Calhoun’s Beach Club: Where’s the Beach?

From the sports atmosphere of Legends and the old-timey look of St. Thomas Bar, we walked into relative upscale elegance at the Calhoun Beach Club.  A warm glow from hand-blown amber glass lamps lighted the dark wood of the bar and back bar.

Calhoun’s Beach Club: Where’s the beach?

Presiding over the eight taps was bartender Gary.  It was his first night solo behind the bar.  Though it was tempting to order some exotic, difficult to make cocktail, we settled for beer.  Marv and I opted for Pabst Blue Ribbon.  “Tell that to Steve,” he said.  Steve, our nephew, believes if you’re gonna drink beer, it better be a PBR.

Novice bartender Gary

Making sure that bartender Gary was doing fine was Kayleigh another bartender.  She sat a few bar stools north of us chatting with a friend, but keeping a friendly eye on Gary.

Many moons ago when our trail ride took us to the Paddock Club in Nordheim, we’d met a guy who had urged us to visit Calhoun’s Beach Club.  He’d had something to do with the remodeling of the place.  Brian, that was his name, sat next to me at the bar. I told Brian about our tavern visits and asked him to suggest a place.  “Calhoun’s Beach Club,” he said adding that he did the carpentry work there.  He replaced the fieldstone wall with a back bar of wood with pillars.  Think we’ll just have to put Calhoun’s on our must see list.  I have to say that Brian did a superb job!

Hand blown glass lamps, warm colors. What ambiance!

Neither Gary nor Kayleigh knew much about the history of this place.  They estimated it had been a tavern for about thirty years.  The rest of us have trouble remembering a time when it wasn’t Calhoun’s.  Before being a tavern, a restaurant occupied this southwest corner of Main and Irving.  So, later I consulted with our local tavern historian, Dick L.  According to his research, a building has occupied this corner since 1891 when J. C. Voss Grocer and Dealer in “staple and fancy family groceries, vegetables, fruits,” etc. opened.  A bar in connection stocked “the very best wines, liquors, etc.”  It remained a sample room, which is a fancy name for a tavern, until Prohibition arrived.  Though the place remained a saloon, it went through five owners during this time:  J. C. Voss, Frank Larie, Harry Whittenberger, Adolph Meyer, Otto Wishnowsky.  Otto Wishnowsky’s place changes from a saloon to a place selling soft drinks.  A sure sign of prohibition.  Herbert, Raddatz, Edward Tank and Norman Rusch are listed as having soft drinks parlors at this site.  But then it’s back to taverns owned by Harry Carols, Charles Madison, and Joseph Reidy—clearly Prohibition is over.  The next place is listed as the Roxy Bar Tavern which we think may have been the original site of the Roxy which is now a couple of blocks south on Main Street.  The tavern names continue with Club 375, Rusty’s, Rusty’s Supper Club.  And then Marvin Gardens Restaurant and lastly Marvin Gardens (Monopoly, anyone?) Tavern.  Marv and I think when we moved to Oshkosh in 1966, Marvin Gardens was the name of this establishment.

Elaine in the Swanky Women’s Rest Room

Hmmm, Sunglasses behind the taps. A beach sign?

Very interesting!  But no one can tell me why this tavern is named Calhoun’s Beach Club?  Who’s Calhoun?  Where’s the beach?  Is there open membership in the club?

When the drinking age was 18, this place and the other taverns at “Rocket Corners” were hot spots for the UW Oshkosh students.  The six of us remember seeing “weekend” (Tuesday though Saturday) lines of students waiting to get into these bars.  But not now.  Only students in their mid-twenties and older patronize the place Gary told us, which backed up what Grace next door in the St. Thomas Bar had already said.

The front room atmosphere of Calhoun’s is that of a sophisticated cocktail lounge.  We took our beers to the middle table along the south wall and visited.  But the urge to explore got the best of us and we wandered.  Elaine and I checked out the women’s rest room.  By far the classiest one we had ever seen on the beer trail.  Marv reported that the men’s was also clean and updated, but lacking a “health center.”  Lots of tan tiles and …  The somewhat less sophisticated back room had the usual game machines:  two dart games, three power player games, black jack and one called “Fat Man Games.”  We found no posters from beer companies advertising sports schedules.  But we did admire the large posters of Audrey Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe.

Audrey and Marilyn in the back room

It was the end of our April Trail Ride.  We drove home trying to set a date for the next one.  But Elaine and Gary were going to be cruising in a houseboat on Lake Kentucky and Don and Judy were headed west to New Mexico, but not to put out the wildfire.  Maybe by the next ride, we would know who the new basketball coaches would be at UW Oshkosh.

Elaine, Judy and Don saying “Farewell” to the April 18 ride.

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Telling New Legends

On this mild April 18 night, we strolled south on Main Street to Legends.  Marv crossed the street to check out Sami’s to see if they served supper.  Only froz

Don and Elaine Point out the welcome Sign for Trail Riders!

en pizza, he said, so we continued our walk to Legends.  Legends, 600 N. Main Street, sure doesn’t look like the American Table Restaurant which occupied this building until August 1, 2011. Now this place is one large room with a bar along the east wall, booths along the south, west and north sides and tables in the center.

We felt right at home here once we saw the entrance sign welcoming trail riders and another saying no guns allowed.  Our beer choices were numerous and Ryan was eager to pour whatever we asked for.  Decisions…decisions.  Fourteen taps!  I chose a Blue Moon (yes, it came with an orange slice), Judy had a Honey Weiss with a lime slice, Elaine had a New Glarus Cabin Fever, Marv and Don chose Stella Atrois.  And you know about Gary—designated drivers don’t drink on the job.

Legends is owned by the man who owned American Table.  He was influenced to make the change from diner to sports bar by his brother who owns a successful sports bar in Madison.  Before American Table this building was home to a Country Kitchen and before that?

Anyone for Three Stooges Football?

Well, our main source for Oshkosh history, tavern and otherwise, is Dick L.  When he was a kid, he says, a butcher shop sat on this northeast corner of Main and Parkway.  His mom shopped there, he says.  According to Dick’s research, the first building on this site was erected in 1872 and it was a grocery store owned by Peter Lichtenberger.  Then it became a Lichtenberger & Co. grocery store and saloon.  Gives new meaning to one-stop shopping, doesn’t it.  Next, Ida Lichtenberger operated the place as just a grocery store, but Adolph Lichtenberger grocery store and sample room followed that.  He was also alderman of the 4^th ward.  The Lichtenberger name disappears from the records and is replaced by Macke and Jackisch and later Macke and Kitz grocery store.  It remained a grocery store under different family names:  Kneller, Kuebler and then Kuebler & Walter Scott Markets, Inc.  I know that Walter Scott (not the author of Ivanhoe!) ran several meat markets in town.  In its last years it was a Good Life Natural Foods and the Kitchen Korner Health Food Shoppe.  After that, the building was torn down and the Country Kitchen erected on this spot.  If any of this is wrong, blame Dick L.

Friendly Ray working the taps.

We chose a table in the center of the room.  Here we could watch any of the fourteen TVs hanging from the ceiling surrounding the room.  Each was tuned to a sports channel.  We had our choice of watching basketball, baseball or hockey.  That’s a lot of TVs we told the waitress, but Evil Roy Slade’s has more—17, if I remember correctly.

The menu here is long with lots of tasty choices:  5 wraps, 6 salads, 5 Paninis, 9 sandwiches, 8 burgers, pasta dishes like lasagna, New York style pizza and Chicago “stuffed pan” pizza, entrees like steaks, ribs and salmon as well as 15 appetizers, which Legends calls Game Starters.

Gary had a gyro; Elaine and Judy, perch plates; Marv, a brat; Don, a chicken wrap; and because I was a Classics major at UW

Our Friendly Waitress, Frankie & Elaine

Milwaukee, I had a Caesar salad.  Everyone praised the food. That night the dessert was triple-layer chocolate cake.  I was tempted because I like the taste of chocolate and beer, but said no.

While we ate Don and Judy told us stories of the Boston Marathon. The Amy cheering section was stationed at a couple of stops along the track.  They watched runners board busses to take them to the starting line and gave a runner the five-dollar fee for the bus.  Later, as she ran past them during the race, she yelled, “I owe you five bucks!”

We also learned that another Lourdes graduate besides Amy ran the Boston Marathon.  He, Scott B., took Amy’s picture.

Judy’s favorite Boston Marathon story came from her grandson Henry, Amy’s son, who asked his mom “If she wanted a piggyback ride” after running 26.2 miles in the plus 80 heat.

After drinking a toast to Amy, we drank another toast that night—this time to Don’s twin siblings, Bob and Carolyn who were celebrating their 85^th birthday.  Since all three of us women belong to book clubs, the subject of what we would be recommending for the next year came up.  Someone suggested 50 Shades of Gray.  After watching the Saturday Night Live skit featuring that book, I don’t think the gals in my group are up to that.  What about The Hunger Games?  Don had read it on the plane and wasn’t impressed.  I told him I didn’t read stuff written for teens, having passed those years decades ago.

Gary smiling cuz no firearms are allowed.

Of course, we talked about filling the basketball coaches vacancies at UWO and Ripon.  But you’re not going to get any gossip from us.  Don told the story of a Florida neighbor who met Michael Jordan as he was registering for classes as a freshman at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill back in the 80s.  Knowing he had enrolled to play basketball, she asked for and received his autograph.  Years later a college in Vermont, where she was working, was searching for a basketball coach—preferably an African American.  According to her, the Athletic Director ignored her suggestions until she called John Thompson at Georgetown University to ask if he could suggest some African American possibilities.  He blew her off until she told him she “knew” Michael Jordan and had his autograph.  He immediately changed his tune and offered her suggestions of possible coaches.  The Power of Magic.

Our supper plates and beer glasses were empty by this time.  We paused long enough to look at a notice board near the door to read about Legends Volleyball.  There’s a snazzy new court behind the building.

It was just a one-block walk in the early evening sunshine to our third stop, Calhoun’s Beach Club.

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