Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2023

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-4

Chapters 5-9

Chapters 10-14

Chapters 15-21

Chapters 22-23

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

The Yellow House

The Winthrop house on Grand Avenue in St. Paul, Minnesota, is frequently known as the “yellow house” in Florence’s inner monologue. This house represents both Florence’s past and the future that she imagines for herself. Florence was born in the yellow house, which she holds up as an emblem of financial success and social respectability, despite having few memories of living there. The novel also suggests that any such memories would not be as positive as her dreamy projected recollection of the place. Betty alludes to the abuse she suffered when Florence’s father returned from World War I with what would now be labeled post-traumatic stress disorder, which led to violent outbursts.

Even so, the narrative of the house—which belonged to Florence’s grandmother, Julia Winthrop, who was disinherited from her wealthy family who left their money only to their sons—represents, to Florence, a life of affluence and influence that she has been unjustly denied. Florence spends much of her life preoccupied with the house, reframing its role in her past as emblematic of her aspirations for the future; she plans to use the money she obtains from selling the Lakeside, whenever she inherits it, to purchase the house. When she learns, however, that Floyd and Betty intend to leave the Lakeside to Mariel instead of Florence, Florence revisits Grand Avenue to learn that the house has been demolished. The yellow house thus represents how Florence’s dreams for her own life conflict with her motherhood, despite the love she holds for her daughter. This, in turn, is linked to her presence in the novel, as Florence’s narration ends after she learns that the yellow house will never be hers.

Old-Fashioneds

Old-fashioneds are the iconic drink of the Lakeside Supper Club, followed by a cocktail called “Betty’s Lemonade,” invented by Florence’s mother. The omnipresence of the old-fashioned at the Lakeside hearkens back to the supper club’s history of offering strong cocktails in the Prohibition and post-Prohibition eras, and also suggests the particular Midwestern flair of the supper club’s culinary tradition. As Gustav notes at his 15th-anniversary dinner, the standard liquor of the supper club is not, as traditionally expected, bourbon, rye, or whiskey. Instead, Lois (a lifelong Lakeside server) tells him, “If you’re German, or from Wisconsin, [old-fashioneds] have brandy […] Or if you’re in a supper club” (203). This difference tracks the specific Midwestern tradition of supper clubs, tracking the origins of this tradition to the influence of German immigrant culture.

The old-fashioned is the drink of the Lakeside in Betty’s, Mariel’s, and Ned’s lifetimes. This reigning popularity suggests that the Lakeside, like its drink choice, is unchanging over time—a stable institution in a rapidly altering world. The name of the drink itself is thus a tongue-in-cheek joke about the Lakeside’s timelessness—the restaurant remains old-fashioned, just as its owners and patrons love.

Jorby’s

Jorby’s, the massive restaurant chain that Edward Prager (and later, his daughter Carla) expands from a single mom-and-pop restaurant in Red Wing, represents the novel’s perspective on the midcentury economic boom that led many massive corporations to overtake small businesses, especially in small towns. As Jorby’s becomes increasingly profitable, Ned notes that the quality of the dining experience deteriorates—food becomes cheaply mass-produced and less healthy or appealing.

While this boom is profitable for the Prager family’s economic fortunes, it comes at the cost of other small restaurants; though the Lakeside endures, it is threatened by the expansion of Jorby’s into Bear Jaw. Additionally, as Edward’s pressure on Ned to keep expanding the business indicates, the Jorby’s business model depends on constantly growing, which cannot be sustained indefinitely. By the end of the book, Carla has sold off the company (which, in turn, has cost her any relationship with her brother and niece) and Jorby’s has vanished, long before the Lakeside supper club it once threatened. Stradal thus suggests that, despite their narrower profits and more precarious financial positions, community-benefiting businesses like the Lakeside have more lasting power than large, soulless corporations.