Sugar Shack

Sugar Shack advertisement (July 1976)

Sugar Shack

Location: 135 East National Avenue, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA

Opened: June 1976

Closed:  Around 1985

From Don Schwamb, at the History of Gay and Lesbian Life in Milwaukee, Wisconsin:


The Sugar Shack was opened in June, 1976 by JoAnn Kilsdonk, with business partner Sharon Dixon (who later opened Fannies).

Advertisements for The Sugar Shack (which first appeared in the July 1976 issue of the GPU News) advertised it as "A bar by and for women".

Cory Scott, the son of the owner, recalls working there as a boy, and attending Brewers games tailgate parties co-sponsored by Sugar Shack and The M&M Club (which opened within weeks of Sugar Shack).

The August 1976 issue of the local "GLIB Guide" describes the business as follows: "Women, women, women! And lots of room to mingle. By and for gay women."

The Sugar Shack was sold around 1985 to Dotie, who for a time reopened it as a lesbian bar named D.K.'s Tavern. But that was not to be; the business was sold once more in late 1987 to Al Thomas, who eventually reopened it as a men's gay bar, The Triangle, which was to survive at least 20 years