Feeding customers in a relaxed setting for 90 years

Rich Palzewic

Staff

September 16, 2024

RICE LAKE – Supper clubs are as Wisconsin as beer, bratwurst and the Green Bay Packers.

For one such establishment in Rice Lake, that has meant 90 years of serving hungry patrons in a relaxed, laid-back setting.

Co-owner Butch Lehman said Lehman’s Supper Club (2911 S. Main St.) recently celebrated its nine decades in business with a large gathering held at the establishment last month.

“It was indescribable for me to put into words,” Butch said of the celebration. “The people who turned out – ex-employees, friends, customers from all over the place. We’re so humble and thankful. We figured if we were going to throw a party, we might as well blow the roof off Lehman’s – I think we succeeded.”

Ninety years, Butch said, is a long time to be in business.

“I think it’s amazing for any small business to survive like that,” he said. “But if you’re in the bar and restaurant business, I think it’s even more difficult. You have to have a heck of a supporting cast of family members and customers who become friends and people who are working alongside you all the way to sustain things. There have been good and bad times, but with the help of everybody involved, we seemed to have survived.”

Butch said he couldn’t imagine being able to be in business for so long without the support of his wife, Trudy.

“This is a 50/50 partnership, and without Trudy and our family working together, I’m certain we wouldn’t be here today,” he said. “She is an incredible person and one (heck of) a worker. She is a sweetheart – we should all be so lucky to have a woman like her in our lives.”

A bit of history

Butch and Trudy have co-owned Lehman’s for about the last five decades, but the history of the supper club dates back to 1934.

“My late parents were the previous owners, but it was started by my Grandpa Paul and his sons, Art and Harold (Butch’s dad),” he said. “In 1936, my parents (Lillian was his mother) got married, and my dad worked for Montgomery Ward on the West Coast for about three years. At that time, my Uncle Art and Grandpa Paul ran the place when it was open.”

Butch said the story of why the trio started Lehman’s in the first place was one of necessity.

“The United States was just coming out of Prohibition, the Great Depression was raging and World War II was about to start,” he said. “My parents were farmers – cash crops, dairy cattle and steers. You did whatever you could do in farming to survive at that time. After Prohibition, they put their heads together and thought, ‘maybe we should start a little bar and do a few sandwiches or something.’”

Butch said there’s one story he recalls the most that his father told him over the years.

“The first liquor salesman came to call on them in the spring of 1934, which would have been before the building was even done,” he said. “The salesman had to crawl through the fence of the field because the cattle were roaming around the building project.”

Eventually, Butch said his parents sold the farm and went into the bar/restaurant business full-time.

“Right after WWII ended, they went in heavily – put an addition on and went the route of the supper club,” he said.

Butch said his grandpa died a few years after opening, but by that time, his parents had moved back to the area.

“It was Art and his wife, Ruby, and my parents (that ran things)…,” he said. “(However), in the mid-50s, it pretty much became my parents.”

Butch said he “grew up” at the supper club as a child, so he knew the business from an early age.

“Trudy and I got married in May 1976 but had been with one another several years before that,” he said. “We had transitioned into the business with my parents in the early ’70s. My mom became ill and passed away from emphysema, so then it was just my dad, Trudy and I. My dad worked well into his late 80s.”

In 1981, Butch said the first of his and Trudy’s five children was born.

“Like it or not, our kids helped run the family business as well,” he laughed. “You tend to follow in the footsteps of the previous generation.”

‘It’s fun – most of the time’

Though Butch admitted the supper club business is tough work, he said, “it’s fun – most of the time.”

“Supper clubs are different,” he said. “About 75-80% of the time – because of the people you work with and the patrons who keep returning – it’s fun. You struggle through that other 20% of the time and think, ‘oh my gosh, why the heck are we still doing this when we’re in our 70s?’ We get through a tough night, and the next day, the sun still comes up, and it’s a new day. You tackle it full steam ahead.”

Butch said there has been a lot of discussion over recent years about whether the number of supper clubs is rising or decreasing.

“We certainly hear about supper clubs closing, but I think it depends on the area you live in,” he said. “Traditionally, Wisconsin has always had supper clubs, and it’s always been a part of the culture here and everything that’s involved with it. You go out and socialize, have a couple of cocktails at the bar and forget your worries. It’s a place of diversion. You meet people you know and make new friends. You go into a dining room and have a nice, leisurely dinner and discuss things. Some still have live music now and then, and then you have a dessert and after-dinner drink.”

Butch said as opposed to casual eateries, supper clubs are “more about escaping the world for two or three hours.”

“There’s still a lot of them around, and a lot of them are very successful,” he said. “All supper clubs deserve our support. And like all small business people, they’re owned and operated by hard-working folks.”

The future of Lehman’s

Butch said with he and Trudy “getting up there in age” and not yet sure if one of their children wants to take over, they put the supper club up for sale in April 2022.

“The business has been around for 90 years, but Trudy and I aren’t 90,” he laughed. “We’re in our 70s, and our kids range in age from 30 to 43. Three of them are pretty active – two are very active. John manages the kitchen, and Michael is the front-of-the-house manager. They love the business.”

Butch said as of now, it might take a bit of persuasion to have one of the kids take over.

“They’ve seen the business change since they’ve been in it,” he said. “It’s a tough business. All small business is tough, but this is particularly tough. I’m not sure what their future plans might be and what direction they want to take. We just keep plugging away at it and do the best we can. You just never know what tomorrow will bring.”

Though the restaurant is for sale, Butch said based on the fact it’s been on the market for more than two years, he doesn’t see things changing – “at least for now.”

“We’ve maybe had a couple of serious people look at it,” he said. “With what’s happened recently with commercial real estate and interest rates rising again, it would be a big chunk of cash upfront and having to finance the rest of it. Running a supper club is complex – though it’s the same for any restaurant, let alone any small business. It also seems to be difficult to find staff, too.”

Butch said if the right offer came along, “we’d like to retire soon, too.”

“That’s the $64,000 question, right?” he said. “When we get to that bridge, then we have to decide whether to cross or not. I don’t know if push will come to shove or if it will happen.”

But for now, Butch said he and Trudy “are hanging around and taking it all in stride.”

“We’re guaranteed maybe a day at a time, and we don’t try to look too much further down the road than that,” he said.

Lehman’s is open 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday and 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

For more information, visit lehmanssupperclub.net or its Facebook page.