Condensed transcription from several interviews with the owners.

Q: How did you come up with the idea to open a café, and why almost kosher?

Irena: We’ve been friends for ages and always dreamed of opening a restaurant or café. And now that we’re empty nesters we’ve the time.

Bernice: Originally it was a joke. Aaron, my husband’s best friend from college is an Orthodox Jew and we always felt bad he couldn’t eat in our house. I learned back then all the stuff that’s necessary for prepared food to be kosher. And we’d joke that someday Irena, her husband – who was part of that “trinity” of college buddies – and I would open our own kosher restaurant so our families could all eat together.

Irena: It was Aaron who suggested we keep it simple, maybe go for a coffee house like they had in Greenwich Village when he was growing up – “Make it an interesting nexus for art and discussion. Limit what you serve and you have a chance to actually get it certified kosher. No meat, no milk, no eggs.” Well now that people are so health conscious – vegans and vegetarians – we thought we’d have a larger base of potential customers and give it a go.

Bernice: Right, you know: the old college try. We looked into getting kosher certification but there were too many hurdles to jump through. But since it was sort of Aaron’s idea, and we consulted with him, we decided to keep it closed on the Sabbath and other Jewish Holidays. And we get all the bakery from Chicago where it’s certified kosher – sealed package with a triangle around a “cRc” – Chicago Rabbinical Council.”

Irena: We’re almost kosher since we couldn’t afford to pay for inspections. And besides as Aaron pointed out, “Most Orthodox Jews have large families and can’t afford to eat out and plot the revolution anyhow.”

Q: How did you decide on the name?

Irena: Back when we were all going to the U, Aaron would joke that life wasn’t fair. His best friends got to date shiksas, non-Jewish women, but not him. But we’d all drink at one of those college bars and tease him, especially when Bernice and I were over the limit, “Go on, we can find you a nice shiksa from a good family. Even your bubbe would approve. Bubbe – you know, grandmother.

Bernice: So Irena and I began to refer to ourselves as “The two Shiksas,” even giving the shiksa a capital S. We were into Monty Python and when Irena got engaged I put together a skit for her one night set at a café counter like the one with the dead parrot, or maybe they did another skit in a café. Irena and I often revisit that skit and tweak the material.

Q: Do you have plans to schedule an open mike comedy night?

Both: No.

Q: Did you ever consider other names for your café?

Irena: Sort of. Once we talked about opening some kind of restaurant, we hadn’t yet decided to do just a coffee house. “Kosher Too” was one of the names we considered but realized people were liable to think that implied there was also non-kosher food. Yeh, I guess the kosher part came later; we thought it was funny.

Bernice: And since neither Irena nor I are Jewish it would be wrong to imply that we were the two in the name in case people heard “too” and mistook it for the number.

Irena: And no way do we look Jewish. Hmm, don’t take my comment wrong. Stereotypes are wrong, period.

Bernice: And then one night we were brainstorming – a bottle of chilled Chardonnay helped – and Irena blurted, ‘Two Shiksas’ Café and we stopped in mid-sip. Brilliant. A eureka moment. We had our name. Then came the devil and the details.

Irena (raising her hand and making circles over her head): “Ah, the details. We love irony and have a warped sense of humor. Once you’re out front with the shiksa part no way we weren’t going to try to be strictly kosher. At least that’s what we thought initially. Didn’t realize what it would cost. Details – we found out later we’d need to pay for food and kitchen inspections and supervisions by someone acceptable to the Orthodox Jewish community and then be closed on their Sabbath and other days when they couldn’t send someone to inspect. And for Passover with all the additional rules – forget it – we’d have to be closed.

Q: So what happened?

Irena: Bernice has an MBA. Worked for a couple of companies in Madison before starting a family. Then we began revisiting our college dream and did some serious planning – maybe that was also part of the fun.

Bernice: Feasibility, customer base, right-sizing, financing and location, location, location.

Irena: Financing: F-o-F – Friends or Family or whatever.

Q: Whatever?

Bernice: Whatever – how to bring it all together. We sized it down to a small café with somewhat restricted hours and vegan/kosher fare; after all, we still have our own lives to live. And then there was the final question – critical of course – of location, location, location.

Irena: Just one location, franchising comes later – just joking.

Bernice: Jewish humor.

Q: And?

Irena: We went scouting. My husband has a friend, Scott, who works in commercial real-estate. He agreed to help us. Suggested checking out Cudahy and South Milwaukee. “Only a tad out of the way. And if you’ve people plotting the revolution, trust me, no one would think to look in Cudahy or South Milwaukee.”

Bernice: No (raising her eyebrow at me) not more Jewish humor. Scott’s from Green Bay; his family has four season tickets for the Packers games in Lambeau Field.

Irena: I know it sounds nuts. I doubt there are six Jews in the Cudahy area and you can throw in South Milwaukee and Oak Creek. He took us to lunch at Twisted Plants. It’s a vegan comfort food restaurant owned and run by an African-American couple. It’s close to the Patrick Cudahy meat processing plant, a humongous spread churning out bacon, hams, pepperoni, etc. I’d guess there are not more African-Americans than Jews in the area. But the food was good and comforting.

Bernice: There was a continual stream of people, mostly white, coming in for orders while we ate there. Scott told us they were doing well and now have two additional locations. “It’s vegan so probably kosher too if you’re wondering. I live in a Jewish neighborhood. Be amazed what you can learn over a backyard fence or when you talk to the people on your block.”

Irena: We were game, probably not the right word, and said we’d give the neighborhood  a shot. Maybe it’ll be the next Bay View. Our place is a couple of blocks south of Layton Avenue and east of Packard Avenue.

Q: What’s the funniest thing that happened “on the way to the Forum?”

Bernice: Well, it’s not directly related to our café. Restaurants need restrooms. We went with two, unisexed. That’s why there’s those plaques outside the doors with the symbols for men/women/handicapped. The woman is the black silhouette with the triangular dress. It reminded us of the time we were coming back from Europe and our husbands went to the restrooms at Kennedy Airport in New York City. It was called Idlewild then and the signs were like ours but with just one silhouette or the other.

Irena: We were sitting outside the facilities waiting with all our carry-on when we saw this Chassid, long black coat, wide-rimmed black fedora clamped to his head, obviously in a big rush, dashing to the rest room. The women’s silhouette was a perfect match to his black coat and facing him as he hurried down the corridor. He made the obvious choice and plunged into the women’s rest room. I looked at Bernice and she looked at me, and before you could say “Jackie Robinson” he comes charging out beet-red and rushes into the men’s room. We were still laughing when our hubbies came out.

Q: Anything else you’d like to add?

Irena: Come have a cup of coffee some time.

Bernice: And we’ll throw in a slice of Mandelbrot, free.