[Publib] "Supper club" (research in applied linguistics)

[Joe Schallan]

For this posting I shall claim a broad interpretation of the "Friday  
humor" rule, specifically Section 6 Subsection B Paragraph 3, insofar  
as Saturday can be reasonably and logically annexed by Friday as a  
day on which to set LJ and Booklist aside for a moment and  
contemplate life outside the stacks.

In short, there is legal precedent.

You may also figure that Schallan has the day off and is perched at  
home in front of his PowerBook, coffee at his right hand and opera at  
his left (It is "Un Ballo in Maschera" at the moment, if you must  
know), and obviously has abundant goofing-off time on his hands.

You would be correct.

Besides, aren't we librarians supposed to also be scholars,  
inherently interested in word and language research?  Through this  
supposition, I also lay claim to topicality.

John Richmond, communicating with me off list, noted that the term  
"supper club" seems to be a phenomenon of the Upper Midwest, even  
more specifically of the Upper Mississippi Valley.

My research absolutely supports John's observation.

I called up the business directory portion of the Reference USA  
database, and asked it to retrieve every business in the U.S. that  
has the phrase "supper club" as a part of its name.

I found 511 such businesses. A spot check of the results confirmed  
that these are eating establishments, not some sort of hardware store  
that supplies heavy implements for beating the evening's meal into  
submission -- e.g., "Joe's Supper Clubs and Cudgels."

Thirty-eight states had one or more supper clubs.  But Maine,  
Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky,  
Mississippi, Utah, Oregon, and Alaska and Hawaii were entirely bereft  
of supper clubs.  In fact, I found only one lone supper club in  
Connecticut and one in Massachusetts in all of New England.

Besides New England, the South and West have relatively few supper  
clubs. Indeed, there was only one in all of New Mexico, Ronnie Lee's  
Supper Club, improbably located in Taos.  California's 11 supper  
clubs look promising at first, but that number has to be weighed  
against the state's population of more than 35 million. In that  
light, California has a vanishingly small number of supper clubs, far  
outstripped by sushi bars and restaurants that give you those tiny  
portions designed by Zen masters and placed on immense, unadorned  
white plates for $135.

You really have to appreciate the presentation of a single asparagus  
spear, I guess.

To carry the research further, one should derive a supper-clubs-per- 
capita figure for each state, but that is beyond the scope my  
ambition and coffee supply this morning.

In any case, and as you shall see, the raw data confirms John's  
observation.  And let me tell you this . . . Wisconsin is the  
absolute *epicenter* of supper clubs. I found 222 establishments in  
that state (43 percent of the U.S. total ! ! ).

And attention, Michael Golrick, those 222 include the Fanny Hill  
Supper Club, on Crescent Avenue in your very own Eau Claire.

For the morbidly curious, here is the complete breakdown of supper  
clubs, by state:

Wisconsin - 222
Minnesota - 68
Illinois - 28
Iowa - 21
Montana - 13
Michigan - 12
South Dakota and Calif. - 11
North Dakota and Wyoming - 10
Kansas and Oklahoma - 9
Ohio, West Virginia, and Nevada - 6
Missouri, New York, Florida, Georgia, Texas, and Colorado - 5
Alabama, Arkansas, and North Carolina - 4
Tennessee, Indiana, Arizona, Idaho, and Washington - 3
Pennsylvania, Virginia, and South Carolina - 2
Neb., New Jersey, Conn., Mass., Louisiana, and New Mex. - 1

Note that the top four states -- all Upper Midwest/Upper Mississippi  
Valley ones -- account for 66 percent (two thirds!) of supper clubs.

BTW, I didn't know that No. 5 Montana was in the Midwest (its total  
of 13 supper clubs made even more impressive when its small  
population is taken into account).

My research shows that the term "supper club" is most heavily used in  
Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, and Iowa. And that there are vast  
stretches of the United States in which use of the term would bring  
only a quizzical look. So just what, in the upper Midwestern mind,  
distinguishes a "supper club" from a plain old restaurant?

And here I am at a loss, living as I do in the middle of an area  
deprived of supper clubs.  I cannot just jump into my car and head up  
US 61 into upper Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota in the name of  
philological research if not tax deductions for the food and drink I  
would be forced to consume to further etymological knowledge.

So, I appeal to Publibbers from the Quad Cities to Eau Claire: What  
is it that makes it a "supper club"?  My impression is hearty fare  
(steak, pork, catfish), "fanciness" (table linens and possibly a  
dress code though not too stringent a one), and the possibility of  
live entertainment, along with the availability of alcohol, of course.

The Wikipedists (ever a good starting point for items of popular  
culture -- i.e., you won't find "supper club" in the Britannica) have  
this to say:

"A supper club is an American dining establishment which provides a  
supper menu of steaks or 'surf and turf' served in a semi-formal  
setting, which may require a jacket and tie. Supper clubs often serve  
as both a restaurant and a night club, by offering dancing, music,  
and other nightclub entertainment after the meal . . . . Supper clubs  
were first popularized in the 1930s and 1940s. They are more common  
in the Upper Midwest states of Wisconsin, Minnesota, and  
Michigan . . . "

Perhaps Michael will want to find a supper club for the next Publib  
gathering?

And I'd really like a little more detail about the Fanny Hill Supper  
Club in Eau Claire, given that its name is an allusion to a character  
in a novel whose author was prosecuted for "corrupting the King's  
subjects" (Fanny Hill - Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, by John  
Cleland, published in two installments, 1748-9).  This was, of  
course, long before there was an ALA OIF at hand to lend Mr. Cleland  
a hand.

Now, over on my left Renato has just stabbed Riccardo in the middle  
of the big masked ball, because Riccardo, Renato's best friend, has  
cheated with Renato's wife Amelia, except that Riccardo really hasn't  
and Renato has acted out of paranoia. Except that it wasn't *total*  
paranoia, because Riccardo *did* find himself powerfully attracted to  
Amelia, though he did the right thing and restrained himself, so  
nothing of a physical nature actually ever happened. In any case,  
Riccardo will soon expire, but not without first singing  
magnificently for twenty minutes (you try hitting those high notes  
when *you* have fatal knife wounds), forgiving his friend Renato for  
his misdeed, expressing his love for his subjects, etc.  I need to  
attend to that.

You know, if I were one of those avant-garde opera directors, I could  
set "Un Ballo in Maschera" in a supper club.  In Wisconsin.  Which  
isn't any stranger than Verdi setting the original in Boston.

Which he did because the state censors demanded that he alter the  
characters and setting of his opera before they would allow it to be  
produced.

Which brings us back full circle to one of the things we librarians  
do -- resist the censors.

Yours on a Saturday finding itself appropriated by Friday,

Joe Schallan
Phoenix

[Tags: supper clubs, philology, business directories, statistical  
analysis, applied linguistics, the Midwest, Upper Mississippi Valley,  
Eau Claire WI, Highway 61 Revisited, the Midwestern mind, steak,  
pork, catfish, microscopic portions, asparagus, slams on California,  
Fanny Hill, opera, paranoia, murder, forgiveness, censorship]