My wife Sandy and I, along with longtime friends Bob and Monica Hansen, paid what we figured would be our last visit to Mariner’s Inn last week.
We were far from alone as dozens of longtime fans of the iconic Madison supper club waited in line to experience one more dinner while seated alongside the Yahara River as it flows into Lake Mendota, the first of the four lakes it eventually feeds.
The Mariner’s is closing later this week, Aug. 30 to be exact — a sad day, we all agreed, for the Madison area’s restaurant scene. We had all been regulars at Mariner’s since 1966 when Bill and Betty von Rutenberg bought the old Jack Burke’s supper club and renamed it to reflect its nautical setting…