Lady Gaga recently paid a visit to Lancaster County, eating and drinking at local restaurants, where other diners apparently did not recognize her.

The outrageous pop superstar came here because she's dating a Lancaster Mennonite High School graduate who was in town for his grandma's funeral.

Very strange.

Also, very true.

Beloved by fans she calls her "little monsters" for outlandish fabulosity that once included wearing a dress made of meat, Gaga uncharacteristically was under the radar as she quietly swept in and out of Lancaster County late last week and over the weekend.

The musician ate dinner and drank whiskey at the Log Cabin Restaurant, where she could have spotted a photo of another former famous diner, the late Paul Newman, as she slipped upstairs to a private room Thursday night.

"She's got that real throaty voice. It was definitely her," said Linda Eshleman, an owner of the Warwick Township restaurant who helped serve dinner to the group.

Gaga also apparently came in with a group to the Bulls Head pub in Lititz, where she sat in a bubble of anonymity, unrecognized and unaccosted by fellow pubgoers, a manager said.

According to numerous celebrity websites, Gaga is dating Taylor Kinney, a 2000 Lancaster Mennonite High School graduate who was a star on its volleyball court and has family members here.

Now a California resident, he has starred in television shows, including The CW network's "The Vampire Diaries" and NBC's "Trauma."

The couple met when filming Gaga's video for her current hit song, "You and I."

Kinney's grandmother, Joanne Heisler, died about a week ago and her funeral was held here Friday, according to her obituary. He apparently returned home for the service, which a source said Gaga did not attend.

The pair looked relaxed during their local visit, Eshleman said.

"They kind of looked like a hip young couple," she said. "They were affectionate."

Both the Log Cabin and the Bulls Head were not notified in advance that they would be hosting an international star.

There were no bodyguards, no entourage, nothing of what you might expect from a star who has filmed a video with Beyoncé, has her own community website called Gagapedia and was named Artist of the Year last year by Billboard.

In fact, the staffs didn't really figure out what had happened until later.

"A gentleman called and asked for a private room," Eshleman said. "I asked if it was a special occasion and he said, 'It's special but I can't tell you the occasion or the reason.' "

Dressed in black and sporting long, blond hair, Gaga ate with a party of six. Four of them arrived first and then she and a man arrived a bit later, around 7:30 p.m., simply walking upstairs to join the rest.

"There was no introduction, nothing," Eshleman said.

True to form, Gaga drank Jameson's whiskey, which she likes so much that she once referred to it as "her longtime Irish boyfriend."

Also, Gaga, known for her torturously high-heeled footwear, "said her shoes make her feet hurt," Eshleman said. "They were like crazy shoes."

Gaga also thanked her server "for being cool," Eshleman added.

Gaga's real name is Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, and her friends were calling her by her given name, Eshleman said.

"I think she was in Stefani mode," she said, adding, "She was just in normal mode, as normal as an artsy person can be."

Kinney picked up the tab and tipped well, she added, though she did not provide details.

In fact, the Log Cabin staff remained as low-key as Gaga during the visit.

"The girl who waited on her is a big Lady Gaga fan," Eshleman said. "She said, 'I really wanted to ask for an autograph but I knew I shouldn't.' We didn't say anything until she was out of there."

Her visit was even more low-key at the Bulls Head, a bar just off the square in Lititz.

"It didn't really grab my attention," said general manager Ninette Mohr. "She wasn't wearing a lobster hat or her meat dress."

A young woman came in with an older woman and a couple of men Saturday night, Mohr said.

"Well, you look at people and think, 'They kind of look familiar. Where do I know them from?' " she said. "That's what I thought about her. I didn't think anything further about it."

"Nobody was like, 'That was Lady Gaga.' That would have been a big thing."

Mohr isn't really sure she would recognize Gaga in everyday clothing.

"If it would have been Heidi Klum, you would have known it was Heidi Klum. Heidi Klum looks like Heidi Klum. Oprah looks like Oprah," Mohr said. "Lady Gaga, when she has no makeup on …

"It's just that she's so different-looking when she's not all dressed up or dolled up to go onstage."

Both restaurant officials said they said nothing to anyone about the visits but that the word apparently had spread through the local grapevine.

Eshleman said her wine representative asked about it, and she didn't even know how he had heard about it.

In the video for "You and I," Kinney plays a sort of shirtless mad scientist and Gaga plays a bride, a piano player in a cornfield, her alter ego, Yuyi the Mermaid, and her male alter ego, Jo Calderone. Gaga is known for her over-the-top videos for her songs, including "Born This Way" and "Paparazzi."

Kinney, often referred to as "beefcake," and Gaga were spotted canoodling in California over Labor Day weekend, according to the website for People magazine.

Kinney's former high school teammates laughed when they heard about his latest girlfriend.

"He's not someone I would have picked to be in the situation he's in now," said Eric Kennel of Lancaster. "He's really nice, a great guy to play with."

Kinney was the Section Two Player of the Year in volleyball the year he graduated.

"He was the best player we had on the team that year," said Daren Good, who graduated a year later.

"He was always kind of cool, suave, kind of quiet, easygoing," Good, of Lititz, recalled. "He was very friendly. Just a genuinely really nice guy."

"The girls," he added, "were not afraid to chase after him."

Kinney, who was not involved in acting in high school, went to West Virginia University, and Good heard he later had gotten involved in boxing and mixed martial arts.

The last time Good saw Kinney was about eight years ago, when he ran into him at a fireworks display in Potter County, where both had traveled with family and friends.

"We just talked about his boxing stuff in West Virginia," he said.

Neither Kennel nor Good knew that Kinney was dating Gaga until a reporter told them.

"Well, good for him," Kennel said.

"It's pretty cool," Good added, laughing. "More power to him. I hope it works out."

cstauffer@lnpnews.com