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

[Michael Golrick]

Good Sunday afternoon!

I accept the challenge, but will note that Fanny Hill has a web site [http://www.fannyhill.com/]. While the "supper club" has a street address, when you look at the directions, they never refer to any street names, but note that it is on County EE. And is well into the County. Since my "outreach to the drinking community" here has been focused on establishments (bars & taverns) within the city limits, I have not been there yet. It does have a good reputation, and a B&B in addition to the supper club.

There are live presentations of "fun shows" as well as private functions. (A couple of my staff were talking about a class reunion held there last weekend.) Note that they have the ever-popular Wisconsin tradition of a Friday Fish Fry. Certainly if you plan to stay Saturday night in Minneapolis, I would be happy to arrange a group visit to this local landmark.

I will endeavor to find a supper club near downtown Minneapolis. That could be a challenge since Minnesota is very large and there are "only" 68 in the whole state. I do know that there is a supper club between here and there....At exit 19 of I-94 (numbered heading east from the Minnesota border) is the Coachman Supper Club. I have seen the inside (and it is nice), but have not eaten there, only had a drink. That puts this about 45 minutes from downtown Minneapolis (if traffic is not bad, and you drive fast enough!).

My observation is that the dress is not as formal as some have suggested. I suspect that even Hawaiian shirts are allowed on a Friday.

My tasks for the conference are piling up. If I find one Joe, will you guarantee your presence? The supper club in Baldwin is next to a Super 8 motel for lodging. Let me know your pleasure.

Michael

Michael Golrick
Councilor-at-Large
http://michaelgolrick.blogspot.com
 
L. E. Phillips Memorial Public Library
400 Eau Claire Street
Eau Claire WI 54701
715/839.5001
http://www.ecpubliclibrary.info
mailto:michaelg at eauclaire.lib.wi.us


>>> Joe Schallan <jbsphx at cox.net> 8/25/2007 5:11 PM >>>

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]