The old Shadows restaurant: any oldtimers remember it?
 

213 2nd Ave. San Mateo

Dave Rasmussen owned it and he had SFO cocktail bar concessions in the 60’s, trying to get any old stories, photos of Shadows or 1960’s SFO airport bars.

Thanks and sorry if this post not legal.

The only restaurant I know of was The Shadows of Telegraph Hill. It was a very old school German/Swiss restaurant on the top of Montgomery Street. My family used to handle the parking for them back in the 70's. Like much of old school San Francisco, it's long gone. Scroll to the middle of the page for a long time customer's memories.

Thanks, interesting as the San Mateo Shadows also served German food and used similar font on ashtrays

Shadows
 

I remember if fondly. We used to get take-out soup there all the time. My fave was the minestrone on Thursdays. In fact, I came across this post because I was doing a search for the recipe!

Shadows ashtray:
http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedi...eo-ca-ashtray#

I was just talking to my brother about The Shadows at dinner tonight. It was a favorite of my parents.

Were you talking about the Shadows Restaurant on top Of Montgomery Street on Telegraph Hill? In the mid to late 1960s, my brother use to drive our father to work at the Shadows Restaurant kitchen in the morning, and I use to fetch my father after work in the evenings. Did you know the Chef and Cooks were All Filipinos? My father was the First Cook. The Chef Pol Nepomuceno, my father Pete Liban and another cook unknown name posed in a Photo with Actor Rod Taylor in the Shadows Kitchen about 1963 before or after Rod Talor was starring in Alfred Hitchcock's movie, "The Birds". Some of the scenes were filmed in the S.F. Bay Area.

Shadows in San Mateo
 

I'm a guy in my 60's and I remember my parents taking me and my 5 brothers and sisters there frequently. I think it was one of their favorites. People used to shudder when they saw us all, expecting a bunch of noisy kids at a nice restaurant. They were blown away when we were all well behaved. They'd even come over to the table and complement my parents.

What I'm looking for is the recipe to their bean soup. They would give you a crock full while waiting for dinner and it was the BEST. Kind of a white bean soup. Not sure if it was northern beans, butter beans or what but it was the best! If it's floatin' around out there, send me a copy!!!

Thanks

Greg

Shadows in San Mateo
 

Oh....and it was this one was definitely in San Mateo.....

Remembering the old Shadows Resturant in San Francisco
 

My first time I visited the Shadows was a family dinner on a Sunday afternoon. It was during WW II about 1944. As a young boy around 12 I was impressed by the warships tied up along the Embarcodro. It was arounnd 4:00 PM and all the sailors were mustering on the deck of a Battle Ship or Heavy Cruiser right below us. As I recall the family returned there 3 or 4 times after that.
A few years later while attending college in San Francisco (1953) I met the prettyest girl and asked her out to dinner. Where in San Francisco could we go that would make a good first impression? The Shadows came to mind as an elequent romantic place for dinner. Being student with limited funds I parked in the lot at Coit Tower and we walked down to Montgomery Street to The Shadows. I don't remember what we had for dinner only that it was soperb.
I was watching TV the other night and saw Coit Tower and wondered if the Shadows was still there and googled it and found this website.

My grandparents used to take the entire family here (San Mateo) on occasion in the 1970s. Kind of sad to think it is now gone but that style is a rarity now. Now I'm nostalgic.

The Old Shadows menu
 

Out of my Mom's stuff, I've kept an old menu from The Shadows. Wish I had something I could do with it besides throwing it out. I pick it up to throw it away but can't quite do it. It says in a little corner "All prices are our O.P.S. ceiling prices or lower." I'm sure she got it at a union convention in San Francisco probably just after WW II. Any ideas anyone?

The unknown Filipino cook was my father, Pete Laconsay... Pol and my dad always cooked at family parties. Our families where so spoiled. :)

My dad had two jobs then. He worked at the Naval Shipyard and at The Shadows.

Well Vic, your dad was a VERY SPECIAL cook/chef ! Last time I was @ The Shadows was in the mid-70's... I lived in a townhouse on Montgomery, just down the street & around the hill, from the Shadows... They had WONDERFUL Spetzel, but the dish I remember the most was the Duck in Bing Cherry Sauce !! WOW !!! I've been trying to find a restaurant witha comparable dish for YEAR, to no avail ! It truly was a SPECIAL restaurant !!!