The Gobbler Supper Club

By Bruce Shawkey

A recent article in the Watertown Daily Times about the Gobbler Supper Club triggered memories of eating there with my family during the '70s and '80s.

My cousin Pamela, whose family lived in Watertown at the time, worked there as a waitress. Here is her recollection of the place:

"I worked there for several years in high school.  Started as a bus girl, then waitress.  The decor was purple and pink. We wore pink and black polyester uniforms that reflected the times; short and form fitting, and fishnet stockings. If you didn't have short hair you had to wear a wig or a fall/hairpiece. Carrying drinks up to the other lounge area was sometimes a challenge with the purple shag carpeted stairs.  We had to pay close attention to details about our customers who sat at the rotating bar as they were in a different location by the time their food and/or drinks were ready to be served."

One memorable visit in the 1970s was when our family took my Aunt Bea there for dinner. My aunt, after getting inebriated, goosed a cocktail waitress by sliding a butterknife up her skirt as the waitress bent over to serve drinks to our table. The waitress was pissed, but didn't say anything. I was so embarrassed. It was one of those events that I couldn't unsee, and I remember it to this day.

The other thing I remember about the Gobbler was its rotating bar. The owners had to slow down the speed of the rotation because several patrons, most probably drunk, had fallen when stepping on to or off the rotating bar.

OK, without further delay, here is the article by Ed Zagorski of the Watertown Daily Times:

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The Gobbler Supper Club, which first closed in 1992, changed hands numerous times and undergone several transformations, but Ronald Berman and Jonathan Kaiser want to breathe life back into the historic and unique structure.

Clarence Hartwig founded the Gobbler, the name of which was derived from the turkey farm his family owned, in 1969. The business closed in the early 1990s. An attempt to revive the restaurant under the name of the New Gobbler occurred in 1997, but it failed. Several other ventures were undertaken at the location over the years including a banquet hall and a rib restaurant, but they didn’t stick.

Village of Johnson Creek officials granted Berman and Kaiser a conditional use permit (CUP), which they both signed Sept. 2, 2025. In their application, they noted that they had an offer to purchase the historic venue contingent upon receiving that CUP exception.

They described their plans to use the theater “to host a variety of events including but not limited to, community events, concerts, comedy shows, college and professional viewing parties with appearances from athletes, private parties, charitable events, etc,” the CUP says.

Berman and Kaiser also wrote in the CUP application, “No change in structure or use — we will be resurfacing the parking lot and making minor exterior improvements.”

They Daily Times reached out to both Berman and Kaiser, and each declined to provide comment on their plans for the venue.

“The previous owner was Dan Manesis, and I believe he purchased the property in 2014,” said Village of Johnson Creek Administrator Kyle Ellefson.

Manesis reopened the Gobbler in December 2015 after a $2.7 million renovation. The Theater featured live music performances, including country, Christian, and 1960s-80s rock bands, and it retained the fully functional rotating bar with a capacity of 100.

The venue sits on a total of 16,544 square feet and boasts three walk-in coolers, state-of-the-art sound and lighting systems, and a large stage with high end dressing rooms.

In the CUP, Berman and Kaiser said, “We are going to bring this historic music venue back to life, with entertainment of all types, from all over the world. This supports the Village’s goals to bring in more tourism and economic development.

“Our proposed operation will be a catalyst for tourism growth in the Village of Johnson Creek, and with no changes to the traffic impact or zoning, it will operate in harmony with the Village goals and policies,” the two said in the CUP.

Both Berman and Kaiser agreed The Gobbler is a historic property, and they intend to retain the integrity of the building while updating the exterior aesthetics, including the roof and parking lot. “The interior will remain ‘as-is’ aside from minor decorating, furniture, and fixture upgrades,” the CUP says.

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The Wisconsin State Journal also picked up on the story, and here it is, along with the pictures that ran with the story:

The Gobbler, a nominally turkey-shaped building with a rotating bar and numerous owners and business models over the years, may once again reopen as a music venue along Interstate 94 in Johnson Creek. 

This time, the potential owners include a music promoter, another who has his own band and runs a northern Wisconsin music festival, and a third investor who co-founded a nationally, known mortgage company. Gobbler Venue, a limited liability company based in Florida, is expected to close in the coming weeks on the storied property and then lease the 400-seat music hall to Gobbler Events, a Wisconsin-based LLC. Both companies are led by Ron Berman, who in 1985 co-founded Rock Financial, which in 1999 became Quicken Loans. In 2021, nearly 20 years after Berman sold his stake in the business, it was rebranded as Rocket Mortgage. In their filing with the village, Berman and Jonathan Kaiser, who lives in Ladysmith where he sits on an arts board and, with his JK Productions company, resurrected in 2021 the Northwoods Rock Rally in the Rusk County community of Glen Flora. He has also booked over 250 bands at over 30 venues in different states and is a musician himself. He plays piano, saxophone, sings and is a member of the contemporary country band, "Gundo." Another member of the investment group, Paul Glysz, has, for the past 10 years, owned and operated Screamin Promotions, a concert, lighting and sound company in the Racine County community of Wind Lake. He said an opening date for  the Gobbler has not yet been set but it will likely happen in the coming months.

What a convoluted fucking mess. I predict it will never open. Or if it does open, it will only be for a while.

"We're very excited to get the vision of the Gobbler going again," Glysz said last week. "We're basically pooling our talents and resources that have come together in a very positive way. We just felt the Gobbler was something that would work out for us." 

Ruffles in the rearview

 It hasn't been a smooth ride for those who have tried running the establishment before. The Gobbler was designed by Helmut Anjo, who designed the Fireside Theater in Fort Atkinson and was hired by Clarence Hartwig, a local turkey farmer, who would spend $1 million to build and open the supper club in 1969 along with the nearby Gobbler Hotel. The Gobbler drew customers from Milwaukee, Madison, Chicago and beyond and included "The Roost," an elevated dance floor during the peak of the disco era. 

The supper club and hotel closed in 1992 before a trio of area businessmen bought the property in 1996 for $494,000 as an investment and put another $600,000 into the property for upgrades. A number of restaurants used the space until the early 2000s, when the hotel was demolished. The building remained empty for years, until Dan Manesis, a Milwaukee-area trucking firm owner and drag-strip racer, bought the 9.5-acre property in 2014 for $635,000 and spent another $2 million to convert it into a music venue dubbed The Gobbler Theater. 

He kept the rotating bar, removed the kitchen facilities, added seating in the round, a high-tech sound and light system and dressing rooms in the basement. The Johnson Creek High School choir sang in the inaugural show just before Christmas 2015, and over the next five years the acts would include Kentucky Headhunters, Joe Diffie, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Lorrie Morgan, Sara Evans and Ronnie Milsap.

But while Manesis had the vision to resurrect the Gobbler, COVID-19 brought the first blow to his plans in 2020. Then, in June 2021, Manesis died of cancer and his wife put the property up for sale for $1.6 million. In 2023, Steve Paulet and his wife, Rachel Bauer, of Madison, stepped in with a plan to buy the property and continue what Manesis had started. But in August of that year, just days before closing on the property, Paulet fell on his deck at home and severely injured both knees. With recovery expected to take months, Paulet, Bauer and their team of investors backed out of the deal and canceled the sale. 

Despite the Gobbler's past, the latest proposal by Berman, Kaiser and Glysz is being met with optimism by the village. There are plans to repave the parking lot and make minor improvements to the building's exterior while the inside could also see the addition of television screens for watching sporting events.

"I think we're generally really excited," said village administrator Kyle Ellifson. "They seem to have a good plan behind them as well as a lot of excitement. It's a unique facility and a really unique opportunity.