ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Friday night means fish fry, and The Packing House is a supper club that has been doing fish fries for 50 years now.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SHAPIRO: When you walk through the front door, it's like going back in time - tall ceilings lined with wood; low, dim lighting; jazzy music; and people sipping brandy Old Fashioneds at the bar, the drink that everyone says you have to have when you're in Wisconsin.
CHRIS WIKEN: How are you, my friend?
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: I'm good. How are you?
WIKEN: Good to see you.
SHAPIRO: This is the busiest night of the week. And owner Chris Wiken is keeping a broad smile on his face as he welcomes old-timers, despite some unexpected challenges.
WIKEN: Our internet and our phones went out...
SHAPIRO: Oh.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Yeah, we heard.
WIKEN: ...At the same time. And I'm like, awesome.
SHAPIRO: And on fish fry Friday.
WIKEN: I'm the oldest son of my parents, who opened The Packing House in 1974. I was 4 years old then.
SHAPIRO: You were just greeting those guests. Any idea how many years they've been coming here?
WIKEN: Oof. Probably all 50 of those years (laughter).
SHAPIRO: We've been reporting from this swing state all week as part of NPR's election series, We, The Voters. When we started planning this trip months ago, Wisconsinites told us, you have to visit a supper club, it's a classic Wisconsin thing. So when we finally set foot in one, I asked Chris Wiken...
What makes a supper club?
WIKEN: Ah. Well, this is the elusive question.
SHAPIRO: (Laughter).
WIKEN: So the whole idea of a supper club is somewhere that you're going to come to and you're going to spend the evening at.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SHAPIRO: A drink at the bar followed by steak or seafood in the dining room, then live music in the lounge with an ice cream cocktail - politically, The Packing House sits in a transitional area. Downtown Milwaukee to the north is staunchly Democratic. Five miles to the southwest, the city of Franklin went for Trump. Across the street is the Milwaukee airport, specifically the terminal that serves private jets, where Donald Trump, Kamala Harris or their running mates park every time they come to Milwaukee.
WIKEN: The police and the Secret Service come over and go, hey, Chris, you know, we're going to have to close down the street again. We're like, OK, good. Awesome.
SHAPIRO: (Laughter).
WIKEN: Fantastic.
(LAUGHTER)
WIKEN: And then I go out there and shake my fist at them, you know?
SHAPIRO: To both parties?
WIKEN: Like - yeah, to both.
SHAPIRO: (Laughter).
WIKEN: I give them equal.
SHAPIRO: He jokes that he'll vote for whoever shuts down the street in front of his restaurant fewer times. You won't see a Harris or Trump sign in front of The Packing House. He doesn't want to alienate his customers, who have a wide range of views, as we discovered when we started chatting people up at the bar. Janine Collette (ph) is meeting an old friend for dinner.
JANINE COLLETTE: We're not going back. And being a woman, that was a feminist call back in the day.
SHAPIRO: Collette grew up in Wisconsin before the Roe v. Wade decision legalized abortion here.
COLLETTE: And I remember in high school, we used to raise money in the girls' bathrooms to help girls go to the state of New York to get an abortion...
SHAPIRO: So you don't mean...
COLLETTE: ...Because that was the only...
SHAPIRO: ...Fundraisers. You mean gathering people's allowance money...
COLLETTE: Yes.
SHAPIRO: ...In the school bathroom?
COLLETTE: Yes. And it was quite often anonymous. It didn't matter.
SHAPIRO: So the phrase "we are not going back" has a visceral meaning for her, as she plans to cast her vote for the candidate she expects to become the first female U.S. president.
At the other end of the bar, Ron Rauch (ph) says he voted for Democrats his whole life, and this might be the first time he doesn't.
RON RAUCH: Well, it's very hard to see the difference when both of the major parties are going to continue shipping arms all over the world and especially to Gaza.
SHAPIRO: He's thinking about voting for Green Party candidate Jill Stein.
RAUCH: I think it's a moral stand to take because no matter what the numbers are, it's going to show that more people are questioning the duopoly.
SHAPIRO: And if Donald Trump wins by 20,000 votes - which is what the margin was in 2020 and in 2016 in Wisconsin - how do you think you'll feel the next day?
RAUCH: Yeah, that's generally what - you know, people are throwing that as a fear tactic. And I'm - again, I'm trying to more make a statement that the two-party system is showing its age and its frailties.
SHAPIRO: Wearing a Packers hat at the bar, Lise Alonco (ph) is nursing a beer while he waits for his food to arrive. He's raising his 18-year-old granddaughter.
LISE ALONCO: I think we need Donald Trump back in the White House. I want the economy to be put back together. I want energy. I want to drill, baby, drill, man.
SHAPIRO: He's also concerned about how immigration is changing the country.
ALONCO: People come here, and they don't have the same culture as ours, you know? I mean, they weren't brought up here. They don't understand and know a lot of the way our culture works.
UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL ARTIST: (Singing) Oh, giving ain't a crime to helpless people (ph).
SHAPIRO: Any supper club worth its salt has live music on Friday nights. Tony Ayala plays percussion.
TONY AYALA: I'm with the band.
SHAPIRO: He says politics will always be politics. His problem is with Trump's character.
AYALA: How do we represent our country? Like, the image - I have an issue with someone that has no filter. You know, I think in a position of being one of the most powerful person in the world, I think you have to be disciplined. We all would love to not have a filter.
(SOUNDBITE OF DISHES CLATTERING)
KIM PIOT: OK, 17.95 (ph).
SHAPIRO: Back of house, Kim Piot (ph) is working the drive-through fish fry window.
PIOT: I've been working here on and off for about 30 years.
SHAPIRO: It's a volume business, where the only question is how many you want.
PIOT: Hi.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: Hi. Two dinners and a clam chowder.
PIOT: You got it.
SHAPIRO: If she spots a dog in the car, the four-legged passenger gets a Milk-Bone through the window.
PIOT: Can your friend get a treat?
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #4: Yeah. Thanks.
SHAPIRO: What's the economy like for you personally these days?
PIOT: Well, it's horrible if you work in a restaurant, and I work - oh, my other job is for an airline, and people don't have any money.
SHAPIRO: So you work two jobs?
PIOT: Yeah.
(SOUNDBITE OF BAGS RUSTLING)
PIOT: You almost set?
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #5: Yeah.
PIOT: Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #5: Thank you.
PIOT: This is a tough business to run when no one has money 'cause this is where they cut first. You know, if you don't have bill money, you're not going to have go-out-to-dinner money.
SHAPIRO: Like her boss, she didn't want to tell us who she's voting for. And then she pointed out Margaret Wiken.
PIOT: You met Margaret yet? She's the matriarch right there.
SHAPIRO: Hard at work in the kitchen, Chris Wiken's 88-year-old mother, who opened this place back in 1974.
MARGARET WIKEN: Yeah.
SHAPIRO: Get out of your way.
WIKEN: Fifty years ago - course, I was only 10.
SHAPIRO: And what is it like to see this place still thriving after 50 years?
WIKEN: Well, it's wonderful, but it's a whole different era.
SHAPIRO: So can I ask how you're feeling about the election?
WIKEN: I don't know. And I'm not telling a story or anything. I really don't. One day, I think this way, and the next day, I think that way. Then I listen to what she has to say, and then I'm, you know, more in touch with that. And then the next thing, I hear what he says. And so I've got a little time yet to decide on that.
SHAPIRO: Yeah. Do you think about - being 88 - the country, the world your grandchildren, generations coming after you...
WIKEN: Absolutely.
SHAPIRO: ...Are going to inherit?
WIKEN: Even climate change - I think of - I have three young granddaughters. What is their world going to be? Like, I mean, will they be able to go outdoors, or will it be too hot, you know? I don't know.
SHAPIRO: So much about the future and this election is uncertain that there can be something comforting in the familiar. Fish fry Friday, a Wisconsin brandy Old Fashioned at the bar, and live music, in a place that's been doing pretty much the same thing since before most Americans were born.
UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL ARTIST: (Singing) Till you use me up.
SHAPIRO: Our reporting this week from Wisconsin was produced by Karen Zamora and Mia Venkat. It was edited by Ashley Brown.
And next week, our election series We, The Voters continues with our Morning Edition colleague Leila Fadel reporting from the swing state of Michigan.
UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL ARTIST: (Singing) It all depends on what you do. You see, it ain't too bad, the way you're using me, 'cause I sure am using you. Talking about you using me, well, it all depends... Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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