The Supper Club Book: A Celebration of a Midwest Tradition
Mention a supper club and people outside Wisconsin and its immediate vicinity probably think of some fancy nightclub where the well-heeled dance and drink till the wee hours. But for midwesterners, the supper club is an epicenter for social eating, a locally owned roadhouse where families repair for an evening to treat themselves to a hearty meal with friends and neighbors. As Hoekstra points out, every supper club is unique, but they almost certainly host Friday-night fish fries and serve prime rib on Saturday, defining elegant enjoyment for small-town and rural midwesterners. Hoekstra relates the stories of a number of these institutions, their owners, and the people who have frequented them over the past half-century. He holds out hope for their future, noting how some are evolving in new directions, safeguarding local traditions in the face of competition from national chains. Photographs of both restaurateurs and their clientele preserve a sense of a passing era. --Mark Knoblauch