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Wisconsin Supper Clubs: An Old Fashioned Experience

When I was young, my parents liked to dine at supper clubs. To me, they were swank places of dark wood, bold colored banquettes, and oversized menus where your dad would order a martini and your mom a Manhattan while you, because you were only seven or so, had to do with a Shirley Temple. But at least it came with a pretty paper umbrella and a maraschino cherry

These were the supper clubs of yore. Often tucked away on back roads that seemed to take hours—no make that days—to reach when you were riding in the back of that big boat-like Buick your parents owned and no iPad or cell phone existed yet to keep you entertained. Just a coloring book and a box of Crayolas your mother handed you as you climbed into the car. If your brother came along you could kill time by arguing over whether the Cubs or Sox were better—a fight that endures to this day. If not, you colored and asked every three minutes (I know because my dad timed it once) “are we there yet?”

In Michigan there are few supper clubs that I know of. Maybe D’Agostino’s Navajo Bar & Grille in Bridgeman, family owned for almost 70 years would qualify. It has that feel. There’s Talon’s Supper Club in Norway way up in the U.P. where old fashioned ice cream drinks (typically one of the deciding factors in determining if a place is a supper club) like Grasshoppers and Brandy Alexanders are on the menu. But let’s face it, is anyone going to drive 400 miles one way to go to a supper club? In Norway Michigan—population 2,845? No, I didn’t think so.

Much more local, there’s the Heston Supper Club, in Heston, Indiana just north of LaPorte on the Michigan-Indiana border. And yes, it is in the middle of nowhere. In Syracuse, Indiana less than 90 minutes, The Sleepy Owl has been around for more than a half century. I haven’t been there yet, but definitely will when we can finally leave the house.

Geraldine’s Supper Club in Indy is a hat tip to the classic places of the 1930s and 1940s. There are a few more in Illinois, like the 60-year plus old Timmerman’s Supper Club on the Mississippi River in East Dubuque as well as several in towns I’ve never heard of like Scapecchi’s Supper Club in Farmington.

Because they’re becoming big again, Millie’s Supper Club in Chicago has the look—polished wood, red leather, low lighting—which is cool unless you want old.

But for the largest selection of real back-in-the-day supper clubs, the place to go is Wisconsin and Ron Faiola has got them covered in his two large, heavy-on-photos books, Wisconsin Supper Clubs: An Old Fashioned Experience and the follow-up Wisconsin Supper Clubs: Another Round both published by Agate, a Chicago publishing company. The books came about after Faiola’s film (its name is the same as the first book) was shown nationwide on PBS nine years ago. He also has a website, wisconsinsupperclubs.net, with lists of supper clubs organized by region including many not mentioned in his books. And amazingly, there are lots of them.

So what exactly is a supper club? You’d know if you walked into one of them but Faiola describes them as usually only open for dinner and family owned with great service and food as well as a club-like atmosphere. The reason for all that, he says, is because there’s usually at least one family member on the premises to ensure quality is maintained and guests are happy.

Courtesy of CHUCKMAN’S PHOTOS ON WORDPRESS: CHICAGO NOSTALGIA AND MEMORABILIA

Courtesy of The English Inn Supper Club with locations in Fish Creek and Green Bay, Wisconsin.

“When you come back to a place a few times, you get to be family too,” he says.

Expect steaks and classic dishes like shrimp deJonghe. The latter is totally Chicago-centric, dating back to Chicago and the three deJonghe brothers who immigrated from Belgium in 1891. Two years later they opened a restaurant at the 1893 World’s Fair: Columbian Exposition, a global celebration of Christopher Columbus’ discovery of the Americas. The brothers went on to operate several restaurants including, from 1899 to 1923, DeJonghe’s Hotel and Restaurant at 12 E. Monroe Street. Their most famous dish, the one Henri deJonghe or their chef, Emil Zehr, is said to have created, is Shrimp deJonghe. Heston Supper Club has it on their menu as Sautéed deJonghe. They also serve frog legs, an old fashioned supper club dish if there ever was one and one even harder to find than Shrimp deJonghe. Ditto for The Sleepy Owl, though they call theirs Shrimp Scampi which really is pretty much the same. And yes, they have frog legs as well.

Lobster, ribs, prime rib, perch and Friday night fish fries are also popular supper club items. Oh and don’t forget, the relish tray and/or salad bar.

Drinking is part of the experience. That’s one reason there are so many Wisconsin supper clubs further north like in Door County says Faiola. During Prohibition as liquor was offloaded from boats coming from Canada and delivered via back roads to the big cities, supper clubs out in the boonies got their orders filled as gangsters, avoiding the highways and the cops, stopped by.

The cocktails people drank back then are popular again. But the thing with supper clubs is they never went out of style. In Wisconsin, the big one is the brandy old-fashioned sweet. I’d never heard of it but according to Faiola—and he should know—people in Wisconsin drink more brandy than anyone else in the U.S. and that’s usually by consuming a lot of brandy old-fashioned sweets.

Courtesy of Greenwood Supper Club which opened in 1929 in Fish Harbor in Door County.

But supper clubs aren’t cookie cutters, says Faiola. Each is unique because of the family factor. Just like going to one friend’s home versus another.

Courtesy of Florian Supper Club in Bailey Harbor, Wisconsin.

His books make great guides and people use them to explore the state, choosing which supper club to try next. Even in these days when we really can’t go anywhere yet, they’re still fun to look at—both a step back in time and a look forward when we can hit the road again. Also, I’m also going to be on the hunt for more Michigan supper clubs so if anyone knows of any, let me know.

RECIPES

Here is the original recipe served at the deJonghe Brothers’ various restaurants. It’s interesting because it calls for ingredients not usually associated with fish dishes—nutmeg and mace. But while both are more pie ingredients today, in Europe a century and more ago, they were often used in savory cooking as well.

As for why last place the deJonghe Brothers owned closed, supposedly it was because of liquor violations during Prohibition. But that doesn’t really sound like Chicago, does it?

Also, shrimp can be expensive. A reasonable substitute (after all, this dish is really about the butter, garlic and breadcrumbs) is a tender, mild white fish or even cauliflower that’s cooked in boiling water until barely tender just like the shrimp. For fresh mild white fish, it’ll bake in the oven and doesn’t need to be parboiled beforehand.

The Original Shrimp deJonghe

2 pounds large shrimp (40), or 48 slightly smaller

1 large garlic clove, mashed with the side of a knife or finely minced

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh tarragon

1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh parsley

1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh chervil

Pinch of dried thyme crumbled between your fingers and thumb

1 shallot, minced (very finely chopped)

1 tablespoon minced onion

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1 1/2 cups fine dry breadcrumbs

Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

Pinch of mace (optional)

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Cook shrimp in a 4-quart pot of boiling salted water (see note below) until just cooked through, about 1 1/2 minutes. Drain shrimp in a colander, then immediately transfer to a large bowl of ice water to stop cooking.

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Mash garlic to a paste with 1/4 teaspoon salt using a mortar and pestle (or mince and mash garlic with salt using a large knife), then stir together with fresh and dried herbs, shallot, onion, 1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) butter, 1 cup bread crumbs, nutmeg, mace, 3/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper.

Melt remaining 1/2 stick butter and stir together with remaining 1/2 cup breadcrumbs, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper to make topping.

Arrange shrimp in 1 layer (slightly overlapping if necessary) in a buttered 3-quart flameproof gratin dish or other wide shallow ceramic baking dish. Cover with herbed breadcrumb mixture, then sprinkle with topping. Bake in upper third of oven until golden, about 15 minutes. Turn on broiler and broil until crumbs are golden brown, about 2 minutes.

Note: When salting water for cooking, use 1 tablespoon for every 4 quarts water.

Note: This can also be made in 8 small baking ramekins for appetizers, or 4 larger individual baking dishes for main dish-sized.

Relish Tray

These are all suggestions. Add or subtract as you like.

Spreadable cheese and crackers

Black olives

Green olives

Olives stuffed with blue cheese

Gherkins

Bread and butter pickles

Sweet pickles

Pickled beets

Pickled onions

Pickled watermelon rind

Pickled baby corn

Pickled Brussel sprouts

Pepper slices (pickled or fresh)

Pickled cauliflower

Carrots, cut into sticks

Celery, cut into sticks

Hand-Muddled Brandy Old-Fashioned Sweet

1 maraschino cherry

½ slice of orange

1 sugar cube or 1 teaspoon sugar

2-3 dashes of bitters

1 ½ to 2 ounces brandy

7UP

Ice

In a 10-12 ounce tumbler, combine the cherry, orange, sugar and bitters. Muddle (mash) together.

Add ice, then the brandy and top off with 7UP. Garnish with an orange slice and a maraschino cherry.

The Wisconsin Cheese Cookbook: Creamy, Cheesy, Sweet, and Savory Recipes from the State’s Best Creameries

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“Some people say that the French have the best cheese but I think Wisconsin cheese is the best and I can say that because I wrote the book on cheese” says Kristine Hansen, who actually did write The Wisconsin Cheese Cookbook: Creamy, Cheesy, Sweet, and Savory Recipes from the State’s Best Creameries (Globe Pequot Press 2019; $24.95). “Wisconsin is not just about cheddar; we have a large variety of cheeses which consistently win awards.”

With over a million cows, the state turns out more than 2.8 billion pounds of cheese per year. Hansen focused on the growing artisanal cheese producers in the state and though her cookbook has 60 recipes (as well as beautiful, lush photos), it’s as much of a travel guide—call it a cheesy road trip if you can excuse our pun–to 28 of the state’s creameries.

“A lot of my friends, when they come to visit, want to know the best cheese places I’ve discovered and ask for directions,” says Hansen, a Milwaukee-based journalist covering food/drink, art/design and travel whose articles have appeared in many magazines and websites including Midwest Living, Vogue and on Travel + Leisure and Conde Nast Traveler.

Writing the book meant lots of time on the road, visiting corners of the state where she’d never been and learning the intricacies of cheese making.

So, what makes Wisconsin cheese so great? After all, there are cows throughout the Midwest, but Indiana, Illinois and Michigan don’t have nearly the same amount of small batch hand crafted cheesemakers as the Badger State.

“A lot of Swiss immigrants settled here, particularly in Green county,” says Hansen about the home of Green County Cheese Days, the oldest and largest food fest in the Midwest. The festival honors the area’s Swiss heritage (their Swiss credentials are such that there’s also Wilhelm Tell and Heidi festivals) cheesemaking tradition. The later includes a dozen creameries producing over 50 varieties of award-winning cheeses as well as the only domestic maker of Limburger and the only U.S. factory making 180-pound wheels of Old World Emmenthale.

Other creameries mentioned in Hansen’s book include the Door County Creamery in Sister Bay in scenic Door County, where visitors where visitors can not only sample cheese and take a farm tour but also participate in a 40-minute goat yoga session.

“ClockShadow is one of only two urban creameries in the country,” says Hansen about this Milwaukee cheeserie which offers tours. “One of the reasons they opened is they wanted people in Milwaukee to be able to get fresh cheese curds without having to drive very far.”

As an added plus, adults can also combine the experience by taking a tour of the Milwaukee Brewing Company which is just across the street.

“People think the best Gouda comes out of Holland, but Marieke Gouda is wonderful,” says Hansen.

Located in Thorp, Marieke Gouda has a product store, newly opened Café DUTCHess and features tours. Across the street, Penterman Farm where the milk for Marieke Gouda is provided by Brown Swiss and Holstein cows, there’s a viewing room and tours as well.

Bleu Mont in Blue Mounds is one of several cheeseries in the state with a cheese cave.

Asked what’s the most unique Wisconsin cheese she’s sampled—and she’s tried a lot, Hansen mentions Carr Valley’s Cocoa Cardona, a mild, sweet, caramel flavored cheese balanced by a slight nuttiness that’s dusted with chocolate.

“There are about 500 varieties of cheese of so in Wisconsin, so there’s a lot to choose from” says Hansen. “And the cheeses here are not just for those who live in Wisconsin. Uplands Pleasant Ridge cheese costs $26 a pound and sells in New York City. That says a lot about the state’s cheeses.”

Emmi Roth’s Sweet & Spicy Siracha Pizza

2 tablespoons butter

1 cup sweet onion slices, sliced thin

Pinch of salt and pepper

1 12-ounce ball prepared pizza dough

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 teaspoons minced garlic

1/4 cup pizza sauce

1/4 cup BBQ sauce

1 cup chopped broccoli

1 cup chopped chicken

2 cups (8 ounces) shredded Roth® Sriracha Gouda Cheese

Green onion slices for garnish, optional

Sriracha hot sauce for garnish, optional

Crushed red pepper flakes for garnish, optional

Place pizza stone in the oven and preheat oven to 425°F.

Place butter and onion in a medium frying pan over medium-low heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until onions are golden and lightly caramelized, about 20 minutes. Season with a pinch of salt and pepper. Set aside.

On a lightly floured surface, roll pizza dough into a circle about 12 inches in diameter or rounded rectangle about 13 inches in length. Transfer dough to hot pizza stone; brush with olive oil and sprinkle garlic over. Spread pizza and BBQ sauces over, and top pizza evenly with broccoli, chicken, reserved onion slices, and Sriracha Gouda Cheese.

Bake 18 to 20 minutes, or until crust is golden brown and cheese is bubbling. Remove from oven, let sit 5 minutes before cutting. Garnish with green onions, Sriracha hot sauce or crushed red pepper for more heat, if desired.

Note: If you do not have a pizza stone, you can preheat the oven, then assemble the pizza on an upside-down baking sheet. It will need about 20 to 22 minutes of baking time. Using a baking sheet will result in a less crispy crust.

Hansen shared some recipes from her book. You can mail order these cheeses from the individual cheeseries if you can’t find them in the supermarket. You can also substitute similar cheeses if unable to locate them.

Burnett Dairy Cooperative’s Corn-Meal Crusted Fish Tacos

1 pound white-fleshed fish (such as cod, haddock, tilapia or halibut), cut into 2- x 1-inch pieces

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper

1/3 cup cornmeal

1/4 cup canola oil

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 tsp finely grated lime zest

1 tbsp lime juice

1/4 tsp ground cumin

8 corn tortillas (7 inch), warmed

2 cups shredded Bibb lettuce

1/2 cup prepared tomatillo salsa

1 cup shredded Alpha’s Morning Sun with Mango Habanero

1/4 cup finely chopped red onion

Season fish with 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper; dredge in cornmeal. In large nonstick skillet, heat oil over medium heat; cook fish, in batches if needed, for 2 to 4 minutes per side or until lightly golden and fish is cooked through. Transfer to plate lined with paper towel.

Stir together sour cream, lime zest, lime juice, cumin and remaining salt and pepper. Assemble fish in tortillas with lettuce, salsa, cheese and red onion; drizzle with sour cream mixture.

Tip: For fully loaded tacos, add avocado, cucumber and fresh cilantro when assembling them.

Tip: Use corn or flour tortillas.

Tip: Substitute shredded red cabbage for lettuce if desired.

Yellow Door Creamery’s Tuscan Mac and Cheese

1 store-bought prepared macaroni & cheese of your choice

1/2 cup shredded Tuscan-rubbed Fontina

4 –6 roasted garlic cloves

Handful of baby spinach

Prepare the macaroni and cheese according to package directions.

For the roasted garlic: Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees F. Cut top 1/4 inch off heads of garlic. Place garlic cut side up in small baking dish. Drizzle a few teaspoons of olive oil; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cover tightly with aluminum foil and bake 30–35 minutes, or until cloves feel soft.

When the macaroni and cheese is done and bubbly, top with roasted garlic, baby spinach, shredded cheese and baked until cheese melts.

Emmi Roth’s Pan-Fried Brussels Sprouts with Horseradish Havarti

3 tablespoons butter

6 cups Brussels sprouts, trimmed and halved

1/2 cup sliced shallots

3 tablespoons heavy cream

Generous pinch of salt and pepper

1 1/2 cups (6 ounces) shredded Roth® Horseradish Havarti Cheese

Parsley, for garnish (optional)

Place top oven rack underneath broiler and preheat oven to low broil. If you do not have this setting, move the rack further away (down) from broil heat source.

Place a medium or large oven-safe skillet over medium-high and heat on the stove top. Add butter, Brussels sprouts and shallots; stir vegetables until coated. Cook 10 to 12 minutes, flipping vegetables every few minutes until sides are browned.

Remove the skillet from heat; let sit 2 minutes. Add heavy cream, tossing vegetables to coat, and season with a generous pinch of salt and pepper. Sprinkle Roth Horseradish Havarti Cheese over the top; place skillet under hot broiler. Broil about 5 minutes, or until cheese is melted and begins to bubble. Garnish with parsley, if desired, and additional salt and pepper, to taste. Serve immediately.