The Gobbler was a

motel A motel, also known as a motor hotel, motor inn or motor lodge, is a hotel designed for motorists, usually having each room entered directly from the Parking lot, parking area for motor vehicles rather than through a central Lobby (room), lo ...

supper club A supper club is a traditional dining establishment that also functions as a social club. The term may describe different establishments depending on the region, but in general, supper clubs tend to present themselves as having a high-class imag ...

, and

roadside attraction A roadside attraction is a feature along the side of a road meant to attract tourists. In general, these are places one might stop on the way to somewhere, rather than being a destination. They are frequently advertised with billboard (advertis ...

Johnson Creek, Wisconsin Johnson Creek is a village in Jefferson County, Wisconsin, Jefferson County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 3,318 at the 2020 census. The village is approximately halfway between Milwaukee and Madison, Wisconsin, Madison, at the inte ...

, United States. It was designed in the late 1960s by Fort Atkinson architect

Helmut Ajango Helmut "Mike" Ajango (November 30, 1931 – November 15, 2013) was an Estonian-born architect based in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin in the United States.prime rib A standing rib roast, also known as prime rib, is a cut of beef from the primal rib, one of the primal cuts of beef. While the entire rib section comprises ribs six through 12, a standing rib roast may contain anywhere from two to seven ribs. I ...

and steak. It included a rotating circular bar that completed one revolution every 80 minutes. The Gobbler was at the intersection of

Wisconsin Highway 26 State Trunk Highway 26 (often called Highway 26, STH-26, or WIS 26) is a state highway in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The route is partially a divided highway with a few freeway bypass sections for roughly . The remaining secti ...

and I-94, halfway between

Milwaukee Milwaukee is the List of cities in Wisconsin, most populous city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located on the western shore of Lake Michigan, it is the List of United States cities by population, 31st-most populous city in the United States ...

and

Madison, Wisconsin Madison is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. It is the List of municipalities in Wisconsin by population, second-most populous city in the state, with a population of 269,840 at the 2020 Uni ...

. It closed in 1992. The original restaurant building reopened as the Gobbler Theater in late 2015.

History

Hartwig's poultry plant was located just south of the supper club and closed in 1971 after Hartwig announced that it was too costly to upgrade the plant to meet new

USDA The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that aims to meet the needs of commerc ...

standards. At the time, the plant was the largest employer in Johnson Creek, employing up to 300 workers and processing 30 million pounds of poultry a year. Hartwig's other ventures, the Gobbler supper club, the Cackle Shack restaurant and Gobbler motel remained open. In 1974, the Wisconsin Equal Rights Division ruled that the restaurant violated the rights of two women by firing them for refusing to wear uniforms that were different from the uniform of male employees. Male waiters and bartenders wore tuxedos, while female waitresses were required to wear "black briefs, fishnet stockings and V-necked hunting jackets." It was the first ruling to find "sex discrimination on the basis of uniforms". In late May 1992, then-motel and restaurant manager Clyde Hartwig filed a notice with the Village of Johnson Creek stating that the motel and restaurant would "permanently cease operations and close its business" by July 26 of that year. A newspaper article about the closure noted that, when the announcement was made, the operation was struggling, and that a visit showed only "7 tables of about 40 tables" were occupied during the dinner rush, and that "Five vehicles were parked at the motel at the same time". The restaurant closed as scheduled, although a newspaper article published in 1995 claims the motel had stayed open until early that year.

Post-closure

After the Hartwig family sold the building in the early 1990s, several restaurants operated in the building. The first was a Mexican restaurant called "Redondos" in 1995. Others included a roadside diner, "The Round Stone Restaurant", and "The New Gobbler". The last tenant went out of business in mid-2002. There were attempts by the

Menominee The Menominee ( ; meaning ''"Menominee People"'', also spelled Menomini, derived from the Ojibwe language word for "Wild Rice People"; known as ''Mamaceqtaw'', "the people", in the Menominee language) are a federally recognized tribe of Na ...

Potawatomi The Potawatomi (), also spelled Pottawatomi and Pottawatomie (among many variations), are a Native American tribe of the Great Plains, upper Mississippi River, and western Great Lakes region. They traditionally speak the Potawatomi language, ...

and Lac du Flambeau Chippewa tribes in the 1990s to purchase the land for a multimillion-dollar

casino A casino is a facility for gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shops, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos also host live entertainment, such as stand-up comedy, conce ...

, hotel and convention center. The land was still for sale in 2007, the motel property for $6.2 million and the restaurant property for $2.3 million. In June 2008, the

Frank Lloyd Wright Frank Lloyd Wright Sr. (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed List of Frank Lloyd Wright works, more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key ...

Wisconsin Tourism Program hosted "The Gobbler Gala" at the restaurant. The dinner featured talks by Gobbler architect Ajango and Wright historian Sidney Robinson. The owners held an auction of the property and separate items, including the petrified wood that lined the entrance, in December 2009, hoping to recoup some of their costs. In 2011, the locally produced film ''Missed Connections'' was shot on location at the restaurant.

Re-opening, Temporary Closure and Sale Listing

The Gobbler was reopened in December 2015 as th
Gobbler Theater
by owner Dan Manesis, who bought the property in 2014. The iconic rotating bar remained, as well as the original chairs and some of the decor. The theater "temporarily" closed in 2021 with no reopening date announced, and is currently for sale.)

Motel

Across the street from the supper club, the Gobbler Motel had an adventurous, futuristic

Googie architecture Googie architecture ( ) is a type of futurist architecture influenced by car culture, Jet aircraft, jets, the Atomic Age and the Space Age. It originated in Southern California from the Streamline Moderne architecture of the 1930s, and was popu ...

design that featured 49 rooms with symbol-shaped

waterbed A waterbed, water mattress, or flotation mattress is a bed or mattress filled with water. Waterbeds intended for medical therapies appear in various reports through the 19th century. The modern version, invented in San Francisco and patented in ...

s (such as a heart-shape), 8-track players, round sunken bathtubs, and differently colored shag carpet that extended up the walls in each themed room. According to a 1978 newspaper article, it required two maids to make the motel's round waterbeds, with the maids "hanging by one arm and stretching out a stockinged foot to smooth away wrinkles" After multiple changes in ownership (including a renaming to the "King Arthur's Inn Motel" in April 1995) and years of unrepaired wear, the motel was abandoned in 2001. Shortly thereafter, the Johnson Creek Fire Department burned the motel to the ground as a "practice fire" for their firefighters. The concrete slab on which the motel was built was left in place until 2019. The motel site has been redeveloped and is now home to an assisted living and memory care community.

References

External links