J. Ryan Stradal knows about supper club culture in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and the rest of the northern midwest – he grew up in a town where those dining establishments blurred the lines between restaurant and social club, family and community.
That culture is at the heart of his new novel, Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club, where main character Mariel has inherited one such supper club from her grandparents.
In today's episode, Stradal tells Here & Now's Robin Young about how chain diners have impacted those familiar dinner spots and how his late mother inspired much of the novel.
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