Bootleggers and speakeasies weren’t the only ones who profited from the Prohibition. In 1920, Charles Mader saw the nationwide alcohol ban as an opportunity to revamp his business, Mader’s Restaurant located in downtown Milwaukee. Rather than focus on frosty pints and cold cuts as he had since the eatery’s grand opening in 1902, he decided to look to his German roots for the traditional dishes he enjoyed before moving to America in 1885.
“We really got into the food business after Prohibition,” says Victor Mader, the restaurant’s third generation owner. The 108-year-old restaurant now serves upwards of 180,000 meals a year (including wiener schnitzel, sauerbraten, and their famous roast pork shank) to everyone from conventioneers visiting the nearby Midwest Airlines Center to sports fans of Marquette University and the Milwaukee Admirals hockey team to locals whose personal histories are intertwined here.
“We have one group in their 60s and 70s who come out at lunch. Mader’s is the place they f
requented when they were in their 30s. Some of them maybe even proposed to their wives here,” says Victor, who started as a bus boy and later went full-time in 1964 after college. Among the regular faces, Victor says they’ve seen some famous ones, too, including three presidents (John F. Kennedy and his brother Robert, Ronald Reagan, and Gerald Ford), Frank Sinatra, Audrey Hepburn, and Paul Newman.
Victor’s family traditions aren’t confined to the restaurant walls. He’s made it a point to spread the wealth of his heritage by getting involved in various ventures including art collectibles, catering, and airline food service. His art and antiques collection brings in annual sales of up to $7 million dollars for limited edition German beer steins, lithographs, woodcarvings, M.I. Hummel figurines, and other collectibles. The restaurant’s 20-year-old catering business serves both Milwaukee’s Summerfest, the world’s largest music festival, and Midwest Airlines. In 2006, just one year after Mader’s started dishing up a sky-high menu, Conde Nast Traveler voted Midwest Airline as the best airline food in America.
In spite of evolving food trends and fast food’s continuing dominance, Mader’s will always be a traditional German restaurant. “We are what we are and we’re not going to change ourselves,” Victor says. We’ll raise a pint to that!
[Photography courtesy of Victor Mader]
Published on February 3, 2010
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We recognize that all of us, no matter where we are from or what we do, have memories that are precious and often part of our everyday lives. At The Fine Art of Family, our mission is to highlight the unique stories behind how people capture, celebrate, and share these memories, specifically through their most prized heirlooms, photographs and collections.