George "Showboat" Fisher had just retired in from ten years of major and minor league baseball, playing for the Washington Senators and the St. Louis Cardinals. He was 33, loved hunting and fishing, and didn't want to get tied down with a year-round job so he opened Fisher's Club on the northeast shore of Middle Spunk Lake.
The dance floor by the jukebox was added in , and the sale of cold beer and playing of slot machines made the summer-only bar a popular place. So popular, that Showboat would spend most summer nights sleeping by the front door, with his shotgun and hunting dog as his only companions. This was to protect the day's gambling takes. Back then, ten-year-old George Jr. His dad would give the fried fish away free at the bar until one summer night a savvy nightclub owner from St.
Cloud walked in and told Showboat, "You should get walleye and sell it. That recipe is used here today. It's still a secret, and no, we won't tell you what is in it. Fisher's was closed during the final two years of WWII, reopening in the summer of The Bottle Club feature was added then, and Flo cooked fish and sandwiches in a tiny kitchen space behind the current bar wall.
The main dining room was added in , and the porch in ' Junior came home from a construction job in Greenland to work with his dad at The Club. So he stayed. In , Junior and his wife Sally took over the operation of Fisher's Club, expanding the current kitchen and adding their own touches to the place.
This includes the celebrated red wallpaper in the bar area, bought by Flo and Sally and hung with the help of friends Hazel Lundberg, Marge Blattner, and Joy Netter. Sally and Hazel spent one long, hot summer making batch after batch of potato salad until they arrived at their now-famous recipe, which we faithfully follow.
