tacos from them. They have birria tacos right now that are really good.”
Michigan’s Best Burger?
The fish sells extremely well, of course, but Burmeister also is known for his burgers. He has four of them on the menu, and, surprisingly, they all sell well, even during Lent.
“I love cheeseburgers,” he said when we visited him last week. “Look at me ... It’s a way of life.”
Along with a cheeseburger, olive burger and deluxe burger, his Knock Out Burger could be Michigan’s Best, if we ever do that search again.
He uses a mixture of ground chuck, brisket and pork belly, then takes two patties and smashes them on a flattop grill. He tops them with cheese, four strips of bacon, pickles, onion and a special Knock Out Sauce. It’s the sauce that makes the burger a juicy, messy masterpiece.
“It’s a mayo-based sauce with a hint of hot sauce, Worcestershire sauce and six different hot peppers,” Burmeister said.
To mellow it out, he uses a special “dressing, but that’s all secret,” he added.
“I love it because it’s good on everything. The kids and I have literally put it on everything. Pizza, chicken, breakfast foods and even hot dogs.”
The Hard Knocks Food Truck in Grand Ledge, Michigan, is parked in front of Sanctuary Spirits. It is open this Spring from 4-8 p.m. Fridays. Cash only.John Gonzalez
A change of heart
His sudden success is making all of his former experiences worth it. The Hard Knocks Food Truck came after he left a BBQ restaurant he opened with a partner. In fact, he started the fish frys while at the restaurant. He did all of this while still working as a diesel truck and equipment mechanic.
But he always wanted to be in a kitchen.
“My inspiration to cook came at a very young age. I might have been 7 when I started to cook. It was mostly out of necessity at that point, but the love for it developed very quickly,” he said.
“It really came pretty natural for me and by the time I was a teen, I had my own cast iron collection as well as decent chef’s knives, too.”
But he decided trade school made more sense as opposed to culinary school. After “playing with big trucks” for a number of years, he realized he needed to do something different.
“So I started over. Completely over. At that point, I had two children, about 6 and 7, and made the choice to do what I should’ve done when I was younger,” he said.
He learned a lot from his experience at the BBQ restaurant, and about working for other people.
“I thought to myself, ‘This isn’t working because I’m doing it somebody else’s way.’ So I went and did it my way on my own, and that’s where I started finding success and love for what I was doing again,” he said.
Lee and Abbie Burmeister of Grand Ledge, Michigan, were part of 29 couples married on Leap Day, Feb. 29, 2020 at 2:29pm in Hell, Michigan.
A match made in Hell
The Burmeisters are both natives of Grand Ledge. Lee is a 2003 graduate of Grand Ledge High School and Abbie is a 2007 graduate. In fact, she works in the public school system as a math coach for the elementary schools. They had been together for about five years, then on impulse eloped on Feb. 29, 2020 in Hell, Michigan.
“Then the world came to end, and we thought, ‘why not open a food truck?” Abbie Burmeister said.
Why get married in Hell?
“It sounded fun,” she said, adding that she’d read about a group wedding at Hell on Leap Day last year. “We had been engaged. We were trying to figure it out. Growing up in Grand Ledge and knowing everybody, and not wanting to have a big wedding, we decided to elope.”
Some of their friends found out about the wedding when they saw photos of the couple on MLive, which covered the story.
READ: Saying ‘I do’ in Hell: 29 couples tie the knot on Leap Day in Michigan hamlet
“Now my husband is convinced that we opened some sort of portal that caused the pandemic,” she said.
Overall, she’s excited for the food truck’s success and to see her husband follow his dreams.
“He has a huge passion for food, and a huge passion for making people happy through food,” Abby Burmeister said. “I think you can feel that and taste that in the experience of the food truck. It’s his true passion in life, and it shows.”
The Codfather said he named the food truck “Hard Knocks” because “everyone can relate to the hard knocks at some point in their life. And that’s my education in culinary, I learned from the school of hard knocks.”
He could not have realized his goal without his wife.
“I have to be honest, if it wasn’t for Abbie, I wouldn’t be where I am now,” he said. “She’s my true rock.”
If you want to meet “The Codfather,” he hopes you consider a trip to Grand Ledge.
“To someone on the fence or just hearing about us, I’d tell them that my mission is to change the world one meal at a time,” he said. “That I want whatever it is I’m offering to be the absolute best.”
Lee and Abbie Burmeister of The Hard Knocks Food Truck in Grand Ledge.John Gonzalez
IF YOU GO
Hard Knocks Food Truck
Parked at Sanctuary Spirits
902 E. Saginaw Highway, Grand Ledge, MI 48837
Hours: 4-8 p.m. Fridays; cash only
More info: On Facebook at facebook.com/Hard-Knocks-Food-Truck-112349767010431
If you have questions about our search for Michigan’s Best Fish Fry or you want to suggest a future search, feel free to email us.
Amy Sherman: asherma2@mlive.com
John Gonzalez: gonzo@mlive.com
Follow our Michigan’s Best adventures on social media:
@mlivemibest on Twitter
@mlivemibest on Instagram
Facebook at MLiveMIBest.
Join in by using the hashtags #mibest and #BestFishFry for our current search for Michigan’s Best Fish Fry.
In addition:
Amy Sherman is on Twitter @amyonthetrail, as well as Facebook and Instagram @amyonthetrail.
John Gonzalez is on Twitter @michigangonzo, as well as Facebook and Instagram @MichiganGonzo.
The Swallow Inn in Rapid River, Michigan, was voted as Best Fish Fry in the Upper Peninsula. It was originally a boarding house when it opened in 1890.Courtesy of Bel Photography
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The Link LonkMarch 18, 2021 at 02:51AM
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Meet the Codfather: He’s got a Michigan fish fry offer you can’t refuse - mlive.com
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