Join the Club

The idea of supper can conjure up some confusing connotations.

Depending on how old you are and/or where you live, supper could be a big evening meal. Or maybe it’s a light evening meal, as was traditional, and dinner is your bigger, midday meal. Or maybe that midday meal is lunch and dinner is your big evening meal, and supper doesn’t even enter your vocabulary except when your grandpa mentions it. Whatever the meaning, most people who know supper knew they had to be home in time for it, and some of us might have been sent to bed without it.

Enter the supper club, which tends to add to the complication. You may go there for supper, but odds are you won’t be getting a light meal. And despite it being called a club, you don’t need to be a member. All you need to do is show up. Despite all this, supper clubs are having a moment in the national food zeitgeist (some have even opened in Brooklyn!). But, at least in the Midwest—the wellspring of supper club culture—they never really went anywhere.

History

Supper clubs proliferated most widely in Wisconsin but are not unknown elsewhere in the Midwest. According to Ron Faiola’s Wisconsin Supper Clubs: An Old-Fashioned Experience (Agate, 2013), they began to appear in Wisconsin during the 1930s, beginning life as roadhouses and taverns, or even, during Prohibition, speakeasies. Some supper clubs also had gambling rooms or brothels either in the building or nearby, Faiola writes.

Dave Hoekstra encompasses more of the Upper Midwest in his The Supper Club Book: A Celebration of a Midwest Tradition (Chicago Review Press, 2013). He tells a similar story, but, citing the Wisconsin Historical Society, notes the first supper club was established by a Milwaukee native named Lawrence Frank clear out in Beverly Hills, California (Frank also is credited with introducing the doggie bag to American restaurants, Hoekstra writes).

There is agreement on what all legit supper clubs are: casual places (nearly always family-owned) with comforting food (and lots of it), dimly lit, a bit insulated from the outside world, where people can go for a nice night out and enjoy hearty fare that is mostly, if not completely, made from scratch.

You don’t have to go to Beverly Hills, or even Wisconsin, to get that experience. A trip to LaPorte County will bring you to three: Heston Supper Club in Hesston, Indiana, and Farina’s Supper Club and The Brewery Lodge & Supper Club, both in Michigan City. All three are open for supper, although The Brewery Lodge offers Sunday brunch as well.

Away from it all

A visitor to Heston Supper Club can expect classic supper club vibes. There’s the old-style building off on its own, surrounded by cornfields. There are the bright neon “Open” and “EAT” signs.

There’s a similar feeling when driving up to Farina’s Supper Club, according to Yvonne Farina, who owns the supper club along with her husband, Chef Joseph Farina. “You’re driving down this wooded street,” she says, “and it looks like you’re going into this neighborhood. It’s dark, there’s deer and wildlife.” Then you come upon the former Duneland Beach Inn (now a private residence), which has been there for 100 years. She and her husband operate Farina’s, which they opened in 2020, in the restaurant portion of the former B&B.

The Brewery Lodge is located on 40 acres of private land, with plenty of woods and wildlife to make you feel away from it all, according to Amber Ake, director of operations and sales.

Classic cocktails

A key component of any supper club, and often the entry point, is the bar. Heston has a particularly large bar, but it can still be two or three deep on a busy Saturday, says Tim Ohlund, who has owned Heston Supper Club for more than 40 years. (This could be because the club does not take reservations, so waiting at the bar is a pleasant way to pass the time.)

Farina’s does take reservations (as does The Brewery Lodge) but has a much smaller bar, so the space gets pretty lively as people watch the sun set over Lake Michigan and then head in to eat. They try to keep the drinks simple—“People love their classic cocktails,” Farina says—but if you know to ask, many of the drinks can get an Italian twist: maybe a red or Italian vermouth in an Old-fashioned, something like that.

All three serve up the classic, golden age cocktails that are a supper club staple: Old-fashioneds (rye, brandy or otherwise), Harvey Wallbangers and ice cream drinks such as Grasshoppers, Brandy Alexanders and Pink Squirrels, as well as original concoctions.

The Brewery Lodge can seat four people at the actual bar, Ake says, but 40 or more people can sit in the restaurant, including two comfy armchairs by the fireplace. It’s kind of like walking into your own living room,” she says. “It’s very cozy.”

Comfort food

Each supper club offers the comforting fare the Midwest is known for, done in its own way.

“Prime rib is the king here (at Heston),” Ohlund says. “We serve it every night of the week.” That’s along with other supper club classics such as steaks, pork chops, walleye, perch, oysters, even frog legs. What’s important to Ohlund is that you get a full meal, not just à la carte dishes.

It starts with the traditional cheese and crackers, all made in-house, just like the bread, the soups, the sauces and the barbecue. And of course there are the desserts, which are either made by or prepared under the direction of Ohlund’s wife, Jackie (he recommends her bread pudding).

Farina’s also leans into classic comfort, but with its own twist. “It’s very retro,” Yvonne Farina says. “Our food is classic Chicago Italian.” They have a bit of fun on the menu, with dishes playfully named for members of the Rat Pack (Pork Chop Sinatra, Dean’s Linguine with Clam Sauce), but if you want to go totally old school, there are Nana’s Gravy, Chicken Marsala, Saturday prime rib and a wedge salad, among many others. The relish tray that’s a supper club classic has been replaced with fresh-baked garlic bread served with a side of the house marinara.

The Brewery Lodge serves as its signature dish a 56-ounce tomahawk steak sourced from Lange’s Old Fashioned Meat Market, a Michigan City institution (if you want to tackle that one, you need to order at least 24 hours in advance). Other cuts of steak, chops, chicken and fish fill the menu, not to mention Oysters Rockefeller, as well as a variety of vegetarian dishes. The Elk Burger, while unusual compared to the rest of the menu, is another customer favorite.

A place to relax

After all this time, Ohlund still sees new generations of families dining at Heston for the atmosphere, the food and the service. “Nobody gets out of our place and they don’t have a smile on their face,” he says.

When she sees customers enjoying themselves, Farina gets a similar feeling about what she and her husband have built at Farina’s. “Now it’s become this little gem,” she says. “They’re just so grateful that we’re here, and doing what we do, and doing it well in this tiny little town.”

At The Brewery Lodge, things are kept casual and friendly as well, starting with the lack of a host, so you can just sit down and relax. “It’s not this ‘hustle bustle’ type of place,” Ake says. “It’s an experience. You talk to your servers and your neighbors; it’s a very friendly environment.”

Ake said they get to know a lot of their customers, particularly those who come in almost every week for brunch. So well, in fact, that some menu items remain simply because specific customers like those dishes and the restaurant will hear about it if they ever leave the menu.

That personal touch is part of what brings people back to supper clubs, just like it did nearly 100 years ago.

“[Supper clubs] are cool again,” Ohlund says. “After 41 years, you think ‘Maybe something's going to change.’ You see fads ... What we serve is never going to go away.”

Heston Supper Club

2003 E. 1000 County Road North

La Porte, IN

219.778.2938

hestonsupperclub.com

Farina’s Supper Club

3311 Pottawattomie Trail

Michigan City, IN

219.874.7729

farinasupperclub.com

The Brewery Lodge & Supper Club

5727 N. County Road 600 West

Michigan City, IN

866.625.6343

brewerylodge.com

Mike Petrucelli is a former food editor for the South Bend Tribune who now works in nonprofit communications. He and his wife live in Plymouth, Indiana.