Maybe Northern Wisconsin's Best Option

"Up North Wisconsin" is defined differently by just about every person you ask in the Great Lakes states, but it's generally agreed that once you get above, say, Manitowoc, you're there, even if you're in one of the quote-unquote "cities," like Appleton or Green Bay. Stars is in Neenah, which is a little north and west of Appleton, which I would consider to be squarely "up north". I visited a few months ago, but as this is my "busy season," I haven't had the chance to review. Nonetheless, as someone who's been around the Midwest, I really wanted to say something about this club, which has some "hidden gem" qualities.

First off, a word on getting there: While Stars is within spitting distance of I-41, it's on a frontage road and nowhere near an exit. If you're coming from the south, you're going to want to exit three miles before the club; from the north, two miles. I mention this because if you're going at night like I did, you're going to want to be careful. The frontage road has a few bends and turns, and I went up during a thunderstorm that made visibility a little rough. I had a few nervous moments on the frontage road, both because it was hard to see the lines and edges of the road and my visibility was poor. Anyhow, I did get there safely, parking in the gravel lot in front and running through the driving rain to get in.

When you get in, what you find is a club that looks like, in a previous iteration, it was maybe a nice restaurant, a supper club or a banquet place. There are six distinct areas of the club. You walk into the first, a standard bar area with the bar to the left and some pool tables and video slots to the right, along with the ATM. You can go around the bar into the second area, essentially dead space most of the time, but extra room for folks that might want to sit at the bar during crowded times that's a little more out of the way. If you make your way past the bar, you get in to the third, and main, area. This is a big room that has a small couch area in front of a flat screen near the DJ booth, but is mostly tables and the stage, which kind of forms a T and has three poles, one in the back and two forward. To the left of this area is the fourth zone, another seated area, a little upstairs, that looks like it's a kind of VIP club area. It's also got the stand where you would pay for dances or champagne rooms. If you do go in the back, there are the final two zones -- to the right is the lapper area, to the left are the champagne rooms.