It's summer, a good time to take a break from city restaurants and drinks concocted by "mixologists." Milwaukee filmmaker Ron Faiola has made an homage to the throwback restaurants to our north that are very much alive and well.

Wisconsin Supper Clubs: An Old-Fashioned Experience (Agate Publishing, $35, SupperClubBook.com) follows Mr. Faiola's 2011 documentary of the same name, which focused on 14 supper clubs (the book, heavy with photos, showcases 50). Aficionados will recognize that the subtitle is a play on words, a brandy old-fashioned being the cocktail of choice in supper clubs.

The purest specimens of these native-to-Wisconsin, open-to-everyone eateries don't serve breakfast or lunch. They're often family-owned and -operated, frequently for generations. Menus usually feature a Friday fish fry, prime rib on Saturday and duck or chicken on Sunday. Decor-wise, there may be a taxidermied muskie or deer head. Salad bars and relish trays are de rigueur. There is no espresso machine.

We talked to Mr. Faiola recently about his dining adventures, from the North Woods to spots within easy reach of Chicagoans.

Did your family go to supper clubs when you were young?

Oh, sure. We'd go to the Rafters, in Oak Creek, not too far from our house. Supposedly Frank Sinatra used to go there. They just closed in 2011. When my grandpa and I used to go fishing, we'd always end up at a supper club. He told me how when he was a young man, he used to drive some guys from Chicago up north, take them to places like the Ranch, in Hayward. Back in the day, FBI agents posed as busboys there, trying to capture whoever they were after at the time.

What makes a place a supper club?

For one thing, it's a destination for the night. It's not hurry-up, rushed dining. You have a drink at the bar and catch up with your neighbors, then go to your table, hit the relish tray, eat dinner and then afterward go back to the bar for a grasshopper. It's a community meeting place. They make their food from scratch, and there are things you don't find on the home table — lobster sometimes, huge cuts of prime rib.

Any good local specialties?

Along the Wisconsin-Illinois border, from Racine west to Beloit, you'll find shrimp de Jonghe on the menu, which was invented in a Chicago hotel, but you don't see it up north. Likewise if you go out to the northwest, you get popovers hot out of the oven. Up in Superior, at Dreamland, they serve deep-fried turkey breast. It's battered and fried, served with butter. People hand down recipes through the family so their place becomes known for it.

What was the most surprising thing you ate?

Deep-fried snapping turtle, fresh out of the Mississippi River, was pretty wild. That was at 3 Mile House, in Hazel Green. It looked very intimidating when the bartender put it down — I could see the leg bones sticking out. He pointed me toward the middle part and actually it was really good.

What's the biggest piece of meat you saw?

Schwarz's in St. Anna's serves a 52-ounce cut of prime rib called the Charley Cut. They cut their own meat there, with a band saw. They also do a sirloin for two, and it's monster size, the size of a table. They have couples that come in and the guy will eat the whole thing by himself, plus the potato and the salad, and then have a grasshopper.

Not so much about the vegetables?

They kind of balance things out with salad bars and relish trays — something healthy to nibble on while you're trying to decide how big a piece of meat you're going to get.

What about fish?

Fresh whitefish usually comes from the Green Bay area or Lake Superior, and it's great broiled with seasoning and maybe a little butter. You can also get walleye from Lake Superior. The filets are huge. Whether they deep fry it or broil it, those are always very delicious. I had amazing lake perch in Green Bay, at Kropp's, and also at Shaffer Park, in Crivitz, on the Peshtigo River. Both had the biggest, meatiest, best-tasting perch. They must have a secret perch supplier up there.

Who has the most dazzling relish trays?

In Watertown, at Elias Inn, the lazy susan has pasta salad, potato salad, cheese, sausage, spreads, pickles, pickled herring and vegetables. It's real generous and doesn't cost extra — a great way to feed a family. Dreamland up in Superior has a huge relish tray. People have that and salad and then have their entrees packed up to go. That happens a lot — the owners say they don't mind.

What might surprise Chicagoans the most?

Maybe deep-fried cheese curds? Rocky's, in Stoddard, claims to have invented them, though I'm sure a lot of cooks up north would say they were the first. Back when, dairymen didn't know what to do with those curds — they were practically giving them away. And somebody said, “Let's put batter on 'em and fry 'em up.”

Cocktails?

The brandy old-fashioned is the drink. Martinis and other cocktails, too, but there's not a lot of beer drinking. After dinner, you've got pink squirrels, golden Cadillacs, grasshoppers.

Those involve ice cream?

Sometimes they're so thick, you spoon them out. Benedetti's in Beloit makes a grasshopper that stands at least a foot tall. Sandy, who runs the place, told me that out of a three-gallon bucket of ice cream she gets four drinks. It's a lot of ice cream — I think you'd wind up sharing it. Now that's a night out.