Philadelphia Fish & Co. menu hits are back during Lent at Keg & Kitchen in Westmont

The memories of Philadelphia Fish & Co. are powerful, 14 years after Kevin and Janet Meeker closed their long-running Old City seafood destination.

They are bringing back 10 dishes for Lent at their current bar-restaurant, Keg & Kitchen, in Westmont. The supplemental menu will start Ash Wednesday (Feb. 22) and continue every Friday and Saturday through Easter weekend (April 8).

The Meekers have the original recipes, as well as the services of sous chef Robert Pratt, who has worked for them for 35 years. He and current Keg & Kitchen chef Bill Elmer are adding contemporary touches to the dishes. Fish & Co.’s menu changed frequently over its 26-year run, from 1983 to 2009.

Among the Fish & Co. throwbacks at Keg & Kitchen are the creamy fish chowder (from Pratt’s original recipe), the Maryland crabcake (served here with Napa cabbage slaw and spicy remoulade), barbecue shrimp and grits (served with collard greens and Pratt’s Cheddar grits), and swordfish with green olives, capers, red pepper sauce, and chile relleno (at $27, the most expensive dish on the menu).

The Meekers have had a hand in memorable restaurants over the years — the Los Amigos chain, which he cofounded in 1977, Cuvee Notredame in Fairmount, The Plough & the Stars in Old City, for starters.

Philadelphia Fish & Co., at 207 Chestnut St. (now Lucha Cartel) was an upbeat and contemporary seafood destination. In the early days, it was the rare non-Japanese restaurant to serve sushi.

Fish & Co., which replaced a spot called Rascal’s Roost, caught on quickly and rolled merrily through Center City’s dining upswell of the 1990s and early aughts.

It was a popular stop for the city’s Book and the Cook series, which paired cookbook authors and restaurants. Hawaiian chef Sam Choi, an early celebrity chef, would set up there for special events.

The rise of Old City’s more bar-focused late-night spots, coupled by the recession and soaring seafood prices in 2008, forced the Meekers to rethink the concept. (”It was the odd man out at Old City’s late-night cocktail party,” Inquirer columnist Rick Nichols wrote at the time.)

The Meekers briefly rebranded it as a barbecue restaurant called Q before closing it in mid-2009. Meanwhile, the couple had crossed the Delaware River to open a bar-restaurant called Cork at 90 Haddon Ave., which in 2012 they redid into Keg & Kitchen.

Since the Meekers shared word of the promotion on Facebook, “all kinds of people started calling up,” Kevin Meeker said. Some had thought that the menu change would be permanent. “I had no idea that it would rock the boat so much.”