Gobbler sued for Sex Discrimination

In its heyday, The Gobbler was a unique motel, supper club, and roadside attraction at the intersection of Wisconsin Highway 26 and I-94 (Exit 267) in Johnson Creek, Wisconsin, United States. It was situated halfway between Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Madison, Wisconsin. The Gobbler was a popular roadside attraction. Dozens of websites have been erected as a memorial to The Gobbler, and to tell the tales of visits to the site.

Designed in the late 1960s by Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin architect Helmut Ajango for local turkey farmer Clarence Hartwig and opened in 1967, The Gobbler Supper Club (later renamed the Round Stone Restaurant) was styled to resemble a turkey's head when viewed from overhead.

The menu featured turkey, as well as prime rib and steak. A rotating circular bar that completed one revolution every eighty minutes was a signature centerpiece of the building. After the original owner died in 1979, the building passed through several incarnations, including a roadside diner; the last tenant went out of business in mid-2002.

Hartwig's poultry plant was located just south of the supper club and closed in 1971 after Hartwig announced that it was too costly to upgrade the plant to meet new USDA standards. At the time the plant was the largest employer in Johnson Creek, employing up to 300 workers and processing 30 million pounds of poultry a year. Hartwig's other ventures, the Gobbler supper club, the Cackle Shack restaurant and Gobbler motel remained open.

In 1974, a Hearing Examiner of the State Equal Rights Division ruled that the restaurant violated the rights of two women by firing them for refusing to wear uniforms that were different from the uniform of male employees. Male waiter and bartenders wore tuxedos while female waitresses were required to wear "black briefs, fishnet stockings and V-necked hunting jackets." At the time, The Capital Times believed it to be the first ruling to find "sex discrimination on the basis of uniforms."

In June 2008, the Frank Lloyd Wright Wisconsin Tourism Program hosted "The Gobbler Gala" at the restaurant. The dinner featured talks by Gobbler architect Ajango and Wright historian Sidney Robinson. Our research indicates that Al Gore did not attend the event.