Years ago, when I was a kid at the City Club, I heard stories about "free lunches". If you came into the City Club and paid a nickel for a beer, you could get free food. Apparently large "spreads of food" were prepared like a buffet and you could eat all you wanted. The amazing part of the story is that for one small nickel you could have a 16 ounce beer and free food.
There are old pictures of the City Club with a big advertising billboard painted onto the side of the building proclaiming "5 cent beers and all you can eat".
Apparently in the early 1900's this promotion of food with alcohol was a national practice. The National Restaurant Association claimed that it was unfair. The restaurants felt they were losing business because taverns where stealing customers by giving away food with alcohol. Unfair, unfair, unfair.
In the early 1930's, legislation was enacted that stopped the practice of advertising a free lunch with purchases of alcohol. Many States (I don't know about Wisconsin) enforced the law disallowing deceptive promotions.
The truth of course is that there is no free lunch. Taverns such as the City Club had to make enough money on the beer purchases (along with other things) to cover the cost of food. If the tavern didn't charge enough, they would eventually go out of business. Restaurants weren't smart enough to create there own promotions to compete with taverns.
So again, the City Club was part of history. It's practice to promote free food with nickel beers was ahead of the rest of the world.
The lesson Grasshoppers is that nothing in life is "free". If something seems to be to good to be true, it probably is. I can't imagine what you'd have to charge for a 16 ounce beer today to cover the cost of beer and a "free lunch". Probably about $10. Believe me, there is no free lunch!
Love,
Dad