Frank Hansen's Fish Chips - recipe?

LTHers, need your magic powers here. For most of my life I lived at Harlem & Balmoral in the city. A couple blocks away on Harlem Ave was Frank Hansen's Fish Pier. Among the many wonderful foods they served, Frank's fish chips were amazing. Note: not Fish 'n Chips, "Fish Chips".

They were pieces (of various sizes) of delicious firm fleshed white fish in a crispy dark brownish/red cornmeal (I think) based coating. It was not at all like any other deep fried fish I've had. Most batters are sort of tempura-like and puffy, but this was dense and crisp, definitely grainy and crunchy like there was cornmeal, and dark brick-red.

Unfortunately the Fish Pier shut down a number of years ago, and after talking with a few neighbors who were all devoted to his "fish chips", nobody asked Frank for his recipe. I'm still kicking myself for not asking him years ago.

I'm wondering if anyone has any recipe ideas about that kind of coating/batter. My guess is it could have been a thick cornmeal based batter with loads of paprika, but I don't remember any paprika flavor. Maybe it was cooked out because of the deep frying? I dunno. But I'm praying someone has some ideas about this magic food of my past... Thanks in advance!