Wedgewood
Supper Club · Est. 1978
A 47-Year Tradition
A Wednesday-through-Sunday residency of Midwest jazz trios and quartets — now in its forty-seventh year — paired with hand-cut steaks, the Wedgewood Old Fashioned, and the kind of tableside service supper clubs used to be known for.
A Note from the Dining Room
In the autumn of 1978, my grandfather hired a pianist, a bassist, and a drummer for the opening week. They never quite left. Every Wednesday through Sunday since then — through three generations of the family and four changes of wallpaper in the lounge — a trio or a quartet has set up on the small stage beneath the stagelight fixture and played two sets a night, four nights a week plus a Sunday brunch in the early years.
What you hear on any given evening is not a soundtrack. It is a working band in a working room: standards from the Great American Songbook on Wednesdays, original arrangements and modal work on Thursdays, a vocal-forward quartet on Fridays, an acoustic trio on Saturdays, and a long, slow Sunday supper set that has been known to end after last call. The players are local — Milwaukee, Madison, Chicago — and most of them have been with the house for years. You will recognize them by name the second time you come in.
Guests ask, with some regularity, whether the music is too loud. It is not. It is mixed low enough that you can hold a conversation across a two-top, but high enough that you can hear the brushwork on the snare and the breath in the saxophone. We tune the room for the second set, when the candles are low and the ribeye has been cleared and the Old Fashioneds arrive without being asked for. That is the hour the program was built around.
If you are new to us, we would suggest a Wednesday or a Thursday, a party of two, and a willingness to stay for the ten o'clock set. The reservations desk knows how to seat you close to the band, or far from it, depending on what you came for. Either way, plan on staying a while.
— Eleanor Wedgewood, third-generation proprietor
The Weekly Lineup
A standing residency since the first winter the doors were open. Set times hold across seasons; ensembles rotate on a six-week cycle. Closed Mondays.
Piano, upright bass, and brushed drums. Gershwin, Porter, Ellington, Jobim — the Great American Songbook played the way your grandparents heard it, and the way it still wants to be heard.
Piano, bass, drums, and tenor saxophone. Original arrangements, post-bop heads, and the occasional Coltrane ballad. The room's quieter night — for those who like to listen.
Piano, bass, drums, and a vocalist. Nancy Wilson, Blossom Dearie, Chet Baker with strings — songs with words, sung by a singer who has been doing this in supper clubs longer than most of our guests have been alive.
Guitar, upright bass, and a guest vocalist or instrumentalist each week. Our most-booked night and, in our not-remotely-humble opinion, the best-sounding Saturday supper in the state.
Piano, bass, and drums playing one continuous set from seven until close. No interruptions, no early departures. The night for the second Old Fashioned and the conversation you have been meaning to have.
The Monday and Tuesday calendar is held open for private events. Inquire about a private jazz dinner →
The Current Residency
A rotating house roster on a six-week cycle, drawn from a working community of Midwest jazz musicians who have made the Wedgewood their home stage.
Resident Pianist · 19th Season
Teddy has anchored the Wednesday and Sunday piano chair since the autumn of 2006. A Berklee-trained player with a Bill Evans left hand and a Brubeck instinct for space, he sets the tempo of the room by the second song of the first set. He is the reason most guests ask, on their way out, whether he plays every night.
He does not. But he is here most of them.
Resident Bassist · 11th Season
Holds the bass chair on Thursdays and the second Friday set. A walking-bass instinct and a quiet authority that keeps every tempo honest.
Resident Drummer · 8th Season
Brushes by preference, sticks when the tune asks for them. Holds the kit chair on Friday and Saturday and guests on Wednesdays.
Resident Saxophonist · 6th Season
The Thursday and Friday tenor voice. A Coltrane student who has settled, gracefully, into the supper-club register. Ask him about the ballad set in November.
Resident Vocalist · 4th Season
The Friday vocalist. A low, brushed contralto with a Blossom Dearie diction and the patience to leave a phrase hanging in the room until it lands.
The jazz at Wedgewood is not background music. It is the architecture of the evening — and you will find yourself, without quite meaning to, ordering a second Old Fashioned so you can stay for the second set.
From the Room
A look at the Wedgewood lounge on a Friday and a Saturday — the lighting drops, the band cues in, and the second seating begins.
Two seatings nightly. The first goes fast.
