Manufacturer: Wellsville China
User(s): El Moroccan Supper Club and Lime House, Brookfield, Wisconsin
Distributor: Paul Staub & Son, Milwaukee
Date of examples: 1956

Sample label from a plate

Building's history - Elmbrook Historical Society

Cat 'n' Fiddle building - Elmbrook Historical Society

Lime House with Wong family, courtesy Sara Wong

Snapshot of Milwaukee Journal article about Walter Wong, showing different china patterns - courtesy of Sara Wong

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Notes: A publication (shown above) put out in 1998 by Elmbrook Historical Society in Brookfield, Wisconsin, gives the history of the building that was located at 13175 W. Blue Mound (now Bluemound) in Brookfield, a Milwaukee suburb. Originally a farmhouse in the 1860s, it was renovated into what became the Cat 'n' Fiddle Tavern, "rather infamous in the local area as a speakeasy and a house of ill-repute." … It operated "through the 1940s and the 1950s as a freewheeling dance hall and saloon. … In 1957, it was sold to the owners of the El Dorado steak house further east on Highway 100.

"Renamed the El Moroccan, the interior and exterior were remodeled and given a black panther motif. [Principal owner of the El Moroccan was Clarence F. Sommerfield.] Only two years later, in 1959, the supper club was sold again, this time to attorney Walter Wong of Brookfield, who renamed it the Lime House. It became a popular and respected local cocktail lounge serving Chinese and American food for 35 years, until Walter closed it in November 1994.

"Another restaurant operated briefly at the site in 1995, but was not successful, and the building was demolished in August of 1996. It was, at the end, the oldest commercial establishment still doing business on west Blue Mound Road."

Wong operated the Lime House with his wife Cathy and their five children. Sara Wong, one of their daughters, shared a Jan. 9, 1964, story about her father that ran in The Milwaukee Journal (shown above), and her mother said that when they acquired the restaurant building, the black panther china was part of the furnishings that they continued to use. Sara added that the Lime House served a Cantonese American cuisine. In 1969, Wellsville China discontinued operations, so reorders of this pattern would not have been possible beyond that time – even if they had wanted to – and by looking at the Milwaukee Journal photo, it is possible to see other patterns in use by that time.

The airbrushed design chosen by El Moroccan is a stylized, minimalistic drawing of a black panther and below it, a palm frond in green. One plate has been found with a Wellsville China sample label, shown above, indicating the design was produced for Paul Staub & Son. This company was found in 1963 to be operating a business supplying tavern supplies and glassware in Wisconsin, and an earlier, 1949 Buyers' Guide to Milwaukee put out by the Milwaukee Association of Commerce, showed Staub Tavern Supplies was listed at 1021 S. 16^th Street.

Sources:
Elmbrook Historical Society – history
Waukesha County Freeman – Jan. 28, 1965

Contributors:
Rebecca Leontiev: photos
Roland Burritt: photos, research
Sara Wong – history and photos