At 5 p.m. on Sunday, tucked into a mahogany booth in a historic supper club in the middle of nowhere, Tara asked, “Are we those people?”
What she meant was, the type of people who eat dinner absurdly early, like senior citizens. I can confidently state we are not those people; we typically dine between 6:30–7:00, and the night before, we didn’t chow down until 10:30 (because, card night). But we figured, Sunday evening, gotta get up early and work the next day, blah blah blah.
This was a belated birthday celebration for Tara. Her tradition is to check out a new supper club every year for her birthday. I can get behind that! We’d originally had reservations for the previous Sunday – her actual birthday – but I was suffering from a cold and Tara was still getting over hers, so we delayed it a week.
Her choice this year was The Duck Inn. It’s just 18 minutes from home and located, I kid you not, pretty much in the middle of a cornfield in rural Richmond Township. You wouldn’t think a place so far off the beaten path would be popular, but they’ve been around since the 1920s, and the parking lot was full by the time we left.
Here’s an interesting blurb from their website:
The name, The Duck Inn, originated first during the prohibition era when the Duck Inn was a speak easy. Therefore, patrons were to secretly “duck in” for a drink where the bartender would tell a patron to be quiet and “speak easy.” After prohibition ended, Wisconsin liquor licenses were issued mostly outside the city limits, with the contingency that the establishment must serve food. To make use of the liquor license, establishments started to specialize in dinners, thus “supper clubs” were born.
Well, well. Ya learn something new every day!
We were really impressed with The Duck Inn (and yes, they totally lean into the whole duck theme). I loved the ambience, the food was fantastic, and the prices were reasonable, especially for a supper club.
The only problem with supper clubs is, man, you really have to bring your appetite. Because, after the relish tray, bread, soup or salad, and appetizer (crab stuffed mushrooms in this case), you might not have room for your actual dinner! Tara took just a few bites of her beef burgundy tips over pasta and had to box up the rest. I managed to plow through my roasted duck sampler that came with four different sauces (a l’orange, mushroom, cherry jubilee, and apple brandy), but that took effort. Thankfully, I’d burned off approximately 4,000 calories doing yard work earlier in the day.
Duck, by the way, seems to be my supper club go-to. I’ve ordered it at three different places now. Tara’s not a fan, but I love roasted duck. It’s hard to find that entree on most restaurant menus, but duck seems to be a supper club staple, and I have a hard time passing it up. Especially at a place called The Duck Inn.
We also brought dessert home for later: key lime pie for me, chocolate lava cake for her. Because at that point, why not?
Almost Millionaires
I was chatting with my parents yesterday, and mentioned how we’d bought some Wisconsin lottery scratch tickets and won $25 on a $5 ticket. This was very exciting, as we hardly ever win.
Then my mom said they just bought a $2 quick pick ticket for last week’s Washington state lottery drawing and won $1,000. Geez, guys, way to steal my thunder! I felt pretty silly bragging about my “big win” after that.
The kicker is, they were both pretty bummed over the whole thing. Which, quite frankly, sounds insane…but it turns out, they were one number away from winning ONE MILLION DOLLARS. Holy cow! Only six people in the entire state matched five out of six in that lottery drawing. So, at one point, they had a 1-in-49 chance of hitting the big jackpot. They’ll probably never be that close to becoming instant millionaires again. I’d be bummed too!
I felt pretty bad for them. And then, my dad said they would have shared the wealth and paid off our mortgage, so I started to feel pretty bad for me. Man, what could have been!
Working for CheeseGov, I often collaborate with the Wisconsin Lottery on promotions and messaging. I even gave away $10,000 once. As a result, I have a newfound appreciation for lotteries, because real people across the state win some really big prizes. I see this happen every week. Obviously, the odds are slim, but as they say, you can’t win if you don’t play. So, I’m happy to shell out a few dollars occasionally for a shot at riches.
The luckiest I’ve ever gotten? I won $166.72 playing a penny slot machine in Vegas. As soon as I hit that jackpot, I made one of the smartest decisions of my life: I cashed out and walked away.
The only downside? Tara was visiting a friend in town that day and wouldn’t be picking me up for another four hours. I’d planned on spending most of that time in the casino, so I ended up wandering around the Strip instead. By the time Tara fetched me, I was half-drunk on daiquiris from Fat Tuesday at Planet Hollywood, because what else was I going to do to entertain myself?
Legally and morally, that is.
Do you like duck? How often (if ever) do you play the lottery? What’s the most money you have ever won?
Mark My Words 
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