House of Embers celebrates 50th anniversary
Andy Steinke/Events
Above: Is the current House of Embers restaurant. The new restaurant was built in 1976, and the veranda room was added in 1992.
By Andy Steinke, Dells Events
wde-news@capitalnewspapers.com
Before you set foot into any one of the many unique dining rooms at Wally’s House of Embers you know you’re in a special place.
The newspaper and magazine clippings and pictures of yesteryear won’t let you forget about the Lake Delton mainstay’s history and delectable food.
This year that storied history will be celebrated as the House of Embers turns 50 years old.
The supper club had modest origins as Wally and Barbara Obois and Don Grieves bought Ray’s Barbecue from Don’s father Ray Grieves in 1959 and renamed it House of Embers.
"We used to work at the Del-Bar," Barbara said of the restaurant across the street from Wally’s, "and we knew Ray Grieves, and he wanted to sell. It was the right price."
Barbara and Wally met at the Del-Bar while Wally was tending bar and Barbara was hostessing.
Don partnered with the couple for about a year before Wally and Barbara took over sole ownership of the House of Embers.
The restaurant wasn’t much more than a shack — complete with a dirt basement — son Mark Obois said, and it held about 80 guests in its two rooms, one red and one green.
While creating a menu, the couple discovered that a lot of people liked ribs, but they weren’t sure how best to cook the meat.
After some trial and error, they found smoking the ribs over hot charcoal embers was the best solution. The restaurant’s name also stemmed from this decision, Wally said.
The House of Embers now smokes the ribs over hickory logs for half an hour before basting them and slow cooking them in an oven for three hours.
Mark, now 46 and co-owner of the restaurant with brother Mike and sister Deb Christensen, remembers working many jobs at the original House of Embers.
"My first job was at 5 (years old) wiping off chairs," he said. At 10-years-old he sorted silverware, and at 12 he washed towels, vacuumed, bused tables and sorted bottles. By age 14 he started working in the kitchen and by 18 he was bartending.
Christensen said she remembers vacuuming the red and green rooms and doing dishes for 50 cents an hour.
In 1976, Wally and Barbara decided to build a new restaurant just behind the original House of Embers.
"Money was good back then," Mark said. "They had to remodel or rebuild because it was in disrepair."
The Oboises continued to operate while the new building was built and only closed for two weeks to move supplies before re-opening in the new restaurant.
The rooms
When the new restaurant opened it was summer, so there wasn’t a need for the coat room that had been built.
"We figured, ‘We don’t need to put coats in there,’" Barbara said. "People came in and asked for a quiet room, so we said ‘OK this is our quiet room.’"
A table was added to the closet, and the now infamous, two person Omar Sharif room has been site to 500 proposals, Mark estimates.
Barbara loved decorating and she loved Omar Sharif — star of "Doctor Zhivago," "Lawrence of Arabia," "Funny Girl" and other films — so that became the room’s theme.
The intimate room was a success and about five years later the Oboises created another room: The Rudolph Valentino room. An alcohol storage room next to the Lounge was downsized to create the room, and Barbara stuck with the movie theme.
Around 1980 a third specialty room, later named the Humphrey Bogart room, was formed from an alcove in the restaurant. Mark said he came up with the theme for the room, and found an original movie poster from "Battle Circus" for the room.
The rooms, which hold two to eight people, have been popular and have led the family to hint that they will be adding another two- to four-person room in the near future.
Perhaps the most ironic part about the speciality rooms: "We need a coat room now, too," Barbara said.
The restaurant’s other rooms are the Ben Franklin Room, named after the Ben Franklin stove in the room; the Tiffany Room complete with a dual-sided fireplace; the Lounge, which has pictures of movie stars and a young shot of Barbara behind the bar; and the enclosed Veranda Room, which was added to the restaurant’s facade in 1992 for more seating and a new look.
The next generation
Mark and Mike took over as owners in 1999 with Christensen. Both graduated from one of the best culinary schools in the world, the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., during the 1980s before returning home to take over the family business.
Christensen manages the business’ finances while another sibling, Linda, works part-time as a waitress.
Wally and Barbara’s fifth child, Mary — who goes by Sapphron Obois — lives in California as a saxophonist and played at Barack Obama’s inauguration.
Mike said being in the restaurant business grew on him over time, and Mark said he figured he’d go to the culinary school because it couldn’t hurt.
Both men like to make deserts, but realize that the supper club’s staple is ribs.
"Most restaurants should have a signature item that sets them apart," Mark said, "and ours is ribs."
A lot of places have ribs, he said, but what makes House of Embers’ ribs special is their secret sauce and the restaurant’s smoker.
The business had a company make the sauce for its ribs until the mid ‘70s, at which time the Oboises started making their own sauce.
The restaurant now has a dry spice blend made especially for them, and they add ingredients to it based on what meat it will be put on.
Another of the restaurant’s most famous items are its cinnamon rolls.
Barbara came up with the recipe for the rolls, which food writers have called "airy" and "not heavy," and is proud to tell people they have been featured in "Bon Appetit" magazine.
"People like that they are homemade," she said, "and you just can’t get that anymore."
House of Embers continues to host weddings, rehearsal parties, holiday parties and more and will also cater to off-premise events.
Mark and Mike are planning to have a 50th anniversary celebration/open house with free appetizers, but they haven’t set a date yet. |
