Going (Supper) Clubbin'

This weekend, Iwanski and I were watching “Discover Wisconsin,” a show about interesting tourist destinations in Wisconsin, that we Tivo every week. (We have traveled a lot in Wisconsin and love the natural beauty of the state, especially in Northern Wisconsin.)

Anyhoo, there’s a commercial that comes on during the show every week for Capital Supper Club beer, a beer made by the Capital Brewery in Middleton, Wisconsin. The commercial is set in a “supper club” in Wisconsin—and for those of you who don’t know, a “supper club” is basically just a restaurant that, according to Wikipedia, present itself “as having a high-class image, even if the price is affordable to all.” Also according to Wikipedia, supper clubs are mainly found in “the Upper Midwestern states of Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Michigan.” Nope, there are no supper clubs in Illinois, at least as far as I know.

For a long time, Iwanski (who did not grow up a Cheesehead, as I did) thought that supper clubs were exclusive clubs, where you had to be a member to go there. I thought that was hee-larious, since I had gone to many supper clubs when I was a kid.

So anyway, this particular commercial for Capital Supper Club beer reminded me SO much of growing up in Wisconsin, and the tradition of going to a supper club or other restaurant on a Friday night. It was the Friday night fish fry! And my family would often pile in the car on a Friday night and drive to a fish fry at some local restaurant.

As a kid, I loved to eat fried perch (still do) and I really loved the salad bar (still do). But above all of those things, what I think I loved most of all was when we were sitting at the bar waiting for a table to open up, and I would get to drink a kiddie cocktail.

Remember those? It wasn’t until I was older that I found out that a kiddie cocktail was just 7-Up and maraschino cherry juice (or grenadine syrup). But I absolutely knew what one of the ingredients was—my favorite—lots of maraschino cherries. Yum! I love love loved kiddie cocktails.

Isn’t it amazing what little things it takes sometimes to make kids happy? I wish that nowadays, I could just be thrilled by drinking a kiddie cocktail. (Nowadays, an adult cocktail is a little more up my alley.)

And then, of course, after consuming mass quantities of maraschino cherries, it was time for the fried perch with french fries, and the iceberg lettuce from the salad bar, with lots of cheese and French dressing (that’s the way I liked it when I was a kid). Perhaps not the healthiest of meals, but then, I haven’t always been Miss Healthypants.

Tonight, Jonathan supplied Iwanski and I with a large portion of Coq au Vin, a rich, delicious French concoction that contains chicken, wine, Cognac, mushrooms, onions, and plenty of bacon and butter. (Yum!) It was sooo good, and Iwanski and I gobbled up the whole darn thing in one sitting.

I wonder what 7-year-old small-town self would think of my frou-frou French food, my love of Cabernet Sauvignon, and my 21st floor apartment in downtown Chicago.

I don’t think I could have ever imagined how my life would turn out. But I’m glad that I’ve spent some time in my life as a small-town girl in a Wisconsin supper club, sipping on kiddie cocktails.

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By the way, the "Capital Supper Club" commercial is sooo cute--check it out!