Our Story
Three generations of Friday nights.
Clifford Schill opened these doors in 1959. What happened next is the kind of story only a supper club could write.
Steve & Elaine Cannistra
Two dishwashers who fell in love and bought the place.
In 1969, two young workers met here: Steve, washing dishes, and Elaine, waiting tables to pay her way through college. They fell in love. In 1988 they bought the place from Clifford himself. Steve had worked every job in the house by then.
In 2002 he flew to Iceland to hand-pick the award-winning cod that still anchors our Friday Fish Fry today. Elaine taught school in Muskego for 38 years, and she still decorates the dining room by the season and rings in every New Year's Eve with more than 700 balloons.
43 years married. 30+ years behind this bar.
The years
How we got here
1959
Clifford Schill opens Clifford's in Hales Corners.
1969
Steve, a dishwasher, and Elaine, a waitress paying her way through college, meet here and fall in love.
1988
Steve and Elaine buy the club from Clifford himself. Steve had worked every job in the house by then.
2002
Steve flies to Iceland to hand-pick the award-winning cod that still anchors the Friday Fish Fry.
What we hold onto
The things we never change
Award-winning cod
Hand-picked from Icelandic waters since 2002, and still the heart of our Friday Fish Fry.
Jack's tartar sauce
Still made from longtime manager Jack Glynn's recipe, exactly the way he made it.
700 balloons
Elaine decorates by the season and rings in every New Year's Eve with more than 700 balloons.
Come be part of the next chapter. Pull up a chair and stay a while.