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The Gobbler Theater in Johnson Creek opened in 1969 as the Gobbler Supper Club, a restaurant and night club that drew customers from around the region. The building was designed by famed architect, Helmut Ajango.
The Gobbler Theater features 405 seats. The farthest seat from the stage is just 55 feet away.
Watch: See a vintage commercial for the Gobbler.
JOHNSON CREEK — Dan Manesis had the ambition, personality and financial wherewithal to revive and operate the turkey-shaped building along Interstate 94.
After spending more than $2.4 million beginning in 2014 to convert the former Gobbler Supper Club into a music venue dubbed the Gobbler Theater, the Milwaukee-area entrepreneur and drag-strip racer chose the concert and jazz bands and the choir from Johnson Creek High School for the inaugural show just before Christmas 2015.
Over the years, the acts would be much larger and include Kentucky Headhunters, Joe Diffie, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Lorrie Morgan, Sara Evans, Ronnie Milsap and other well-known country and crossover acts that would fill the 404-seat theater with its circular, rotating bar.
Dave Ferron, a commercial real estate broker with Cushman & Wakefield Boerke, explores the signature rotating bar of the Gobbler Theater in Johnson Creek. Constructed in 1969, the former supper club underwent a more than $2.4 million renovation to transform the building into a music venue. The property is now for sale after the owner died.
But while Manesis had the vision to bring life back into the roadside building designed by famed architect Helmut Ajango and completed in 1969, COVID-19 brought the first blow to Manesis' plan in 2020. Then in June 2021, Manesis died of cancer.
And now, just over a year after his death, the Gobbler is once again for sale, this time for $1.6 million.
The remodel of the former Gobbler Supper Club added a stage and high-end sound and light systems. The venue has drawn well-known country acts from around the country but the pandemic and the 2021 death of the owner, Dan Manesis, forced the business to close. It's now for sale for $1.6 million.
"It's a steal for someone who has a passion for the business," said Dave Ferron, a real estate broker for Cushman & Wakefield Boerke, the Milwaukee company listing the property. "The building is in great shape."
There are few buildings in Wisconsin as recognizable as the Gobbler or with its backstory.
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Clarence Hartwig, a local turkey farmer, spent $1 million to build and open the Gobbler along with the Gobbler Hotel up the hill to the east. The businesses drew customers from throughout southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois who would dine, drink and dance and stay in the motel's lush rooms with shag carpeting and round beds. Both closed in 1992. Fort Atkinson car dealers Daryl Spoerl and Marvin Havill and Jefferson attorney Ray Krek bought the property in 1996 for $494,000 as an investment and put another $600,000 into the property for upgrades.
Businesses that opened and closed in the supper club space included the New Gobbler Restaurant, another that served Mexican food and one that specialized in barbecue. At one time, there were plans for a casino and, in 2003, a strip club that would have been called "A Gobbler-A-Go-Go." The Johnson Creek Village Board nixed that plan.
The motel was demolished in 2001 and the property is now home to the View at Johnson Creek, an assisted-living and memory care facility. But the supper club building remained empty for years, which led to a 2009 auction in an attempt to sell the building, land and furnishings. Some bought dishes and kitchen equipment; others drove away with purple and pink lounge chairs while rock hounds and collectors paid $2 to $4 a pound for petrified wood removed from the building's once lavish interior.
A reminder of the hip past of the Gobbler is in the basement where Art Deco wall paper covers the walls of a hallway and purple shag carpeting surrounds a non-working pay phone.
No bids, however, were submitted for the building or land.
Five years later, Manesis purchased the property for $635,000.
"I'm more sure of this than any other business venture I've had," Manesis told the Wisconsin State Journal in 2014. "I'm very, very confident."
Manesis was a customer at the Gobbler in the 1970s. He grew up in Madison, attended Central High School and graduated from Memorial High School before attending UW-Madison. In 1976, Manesis purchased a small hardware store at 35th and Silver Spring and four years later bought his first truck. Daniel A. Manesis Transportation in West Allis now specializes in hauling large and heavy loads. He also drove dragsters at Great Lakes Dragaway in Union Grove for more than 35 years.
Dan Manesis, seen here in 2014, purchased the property that formerly housed the Gobbler Supper Club in Johnson Creek and spent more than $2.4 million to convert the 1969 building into the Gobbler Theater. Manesis died in 2021 and the property is now for sale.
But for years, Manesis had thought of creating his own music venue and had at one point offered to buy the defunct Northridge Mall on Milwaukee's north side with hopes of bringing musical acts to part of the facility, which at one time was one of the largest malls in the state.
Thankfully for fans of the Gobbler, the deal fell through, Manesis discovered the former supper club place was for sale and brought the facility not only back to life but created a modern venue.
So far, inquiries have come from those in the music and theater industries in Madison and Milwaukee. But with the 16,500-square-foot building located on 9.6 acres of prime real estate, developers, including those from Chicago, have also expressed interest. It's unclear who will win out.
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The property is zoned "planned business," which allows for a variety uses, including a music venue, Brad Calder, Johnson Creek's village administrator, said in an email. But the village board has not had a discussion about what they would like to see at the site, he said.
"This property has had a long history because of its proximity to I-94 and I'm certain many will be interested in its future," Calder wrote. "If The Gobbler Theater was no longer in existence, there would be many in not only Johnson Creek, but also Jefferson County and the region who would miss its iconic shape and musical performances. Because of its longstanding history, I believe Johnson Creek would still be known as the location of the Gobbler even if it was no more."
A cooler at the Gobbler Theater in Johnson Creek remains on and fully-stocked even though there hasn't been a show at the facility for more than two years.
The building could probably hold a concert tomorrow and is about as turnkey of an operation as there is. The coolers at the bar remain on and are stocked with bottles of water, Sharp's non-alcoholic beer, cans of White Claw and bottles of Mike's Hard Lemonade and Sprecher root beer. The tap handles include those for Miller Lite and High Life, Wisconsin Amber, an IPA from Lake Front Brewing Co. and Leinenkugel's Snowdrift Vanilla Porter. The beer cooler in the basement remains at 38 degrees, although it is absent kegs and the tap lines likely need a good cleaning.
But the one-year remodel by Manesis looks as if it were completed last week.
"Business just kind of stopped, but this was his passion," Ferron said. "He just wanted a place for people to enjoy music."
Artifacts and memorabilia from the early days of the Gobbler Supper Club are displayed in a case at what is now the Gobbler Theater.
Manesis removed the Roost, an elevated dance floor above the bar, but added a stage, advanced sound and lighting systems and removed the basement kitchen for a pair of massive dressing rooms, each with kitchens, sofas and bathrooms with showers. The lower level also includes three large walk-in coolers, an employee lounge with soft lighting and a hallway covered with Art Deco pink and white foil wallpaper. The only piece of purple shag carpeting remaining in the place, a nod to its 1970s heyday, appears to be on the wall in an alcove that holds a non-working pay phone with a rotary dial.
Back upstairs in the auditorium, the farthest seat from the stage is just 55 feet away.
One of two artist lounges in the lower level of the Gobbler Theater in Johnson Creek.
When the Gobbler opened, this village was largely contained to its historic downtown. Today it is home to an outlet mall, restaurants, two Kwik Trips, a Menard's, Kohl's, movie cinema and car dealership. There's also a new high school, a hotel and a growing population, thanks to its proximity between Madison and Milwaukee and Highway 26, which runs north and south through the village of 3,029 people.
"The location is just incredible," Ferron said of the Gobbler. "If I could find someone to keep it running the way it was, that's my goal."
The Gobbler Theater in Johnson Creek opened in 1969 as the Gobbler Supper Club, a restaurant and night club that drew customers from around the region. The building was designed by famed architect, Helmut Ajango.
The remodel of the former Gobbler Supper Club added a stage and high-end sound and light systems. The venue has drawn well-known country acts from around the country but the pandemic and the 2021 death of the owner, Dan Manesis, forced the business to close. It's now for sale for $1.6 million.
Artifacts and memorabilia from the early days of the Gobbler Supper Club are displayed in a case at what is now the Gobbler Theater.
The Gobbler Theater features 405 seats. The farthest seat from the stage is just 55 feet away.
A reminder of the hip past of the Gobbler is in the basement where Art Deco wall paper covers the walls of a hallway and purple shag carpeting surrounds a non-working pay phone.
Music artifacts share a curtain divider in the employee lounge in the lower lever of the Gobbler Theater in Johnson Creek.
One of two artist lounges in the lower level of the Gobbler Theater in Johnson Creek.
A mural painted in one of the signature windows of the Gobbler Theater echoes its performance history in Johnson Creek.
A cooler at the Gobbler Theater in Johnson Creek remains on and fully-stocked even though there hasn't been a show at the facility for more than two years.
Dave Ferron, a commercial real estate broker with Cushman & Wakefield Boerke, explores the signature rotating bar of the Gobbler Theater in Johnson Creek. Constructed in 1969, the former supper club underwent a more than $2.4 million renovation to transform the building into a music venue. The property is now for sale after the owner died.
Dave Ferron, a commercial real estate broker with Cushman & Wakefield Boerke, views an employee gathering space in the lower level of the Gobbler Theater in Johnson Creek.
The former Gobbler Supper Club in Johnson Creek has been transformed into the 405-seat Gobbler Theater. Dan Manesis, who purchased the building last year, has spent nearly $2 million on upgrades in an effort to attract rock, country and Christian rock bands to the venue. The first show, however, will be free and held Thursday by the concert and jazz bands and choir from Johnson Creek High School.
Dan Manesis walks through the basement hallway of his Gobbler Theater in Johnson Creek, but has no plans to remove the Art Deco foil wallpaper as a way to retain the building's history. Manesis would like to renovate a large banquet space in the basement to be used for meetings and parties.
Dan Manesis describes the upgrades and updates he had done at his Gobbler Theater, scheduled to open this month, in Johnson Creek, Wis., Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2015. M.P. KING -- State Journal
Dan Manesis, seen here in 2014, purchased the property that formerly housed the Gobbler Supper Club in Johnson Creek and spent more than $2.4 million to convert the 1969 building into the Gobbler Theater. Manesis died in 2021 and the property is now for sale.
Barry Adams covers regional news for the Wisconsin State Journal. Send him ideas for On Wisconsin at 608-252-6148 or by email at badams@madison.com.
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Dave Ferron, a commercial real estate broker with Cushman & Wakefield Boerke, explores the signature rotating bar of the Gobbler Theater in Johnson Creek. Constructed in 1969, the former supper club underwent a more than $2.4 million renovation to transform the building into a music venue. The property is now for sale after the owner died.
A reminder of the hip past of the Gobbler is in the basement where Art Deco wall paper covers the walls of a hallway and purple shag carpeting surrounds a non-working pay phone.
The remodel of the former Gobbler Supper Club added a stage and high-end sound and light systems. The venue has drawn well-known country acts from around the country but the pandemic and the 2021 death of the owner, Dan Manesis, forced the business to close. It's now for sale for $1.6 million.
The Gobbler Theater in Johnson Creek opened in 1969 as the Gobbler Supper Club, a restaurant and night club that drew customers from around the region. The building was designed by famed architect, Helmut Ajango.
Dan Manesis, seen here in 2014, purchased the property that formerly housed the Gobbler Supper Club in Johnson Creek and spent more than $2.4 million to convert the 1969 building into the Gobbler Theater. Manesis died in 2021 and the property is now for sale.
The Gobbler Theater features 405 seats. The farthest seat from the stage is just 55 feet away.
One of two artist lounges in the lower level of the Gobbler Theater in Johnson Creek.
Artifacts and memorabilia from the early days of the Gobbler Supper Club are displayed in a case at what is now the Gobbler Theater.
A cooler at the Gobbler Theater in Johnson Creek remains on and fully-stocked even though there hasn't been a show at the facility for more than two years.
Watch: See a vintage commercial for the Gobbler.
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