Curious Iowa: Why is the Midwest known for supper clubs and what makes a supper club a supper club?

For decades, Midwestern diners have relied on supper clubs for family gatherings, special occasions and date nights. Supper clubs are where you can indulge in prime rib, classic cocktails and, if you’re lucky, a relish tray.

John Allen of Robins wrote to Curious Iowa — a series from The Gazette that answers readers’ questions about our state, its people and the culture — asking about supper clubs. Allen had fond memories of the Ced-Rel Supper Club, which closed after the 2020 derecho. We decided to explore what makes supper clubs special and how they became a staple in the Midwestern restaurant scene.

How did the supper club come to be?

If you search for the first supper club online, you’ll come across the story of Lawrence Frank, a Milwaukee native who also invented Lawry’s Seasoned Salt. Frank opened up Lawry’s The Prime Rib in Beverly Hills in the 1930s, but there’s evidence that the restaurant genre of “supper club” was established long before then.

After writing four books on Wisconsin supper clubs, Ron Faiola is an expert. He has tracked supper clubs back to London at the end of the 19th century when pubs closed at midnight. Theater patrons didn’t have enough time after a show ended around 11:30 p.m. to eat, drink and be merry. “So they created these private members-only supper clubs … for just a small payment, you could become a member,” Faiola said.

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In 1895, a rowdy spot called “The Supper Club” opened in the Tenderloin area of Manhattan — this is what Faiola considers the first supper club. Like in London, members — who were “adult children of the wealthy Park Avenue crowd” — could eat, drink and dance into the early morning hours.

Supper clubs took hold in New York City in the 1920s during prohibition. O.O. McIntyre had a syndicated column titled “New York Day by Day.” The column, with the help of radio, brought the supper club concept to the rest of the country.

“So he’s writing about these supper clubs and they were technically illegal, but as long as they paid off the right people, they could stay open,” Faiola said. “But they were only for the very wealthy. These weren’t speak-easies. They were really high end places that had food and drink, kind of like the London supper clubs.”

After prohibition, Iowa did not allow by-the-drink liquor sales until 1963. To skirt around the law, folks would pay a key club membership. This allowed personal bottles of liquor to be kept at supper clubs. When they came for dinner, they could order a drink and technically the restaurant wouldn’t be selling the patron alcohol.

Supper clubs peaked in the 1950s and 1960s. As chain restaurants and fast food took over the American restaurant scene, supper clubs became destinations for celebrating special occasions.

“So the supper club started fading and there’s been a resurgence in the last 15 years ... people were kind of taking those places for granted and now they want to go back.” Faiola said.

What makes a supper club a supper club?

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Megan Bannister is the author of the book “Iowa Supper Clubs,” which features a checklist of classic club characteristics. Does the meal begin with a relish tray or crudités with a cheese spread? Can you order a classic cocktail or after-dinner drink like a pink squirrel or grasshopper? Does the menu feature dishes like prime rib, steak, fish fry or chops?

Don’t get caught in the details. In her book, Bannister lists places she considers supper clubs despite them not checking any boxes. Both Bannister and Faiola said it can be hard to describe, but you know a supper club when you see it. It may be family-owned or owned by former patrons who wanted the supper club’s legacy to continue. They’re usually only open for dinner and serve classic food and drinks in a cozy sit-down environment. And don’t worry — there’s no membership fee these days.

Allen told The Gazette that going to the Ced-Rel Supper Club was an occasion worth getting dressed up for.

“You better have a reservation on the weekend cause if you didn’t, you’d be waiting for a while … You never went away hungry or disappointed with your meal,” Allen said. “The place certainly wasn’t cheap, but you received good value in the quality of the food and the excellent service that was provided.”

How did supper clubs become a Midwestern thing?

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Bannister noted that supper clubs show up in different areas of the Midwest landscape. In Wisconsin and Minnesota, supper clubs were supported by tourism on lakes. In Iowa, rural highways brought out-of-towners to supper clubs.

Locals used them to socialize, and supper clubs thrived in rural areas where folks craved community connection. Supper clubs are a place where you run into people you know and the staff knows your name.

Cedar Rapids is home to the oldest supper club in the state. Lighthouse Inn Supper Club, 6905 Mount Vernon Rd. SE, opened in 1912 and provided lodging and food for Lincoln Highway travelers. The country’s first paved highway kept traffic to the club steady for years. The front part of the building is original and the back bar section was added in 1946. The cabins were phased out in the 1980s.

Steve McAtee took over as owner in 2016, but has worked for the supper club for two decades. He’s enjoyed getting to know patrons, but his favorite memories are working with former owner Josie Manson, who died in 2020, and watching his kids grow up in the restaurant. McAtee said it means a lot to keep Lighthouse Inn’s legacy going.

“I get a lot of people that say, ‘Oh this place needs updated’ and all this, but it’s history.” McAtee said. “It’s not something that if you update … it’s going to have the same vibe or the same customers that want to come out every year.”

Lighthouse Inn Supper Club will celebrate its 112th anniversary July 12-13 with a mobster-themed weekend. It pays homage to the supper club’s most famous patrons, John Dillinger and Al Capone. McAtee said Capone once fled from the Cedar Rapids police from the restaurant, leaving behind a car.

“It had Al Capone’s machine gun in it and for the longest time, up until the flood in 2008, the gun used to sit in a case in the [Linn County] Sheriff’s department,” McAtee said.

How many supper clubs remain in Iowa?

Bannister estimated there are 10 to 15 supper clubs remaining in Iowa. All of the Iowa supper clubs in her book survived the pandemic.

“Quite a few [supper clubs] I talked to said, we can’t do relish trays anymore or we have to charge for them because the cost of it just doesn’t shake out,” Bannister said. “And I think that’s something that is not exclusive to supper clubs. It’s pretty much a dining industry problem … cost and what people are willing to pay.”

Bannister said supper clubs are becoming a trendy concept to update. For example, The Highlander Hotel in Iowa City is reviving the former Iowa River Power Restaurant’s menu with The Supper Club.

“They’re a great place to come and enjoy,” McAtee said. “Not just my place, other places that are supper clubs. It’s a dying breed and trying to keep [supper clubs] open and going is an important part of history.”

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Comments: bailey.cichon@thegazette.com