West Bend, WI – In an effort to preserve the history of West Bend and Washington County, WI, we dive into the archives and an interview with Arlene Fechter as she remembers working the dining room at the Mermac Hotel.Â
Arlene and two other women operated the Mermac Hotel Dining Room in the current Washington House in downtown West Bend in the mid-1940s.
“I was 18 or 19 when I worked there,” said Arlene. “We served lunches and we tried to hire some little girls and they couldn’t add 85 and 15; they always made mistakes”
Arlene said lunch was 85 cents and a piece of pie was 15 cents. “Everything was homemade,” she said.
A good tip was $1.
A traveler coming off the train and staying at the Mermac Hotel could get breakfast, lunch or dinner. “We had a lot of salesmen,” said Arlene.
Bauer’s Bakery and Haebig Dry Cleaning were two of the other businesses on the block during the era of the Mermac Hotel.
“Breakfast was in the morning from 6 a.m. – 9 a.m. then we prepared lunch and then the lunch was probably from 11 a.m. to 2 o’clock we usually went home until 5 o’clock then we’d opened back up again; you know they gave us a little time off sure,” she said.
Arlene left the restaurant business and found a new career raising her three sons.
Click HERE for another story about the Mermac Hotel
Arlene used her cooking skills to feed not only her family but also multitudes of friends both in West Bend and at their cottage near Crivitz, WI. She was also a great seamstress making jackets for her boys and patching lots of knees.
Arlene died January 19, 2020.
Below is a photo of Arlene and a coworker (possibly Helen) and their uniforms at the Mermac Hotel.
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During the interview Arlene mentions Dot’s Supper Club. Click HERE for more memories.
