When Floyd Muller met Betty Miller and her 12-year-old daughter in a Minnesota diner in 1934, no one could have predicted how this would affect two legendary Minnesota restaurants for decades to follow. J. Ryan Stradal (Kitchens of the Great Midwest; The Lager Queen of Minnesota) returns to the land of prime rib platters and the "luxury cuisine" of complimentary cheese curds in Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club, his third heartwarming novel set amidst the forests and lakes of rural Minnesota.
Floyd owns the Lakeside Supper Club in Bear Jaw Lake, beloved for its "FINE DINING AT A FINE VALUE SINCE 1919." A "rich, charismatic misanthrope" inherited Jorby's Bakery and Café', a family diner founded in Red Wing in 1921; by 1980, this expanded to 91 Jorby's throughout the Midwest, dooming independent spots like the Lakeside. The novel alternates among decades and generations of heirs of the two iconic eateries. By 1996, Mariel, Betty's granddaughter, owns the Lakeside, known as "Floyd and Betty's Lakeside Supper Club" since the mid-30s. She's happily wed to Ned, the son of the Jorby's mogul. Stradal weaves the eras and the families into a smooth narrative replete with "aha!" scenes of how lives intertwine. Happy coincidences typical of rustic small-town life don't shield the warmhearted, honest folks of Bear Jaw Lake from sorrow, and prejudices find their way to the bucolic setting. But love, loyalty, and generous slices of blackberry pie (never "store-bought") guide them into the 21st century. --Cheryl McKeon, Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza, Albany, N.Y.