“Once the contract for the new book was signed in August of 2019, I started digging in the archives of the Milwaukee Public Library downtown, which turned out to be fortunate timing, since they closed down completely during quarantine. “There was no way I could have done a third book profiling 50 more clubs during the pandemic,” he says. The Wisconsin Supper Club Story was the perfect book for Faiola to write during the worst of COVID-19. “It’s always been difficult to give an exact definition of a supper club, other than you’ll know it when you see it, which really doesn’t work for people who’ve never been to one,” Faiola explains. It was American food-steaks, chops, fish and chicken, potatoes and a salad, preceded by a relish tray and a breadbasket. Supper clubs weren’t the place to experiment with European or Asian cuisine. During the Prohibition era, supper clubs around the country served liquor on the sly.Īfter World War II supper clubs assumed recognizable form as the special night out for the Greatest Generation-not the rich but the returning G.I.s riding the rising tide of middle-class prosperity. In Faiola’s case, the chain of cause and effect began in 19th century London, whose supper clubs were members only, and led to America’s East Coast at the start of the 20th century. Like all historians, he found that one event leads back to another and another before it. His films Wisconsin Supper Clubs: An Old Fashioned Experience and Fish Fry Night in Milwaukee gained national traction on PBS stations.įaiola returns with a new book The Wisconsin Supper Club Story: An Illustrated History, with Relish. Researching the colorfully illustrated Wisconsin Supper Clubs and Wisconsin Supper Clubs: Another Round, Faiola traveled across the state, eating well at every stop.

Milwaukee documentary filmmaker and author Ron Faiola has spent the past decade exploring those traditions. Wisconsin has its culinary traditions, perhaps none of them absolutely unique to the Dairy State but prevalent compared to the rest of the U.S. Cheese curds, fish frys, bratwurst-and supper clubs.

Wisconsin Supper Clubs by Ron Faiola