Since February, Village of Genoa City officials have been in discussions with producers of the CBS serial soap opera “The Young and the Restless” regarding a proposed golden anniversary gift to the show’s real life namesake “hometown” of Genoa City. For its entire 50-year run, the show has been set in a highly fictionalized version of Genoa City, Wisc. — a major Midwestern metropolis that serves as a plot device backdrop for advancing the soap opera’s storyline. Due to the costs associated with ambitious plans proposed in February to plant 50 trees in the Village of Genoa City, discussions between village officials and show producers are ongoing around a scaled-back anniversary gift to the village. Genoa City Clerk-Treasurer Kate Dennis said a worst case scenario would see a planned anniversary gift to the village “shelved or scrapped altogether.”
Johnson
People are also reading…
State Bank of the Lakes, in the historic Citizens State Bank building at Walworth and Freeman streets, anchors the Village of Genoa City’s compact low-rise downtown. The highly fictionalized major Midwest metropolis of Genoa City, Wisc. on CBS Television’s 50-year-old serial soap opera “The Young and the Restless” draws its namesake inspiration from the 2,995-resident Walworth County community. The show’s creators creators, William J. Bell (1927-2005) and Loreley “Lee” June Phillip Bell (1928-2020), lived in Chicago and had a summer home in Lake Geneva, regularly traveling through Genoa City. Show producers are in ongoing discussions with village officials regarding a potential golden anniversary gift to honor inspirational “hometown” Genoa City, founded in 1850.
Fitzgerald’s Genoa Junction Restaurant, also known as “The Octagon House,” 727 Main St. (County Hwy. B) in Genoa City is widely reknowned for its old fashioned Door County-style fish boils. The destination dining fixture draws from a wide area across northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin. The restaurant is housed in the historic, octagon-shaped Welcome J. Miller House, a clapboard pre-Civil War home built in 1852 that was home to successive generations of the Miller family until its sale to Fitzgerald’s in 1990.
Scenic Nippersink Creek, a 23-mile freshwater tributarary in Walworth County and McHenry and Lake counties in Illinois, is seen looking south from Main Street (County Hwy. B) toward the old Chicago & Northwestern Railway bridge as the Nippersink’s shallow North Branch waterway lazily meanders its way through the Village of Genoa City. Nippersink Creek encompasses a 202-square-mile watershed in Wisconsin and Illinois, with approximately 50 square miles of watershed in southeastern Wisconsin.
In photos: Fitzgerald's Genoa Junction: Fish boils, Door County-style
Dining at Fitzgerald's Genoa Junction
In Wisconsin, fish is the menu drawing card on Friday nights. At Fitzgerald’s Genoa Junction in Genoa City, a recent Friday dinner crowd fills the main floor dining room for the restaurant’s signature Door County-styled fish boil, a popular Fitzgerald’s menu staple five nights a week. The restaurant, housed in a historic octagon-shaped home, also offers barbecued chicken and pork ribs and a full service bar.
Welcome to the Octagon House
The historic octagon-shaped Welcome J. Miller House at 727 Main St., Genoa City, today houses the popular destination restaurant Fitzgerald’s Genoa Junction, famed for its Door County-styled fish boils. The clapboard pre-Civil War home, built in 1852, was continuously owned by the successive generations of the Miller family until its sale to Fitzgerald’s in 1990.
Fish boil cooking action
BELOW: Specializing in destination dining fish boils since 1978, Fitzgerald’s Genoa Junction Restaurant is popular for its authentic outdoor Door County-styled fish boils, using cast iron cooking kettles heated over blazing hardwood fires. The popular “eater-tainment” dining experience, watched by diners from the Octagon House dining room or the adjacent outdoor patio, is best known for its spectacular fiery “boil over” theatrics. When the fish are done cooking, a splash of kerosene is thrown onto the fire to create the added fireball boost of heat required to boil over and thus remove the floating fats and oils from the fish.
The Octagon House, a.k.a. Welcome J. Miller House
Fitzgerald’s Genoa Junction Restaurant in Genoa City is housed in the historic Welcome J. Miller House (left). The structure, popularly known as The Octagon House, was long home to the Miller family, which operated the adjacent W.J. Miller & Sons Carriage and Wagon Factory, hydro-powered by a mill race off neighboring Nippersink Creek. The Miller family occupied The Octagon House over the span of multiple generations, from 1851-1990. The clapboard home was sold to Fitzgerald’s in 1990.
Terry Klein at the grill
Neither rain nor snow, sleet nor hail, nor dark of night keeps Fitzgerald’s Genoa Junction cook Terry Klein from manning his year-round 40-year post at the restaurant’s outdoor grill, where he cooks honey barbecue chicken and bourbon barbecue pork ribs over lump charcoal. The homemade house barbecue sauces are a well kept family secret that has been passed down through the generations.
Anna Popenhagen serves up fish boil dinner
Offering service with a smile, Fitzgerald’s Genoa Junction front-of-the-house manager, Anna Popenhagen, serves up the restaurant’s signature Door County fish boil dinner on a recent Friday. The fish boil dinner includes all-you-can-eat North Atlantic cod, small red potatoes, a small sweet onion, house recipe coleslaw, salted rye bread and an apple square dessert. Served with drawn butter, the taste and texture of the boiled cod is very close to that of lobster.
Andrew Soloj with a fresh batch of fish boil cod
Fitzgerald’s Genoa Junction cook Andrew Soloj prepares to rush a batch of North Atlantic cod, fresh up out of the wood-fired outdoor cooking kettles, to hungry all-you-can-eat diners on a recent busy Friday night. The restaurant’s popular heritage of serving up traditional Door County fish boils dates back to the restaurant’s 1978 founding.
Gift Shoppe
Amenities at Fitzgerald’s Genoa Junction Restaurant include a well-stocked Gift Shoppe run by Tina Fitzgerald. The Gift Shoppe offers browsing diners a variety of one-of-a-kind crafts and gift items from local dealers and area artists.
Kevin Fitzgerald, owner, Fitzgerald's Genoa Junction
Restaurateur Kevin Fitzgerald is the second generation owner of Fitzgerald’s Genoa Junction, 727 Main St., Genoa City. Founded by his parents, Jack and Sue Fitzgerald, in Twin Lakes in 1978, the restaurant moved in 1990 to its current home in the historic octagon-shaped Welcome J. Miller House, built in 1852. Along with its signature Door County-style fish boils and lump charcoal-grilled barbecue chicken and ribs, Fitzgerald’s Genoa Junction also offers an array of full service bar selections including sodas, bottled beers, spiked seltzers, malternatives, martinis, wines by the glass or carafe, and a wide variety of specialty drinks.
Outdoor sign at Fitzgerald's
LEFT: Since its 1978 founding, Door County-styled fish boils have been the advertised signature specialty at Fitzgerald’s Genoa Junction Restaurant, 727 Main St., Genoa City.
Door County-styled fish boil
The Door County-styled fish boil dinner is the big menu item at Fitzgerald’s Genoa Junction in Genoa City, accounting for more than 70% of all dinner orders.
