The Black Otter Supper Club, Hortonville - Tuesday August 28, 2018

On a muggy August night following a torrential downpour that flooded our street, we waited for the water to subside and then ventured northwest of Appleton to the Black Otter Supper Club in Hortonville. The Black Otter has been family-owned since 1972 and is currently owned by Bob & Geri Guyette.  Bob & Geri married in 1998 while both were employees at the Otter.  The couple bought the business in 2003, and expanded the building in 2007.

 

The Black Otter has a large attractive barroom and was surprisingly busy for a Tuesday evening.   When we stepped up to the hostess station, the hostess provided menus and a red number tag that we were told to keep visible.  We found two seats at the busy bar and perused the menu while waiting to order our drinks.

 

We ordered our usual drinks – BOFS and BOFP with olives.  That stands for Brandy Old Fashioned Sweet and Brandy Old Fashioned Press, for any new readers.  The press version just reduces the sugar content by substituting seltzer for ½ the sweet.   The drinks were very good. 

After a short wait, a waitress approached us to take our order.  The menu had all the typical Supper Club fare, but I felt like trying something different so I ordered the Spicy Macaroni & Cheese which included bacon, chicken, peppers, and mushrooms.   According to the menu, the Prime Rib made the Black Otter famous, so Paul ordered the smallest Prime Rib (queen cut) which was a mere 32 ounces, with American fries and onions.

    

The menu offered something that used to be more common, but is seen very seldom today – the Extreme Cut - a 160 ounce slab of Prime Rib.

     

Finishing it gets you a $20 gift certificate, a T-shirt and a place on the Wall of Fame.  Apparently only 5 people have finished it in the past 7 years.

 

The waitress appeared again and indicated that table 11 was ready whenever we were and that we should help ourselves to the soup and salad bar.  Along one wall of the dining room was a large salad, soup and appetizer bar.  In addition to the typical salad bar items, they offered several cracker spreads – sharp cheddar, port wine, horseradish, vegetable, and liver pate’.  They also offered three soups (chicken rice, beefy rice, and clam chowder) and pickled herring.   One could certainly make an entire meal of this.  The salad was good and we tried all the cracker spreads, which were tasty as well.  Unfortunately, we didn’t have any room for soup.   I barely had room for my dinner!

Paul, who has had prime rib at numerous establishments, rated this excellent.  It was well seasoned and done perfectly.  The American fries and onions were also very good.  The Macaroni and Cheese was pretty good, but even better left over.  That is possibly because I was not hungry anymore once it arrived, and I had to bring about 3/4ths of it home in a box.

 

The Black Otter has a very wide array of ice cream drinks which we hope to try sometime in the future.  Definitely planning a return trip!