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Tri-County news • New Holstein Progress 2019 • Thursday, May 2, 2019
Altona offers consistently high quality By Mark Sherry Consistency is a good thing—assuming, of course, that it is something of high quality, performance, and/or value. Such is the case at New Holstein’s Altona Supper Club, which continues to offer consistently great food at a reasonable cost. Owners Jason Hunsader and Dave Braun have now added further to the consistency of the Altona by offering buffets every night of the week. There was a time not long ago that the supper club did not have buffets on Monday through Wednesday evenings, but that is no longer the case. The Altona’s popular buffet is now available seven days a week, including the separate and extensive soup and salad bar. Daily lunch buffets are from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. with weeknight dinner buffets from 3 to 8:30 p.m. Its specialty buffets are its Friday seafood buffet and its Saturday prime rib buffet, both from 4 to 9:30 p.m. Broad buffet selection In addition to all-you-can-eat tasty food at a reasonable cost, another thing which makes the Altona’s buffets so popular is their broad selection. Hunsader—one of two primary cooks at the Altona—said they make sure they offer five primary meat/fish entrees on every buffet, not to mention potato and vegetable options. Chicken, shrimp, pork chops, and the Altona’s famous ribs—covered in a sweet barbecue sauce—are standards on the buffet, and then the cooks like to rotate one other meat or fish into the selection. “The more consistent you are, the better,” Hunsader said. The fact that the Altona Supper Club is open seven days per week is another benefit of consistency for diners. While many supper clubs and restaurants take a day off during the week, customers of the Altona Supper Club know one of their favorite spots is open seven days per week and most holidays. Lunch is served starting at 11 a.m. every day except Saturdays when the Altona opens at 4 p.m. Its extremely popular Sunday brunch starts at 9:30 a.m., but the supper club remains open on Sundays until 8:30 p.m. It also is noteworthy that the Altona is open every holiday except Christmas Eve. A big reason why the Altona Supper Club has been able to further expand its offerings to the dining public is the addition of full-time employees Ryan Kramp and Nick Hanson. Kramp has worked for the Altona for four or five years but is now full time, taking a lead
Full-time employees Nick Hanson (left) and Ryan Kramp (second from right) are helping Altona Supper Club co-owners Dave Braun (second from left) and Jason Hunsader continue to expand their services. Mark Sherry photo
position as both a waiter and bartender. Hanson provides the second half of the head cooking team along with Hunsader. Between Braun, Hunsader, Kramp, and Hanson, at least two of the four are on site whenever the Altona is open to make sure things are running smoothly. There are a lot of other members of the team who help the Altona Supper Club offer consistently good food and service. The owners said they are fortunate to not be too challenged by the worker shortage experienced by many businesses. “We have a good base,” Hunsader said, adding that some of their employees have been with them from the day they took over operations on May 1, 2007. Handling all sorts of functions In addition to consistency, another word which helps the Altona excel is flexibility. From the single diner who comes in to eat there or get a takeout meal, to hosting weddings and other functions of 300 or more people, to catering off-site functions for 20 to 500 people, or serving as many as 1,300 people on a major holiday, the Altona can and has done it. The clean, well decorated facility also has long been a central meeting location for groups and organizations from near and far. Other than Sunday brunch it is not open to the public for breakfast, but
early on one recent weekday morning there were two meetings taking place— a regional meeting for a major national retailer, and an insurance company meeting. Community meetings and presentations, funeral dinners, bridal showers, and so much more are regularly hosted at the Altona Supper Club. With their added full-time staff, Braun and Hunsader said they hope to expand their catering services. They have customized food service for events—many of them outdoors—from Manitowoc to Sheboygan and Fond du Lac to Appleton and all points in between. “We have a foot in every door,” Hunsader said. A new door opening for the Altona will be construction of an outdoor pavilion off the East Room. This basically will offer a roof and the ability to put up tent sides to further expand the type
residents for rides around the community once warmer weather arrives. Megan Dennison is the executive director of the center owned by North Shore Healthcare, which owns approximately 50 centers primarily in Wisconsin but also in Minnesota and North Dakota. North Shore Healthcare’s corporate offices are located in the Milwaukee suburb of Glendale. Focusing on needs of residents North Shore Healthcare’s website states, “We pride ourselves on being the cornerstone of healthcare in the communities we serve. We focus on your needs and preferences, from the time
Again, that “way” is offering good, plentiful food at a reasonable price. The tens of thousands of people who dine there each year are proof enough that the Altona Supper Club is consistently doing things the right way.
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Willowdale As the acuity level of care required by residents at nursing centers such as Willowdale continues to increase, the nursing staff at Willowdale also continually keeps up on training to provide that care. As an example, Willowdale’s nurses recently went through oxygen and IV training. Kristine Kopp is the director of nursing at Willowdale Health Services and brings many years of nursing experience to the approximately 40-bed center. Samantha Platz is the activities director at Willowdale, providing weekly and special events and services for residents. One of those special offerings is the trishaw bicycle which will be taking
and size of functions and the venues at the Altona three seasons per year. Braun and Hunsader said they hope to have that pavilion constructed this summer. Like most things in life, it is impossible to please all the people all the time, and nothing is perfect. Braun and Hunsader said they welcome constructive comments and they have made changes in the past based on those comments. They said they do not try to be like other supper clubs. “We do well because we do things differently, we do things our way,” Braun said. Hunsader added, “I think we have a niche in the way we do things.”
continued from page 13B you inquire about one of our centers through your entire healthcare journey. In our skilled nursing centers we offer 24/7 admissions and have the clinical capabilities to accept and treat varying diagnoses. Our approach is to ensure your clinical care, dietary services, social activities, and rehabilitation are delivered with compassion.” That compassion extends to the sometimes difficult discussions of paying for skilled nursing care. “Naomi does a great job helping with those things,” Voelker said. While everyone knows skilled care can be expensive, Heus knows all the options for making sure the focus stays on getting people the care they need. She
encourages people to stop in or call her at Willowdale if they have any questions about the financial aspects of skilled nursing care. While people are doing a better job of taking care of themselves in their later years, statistics show that 57 percent of the population still will need the services of a care facility at some point in their lives. With many of Willowdale’s staff members being very active in community organizations, referrals often come from someone knowing someone. It is one of the benefits of being in a small community, and those benefits are felt by the residents of Willowdale Health Services.