Flannery's Wilhem Tell - New Glarus, WI

The Deal: Flannery's is in Wisconsin's "Little Switzerland", beautiful New Glarus, located about 45 minutes southwest of Madison. As befitting a traditional Wisconsin supper club, Flannery's offers an $11 fish fry on Friday nights. Meals include dinner rolls, coleslaw or applesauce, choice of potato and baked or fried cod. You can get salad for (I believe) $1.50 extra.

The Food: My table kicked off the evening with some cheese curds. Flannery's cheese curds were among the best any of us have ever had this side of a state fair or the World Dairy Expo. They were just lightly breaded so you got the full flavor of the cheese instead of the deep fryer.

None of us opted for salad, but the coleslaw appeared to be homemade and was allegedly very fresh (I don't touch the stuff). The applesauce was excellent and had a nice hint of vanilla. Flannery's dinner rolls, were actually rolls instead of glorified bread slices, which was nice. They would have been perfect if they were still warm and a little crusty, but alas, you can't have everything.

Both the baked and fried fish was simply excellent. The baked cod was firm and flaky and frankly didn't need the butter it was served with because the fish itself actually had enough flavor. The fried version was equally good, with a thin batter that didn't overwhelm the tasty fish inside.

On the potato front, Flannery's, unlike most places in Madison, offers potato pancakes served with applesauce. I was quick to snap these up and couldn't have been more pleased with the result: lots of onion and potato goodness. Mmmmm. One of my dining companions opted for the famous roesti potatoes (basically, a swiss dish of hash browns and swiss cheese) and frankly, while they were delicious, the potato pancakes were so good that they trumped cheesy potatoes. Yep, I know, that's shocking!

The Flavor: One great thing about Wisconsin supper clubs is that they'll make you feel young. The average age of the diners at Flannery's Friday night was pushing 60. That's not a bad thing though, as the older generations certainly know their fish. They also know their classic cocktails, so we were able to take advantage of some perfect Old Fashioneds and Grasshoppers.

Although I've never been to a quaint Swiss mountain restaurant, I imagine that it would look something like Flannery's, minus the convenient access to delicious New Glarus Brewing Company beer: wood paneling and tsotchkes, although I'm disappointed I didn't notice any alpenhorns. I guess you can't have everything, although Flannery's comes close with this excellent fish fry.

Second Opinions:

Yahoo! Travel
Yelp

Red Stag Supperclub - Minneapolis, MN

The deal: The Red Stag Supperclub in Northeast Minneapolis, in keeping with the fine supperclub tradition, offers a Friday night fish fry. For between $11 and $13 you can get a single fried fish basket of cod, some Alaskan fish or walleye (note that the fish shown on the menu online are not what's currently on the menu). Baskets include sweet onion tartar sauce, chips and a bit of coleslaw. A basket of bread is served with the meals. The fish fry menu also includes more exotic options like calamari, smelt fries, fried oysters and seared scallops.


The food: Although I appreciated the bread basket, I was a little sad that the rolls weren't hot and that the "butter" was some bean spread concoction that had almost no flavor. For fish, I went for the walleye and within 5 minutes (yep, it was really that fast) I had a basket of four small pieces of fish and about four large, thin chips. The fish was nearly perfectly flaky and flavorful while the batter was light and crispy without being too crunchy or dry. The chips were wonderful and for I didn't feel cheated by a lack of fries or hash browns. They had a bit of garlicky flavor, but not so much as to overwhelm the fish. As an extra little treat, each basket was served with a tiny spray bottle of malt vinegar. I didn't take advantage of it, but I appreciated the touch.

After the fish, our party split a special ginger creme brulee dessert. I loved the chocolate bottom, but when I have ginger in a dessert, I really want to taste the ginger. It should be the hero and here it wasn't.


The flavor: The Red Stag is really more of a faux supperclub. No real supperclub would be as pretty or have charming touches like the coasters shown here. You use one side of the coaster to show the waitstaff you want regular water or flip it over for sparkling water.

While our food was served incredibly quickly, once the place got crowded things slowed down and it took awhile to order dessert and get our bill. That's not a big deal, but it's something to be aware of if the Red Stag is just your first stop of the evening.

The drink menu was extensive and included lots of wine, an excellent and thoughtfully chosen selection of beer and lots of hot toddies. There's nothing better on a cold night than a hot toddy. I ordered a hot buttered rum and it was easily the best I've ever had. I'd highly recommend the Red Stag for a contemporary take on classic superclubs, whether you go on Friday or not.

Second opinions:

Chowhound
City Pages
Gayot
Hungry For Wine
Minneapolis St. Paul Magazine
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Minnesota Monthly
Twin Cities Eats
Urbanspoon
Yelp

Branding Iron - Wisconsin Rapids, WI

The Deal: The Branding Iron Supper Club just south of Wisconsin Rapids offers haddock, walleye and lake perch for between $9.50 and $11.50 for its fish fry. Meals include baked beans, coleslaw and choice of potato (fries, baked potato or garlic mashed potatoes). You can add a salad bar for $3.50. A word of caution - the food is served family style, even if you don't all order the same thing. That's right - you get a plate of a mixed fish and another plate of mixed potatoes. It's weird.

The Food: Well, to put in bluntly, the Branding Iron was branded "shitty" by our party. The "fried" fish looked like frozen fish from the grocery store simply baked in the oven. The baked haddock, on the other hand, looked like something whipped up by the lunch ladies of St. Vincent de Paul grade school on a day they decided that they just didn't like children anymore. It was gross - big, fleshy squares of fish. I had the walleye and it tasted okay, but was certainly nothing special and was certainly not actually made in the Branding Iron's kitchen.

The salad bar was okay. You'd enjoy it more if you're a big fan of prepared salads, which I'm not. We suspected that the french fries came from a bag in the freezer, but the garlic mashed potatoes were pretty tasty and not at all too garlicky.

The Flavor: In theory, the Branding Iron's shitty food would probably taste better if you had a few drinks in you. In reality, this will be a big problem since the waitstaff is incredibly slow and inattentive. Perhaps they know how bad the food is and they're dreading having to deal with irate and disappointed customers.

If you do manage to score a drink, there is a nice-sized beer list, a number of cheap, boozy cocktails and traditional ice cream drinks like Brandy Alexanders and grasshoppers. You may want to double fist and order two at a time. Just sayin'...

Second Opinions

WSAW.com