Wausau Elks Club - Wausau WI

Even though we have moved to the Northwoods, the Little Marinara and I still maintain our Membership in the Wausau Elks Club.  Why?  Well I can still smoke a cigar inside (at least for a few more months), we like the people and on some Friday?s in Fall we bowl in a couples league.  Actually Marilyn bowls, I throw the ball and hope it doesn?t flop in another lane or bounce around the floor and whack someone.

Anyway it is Friday and time for cocktails and a Fish Fry.  This club has two bars, the Member?s bar where you can smoke and the upper bar for those who like to complain about those who smoke.  We head down to the Member?s bar where I can smoke a cigar and still listen to people complain about it, however, I usually have someone stop by and tell me how much they enjoy the smell of a good cigar.  Since we haven?t been around as much we find out we have a new bartender so it is back to teaching someone how to make a decent Martini.  This is a On-the-Rocks crowd so there is a learning curve and for whatever reason they haven?t invested in the proper barware to do this correctly.  Our good friend and Republican Tammy pops in with a fresh tan from some country I can?t pronounce and we beat the crap out of Health Care for a while.  We really do miss this place.

Our table is called and my cigar is not done so we have our bartender call the hostess to give us another 15 minutes.  Two minutes later the hostess calls our table again, (need some work on this skill-set) it is not busy so we don?t worry and I finish my stogie.

We arrive at out table and a few minutes later our friend Jim Carlson arrives at the table next to us.  He is alone so we ask him to join us.  Nancy takes our order and we are off to the salad bar.  The food at the Elks Club is usually good, the atmosphere is dated and the dining room needs a facelift.  On Friday evenings they have a large salad bar with the usual items, token pasta salad and cole slaw. The salad bar is good but boring, it never changes.  I believe this is in part due to the fact that the cook is not real creative.  Additionally, there are always two types of soup of which one is a clam chowder (always excellent) and warm rolls with garlic butter.  I will give this kitchen crew credit, they make good soup. 

I order the Perch with Homefries and the Little Marinara orders the Poor Mans Lobster with Hashbrowns.  The Marinara loves the Hashbrowns that they serve and I have to agree they are some of the best out there.  My Perch as usual is very good, light breading and flavorful, Marilyn has more than she can eat and takes home her usual box?o-fish.  She still enjoys the Milwaukee tradition of a shore lunch for breakfast.

We go down to bowl only to find out that our opposing team is not there, I am sure they heard the Big Ragu was bowling and decided to forgo the contest (it was safer for them).

I always tell people that the Wausau Elks Club is the best deal in town ? and it is.

The Big Ragu gives this Fish Fry a 4 Outa 5