by David Brierley
When it comes to supper clubs, the little things can make a big difference. Sure, having a Bavarian style building with a covered front entry sets high expectations. And the mood lighting inside the sunken, split-level bar sets the mood. And the brightly lit salad bar whets the appetite for supper club adventures.
The Old Towne Inn Supper Club in Westby has all of that. But those are all big things. We’re here to talk about the little things they do so well you can’t help but want to come back for more. Let’s check it out for ourselves.
When you first walk in the front entrance, you’ll find yourself in a wide entrance hall and reception area. There are helpful signs (one of those little things we’ve been talking about) indicating the evening’s specials, and alerting you to the existence of something groundbreaking in supper club history. But no spoilers just yet… we’ll get there.
The supper club is divided in two by a wall with a two-way fireplace, so if you take a left from the entrance hall you’ll find yourself in the barroom. Hang a right from the entrance and you’ll find the host stand with the dining room beyond it. I suggest starting here and checking in with your reservation.
Now that you’ve taken care of business, you can make your way to the bar. As I mentioned, it’s my favorite kind: a sunken, split-level bar with tall bar stools on the lower side and regular chair-sized ones on the upper side.
Now that you’ve found a place to sit, we can talk about a little thing that’s so earth shattering and new in supper clubs that it might just be a big thing: the old fashioned flight.
We’re not talking about the Wright brothers, either. We’re talking about a flight, or as Merriam-Webster puts it, “A Great Way To Try New Things.” They continue, explaining that a flight is “an order of samplings or tastings of selected beverages or food items that is served on a wooden board or in a specially designed carrier.”
That’s right: At Old Towne Inn, you can order a flight of four different old fashioneds: brandy, whiskey, Southern Comfort, and Toodeloo, a local offering from La Crosse Distillery. It’s definitely a good idea to share with a friend, because these are four full size cocktails, but it’s such a unique concept it’s hard to pass up.
While you work your way through your old fashioneds, you can take a look at the menu and get a head start on deciding what you want for dinner tonight. The fact that the menu is so supper club perfect is another one of those little things that makes your experience just right.
Appetizers start out with all the classics: potato skins, batter-fried cheese curds, onion rings, chicken strips, batter-fried mushrooms, and jumbo shrimp cocktail. Nothing amiss there.
A variety of steaks can be had: a seven ounce bacon wrapped filet mignon, an eight ounce top sirloin, a 12 ounce new york strip, or prime rib, which is available Saturdays and Sundays in three sizes: eight, 12, or 16 ounces.
Up next is seafood, another supper club staple. Old Towne Inn offers quite a selection here. The wild caught Atlantic cod can be had fried or broiled in two, three, or four pieces. Then there’s the fried or broiled jumbo shrimp,, broiled lobster tail, parmesan crusted walleye, grilled salmon, and fried or broiled scallops. To top it off, there are two seafood platters: one with shrimp, scallops, and cod, all fried or broiled. And the supreme seafood platter with lobster, shrimp, scallops, and cod.
If you’re in the mood for something else, there are options like the fettuccine alfredo, honey glazed chicken, bbq baby back ribs (which are smoked in house by a barbecue pitmaster), grilled pork chops, or smothered grilled chicken breast. If you’re want something lighter, there are burger and sandwich options. And there’s even a kids menu for the little ones.
Once your table is ready, you can head into the dining room and your server will take your order. Then the real supper club fun begins: salad bar time! Old Towne Inn’s salad bar is superb, with fresh crisp lettuce, all the best toppings, and homemade pasta salads.
Try not to fill up too much, because portions at Old Towne Inn are hearty, and everything is delicious. Plus, you’ll want to save some room for their freshly baked pies and homemade cheesecakes. And you can’t forget to stop at the bar for after-dinner drinks.
One other little thing with noting (that’s actually a really big deal) is that the staff at Old Towne Inn is fantastic. From the host, to the bartenders, to the servers, everyone clearly enjoys what they do. It shows in their friendly and efficient service. Many of them even work at the supper club’s sister restaurant, Borgens Cafe, located on Main Street in downtown Westby.
To learn more about Old Towne Inn, check out the menu before you go, and find out about catering service and banquet facilities, visit their website. You can also follow them on Facebook and Instagram to keep up with the latest news.
If you haven’t already, don’t forget to join our Supper Club VIP group; you’ll be entered in our monthly drawing for a $50 gift card to an area supper club. You can also check out our past articles, as well as an interactive map that shows the supper clubs we’ve visited to find one near you. And, as always, there will be plenty more supper club fun to come.
Interview with owner Blane Charles
O&AW: How long have you owned the Old Towne Inn Supper Club?
BC: It’ll be three years in October
O&AW: How did you come to own it?
BC: [My wife Mary and I] own Borgens Cafe in Westby as well, downtown on Main Street. We’ve had Borgens for about 14 years and I’ve been in the restaurant business my whole life. Three or four years ago, [Old Towne Inn] came up for sale and things just sort of fell into place, so we thought it was meant to be. I’ve always really liked the higher end supper club business; it’s always been near and dear to my heart.
My wife grew up in the restaurant business, too. She had an aunt who owned a supper club and throughout Mary’s and her whole family’s life, they all worked there at one point or another. She worked in restaurants through college, and that’s actually how she and I met.
I was the food and beverage director at the Ramada Inn in La Crosse at the time, and I hired her to be a hostess and bartender, and we started dating. The rest is history… We stayed in the area and made this our home. She’s originally from the Belmont in the Platteville area, and I’m from Algoma up by Green Bay.
O&AW: What did you do before this?
BC: I started cooking with my mother in a family restaurant – very similar to what Borgens is – when I was 16, and I’ve worked in the restaurant industry ever since in one capacity or another. I moved to La Crosse to go to school for food service management, and I liked it here. And, of course, Mary and I met here, so that’s why we stayed.
I’ve had different roles in food and beverage. I was a cook, a server, a host, and a bartender in the early days. I was the food and beverage director at the Ramada Inn, I was a catering director at another place in Onalaska. I did a number of years in school food service as well, and I really enjoyed that. I was a food service director for Richland Center Schools, and a kitchen manager for Westby Schools.
At some point I got tired of working for other people and decided if I was going to stay in the business we were going to have our own [restaurant], so we started looking for a place.
My wife has been involved all along. She’s a nurse so she’s always had a full time nursing job, but she has always done our bookwork and payroll and been very supportive helping us whenever she can, whether it’s catering or hosting or what have you.
Two of our three sons have worked with us from the beginning. They’ve grown up in the business as well, as cooks and servers and hosts and caterers. Our youngest one still works for us full time.
O&AW: Do you do most of the cooking yourself?
BC: I’m the main cook. Occasionally there’s a night when I have enough people in the kitchen that I can work out front and host, but probably 95 percent of the time I’m in the kitchen.
O&AW: Did you have any formal training, or did you learn from experience?
BC: I learned by experience growing up working with my mom in a family restaurant. That’s where I learned to cook and do a little bit of baking. I did go to school for food service management, which was more of the management end, but there was some cooking involved. But most of what I know is just learned on the job at one place or another.
O&AW: What’s the history of the Old Towne Inn?
BC: The lady that built it – it was built in 1980, and she ran it all these years. We bought it from her three years ago in October, but it was the same deal for her: her whole family worked here. Her sons and her daughters-in-law. She had it until she was, I think, 82 years old. She decided to sell it because none of her family was interested in pursuing it on their own. So we’re only the second owners.
O&AW: Everyone has a different definition of a supper club. To you, what makes this a supper club?
BC: To a lot of people, the short easy answer is, it’s a steakhouse with a bar [laughs]. My definition of a supper club is it’s more of a leisurely dining experience, and it’s all about the local fellowship and camaraderie, and a feeling of welcome. It’s not just an “in-and-out, grab something to eat, and hit the road” kind of a deal.
It’s coming in, having a drink at the bar, waiting for your table to be ready, coming in and having a nice leisurely dinner, and perhaps heading back into the bar for an after-dinner drink or some more chat. It’s more of a night out.
O&AW: What are your more popular menu items?
BC: We’re known for our prime rib, and we do that every Saturday night and for special occasions or catered events. We also have a guy who we call our barbecue pitmaster, and he smokes ribs for us every weekend. So every Saturday night, in addition to the prime rib, we have baby back pork ribs. He makes a big smoker full of them every Saturday night so that kind of gets us through the week.
Of course we’re known for our steaks and seafood. We do a great parmesan walleye, grilled salmon, grilled ahi tuna. And we have all the traditional supper club favorites: shrimp, scallops, lobster, a seafood platter. We also have a salad bar.
All of our soups are homemade, and all of our sauces are homemade. So if you get our tartar sauce, cocktail sauce, it’s all my own recipe, not something out of a jug. Even the salads on the salad bar are all homemade: the macaroni salad, pasta salad, rotini, coleslaw… we make those all in-house.
O&AW: What do you do differently that sets your supper club apart from others?
BC: We do flights of old fashioneds. We just started that this summer and that really seems to have taken off. I like to emphasize we do many different types of old fashioneds, and that’s kind of the purpose of the flight. Typically the supper club in Wisconsin is known for brandy old fashioneds, but as you know there are several other varieties of that. So we like to point out to people: maybe you’re not a big brandy fan, but you like whiskey or Southern Comfort, or something like that.
With La Crosse Distilling being so close, we have a great rapport with them. They make the Downtown Toodeloo Rock and Rye, which makes an outstanding old fashioned. We like experimenting with fun drinks and changing things up. I think that’s something a little bit different and a little bit fun from our bar as opposed to a more traditional supper club.
O&AW: Any final thoughts you’d like to add?
BC: We struggle to find staff – a lot of restaurants and a lot of businesses are in the same boat. But we have a core group of excellent employees. Because we have the two restaurants, we have people that work at both places. On the weekends there are many days where people will work the morning and afternoon at the cafe, and the night at the supper club. Just really super loyal people. At least half of our staff work at both places, I would say. We wouldn’t be able to keep either place going without them.
We have great community support here, too. The good thing for us is that we had Borgens for a number of years before we bought the Old Towne, so people around here know us and they know we’re all about making people feel welcome and having a great dining experience with us.
Where in Wisconsin is this supper club?
Address: 100 E Old Town Rd #8201, Westby, WI 54667
Nearby landmarks: Located just south of downtown Westby, about 40 minutes southeast of La Crosse.
Website: oldtowneinnwestby.com
Three can’t-miss features:
1. Old fashioned flights!
2. House-smoked ribs
3. Fish fry club