Outagamie County supper club closing after nearly 70 year run

OUTAGAMIE COUNTY, Wis. (WFRV) – Nearly 70 years of amazing memories ended for an Outagamie County supper club on Thursday night.

Mer & Jackie’s Five Corners Supper Club has been around since 1955. Thursday night was its last night in business with a large crowd of family, friends, and long-time patrons coming out to say their goodbyes.

“Happiness that I don’t have to cook anymore, but sadness when all the customers are hugging you and saying you can’t go,” said the owners Connie and Joe Bessette. “Then it gets sad.”

Joe’s parents were the ones who started the business back in 1955. Joe got involved with the business shortly after and remembers working at the supper club growing up. He said at the time it was one of the only supper clubs in the area.

It started out as a tavern and eventually expanded into a supper club. Frog legs and old-fashioned are among the most popular items sold at Mer & Jackie’s Five Corners Supper Club over the years.

While the Bessette’s said they hope people remember how good the food and drinks were, they also hope they remember the service and hospitality.

“It’s all neighbors who come in and everybody pretty much knows each other when they come through the door,” they said.

The bar was supposed to open for its last day (they stopped serving food a few days ago) at 4:30 on Thursday afternoon. But at 4 p.m., there were already several dozen people around the bar, a testament to how much this place has meant to people over the years.

“Everybody wants to pay their respects, to the good times, and the good bar tending and the good waitresses that we’ve had here,” said Mike Banker who is Joe’s cousin.

Banker said he comes to visit Joe at the bar every week and that the Bessette’s would do anything to help anybody who needs it.

He said they’ve had a lot of great times here over the years.

“We always had birthday songs out here, we always had birthday cake out here, we always had parties and we always had a good time,” said Banker.

Over at the other side of the bar, Cindy and Tom Mommaerts have also been coming to this supper club for a large chunk of their lives. They’re sad to see it go.

“The friendship, the fun, the good drinks, the good food,” said Cindy when asked why this place is so special. “Unlike other places, you can talk to people and they’re happy and friendly.”

“The atmosphere is fantastic, it’s like a home away from home,” said Tom. “They take time to talk to everybody, they make you feel welcomed.”

Cindy and Tom said this is a place where you make friends as well. Sitting next to them at the bar on Thursday night is one of the friends they met here, a woman named Carrie Petersen.

She is a bit of a supper club aficionado but said Mer & Jackie’s Five Corner’s Supper Club is the best one around.

“We went to all supper clubs probably within 100 miles of Appleton and this is home,” she told Local 5 News.

The Bessette’s said they’re closing the supper club so they can retire. They said the building is up for sale and that they hope someone will buy it and continue on with their supper club legacy here.

“We’re going to miss the people, really going to miss the people,” they told Local 5 News. “Just for being there and supporting us, it’s been super, without them we wouldn’t have been there for all those years.”

“I have tears in my eyes that it’s over it’s been so many years that I’ve been coming here,” said Cindy.

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