Saturday, June 21, 2008

A Fairly Good Place For Quite Some Time

So my friend Dan has been telling me about Fishers Club in Avon, MN for the past year and tonight we are finally going to go there. Apparently the place is owned Gerrison Keilor and is somewhat legendary in these parts. It is located on Middle Spunk Lake and is only open in the summer owing to the fact that no one wants fried fish in a Minnesota Winter.

Here is the Menu.

Apparently the little place has a bit of charming history to it.

"George “Showboat” Fisher had just retired in 1932 from ten years of major league baseball, playing for the Washington Senators and the St. Louis Cardinals. He was 33, loved hunting and fishing, and didn't want to get tied down with a year-round job so he opened Fisher’s Club on the northeast shore of Middle Spunk Lake. The dance floor by the jukebox was added in 1937, and the sale of cold beer and playing of slot machines made the summer-only bar a popular place. So popular, that Showboat would spend most summer nights sleeping by the front door, with his shotgun and hunting dog as his only companions. This was to protect the day’s gambling takes.

Back then, ten-year-old George Jr. and his brothers Lewis and Dick would fish area lakes all week for Sunfish, Northerns, and Crappies, “Anything that would bite,” said Junior. His dad would give the fried fish away free at the bar until one summer night a savvy nightclub owner from St. Cloud walked in and told Showboat, “You should get walleye and sell it.” He took her advice, created a secret breading recipe, and the legendary Fisher’s Famous Walleye began. That recipe is used here today. It's still a secret, and no, we won't tell you what is in it."

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