Caleb Westphal hasn’t missed a Friday fish fry since 2013. Follow his never-ending adventures—sponsored by Miller High Life—HERE. This week, fish fry #568: The Village Supper Club in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin.
It was partly cloudy and around 47 degrees when my wife and I arrived at the Village Supper Club on Sheridan Road in Pleasant Prairie (10909 Sheridan Rd.; 262-697-2847). “Start taking your vitamin D. We’re not gonna get much sun the next few days,” the supper club cautioned with a Facebook post earlier in the day. “Tonight is fish fry Fryday…pan fried walleye, fish or shrimp tacos.” As of 2024, the Village Supper Club has been in business for 100 years—including under other names like the Village, the Village Inn, and the Greek Village—and has been giving weather updates on their Facebook for about 10.
I had called ahead and secured one of the 10 or so tables in the modest dining room, and we were promptly seated. A bar all but spans the dining room lengthwise, and two rows of a can and bottle collection match it in length overhead, shelved just below a high tin ceiling. Solid wood walls and period light fixtures add to the cozy charm. The charm is all the more impressive once you find out the restaurant almost suffered a fatal blow by fire in 2011 and was closed for 20 months for remodeling.
As was brought to my attention by the Facebook post, pan fried walleye ($23) and fish or shrimp tacos ($17) were the specials of the evening, as they usually are on Fridays. But a four piece cod fish fry ($17) was also available, as it is all three days of the week the restaurant is open. Other seafood items available on Fridays are catfish ($15), fantail shrimp ($17), Mediterranean tilapia ($15), and poorman’s lobster ($15). All of these are served as dinners, coming with soup, salad, and a side item. Choices for sides are rice, baked potato, sweet potato fries, french fries, or the “vegetable of the day,” which was roasted honey beets or bourbon bacon mac & cheese. I went with the cod fish fry, chose french fries and clam chowder to accompany it, and ordered an Old Fashioned.
The cocktail was lightly muddled, garnish-free, and mixed well, with brandy, of course. My wife was going to give me her cup of clam chowder, but our server was kind enough to ask if I wanted a bowl instead of two cups, so I got some bonus chowder that way. Topped with ground parsley, it had a modest amount of clams, potatoes, and celery—which still had a crunch—and gave off a bit of heat as it hit the back of the throat. This is the type of homemade soup I could have had two bowls of, not just two cups.
There was a fairly long lull before the lettuce salad arrived. The salad consisted of mixed greens with julienned carrots, halved grape tomatoes, and croutons. I had requested French dressing and poured it from a paper cup. The salad was about as good as a house salad can be. House salads are star-crossed in the culinary world, being obligatory but never getting much notice. I suppose that’s the case here, too. But don’t be so somber, salad, you just got your own paragraph.
While chowder and salad took the place of rye bread and coleslaw this week, there were still fries, and of course there never is—and never will be—a replacement for fish. The crinkle-cut fries were light, and not too crispy, nor too soft, with a sparing amount of salt. The cod was dense and compact, and fully encased in a uniform batter. The batter was rather neutral, without beer or other flavors coming to the forefront. The tartar had some pep, providing a boost to the fish.
While not a fish fry that stood apart from the pack, the meal as a whole was enjoyable and well worth the price for what came with it. The restaurant also has pan fried walleye, which unlike their cod is only available on Fridays, and in hindsight likely was the route I should have taken. Whether the sun is nice, it’s a lovely day with a nice breeze and no heat, it’s hot and humid, it’s a lovely sunny day and you aren’t minding the cold temps, it’s raining, or the wind is wicked and you really miss the sun, the cozy and charming supper club vibes inside of the Village Supper Club will remain, and fish will be on the menu.
Takeaways: Bowl-worthy clam chowder; no coleslaw but you get a nice lettuce salad; standard, uniform cod fry with peppy tartar; pan fried walleye is the Friday special; follow their Facebook for weather updates.
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