Ken Tedford has 45 years of Riverside Ballroom memories, an epic Red Hot Chili Peppers story and more kneecaps to make
GREEN BAY - When you sit down with Ken Tedford at one of the tables in the Riverside Ballroom, it’s a little like being served a feast but without having to worry about spilling on the white tablecloth.
It’s just one interesting story and delicious morsel after another.
He can tell you all about making the broasted chicken and kneecaps that have been a favorite for generations who have dined there for weddings, banquets and funeral lunches ... and stop just short of giving away any secrets. Let’s just say there’s “a lot of spices.”
He remembers that night in 1989 when the Red Hot Chili Peppers were onstage wearing nothing but socks — and not on their feet — when the police showed up and chaos ensued, because how could he forget?
He knows that the crystal chandeliers are from the former Czechoslovakia. That the sweeping, arched beams across the ceiling that give the 1936 art moderne building its stunning domed interior were all sanded by hand (his included) and refinished. That a couple in their 90s once celebrated their 75th wedding anniversary under the same roof that the Secret Service walked when Hillary Clinton made a presidential campaign stop in 2016.
“I know this building so in and out,” he says. “I know every outlet. I know where not to plug in because it may blow a breaker. I know everything.”
What you take away from the conversation more than anything else is that as treasured as the historic venue is to people in Green Bay, it can’t come close to how much it means to the man who has worked there for 45 years. He’s the face of the place, the historian, the building caretaker and the dressing maker.
He was a student at Green Bay East High School looking for a job that would work around his wrestling schedule when he was hired as a dishwasher on his 16th birthday on Sept. 21, 1978.
He never left.
He never got over the rush.
“When you walk into this place, and I still get it every time, the same feeling. It’s a shiver or something,” Tedford said. “The shiver of walking in the building and saying to myself that I get to do this, just privileged to do this every day.”
It’s why the decision to sell it after 20 years as the owner has been an emotional one for him.
“This is my identity and selling it is ... like I’m selling my identity,” he said. “It’s my life. I’ve been here more than I’ve been at home, and I’ve given it my all.”
On Jan. 12, Juan Maldonado and his family, who own Taqueria Maldonado’s, became the new owners of the iconic 3½-acre property along Main Street.
Selling wasn’t something Tedford, 61, planned to do until he was 65, but he has known Maldonado for 20 years, and so when Maldonado walked in one day and asked if he had ever thought about selling, it was enough to get him thinking. He and his wife, Kristi, who recently retired from teaching, talked it over and decided it was the right opportunity.
“The date came and all of a sudden it was like, ‘Oh my God, I’m selling my child,’” Tedford said.
He’s had some time since then to get both his head and heart around the decision, eased by the fact that he’s remaining on to help make for a seamless transition and beyond.
“I’m not going anywhere. I’m going to be hanging around here. Yes, I’m going to slow down. I’m not going to work every weekend, but I’m certainly going to work as long as they keep me on until I’m 65.”
Ann Kafka taught him about broasting chicken and kindness
Tedford’s introduction to the Riverside Ballroom came in 1974 as a paperboy for the Green Bay Press-Gazette. His family lived three blocks away on the corner of Morrow and Elizabeth streets. He rode his bike along his Main Street route, sometimes splurging on a soda for a dime at Earl’s Awning or getting a free cup of hot chocolate from The Pancake Place on cold winter days.
He knew already then he wanted to work at the Riverside one day. Owners John and Ann Kafka hired him when he turned 16. Almost from the start, Ann Kafka saw something in the boy who had been taught a stellar work ethic by his parents. She took him under her wing, patiently teaching him every facet of the business, one duty at a time.
“I think they knew right then and there they had their guy. I needed a little brushing up — I was from the north side — but other than that, they taught me to be the person I am,” he said. “I always say I never went to college, but I went to Ann Kafka’s college. She taught me how to run the Riverside Ballroom.”
He worked alongside her for 15 years. Soon he was running the broasters, then overseeing the kitchen, and by the time he was in his early 20s, he was managing the place.
On Fridays, he would arrive at 6 a.m. to help prepare food with the other cooks, be there all afternoon, broast the chicken for the meal that night, clean the fryers, put on a white shirt and tie to mingle with guests and stay until it was time to lock the doors.
“And then do it all over again the next night on a weekend,” he said.
After 44 years with the Kafkas at the helm, Tedford bought the Riverside on May 5, 2004, but never quit doing the work that got him there. He's not one to ask employees to do something he wouldn’t do himself. You’ll still find him washing dishes, breading the chicken, breaking down tables, “Zamboni-ing” the dance floor, making the dressing, plowing the parking lot and, in a pinch, mixing drinks.
“Whatever needs to be done I will do it,” he said. “I work side by side with everyone all the time.”
The Riverside serves an average of 60,000 to 80,000 meals each year for some of the most meaningful days in people’s lives — weddings, anniversaries, funerals, quinceaneras, among them — as well as annual corporate and civic functions. (Only on Mother’s Day and Easter is it open to the public for dining.)
If you do it correctly, Tedford said, guests have no idea how hard or how easy it was to host their event. Not the jockeying of schedules around employees’ lives outside of work or the amount of time that goes into the little deep-fried balls of dough before they ever get their powdered sugar and whipped cream tops to become kneecaps.
The reward is the bride who comes up at night’s end, gives him a hug and tells him everything was just perfect. It all goes back to something Kafka told him decades ago something that he has never forgotten: “It’s nice to be important, but it’s more important to be nice.”
“And I’ve treated everybody that way this whole 40 years,” he said.
Red Hot Chili Peppers wore tube socks only during 1989 show
Millions of people have come through the doors during Tedford’s time, including some famous faces who often had to walk through the kitchen when they arrived. He met NFL greats Jerry Rice and Joe Montana that way and former Packers quarterback Don Majkowski, too.
The Riverside will forever have a place in rock 'n' roll history as a stop on the Winter Dance Party with Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. Richardson (“The Big Bopper”) on Feb. 1, 1959, for what would be the second-to-the-last show the young stars ever played. All three were killed roughly 30 hours later in a plane crash in Iowa.
John Mueller’s annual Winter Dance Party tribute at the ballroom remains one of Tedford’s favorite nights each year.
He remembers the day his 10-year-old son, Kenny, was running around the ballroom as Papa Roach was setting up for a sold-out show. When he noticed he hadn't seen his son in awhile, he went knocking on the door of the rock band’s tour bus. There was Kenny having the time of his life with Papa Roach, banging on drums with the young son of one of the musicians around the kitchen table.
The most infamous night of music during Tedford’s time at the Riverside came on Nov. 26, 1989, when the Red Hot Chili Peppers were booked for $5,500 to play an all-ages show. The future Rock and Roll Hall of Famers were young, flamboyant and had just released their fourth album, “Mother’s Milk,” a couple of months earlier. A ticket through Ticketron was $15.
Their contract rider for that night included a request for white tube socks. Tedford remembered thinking, “What the heck do they want white tube socks for?” He didn’t ask questions; he just made sure they had them.
“They come out to do the last part of their show. White tube socks on. That’s it. A thousand people in here, mostly kids,” he said.
As they were sometimes known to do, the Chili Peppers wore the socks on their private parts as they played. The socks kept falling off and they kept putting them back on, Tedford said. The crowd went crazy. A parent who had come to pick up their kid got an eyeful and called the police from a phone in the lobby.
It wasn’t long before police were coming up both sides of the ballroom floor toward the stage. The band threw their instruments down, headed for a side exit door near the stage and ran “bare ass” into the field outside, only to be tackled by officers, Tedford said.
Once they were back inside and clothed, they were all brought to his office. The police asked if the Riverside wanted to press charges for indecent exposure. The band was told to get their stuff, get in their van and never come back.
“They’ve never been back to Green Bay. That’s how it ended,” he said. “I always claim we were their steppingstone to coliseums. I think it pushed them further to stardom. I would have to think they remember it, even at this age, even with all the shows they’ve done.”
'I went from paperboy to owner. It's America.'
In many ways, Tedford and the Riverside Ballroom were destined to be dance partners all these years. A self-described people-pleaser who seldom has a bad day, he loves the excitement that comes with hosting big events, 80-hour work weeks and all.
“I love making people happy,” he said. “It’s like being onstage. It’s an addiction. It’s a total addiction.”
He's touched whenever an older customer tells him how they met their late husband or wife at a Riverside dance in times gone by and proud the building is still thriving. He knows grandparents who had wedding receptions there, then parents, then children, then grandchildren.
“It’s just right down the line,” he said.
The camaraderie with loyal employees has been a blessing. Some, like Tim Blaney, go back to their days together at St. Peter and Paul Grade School. Waitresses like the late Mary Deprey worked there for more than 40 years. Tedford has gotten to know their families, invited them to his house and attended their children’s weddings. If one of them couldn’t afford new tires or car repairs, he helped them out.
Tedford not only found his career at 1560 Main St., he met his wife there, too — in the parking lot, to be exact. He and Kristi celebrated their marriage at the ballroom on July 24, 1994.
“I didn’t go too far. I lived on Morrow Street. I traveled up to Riverside to find a job and I went right outside to find my wife,” he said. “I went from paperboy to owner. It’s America.”
He’s committed to his standard 80-hour weeks during the busy April and May months as the transition process with the new owners continues. After that, he envisions maybe, just maybe, something closer to 40 hours each week.
He wants to play whatever role he can in assuring the local gem is well-positioned for its next chapter in Green Bay history. He also wants to share with the Maldonados all of the tricks of the trade that make the Riverside the Riverside, just like Ann Kafka taught him.
“I want this place to survive," Tedford said. "I want to come here in years to come, walk through the door and say, ‘Wow, they’re doing just like I said. This is just the place that I left it. They did it.'"
Kendra Meinert is an entertainment and feature writer at the Green Bay Press-Gazette. Contact her at 920-431-8347 or kmeinert@greenbay.gannett.com. Follow her on X @KendraMeinert.
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Ken Tedford reflects on 45 years of memories at Riverside Ballroom
