Mer and Jackie's, Five Corners - Saturday January 20, 2018

Mer and Jackie’s is in 5 Corners, just north of Appleton on Ballard Road (Hwy EE).  I truly do not know if 5 Corners encompasses any other area, but my entire 5 Corners experience exists within a radius of about 300 hundred yards from the exact point where the 5 roads come together.  Mer and Jackie’s is located there, as well as the 5 Corners Bar across the street, another interesting place to visit if you are in the area.

    

We arrived at Mer and Jackie’s about 7:15 on a Saturday night.  The barroom was busy, but we were able to find a spot at the bar.  The oval shaped bar at Mer and Jackie’s is well worn.  The decor includes large framed photos of Mer and Jackie who opened the Supper Club in 1955. 

Joe, Mer and Jackie’s son and the owner since 1992, greeted us and took our drink order right away.  We commented that it was a busy night and Joe said, “You give women the right to vote and they don’t want to cook anymore.”   He has to save his newer stuff for the regulars!  Joe served our Old Fashioneds and said it would be about a 45 minute wait, typical and fine with us.  He gave us a plastic chip with a number on it similar to what you used to get at the bakery on a busy day. Every few minutes a waitress or waiter would appear behind the bar and call out a number, locate you and take your order, a simple but efficient way of moving people from the bar to the dining room.  We were number 33 and a waitress soon appeared looking for number 25 so we could kind of gauge how long our wait would be.  I found my Old Fashioned to be just right.

 

When our number was called Paul waved and the waitress came over to take our order.  I ordered the “Frog Legs – Our Specialty since 1955”.   With that tagline, I felt I had to try them.   Paul ordered the prime rib, medium rare.  Our waitress said that sometimes later in the evening the only prime rib available is medium to well done so she went to the kitchen to check the status of the ribs before placing our final order.

   

When our table was ready we headed for the dining room.  Mer and Jackie’s has a pretty large salad bar, with the traditional supper club liver pate being especially tasty.   Unfortunately they had run out of the soup of the day. A freshly baked loaf of bread, still warm, was brought to the table to enjoy with our salads.

The frog legs were breaded and the meat had a mild flavor, similar to a chicken leg or wing. Really!  I think, if they were prepared the same, it would be difficult in a blind test to differentiate between them.  Maybe the frog legs had a very slight fishy taste or I just imagined it.  Paul’s prime rib arrived perfectly medium rare and tasted great.  Once again we left the table too full to have an after dinner ice cream drink at the bar.

Based on the dated yet comfortable decor and quality of service, I suspect Mer and Jackie’s has been working off the same formula since they opened years ago.  If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.  Joe, the other bartender Sandy, and the wait staff were all very efficient and friendly.  Everyone in the place appeared to be enjoying themselves on this winter Saturday night.  Mer and Jackie’s truly fits the definition of a Wisconsin Supper Club.