Club Chalet Supper Club — Restaurant in Town of Scott

Welcome to the purgatory.

Skip it. Seriously. Just skip it and save yourself the time, money, and disappointment.

On my way from Door County, I thought I'd stop by to grab dinner before I get back on the road and looked this supper club up. They didn't take reservations so fine, I just showed up as did everyone else. And here's how it went.

First of all, they should change the name to Purgatory because that would describe this place more adequately. You go in, ask for a table, get a physical number tag and… that's it. That's it for the next 40, 50, 70, or 90 minutes you'll just spend there, waiting for someone to fish you out and get you to a table.

So you sit or stand and wait. And wait. And wait. And not much seems to happen.

As you're given the number, you're told to proceed to the right, which is a loud bar area full of people in their 50s, 60s, and 70s looking equally confused as you are. In between loud music, orders, and people squeezed like on a basic economy flight, you feel like you've been coned for the first time.

So you wait. And wait. And wait some more. Mind you, no one ever tells you how long it's going to take, where you are in line, or what's even going on in this purgatory, sorry, meant supper club, of course. All the information you get is anxious looks from other guests who also got shepherded into the bar area and are looking in the other direction where the actual tables are. And they're just as lost and confused as you are. I guess, that's how purgatories work.

I came in after 5 pm and didn't sit down at the table until 7 pm.

So apparently that's how they manage their crowds. Everyone gets pushed into the rinky-dink bar area, so they order drinks and keep ordering drinks because that's what you do at a bar, right? And after you've had one or two or five, time doesn't quite run linearly, so whether someone comes to get you to your table 19 or 99 minutes later, what does it matter, right?!

Now here comes the best part.

For some sick, stupid reason, this purgatory, sorry, super club, doesn't fill all their tables during peak hours. They just don't. Instead -- and you can check that right after entering -- several tables are just left empty, as if to separate those sitting there. (Mind you, the eating area is at least twice as big as the bar area.) The moment I walked in, there were empty tables just waiting for someone to show mercy on them and fill them with people. More than an hour later, nothing changed: there was easily over a dozen or two of people sitting in the bar section and wondering where the hell they landed.

But tables 17, 5, 4, and 3 were still empty, and only about 60% of the dining area was occupied.

There was also some strange local ritual going on, which may be endemic to purgatories, since I've never been to one before. A young server, intern maybe, would come up to one of the tables located the closest to the entryway and change the table setting. Okay, fine. 15-20 minutes later he would reappear, remove the setting, and redo it, repeating the whole process. Mind you, no one was sitting at that table the whole time I was there, but tons of people squeezed like sardines sat in the bar area. What's that ritual called, purging (because it's a purgatory)?

The food was okay, edible. The first cup of soup I don't even remember, it just went down like a cup of water. It was supposed to be onion soup, but I guess onions or other vegetables just don't last in the purgatory. Chicken parmesan was exactly what you'd expect, nothing exciting at all. Oh, once you are deemed deserving of being admitted into the purgatory, sorry, the dining area, you can stuff yourself at the salad bar, so you feel really full afterwards, like you've just had the best meal of your life.

You haven't. It's just another way for the owners to trick you into thinking that it was all worth the money and the wasted time.

I ate as fast as I could and left.

At the checkout, expect to be flooded with fake enthusiasm, smiling, and jokes because, after all, you've had a great...

We travelled to the Club Chalet Supper Club on Friday to grab dinner for the 4 of us. It a bit out of the way for us but we wanted a special dinner at a place we normally don't visit. My cousin and her husband were in from out of town se we wanted a nicer experience for dinner.

I know Club Chalet has a reputation for taking some time from when you walk in the door to when you get seated and finally eat. That's understandable and we were in no rush as we were catching up and wanted to savor the evening. We arrived and checked in about 6:10 and I think we were seated around 7:30.

As I said, we were in no rush. But what does bother me is they will not tell you what the estimated wait time is. We had called on our way over and asked what the wait time was, and we were told "I cannot tell you." Same thing when we arrived there. Clearly the owner has given specific direction to staff to not tell anyone what the estimated wait time is. This is also obvious from other reviewer's posts. I find this very unprofessional as a restaurant and they should be honest so if someone does not have the time to spend they don't get stuck in the que. Restaurants learn their table turnover times and can at least provide a guess within 20-30 minutes. Please consider this.

We obviously had drinks at the bar and this is another area that clearly could use some improvement. The bartenders are working hard, and it was busy, but they did not acknowledge us for some time, and it probably took them 15 minutes to finally get to us and actually greet us. The 2 of them appear more focused on handling server drink orders than any of the patrons at the bar. This was clearly obvious when we returned after dinner to the bar at 8:30 and it was only us 4, and another group of 6 people, and again, we sat there for 10 minutes or more before she came over and asked what we wanted. A simple "I'll be with you in a few minutes" is all it would take. PLEASE don't blame this on a staffing shortage, this is a people/customer service issue and can be improved, even if just a bit. One last thing, the old fashioneds were not that good, which was actually surprising since the OF is a supper club staple. The three of us drink Makers Mark, sour and it just didn't taste all that good. I can't put my finger on why, its just that we have had better ones at other supper clubs. Don't get me wrong, the bartenders were nice enough, but seemed a bit cool and like they didn't want to be there.

On to the meal.... Once seated, our food came out quickly and in a nicely cadenced manner. We started with the soup (a seafood chowder) which was delicious, and a loaf of fresh, warm bread. I had the perch with loaded hashbrowns. We also had walleye, the haddock fish fry and spare ribs. The ribs were the traditional supper club style and were very tasty and had a good supper club style BBQ sauce. We all had a mix of potatoes from garlic mashed, loaded baked potato and baby reds. All the food was delicious and well prepared. Our meal was wonderful and the Christmas decorations in the dining room added a warm holiday feel to the evening.

We returned to the bar afterwards for 2 brandy alexanders, a grasshopper and a black Russian. The 4 drinks were about $28 and were all good.

Since the food was great, we will probably be back sometime...

Wisconsin Supper Clubs book by Ron Faiola brought us on an adventure to Green Bay to find, dine, and enjoy one of Green Bay's long standing, family owned supper clubs - Club Chalet. Located conveniently off of Hwy 57, just North of Green Bay on Nicolet Ave (only 10 minutes from the University of Wisconsin Green Bay Weidner Center) - Club Chalet sits high on the hill, overlooking Green Bay - you can experience awesome sunsets over the bay as you sit at the comfortable bar. This was our first visit, we were greeted by 35 year veteran, former owner, and one night a week bartender- Bev. Just a few minutes with Bev and her hospitality is infectious and you get a sense of family pride and commitment to the community Club Chalet has meant to her and her three daughters (current owners) over the past 35 years of involvement. We learned how the family came to own the Supper club while we sipped on couple of house favorites, authentic Wisconsin Old Fashioneds. Our server visited us at the bar for our dinner order and our salads were waiting for us when we arrived at our window table - 12. "When in Rome, do as the Romans"...Lobster has a history of being served at Club Chalet so she had the largest lobster on the menu and I tried the Lobster Trio - scallops and shrimp served with a smaller lobster. The lobster was done perfectly, served with drawn butter, it was delicious and lived up to the reputation Club Chalet is known for. My shrimp and scallops were equally as delicious. We both had sides of baby reds, again, were delicious. Dinner was delicious, the "chalet room" is charming, and the hospitality was authentic and genuine - we really enjoyed our visit. Thanks to everyone at Club Chalet for contributing to our enjoyable Wisconsin Supper Clubs experience. Give Club Chalet a visit, I know...