A Wisconsin Supper Club Evening With Steaks Seafood and a Serious Salad Bar

A Wisconsin supper-club dinner has its own rhythm: a cocktail before the meal, an unhurried trip to the salad bar, a generous entrée, perhaps dessert if the table has room. Here, that rhythm is intact, with a quiet vintage atmosphere, crisp linens, a proper bar, and the inviting scent of grilled beef near the entrance.

This is a place built for settling in rather than rushing through. Couples come for anniversary dinners, families gather around the table, and friends can sit long enough to work their way from old-fashioneds to cheesecake without feeling pushed along.

Beginning at the bar makes sense. Cocktails are known for being generously poured, and old-fashioneds have a natural place on the menu alongside a broad wine selection. A drink can be a brief prelude to dinner or the start of a longer evening in the bar area.

The dining room remains the destination for a full meal, but the bar gives the evening that familiar supper-club pause: time to look over steaks and seafood, decide between prime rib and walleye, and accept that choosing just one thing may be difficult.

The salad bar is substantial enough to change the shape of dinner. Fresh greens and an extensive assortment of toppings share space with cold selections, cheeses, breadsticks, appetizers, and soups. It can serve as a classic first course, though it is hearty enough that some people treat it as a meal in its own right.

Among the more distinctly supper-club touches are pickled herring and beets. There is also a notably large piece of cheese to cut from—Roquefort has appeared among the offerings—which is a far cry from a few cubes in a chilled bowl.

Two soups are available at the bar. Creamy mushroom wild rice soup has been among them, and other soups have been notably rich, with cheese and substantial ingredients rather than a thin, purely decorative cup of soup.

A fresh mini loaf or loaf of bread arrives at the table as well. Between the bread, soup, and salad-bar choices, it is easy to build a satisfying start before the main plate reaches the table.

Beef is central to the dinner menu. Prime rib, ribeye, filet, tenderloin, and steak specials give a table plenty to discuss, from a classic thick-cut steak to the slower, more ceremonious appeal of prime rib.

An 8-ounce filet is one option for diners who want a steak without ordering the largest cut on the menu. Au jus is available with steak dishes, and baked potatoes and other potato preparations provide the dependable side-dish comfort expected at a place like this.

A filet can also turn into a surf-and-turf-style dinner. Lobster-stuffed ravioli has been paired with filet in both a standard and a smaller combination dinner, giving the plate a more elaborate turn than the usual steak-and-potato formula.

Some of the higher-end steak and seafood selections are listed at market price. That is worth asking about when ordering, particularly if king crab or a premium cut has caught your attention.

Seafood has real range here, not just a token fish selection. Choices have included walleye, salmon, king crab, jumbo fried shrimp, and fish specials, with enough variety for a table where not everyone is in a steak mood.

Scallops show up in more than one form. Seared sea scallops offer a straightforward seafood entrée, while scallops in bacon cream sauce take a richer route. The latter sounds particularly well suited to the supper-club appetite for a sauce that does not apologize for itself.

Shrimp specials may appear from time to time, including an all-you-can-eat offering on one occasion, but the specific special selections can change. The lasting point is that seafood gets the same serious treatment as the steak side of the menu.

Not every substantial dinner needs to come from the grill or the water. Pork chops and a large Iowa chop provide another old-school supper option, while barbecue platters and occasional rib specials broaden the choices further.

These are useful menu lanes for a mixed group. One person can settle into prime rib, another can choose fried shrimp or salmon, and someone else can order a chop without anyone having to compromise on the sort of dinner they wanted.

Dessert continues the full-evening approach. Chocolate cake, strawberry crème cake, and cheesecake in three varieties have all appeared among the choices. There is also chocolate cake with peanut-butter crème for diners who regard dinner as incomplete without a more serious chocolate finish.

After the salad bar and a steak or seafood plate, dessert may be a share-the-slice decision. But a lingering cup of coffee and a piece of cake is a perfectly reasonable way to keep the conversation going.

The indoor dining room is generally quiet enough for conversation, which suits celebrations and family dinners without making an ordinary meal feel overly formal. Booths offer another seating option, and a private dining room can accommodate a more separate gathering.

Service is attentive and personable, with an ease around special requests that matters at a restaurant where diners may want to linger over several courses. The meal can be as simple as cocktails and the salad bar, or it can stretch through entrée and dessert at a relaxed pace.

A free parking lot provides plenty of parking. Reservations can be a good idea, with the need varying by the day and time of the meal.

The menu's strongest pleasures are not complicated: a well-made drink, a salad bar worth exploring, warm bread, a good steak or seafood entrée, and a table where dinner does not have to be hurried.