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Dan Sidner
James Beard Award winner
- Discipline
- Other
i. Biography
Founder and co-owner of Black Shoe Hospitality in Milwaukee, Dan Sidner has built his work around the less visible machinery that makes restaurants run smoothly: systems and procedures, team building, and people management. It is a discipline that lends itself to structure, but also to the daily hum of service—the careful orchestration behind the dining room, the steady attention that keeps a team moving in the same direction, the kind of leadership that depends as much on consistency as on instinct. In Sidner’s world, the experience is not only what appears on the plate or in the glass, but the framework that allows everything around it to hold together.
The Climb
Today, Dan Sidner is co-owner of Maxie's (since 2007), co-owner of Blue's Egg, co-owner of Story Hill BKC, and founder and co-owner of Black Shoe Hospitality (since 2014). The list traces a career defined by range and continuity, with each name marking a place in a larger Milwaukee story. Maxie's, where he has been co-owner since 2007, sits alongside Blue's Egg and Story Hill BKC as part of a portfolio shaped by the same underlying attention to process and people. Black Shoe Hospitality, founded and co-owned by Sidner since 2014, anchors that work, giving form to his focus on building organizations that can sustain themselves through thoughtful structure and strong teams.
Today
Today, he continues in his role as founder and co-owner of Black Shoe Hospitality. It is a role that suggests both authorship and stewardship: the ongoing work of shaping the systems, supporting the staff, and maintaining the standards that define a hospitality business from the inside out. Rather than the flash of a single moment, Sidner’s path reads as an accumulation of careful decisions, each one reinforcing the next. In Milwaukee, that kind of steady leadership has its own quiet resonance, visible not in spectacle but in the durable architecture of a well-run operation.
Profile updated July 2026
FAQ
Asked of Dan
What is Dan Sidner's current role?
As of 2026, Dan Sidner is Founder and Co-owner.
What is Dan Sidner known for?
Systems and procedures.
