Keeping tradition alive at Toby's

Sisters Roxanne Peterson and Rhonda Frank have brought fine food and longevity to a restaurant - Toby's Supper Club - which had its beginnings sometime after Prohibition ended in the 1930s

Located at 3717 S. Dutch Mill Road in Madison, the restaurant was a barbershop many decades ago.

Peterson and Frank's parents, George and Judy Thorson, bought the restaurant business - started after the Prohibition by Arden Davis who first had his barbership there - in 1969 from Lilah Curtis.

Curtis and her husband, Toby, who died in 1960, had purchased the restaurant with others in 1941 and named it Toby's Tavern.

Judy Thorson, who had worked at Toby's off and on for eight years before purchasing it with her husband, changed the name to Toby's Supper Club.

George Thorson ran the bar and did repair work. Judy Thorson ran the kitchen and handled many of the other tasks like paying the bills. The Thorsons had four girls.

The oldest daughter, Roxanne, now 54, was 16 when the business was purchased and started as a dishwasher along with her sister, Rhonda, now 50. They later waited tables. The other two girls, Rachelle, now 53, and Renee, 48, never worked at the business.

Father died in 1991

When her dad died in 1991 at the age of 60, he left the restaurant to his oldest daughter, Roxanne, as a provision of his will.

In 1972, Roxanne Peterson was a young mother of two and had just become a licensed practical nurse.

While she continued to work periodically at her family's restaurant, she wasn't expecting to take the helm.

But when her parents divorced that year and her father could no longer run the restaurant himself, Peterson wound up trying to take her mother's place, although she had big shoes to fill.

"My mother really did everything," she said.

Just 19, Peterson worked at the supper club at 3717 S. Dutch Mill Road and part time at what was then Madison General Hospital. Her children were 18 months and 3 months old.

Her sister, Rhonda Frank, also worked at the supper club but was not interested in running it.

Peterson considered selling it. But Frank wanted her older sister to keep it and run it. Other family members received money from the estate.

"Rhonda thought, 'If it wouldn't be for you, none of us would have anything,'" Peterson said of conversations with her sister.

Although the business is in Peterson's name, both she and Frank are informally considered the owners.

Besides the family presence at Toby's, the restaurant is known for its consistency. It serves traditional supper club fare, prepared the same way as it always has been.

An oval bar sits at the center of the dining room with dark paneling, black vinyl chairs and tables covered with dark red vinyl tablecloths.

After her father's death, Peterson stopped working as a nurse — she had since gone back to school and earned her bachelor's degree — and worked only at the supper club for seven years. That was due in part to the longtime cook, who had worked at the supper club for 45 years, passed away so Peterson took over the kitchen.

Peterson, who admits "it sounds like I'm nuts," now works the supper club business around her jobs as a nurse at Meriter Hospital and at Lasting Skin Solutions in Delafield. She also has four grandchildren.

Peterson is the manager at Toby's and also does some cooking and bartending, in addition to ordering and inventory.

Frank is a waitress and also serves as a manager when her sister is not there. On Wednesdays, she cooks the special.

'We get along'

The team works because Peterson is the natural leader - she is the oldest and therefore has been in the business longer. She also started running the restaurant early on while Frank is fine taking a less visible role.

"I guess I've always been the boss," Peterson said.

Their compatibility and clearly defined roles preclude disagreements.

On some things, like menu changes, they work together.

"We get along," Franks said.

Frank's son, Tony Dalbec, 29, is a bartender and his girlfriend, Sara McAllister, is a waitress and bartender.

Frank's daughter, Danielle Dalbec, fills in when necessary. Peterson's son, Chris, used to work at the business.

Peterson's daughter, Kelly Gill, 36, is a waitress, bartender and cook and like most of the family, does whatever else is needed .

Gill said she started at Toby's when she was in high school, first as a dishwasher and then she moved on to cooking and then bartending.

"I will always remember how many football games I missed in high school because I had to work," said Gill, who studied food science and nutrition in college.

Gill said people assume she gets perks working for family but she thinks it might be the opposite.

Family work ethic

"Being family I think maybe you tend to work a little harder," said Gill, who has children ages 8, 6 and 4. "My mom has installed a definite work ethic in me."

Tony Dalbec remembers doing dishes when he was 11 and he thought it was "pretty cool" to have a job. He later went on to do other jobs except wait tables, which never appealed to him. He was the head cook in high school.

He likes working for his aunt and getting to see his family by working with them. He said family members offer suggestions on everything from remodeling to additions to the menu. It was a family decision to close the business on Sundays, he said.

"It's easier to suggest things being a family business and you might be more influential," he said. "The bottom line is my aunt has the final say."

While Peterson and Frank have talked about whether their kids will run the business some day, it remains a sticky subject and no decisions have been made.

"We talk about it but we don't like to talk about it," Peterson said.

Despite good intentions, the sisters find themselves discussing work when they're not at Toby's.

"We try not to but we always end up talking about it," Frank said.

Pamela Cotant is a freelance writer.