Where can I get a Friday fish fry in Neillsville?

Schmitty's on Main and the Neillsville Breakfast Club both stay open until 8 on Fridays for fish fry. Apple Valley Road Haus, the Wildcat supper club and the Neillsville Country Club clubhouse also serve fish fry.

Is there a supper club near Neillsville?

Yes, two. The Wildcat is on County Road B about 6.6 miles west and opens Thursday to Saturday, 4 to 8. Fannies Supper Club is on US 10 about 4.8 miles east and opens Tuesday to Saturday from 4.

Where can I eat breakfast in Neillsville on a Monday?

The Neillsville Breakfast Club on East Division Street opens at 6 every day, including Monday. Schmitty's on Main is closed on Mondays.

Is there Chinese food in Neillsville?

Yes. King House Chinese Restaurant at 537 Hewett Street is open Tuesday to Sunday from 10:30 to 8 and closed on Mondays.

Which Neillsville restaurants are open late?

Apple Valley Road Haus serves until 11 every night, and JD's Brickyard Pub and Grub stays open until 2:30 in the morning on Fridays and Saturdays. Most downtown kitchens close by 8.

When is Love + Flour Bakery open?

Love + Flour Bakery on Hewett Street is open Wednesday to Friday from 7 to 2 and Saturday from 8 until noon. It is closed Sunday to Tuesday.

Neillsville WI Restaurants: Fish Fry, Supper Clubs, Pie

Eating out in a Clark County town runs on an early clock. Breakfast starts at 6, most downtown kitchens are done by 8, and the dinner places worth driving to sit out on the highway with short weekly schedules. Neillsville restaurants follow that pattern closely, and once you know it the town feeds you well: a breakfast counter that sells pie, two supper clubs a few miles out in either direction, a bakery with a perfect rating from 265 reviewers, and a Friday fish fry in at least four kitchens.

Everything below is grouped by meal, with the days each place opens, because the opening days are what trip people up here, not the menus.

Where to eat in Neillsville, at a glance

Downtown is compact. Hewett Street and the cross streets from 5th to 7th hold the breakfast spots, the bakery, the Chinese restaurant and most of the taverns, all within a five-minute walk. East Division Street (US 10 going east) has the fast food, the Breakfast Club and the golf course kitchen. The supper clubs are out of town: Fannies about 5 miles east on US 10, the Speakeasy about 5 miles west on the same road, and the Wildcat on County B about 6.6 miles west.

Mondays are thin. Schmitty's, King House and the Speakeasy are all closed, and the Wildcat only opens Thursday to Saturday. If you arrive on a Monday night, the Breakfast Club has closed for the day, so Apple Valley, A&W and the bars on 5th and 7th Streets are your options.

Breakfast and coffee

Schmitty's on Main

Schmitty's on Main, at 436 Hewett Street, is the downtown breakfast and lunch room, with more than 300 Google reviews behind it. Expect a patty melt on marble rye with American and Swiss, deep-fried green beans, coffee that keeps getting refilled, and malts served with the steel mixing cup so there is enough to share.

It opens at 7 every day except Monday and closes at 2, apart from Friday, when it stays open until 8 for fish. Garlic-seared haddock with crinkle fries is on the fish specials.

Neillsville Breakfast Club

The Neillsville Breakfast Club, on East Division Street, is the early option: doors open at 6 every day of the week, and it runs until 3 in the afternoon (8 on Fridays). It is family-owned and plain in the best way, with big portions of homemade breakfast, burgers and fish at lunch, and pie that is worth saving room for.

It is the sit-down breakfast that opens on Mondays, which makes it the default for anyone driving through at the start of the week. There is a kids menu, high chairs and a free lot out front.

For coffee, Just Love Coffee Cafe on Sunset Place, at the west end of town near US 10, opens at 6 on weekdays and 7 at weekends. It is part of a national chain that started as a small roaster, and it does breakfast and lunch built around a waffle iron, which is either a gimmick or genius depending on how hungry you are. There is outdoor seating that welcomes dogs.

Then there is Love + Flour Bakery on Hewett Street, which holds a 5.0 rating across 265 Google reviews. Bread, donuts, banana bread, cookies and pastries come out on Wednesday to Friday mornings from 7 to 2 and on Saturdays from 8 until noon. Saturday hours are only four hours long, so go early.

The Friday fish fry

Friday night fish is a Wisconsin habit rather than a menu item, and in Neillsville it changes the hours of half the town. Schmitty's and the Breakfast Club both stay open until 8 on Fridays for it. Apple Valley Road Haus calls its fish fry a signature dish, and the Wildcat puts fish fry and walleye on the same menu as its prime rib.

The quietest version is at the Neillsville Country Club on East Division, where the clubhouse kitchen (the 10th Hole Bar and Grill) runs a Friday fry alongside cheese curds and a build-your-own salad bar. You do not need to golf to eat there.

The standard Wisconsin plate is cod or haddock with coleslaw, rye bread and a choice of potato. Lent is the busy season for fish fries across the state, so call ahead then.

Supper clubs out on the highway

A Wisconsin supper club is a dinner-only roadhouse with a bar up front, steak and fish on the menu, and a brandy old fashioned before you order. Neillsville has two within about 7 miles, and they sit in opposite directions.

The Wildcat

The Wildcat is on County Road B about 6.6 miles west of downtown, in a building you could drive past without noticing. Inside it is warmer than the outside suggests, with a fireplace, a bar and a menu of prime rib, ribeye, walleye, shrimp, fresh-baked bread and smoked brisket pasta. The old fashioned gets more praise than anything else on the list, and the bourbon shelf is deeper than you expect out here.

It is open Thursday, Friday and Saturday only, from 4 to 8, and it takes reservations. On a Friday, use them.

Fannies Supper Club & Motel

Fannies Supper Club, on US 10 about 4.8 miles east of town, is the long-running one, with a motel attached for anyone who would rather not drive after dinner. It opens at 4 from Tuesday to Saturday and serves until about 8 or 8:30 midweek and 9 on Fridays and Saturdays.

Cocktails are the strong suit and the kitchen leans on comfort food and the chef's specials. It takes reservations and handles groups, but vegans will struggle.

West on US 10, the Speakeasy Saloon is a looser kind of evening: a bar and grill about 5 miles out, best known for broasted chicken, with an outdoor bar open Thursday to Sunday. It is next door to the Silver Dome Ballroom, and the ballroom sends its show crowds there for food. Hours run from 3 in the afternoon on weekdays and noon at weekends, and it is closed Mondays.

Burgers, pizza and a game room

Apple Valley Road Haus and Event Center

Apple Valley Road Haus, on the west side of town where US 10 leaves downtown, is the place that is open when others are not: 11 in the morning until 11 at night, seven days a week. The menu covers burgers, steaks, fish, cocktails and Panther's Pizza, there is a fireplace and a game room, and dogs are allowed on the outdoor seating.

It doubles as an event center for weddings and parties, with a Guest Haus on site for overnight stays, so a Saturday can be busy. Reviewers are happy with the food and the prices and occasionally less happy with the wait when it is full.

JD's Brickyard Pub & Grub

JD's Brickyard Pub and Grub, on West 7th Street, is a downtown bar with a full kitchen. The prime rib sandwich and the burgers are the orders, the beer list is good for a town this size, and there are arcade games, bar games and a private room for groups. Outdoor seating opens in warm weather.

Hours are long at the weekend (until 2:30 in the morning on Fridays and Saturdays) and it opens mid-afternoon on Mondays and Wednesdays. Check before you go on a Tuesday.

Strike Time Lanes on South Grand Avenue feeds the bowlers and anyone else: burgers, nachos, deep-fried mushrooms, pizza and wings, with 12 lanes behind you. And on East Division, the A&W is exactly what you think: root beer brewed in the restaurant and served in a frosted mug, Coney dogs and cheese curds. It opens daily from 10:30 to 9 and has a drive-through.

Chinese food

King House Chinese Restaurant

King House, at 537 Hewett Street, is the Chinese restaurant downtown and does exactly what a small-town Chinese kitchen should: chicken fried rice, egg rolls, orange chicken, and most orders ready in about 15 minutes. It is open from 10:30 to 8, Tuesday to Sunday, and closed on Mondays.

Most people take it to go, and it is an easy dinner to carry back to a motel room.

Taverns downtown and out of town

Drippy Creek Saloon II on West 6th Street is a grill tavern that makes a point of fresh burgers rather than frozen patties, with crinkle-cut fries on the side. The grill closes at 8 on weeknights and the bar is closed on Sundays.

A block away, the Glass House on West 5th is a straightforward bar with drink specials, open from 10 in the morning every day (11 on Sundays) and until 10 on Fridays and Saturdays.

South of town on Highway 95, about 3.6 miles out, the Low Rider Tavern is a country sports bar with games and an outdoor patio, open from 10 in the morning until midnight every day.

Down by the river: the Riviera

About 8.5 miles south-southwest of town, on the Black River near Lake Arbutus, Riviera Bar and Grill is the bar and restaurant for the Riviera resort and campground. The menu is handhelds, pizza and gourmet burgers, and there is live music on some nights. It opens at 11 on Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday until 10, and until midnight on Fridays and Saturdays.

It pairs well with a day at Levis Mound or Bruce Mound, both a few miles to the west.

Cheese, groceries and picnic supplies

If you are building a picnic for the Highground or Listeman Arboretum, two stops cover it. Pavilion Cheese and Gifts, in the World's Fair building beside Chatty Belle, sells Wisconsin cheese by the block, including a 12-year aged white cheddar, along with Munson Bridge wines and Wisconsin beers like Spotted Cow for the cooler.

Hansen’s IGA on West 5th Street is the town grocery, open from 7 in the morning until 9 at night (8 at weekends), with a deli doing fried chicken, local eggs and milk and cheese from Nasonville Dairy.

Between meals there is plenty to fill a day. Apart from the forest trails, most of the things to do in Neillsville sit within a few miles of Hewett Street.

If dinner is the Wildcat or the Speakeasy, the Highground memorial is on the same stretch of US 10 and is lit after dark.

Getting to Neillsville from Eau Claire is about 45 road miles, and from Wausau about 70, by the city's own count.

Eating with kids

Most kitchens here are family places by default. The Breakfast Club has a kids menu, high chairs and changing tables. The Wildcat, for all its old fashioneds, also has high chairs and a kids menu, and dinner there finishes early enough for a school night. Strike Time puts bumpers and a ball ramp on the lanes and serves pizza at the table, and A&W has a drive-through for the car seat crowd.

Apple Valley has a game room, which buys you some peace while the food comes. Schuster Park, a short walk from the A&W on East Division Street, is the playground to finish at.

What it costs

Prices are small-town. Google lists most of the downtown kitchens, including Schmitty's, the Breakfast Club, King House, the Glass House, Drippy Creek and Apple Valley, in the 10 to 20 dollar range per person. The Wildcat is the step up, at around 20 to 30 dollars a head before drinks, and the Low Rider lands in the same band.

Cards are widely taken, but the smaller taverns are the places to carry some cash just in case.