Relish trays! Now there’s a term (and an item) I haven’t heard anybody else speak of for years.
I’ve never been to Wisconsin, and I doubt that my Dad had either, but he used the term. He worked in the dining cars of the Canadian National Railway for a number of years, and remembers serving train passengers relish trays. In fact, he always made sure that “important” dinners at our house, for example, Christmas and Thanksgiving, always had a relish tray on the table.
My (now ex-) wife had never heard of them, and neither had my sister’s husband, but after a few “important” dinners at Dad’s they grew to like them. Even though my Christmas dinners in recent years have been solo, I still put together a small relish tray. It wouldn’t be Christmas dinner without it.
My grandparents lived in Waterford, and we’d visit from Kansas for a couple weeks every summer. We’d go to the Cottonpicker in Burlington at least 2 times each trip, making sure we got in at least 1 fish fry. I can remember sitting in the waiting room near the bar, while the adults had brandy old fashioneds. I certainly resented having to dress up for dinner - we were on vacation ferchrissake! But I also loved being in the back room, with all my cousins and aunts and uncles and family friends all seated at the longest table I’ve seen, drinking Roy Rogers, collecting the little plastic swords they speared the cherries with, and surreptitiously catapulting pats of butter across the room from a carefully folded linen napkin.
Yes. We ate at one in/near Escanaba where they were especially particular about “food sharing”. We kept saying, “Stop looking at my plate, we’ll get busted!” But that is almost just a suburb of Wisconsin.
I listen to a fly fishing podcast and the hosts always spend a lot of time talking about where they eat after their day on the water. When theY fish the Driftless Region, they always talk about going to supper clubs. It just contours up images of comfort food and warmth.
I never heard of the term till now, but it turns out I’ve seen them and just didn’t know they were called that. My first assumption was wrong because I took it too literally: A tray with relish…like the stuff you put on a not dog.
I recall this awesome steakhouse in Milwaukee ( ‘Butch’s’? ) and the spread of olives, pickles and such that they brought out would be a vegetarian gut busting meal in itself.
As @eschereal noted about one in the UP, and @MissTake noted about one in Minnesota, you can find a Wisconsin-style supper club outside of the Badger State, but I suspect that the closer the location is to Wisconsin (either physically or attitudinally), the better the odds.
At Smokey’s in Madison, they had, cottage cheese with fennel seeds, green onions, celery, carrot sticks and radishes. ( I haven’t been there for years)I’ve been to places up north in Wisconsin that had those tea type carriers, stacked with three plates including, deviled eggs, gherkins, pickled beets, and cheese dip!
My grandparents lived in Wisconsin, and my parents moved back there after they retired, but I’m not sure I’ve ever been to a proper supper club. Or maybe I have and I just didn’t realize it. I do remember a restaurant we used to go to with my grandparents that definitely had that sort of atmosphere. It overlooked Castle Rock Lake west of Adams-Friendship, definitely had that dark wood paneled decor, and a menu consisting of things like fried fish and prime rib. I don’t remember relish trays, though. I don’t remember what it was called, and I can’t find anyplace that looks like it on Google Maps (I’m pretty sure it was somewhere along County Highway Z), so I have no idea if it’s still there.
Now I’m thinking it was most likely Carlson’s Rustic Ridge. The place looks nothing like how I remember it, but if you read the blurb about their history at the very bottom of the menu (which I can’t copy and past from because it’s a jpeg image), it sounds like they only recently expanded the place into a resort/campground and remodeled the resturant. But the description of the former restaurant that the current owner’s parents opened in 1985 “serving mid-western supper club staples” sounds a lot like what I remember.
That’s my point. Restaurants are the broad category. So while a diner is a subset of restaurants, if I described a diner and someone said oh, that’s just a restaurant, that would not be an accurate description.
In my experience, crudités are cut up veggies and often with dip. Relish trays are pickles olives, gardenia salad etc. We always had both at holiday meals. Crudités were appetizers and relish trays were on the table with meal.
Seems like these supper club relish trays went above and beyond the humble plate of olives and pickles, and were served more like appetizers than accompaniments.
Relish trays evolved into the tradition of topping a Bloody Mary with veggies and cheese and olives and dozens of miscellaneous “relishings”.
My favorite Wisconsin tavern does a great Fish Fry… and a Bloody with “half the produce section on top”… bet they wouldn’t have without “The Relish Tray” in their DNA from way back in their (supper club) past.