Eater has a new cookbook. Eaterland, Recipes and Stories from Across the United States, debuting April 28. To celebrate launch week, we’re sharing a sneak peek from the book that focuses on the Wisconsin Supper Club tradition, written by the author of the book’s Midwestern chapter, Amy Cavanaugh. Learn more about the project here.
To Really Understand Wisconsin, Eat at a Supper Club
Walk into any supper club on a Friday night in Wisconsin, and you’ll find diners sipping brandy old-fashioneds while snacking on relish trays, then tucking into fish fries before finishing the night with minty grasshoppers. The same scene plays out on Saturdays, except with rosy slabs of prime rib taking the place of walleye. It’s an identical tableau all over the state, whether you’re at Benedetti’s Supper Club in Beloit, the Buckhorn Supper Club in Milton, or Ishnala Supper Club in Lake Delton.
Supper clubs have been integral to Wisconsin life since the 1930s. “Many began as dance halls, taverns, roadhouses, and recreation areas,” writes Ron Faiola, author of Wisconsin Supper Clubs: An Old-Fashioned Experience. “By the late 1940s and early 1950s people in the United States enjoyed a higher standard of living, and these former dance halls and taverns were reborn as supper clubs. They became a destination for drinks, food, and entertainment. Supper clubs welcomed everyone, no membership required.”
Their ubiquity throughout the state — there are currently more than 250, per Faiola’s count on his website (wisconsinsupperclubs.com) — means that Wisconsinites are never too far from a club. So, it’s easy to see how these establishments, which offer large portions of good food and friendly service, became woven into Wisconsin’s identity.
Illustration by Yoko Baum
To be clear, supper clubs are not cookie-cutter establishments. Every spot offers something unique, whether that’s the gizzard spread on the relish tray at Kropp’s Supper Club in Green Bay or German specialties at Donny’s Glidden Lodge in Sturgeon Bay on Wednesdays.
Sometimes, it’s the location or the design that sets supper clubs apart. The Hobnob in Racine is located right along Lake Michigan, so you can sip your old-fashioned while taking in a view of the lake through the windows behind the bar. Ishnala Supper Club in Lake Delton is set in Mirror Lake State Park, which means if you need to wait for a table, you can do it from an Adirondack chair on the beach (or, you can go on a bar crawl through the establishment’s three different bars).
Enjoy your old-fashioned with a relish tray, a snack platter filled with some combination of cheese spread, crackers, olives, raw veggies, and pickles. You’ll still receive them complimentary at some places. Another club classic is broasted chicken, a purely Wisconsin invention that involves a locally minted machine, which quickly fries and pressure cooks the bird at the same time (the largest Broaster can cook 22 pounds/9.9 kg of chicken in 10 minutes). In addition to chicken, you’ll also find Broasters turning out pressure-fried potato wedges and battered cheese curds in gas stations and convenience stores across the Midwest.
Dessert takes the form of ice cream drinks such as minty Grasshoppers (containing crème de menthe), Brandy Alexanders (combining cognac and crème de cacao), or Pink Squirrels, which get their signature color from crème de noyaux, made from the pits of stone fruits. Generously spiked with booze and crowned with whipped cream, there’s truly no better way to cap off a celebratory supper club evening.
