It’s hard not to notice the low-slung, circular black-and-white building with the unusual space-age design along Interstate 94 between Milwaukee and Madison. And if you look long enough at it, it does kind of look like a turkey. It’s The Gobbler, and it began beckoning travelers to Johnson Creek for a meal at its supper club in 1969.
“It’s more than just a building,” says Jim Weatherly, a former logistics executive who led the effort to revive it as the new Gobbler Theater. “There are a lot of people who have an emotional attachment to it and wanted to see it continue.”
The Gobbler was designed by Fort Atkinson architect Helmut Ajango for local poultry mogul Clarence Hartwig, whose meat-processing plant was located nearby. The now retro-futuristic structure features oblong windows made to resemble the eyes of a turkey.
The paragon of poultry’s supper club era ended in 1992 when it closed due to lingering financial woes. In 2015, it found new life as The Gobbler Theater, functioning mainly as a music venue, but that came to a halt five years ago, after the death of its owner, Dan Manesis. Weatherly, concert promoter Jon Kaiser and a group of investors bought The Gobbler and have a broader vision for the music venue while still engaging fans of what Manesis created…