Who would ever think that one of the best American restaurants serving old fashioned American food would be a small 45-seat, gay -owned, and operated restaurant and bar, located at 2nd and National in Milwaukee called Shadows.

Chicago has nothing like Shadows. San Francisco has nothing better than Shadows. And Boston, Philadelphia, Toronto, and New York have no gay restaurant to surpass Shadows.

When Frank Thalacker, the owner, last February took over the bar Shadows and added a restaurant, he thought he was going into a good business and doing something needed in Milwaukee. He had no idea that he was setting up a restaurant that would be the talk of traveling gays throughout the network from San Francisco, to Toronto, New York and Chicago.

Why in Milwaukee) Why Shadows? Most gay restaurants are either too loose or too uptight.

When they are loose, everyone feels free to camp it up, party and be outrageous. But no one feels the food should be clean or hot. Oh isn't that waiter cute dancing on the table. And because it is gay-owned and operated, and we are still cousins together, we are supposed to overlook the burnt toast, the over-cooked vegetables, and the worm crawling on our lettuce.

When they are uptight, you and your lover are never to hold hands for fear you will give away the owner's secret. And you are not to complain because you are in an award winning, nationally recognized Top 10 linen napkin restaurant: so what if the food is as cold as the atmosphere, the portions are as thin as the waiter, and the price and time they let you eat are a pure hustle.

Shadows in Milwaukee is just right: the atmosphere is open and loosely gay; the food is warm, American, and excellent in every detail, and the prices are a bargain for everybody. Frank follows the tradition of Milwaukee bar owners: they live with their customers, they don't exploit them. In Milwaukee you have to stay friendly to stay in business: there are not that many tourists to rip off.

Shadows is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. 7 days a week, 11 to 11, and the bar stays open til 2.

Ricky, the Milwaukee Mick Jagger, and Joe, the Milwaukee Clark Kent, are sweetheart bartenders. They are great guys to wait around with until there is a table for dinner, and great guys to have after-dinner drinks with. Dale is a courteous waiter. And Mark and Jack are real down home cooks: you won't get better cooked eggs and hunks of ham, pork chops, and steaks, and broccoli in any restaurant.

That's the point. Shadows is a first rate restaurant first, and a first rate place for gays. Guys come in business suits for a working lunch, or in softball uniforms and cleats for breakfast before the games and lunch and drinks after.

Breakfasts and lunches run around $3; dinners between $5 and $9. Frank realized that a lot of gays live semi-transient lives and he wants them to have a well-balanced meal they can afford. He is generous with his blue cheese dressing and sour cream. His desserts of hot apple pie or cheese cake will make you forget your last trick.

And if you go to Milwaukee as a visitor, you will probably find that Shadows will be your home base there too.

On February 6, 1981, Shadows hired well known Chef Lois Whitlock to take over the restaurant operations of Shadows, and the business became "Shadows/ Diplomat Cocktails & Dining".

The business continued its popularity, and hosted many shows and parties, while continuing to serve excellent daily dinner specials and other dining opportunities. It also continued many Milwaukee LGBT bars' custom of having a softball team in the SSBL/ Saturday Softball League.

In September 1983, the business advertised a Grand Opening of "the All NEW Shadows Restaurant". It's not clear what changed other than the "Diplomat" name had been discarded; perhaps Chef Lois had departed. A few months later, a blurb in 'In Step' magazine's Steppin' Out column mentions that "Matthew from Shadows tells me that not many of you came in for the Anniversary buffet, but piled in shortly after the buffet table was taken down-- for sandwiches"; from which we infer that business may have been on the decline.