The venerable Riviera Supper Club was a popular bayshore destination for Green Bay residents seeking fine dining in the mid-1900s. This vintage postcard touted the prime view and elegant dining rooms. (On the back of the postcard, it read: “The discriminating choose Riviera Supper Club, house of GOOD FOOD, PERSONALIZED SERVICE.” The menu advertised fresh lobster, broiled steaks, and chicken.) In the mid-1960s, when Brown County put together its offer of land to the University of Wisconsin as a building site for the new UW-Green Bay, the privately-held Riviera was one of the properties designated for purchase and transfer. The aging building was one of the first to be razed as the site was developed.
Deb Anderson in Archives tells me that the old Riviera went up in flames one summer in the very early 1970s. Once the University determined the structure had no possible use moving forward, a decision was made to make it available for training use by the local fire department. Unlike the Phoenix, the Riviera never rose again.