As the crow flies, I grew up about 10 miles north west of The Duck Inn. It is a rather well-known regional eatery. If you have never heard of it, you have just exposed that you are an out-of-towner, or you have just plain been living under a rock all your life. It has been around in one way or another for 80 years. I believe who ever has owned it, has always used the Duck Inn name.
The last time I was in the place was over five years ago. Back then I did not blog about fish frys; or, blog at all for that matter. But, it finally came up on my fish rotation a week ago or so. And, if you are going to write about supper clubs and Friday fish frys in Southern Wisconsin, you better have a blurb about The Duck Inn somewhere to save your critic validation.
I believe the people that own it now have had it awhile, however if memory serves me correct, the joint sat empty for a bit back in the early '90s. But, no worries, they are back and packed as I remember them from back in the 1960s. I never see much advertising for the place. The waitress said people come from many of the lake properties that polka-dot the region. Also, she said people come from Illinois; which as the crow continues to fly, is just to the south a ways.
They don't take reservations on Friday nights, but, they will put you on a short priority list if you call ahead. And, I suggest you do just that. The people spill out into the parking lot as they wait for a table. The place is in the middle of rural Richmond Township in Walworth County. So by mid-summer, you will be looking at the progress of the growing farm crops as you wait outside for a seat. It is a green and serine setting. I am thinking that when it is five below zero in January, you will be shoulder to shoulder in the bar. But, what the hell, it is Wisconsin after all.
I seem to remember a wedding back in the 1960s I went to at the old building next door to the place. Back then that old building was a town hall I believe. You can usually rent town halls for events in these parts.
The Duck Inn however, is a big complex. It boasts a huge A-frame dinning room. One of the walls is taken up by an also huge limestone fire place. There is another dinning area on the other side of the bar. The bar is long and huge as well. You usually go to this place to eat, but the bar timbre qualifies it as a Wisconsin-esque tavern as well. And, of course there is lots of taxidermed poultry hanging about. There will be two giant chandeliers hanging from the main A-frame room, flanked by four smaller ones. And with many Wisconsin supper clubs there will be lots of wood interior and wood beams.
Of course the menu boasts many duck and poultry entrees. But, this night we were all about the fish fry.
The cole slaw takes a turn from the usual creamy presentations. The Duck Inn's is mixed up in a vinegar and sugar sauce. I enjoyed the diversion from the norm. Mother-in-law Chris tried the broiled fish. It came lightly topped with paprika. The bit I tried was excellent.
Heide tried the all-you-can-eat Smelt. Now Smelt is a horse of a different color. People either love it or hate it. My run-ins with Smelt usually involve free baskets of the stuff offered up in bowling alley bars during Packer Games. This Duck Inn version however, was professionally prepared. It is I am guessing, how Smelt should be presented.
I went for the consummate all-you-can-eat beer-battered Cod. I even ate an extra piece or two.
We all got the mini-potato pancakes, which our waitress assured us the staff prepared home-made. There was of course apple sauce and real butter that came with the deal. One thing they do that harkens from tavern style fish frys is to put the rye bread under the meal. Some people like it that way, some do not. The bread can get soggy, but that might be the point. Being an old Army guy, things like soggy bread under my fish, is right up my alley.
Check their Website out for prices, I kind of lost track. I had my meal with a Diet Pepsi and I finished the evening off with a good cup of real coffee. The girls were putting down some spirits, and they opted to share one of six homemade dessert offerings. It was a Chocolate Molten Lava served warm with vanilla ice cream on the side. For all you heathens out there, just suffice that there was a lot of dark chocolate cake involved that was smothered in rich chocolate frosting.
The Duck Inn is cool with Cool Dadio. Find them at County Road A and Highway 89 in Richmond, Wisconsin. The official address is N6214 Highway 89, Delavan, Wisconsin. But, the caveat is, if you go in to Delavan proper, you will be about 10 miles away. This place is in rural Walworth County. They just use the Delavan post office. Call (608) 883 - 6988 for more information; or, visit their Website at: www.duckinndelavan.com .
Wisconsin Military Service Person Special Mention of the Week
(each week Cooldadiomedia mentions a Wisconsin service person killed in Iraq or Afghanistan)
Sergeant First Class Merideth Leigh Howard, 52, of Waukesha, Wisconsin, died in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Friday, September 8, 2006, when a suicide car bomber detonated a vehicle near the Humvee she was in. SFC Howard was assigned to the Army Reserve's 405th Civil Affairs Battalion, out of Fort Bragg, North Carolina. She was one of two soldiers killed in the incident. Fourteen Afghanis were also killed in the incident. At the time of her death she was listed as the oldest American Servicewoman killed in combat in either Iraq or Afghanistan. Like so many American service members in this modern era, Howard is claimed as a native of several states. And, being a bit older than her military colleagues and also a female from a transitional era, she traveled through life attaining many firsts. According to jarrarsupariver.blogspot.com (Iraq Bloggers Central) Howard was all of 5-foot and 4-inches tall and had to stand on a box to see over the turret to man the .50 caliber machine gun on the Humvee she rode shotgun on in Afghanistan. They were on the infamous Jalalabad Road, known as Kabul's suicide-bomb alley. Iraq Bloggers Central also noted Howard was a native of Corpus Christi, Texas. While at Texas A& M University, she was a member of the first women's tennis team there, and became the second woman to graduate from the University's Brayton Fire School. She went on to become the first woman to join the Bryan, Texas Fire Department in 1978; she then moved on and became a fire-risk-management specialist with insurance companies, eventually helping set up a consulting company in Alameda, California.
Merideth Howard joined the military in 1988 at the age of 34 as a medical equipment repairer for the Army Reserve. She was called for active duty in December 2005 and sent to Afghanistan in the spring of 2006. She married long time partner Hugh Hvolboll prior to deployment. They had met in 1991 in California. The couple owned a home in Alameda, California and also had an apartment in Waukesha, Wisconsin. In Afghanistan, Howard was part of a provincial-reconstruction team, assigned to a Civil Affairs unit at the the Mehtarlam base in eastern Laghman province. Their task was to help rebuild roads, schools, and other infrastructure needed in the war torn country.
The Website landstuhlhospitalcareproject.org via information gleaned from the Chicago Tribune also notes Howard was a resident of Waukesha, Wisconsin. They also mention Howard's vehicle was making a supply run to a Bagram Air Base near the Afghan capital when she was killed. They also noted this was Howard's first deployment since joining the Reserves in 1988. In late April of 2006, nine members of SFC Howard's civil affairs team arrived at the Mehtarlam Base.
The Texas A&M University Association of Former Students, notes Howard was assigned to the 364th Civil Affairs Brigade in support of the 10th Mountain Division at the time of her death. The Association goes on to mention Howard graduated from Corpus Christi’s King High School in 1973 and earned both a bachelor’s and master’s degrees in biology from Texas A&M University.
The Seattle Times states Merideth's long time partner Hugh Hvolboll, made fireworks for a living. In 2004, the couple moved to Waukesha for his job. The Los Angeles Times notes that her husband would honor her request and celebrate her life by blasting her ashes skyward in two fireworks displays more than a thousand miles apart. Her husband was quoted as saying, "She loved fireworks and being near the water." She was known to have an infectious smile. Her husband went on to note he would set off the fireworks displays with his wife's ashes off Corpus Christi, Texas, and San Francisco. The L. A. Times goes on to note Merideth was born in Corpus Christi in 1954, was an only child, and spent some of her childhood crabbing and fishing at Laguna Madre, a channel along the Texas coast. She also liked water skiing and duck hunting. At the time of her death, Merideth Howard was survived by her cousin Lorraine Stevenson of Corpus Christi, Texas; and, her husband, Hugh Hvolboll, of Waukesha, Wisconsin. Her parents preceded her in death. Sergeant First Class Merideth Howard was the ninth Wisconsin military service person to be killed in Afghanistan since October 2001.
As of this blog entry's posting date:
97,172 Iraqi civilians have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
9,587 Iraqi Security Forces have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
4,417 Americans have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
1216 Americans have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
318 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
767 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
31,902 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
7,285 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
102 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
19 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
142 journalists (several nationalities) have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
21 journalists (various nationalities) have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
Wisconsin military service person special mention of the week, military casualty, and journalist casualty information sources: Committee to Protect Journalists; cnn.com; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; washingtonpost.com; thehighground.org; Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs; iraqbodycount.org; and, icasualties.org.
