Romance at Timmerman’s Supper Club

They opened in 1961 and this Supper Club in East Dubuque, Illinois still has it.  With the windows surrounding the dining area and the amazing view, that would almost be enough, but the food and great service helped Keith and I have a romantic dinner to top off our weekend at the National Farm Toy Show and my birthday weekend.

This is an old school supper club offering views of the mighty Mississippi.  When we came in we took a few minutes and saw an ad about their opening with an act “straight from Las Vegas”.  You can almost imagine Frank Sinatra or Sammy Davis Junior dressed in a tuxedo sipping a martini  from the lovely bar located in a serpentine form in the middle of the room.

According to some history I read, the bar was built by Helen Ihm, who at the age of 16 joined the Black Franciscan Order where she taught school.  She left the Order six years later and in 1936 married Robert Timmerman. She started in the restaurant business working at the Chateau Supper Club.  Eventually Helen and her husband operated a bar in Wisconsin, took over he Chateau and in 1961 built the beautiful Timmerman’s Supper Club.

The Restaurant Marketing website I found said that Helen was a colorful character.  “She always wore long flowing gowns and if you tried to get into the Club dressed inappropriately she would throw you out.  In true supper club fashion Helen insisted you first visit the bar and have a few drinks before being seated for dinner. She ruled the club until she retired in 1985 at the age of 74.”

Thankfully today our jeans were ok, back in the day we would not have made the cut!

Today the club is owned by Mark and Jodi Hayes and Gary Neuses who worked for the second owner and started out at the bottom working their way to the top.

Our server Olivia was tops. We had a hard time deciding what to try.  I ordered Chicken Oscar and Keith got Beef Tips in a Bernadine sauce.  They were both amazing the chicken was surprisingly light while Keith’s beef tips were more like a hearty stew.

We arrived early right as they were opening.  In fact, we were the first diners in the room so we had a great opportunity to gawk and look at the amazing view.  Located at 7777 Timmerman Drive East Dubuque, they are open daily at 4:30 their website, www.timmermanssupperclub.com doesn’t show a closing time.

They are open also for Sunday brunch (which fellow toy farmer visitors told us is amazing) at 9:30 and stay open until 1:30 for the brunch.  They also offer private dining.