Harvest: Local accents Under a new chef, Harvest remains committed to the region's bounty Raphael Kadushin on Friday 05/02/2008 When Tami Lax jumped from foraging at L'Etoile to co-founding her own Harvest restaurant virtually next door eight years ago, Madison's reputation for seasonal, locally sourced, almost reverentially cooked contemporary cuisine seemed cemented. Suddenly there were two nationally recognized Capitol Square restaurants sitting almost side by side and overlooking, symbolically, the Dane County Farmers' Market — itself an epic ode to the bulging local harvest and maybe the best metaphor for a movement that had come of age. >MoreLiliana's: Fitchburg gumbo Liliana's serves promising New Orleans fare Jerry Minnich on Friday 04/25/2008, (2) Recommendations Liliana's, in the amorphous suburb of Fitchburg, is the area's latest attempt at re-creating a New Orleans-style restaurant here in the northland. It is the creation of David and Tiffany Heide, who named the place after their baby daughter, and it is well worth a trip to the south (of Madison) to sample the jambalaya, gumbo, étouffée and other Creole-Cajun specialties, as well as some dishes reflecting broader French and Italian expressions of the Crescent City heritage. >More
LOCAL FLAVOR
Willy Street regroups Metropolitan Place still possible for second store Marc Eisen on Friday 04/25/2008, (1) Recommendation More than five years into their still fruitless search for a site for a second store, leaders of the Williamson Street Grocery Co-operative are battle-scarred and disappointed, but fully determined to expand. >More
FOOD AND DRINK
What does your beer garden grow? Resourceful home brewers cultivate their own ingredients Robin Shepard on Friday 04/11/2008, (1) Comment, (2) Recommendations For the homebrewer, the longer days of spring inspire thoughts not just of lighter, crisper brews of summer, but also of the beer garden. To be clear, I mean the brewer's garden. Gardening and brewing are, it turns out, two very compatible hobbies. >More
DINING
Dinner and a movie We pair terrific takeout with flick picks Kyle Nabilcy on Tuesday 04/22/2008, (1) Recommendation No one likes a chewer at the movies. It boggles the mind that theaters sell nachos. Of all the possible snack foods, why choose one of the loudest? >MoreTavern time Small burger-and-fry grills shall not perish from the earth Linda Falkenstein on Tuesday 04/22/2008 To a certain segment of the population, there's nothing more alluring than a vintage sign for Pabst Blue Ribbon hanging outside a converted farmhouse or an old hotel. The house-turned-tavern is as old as the concept of the public house itself — Madison's first pioneer residents, Rosaline and Eben Peck, were tavern- and innkeepers. >More
Beer Here -- Kirby's Supper Club from the Great Dane and Capital Brewery Robin Shepard on Wednesday 05/07/2008 1:27 pm, (5) Recommendations The south-central Wisconsin brewing scene is truly unique -- where else would one brewery offer to host another local brewery's brewmaster? Capital Brewery's Kirby Nelson, famous or perhaps infamous for his distinctive personality and gray pony tail, teamed up with Rob LoBreglio of the Great Dane Pub and Brewery to make a special beer. Earlier this week the result of their collaboration debuted on the taps at the Great Dane in downtown Madison. >MoreGeorge Motz brings Hamburger America to Madison Hamburger man comes to munch at Dotty's Linda Falkenstein on Wednesday 05/07/2008 10:28 am, (3) Recommendations George Motz frequently punctuates his enthusiasm for hamburgers with a bubbling laugh. Motz is a director of photography and documentary filmmaker whose Hamburger America was shown on the Sundance Channel in 2005. He's now spun his cross-nation ramblings into a guidebook, also called Hamburger America, and subtitled A State-by-State Guide to 100 Great Burger Joints. I guarantee that a few moments paging through this book will have burger lovers doing two things. >MoreBeer Here -- Ouisconsing Red Ale from Central Waters Robin Shepard on Friday 05/02/2008 10:21 am, (6) Recommendations The beers of Central Waters Brewing Company have been available in the Madison area for nearly 10 years. You'll find them on local shelves in a nondescript six-pack carton, a cardboard box with one of the bottle labels slapped on its side. Despite this low-key marketing scheme, many of Central Waters' beers make a statement on the taste buds. >MoreThe Great Madison Food Tour: Capitol Square Linda Falkenstein on Tuesday 04/29/2008 1:30 pm, (5) Recommendations I started thinking about what kind of easily walkable food tour we could rig up in downtown Madison. Not because I want to lead a food tour -- far from it -- but because this is apparently the kind of thing I start dreaming up when stopped for a long freight train on East Wash. And who knows -- maybe it's an activity conventioneers at Monona Terrace would love to take part in on a free morning. >MoreBeer Here -- Amnesia Baltic Porter from the Grumpy Troll Robin Shepard on Wednesday 04/23/2008 5:19 pm, (7) Recommendations Brewmaster Mark Duchow of The Grumpy Troll in Mount Horeb keeps racking up the awards for impressive beers. The latest: a gold medal in the World Beer Cup for his Baltic porter. Amnesia Baltic Porter was the top pick in its style category. The World Beer Cup, which the industry likes to call the Olympics of beer, featured more than 2800 beers from 58 counties in this year's competition. Earning a gold medal allows the brewer to claim "Best in the World" for that style. >More
Five Guys Burgers and Fries debuts in Madison Linda Falkenstein on Tuesday 04/15/2008 10:08 am, (10) Recommendations I kind of have to admire Five Guys Burgers and Fries for managing to include 80% of its menu right in the name of the restaurant. This East Coast-based chain doesn't serve much beyond its namesake burgers and fries. The menu also branches out to offer a hot dog and something named on the menu as "veggie or grilled cheese," which I at first took to mean a veggie burger. It's not. >MoreFringe Foods: Soft-shell crab from Gotham New York Bagels Getting comfortable with the menu of a really big country Kyle Nabilcy on Thursday 04/10/2008 11:05 am, (18) Recommendations I came across a prime example of this regionality completely unawares, when I wandered into Gotham New York Bagels and Eats on Mifflin recently. I was looking for lunch, and looked up to see a menu item that had been absent for months. Gotham's menu has undergone something of a remodeling since it debuted about a year ago. So, when I saw "Soft-Shell Crab" on the new chalkboard menu behind the counter, the foodie in me leapt for joy. >More
Beer Here -- Fatty Boombalatty from Furthermore Robin Shepard on Friday 04/11/2008 1:07 pm, (9) Recommendations Furthermore owner Aran Madden began with a white beer recipe and ramped up the amount of grain in this beer by 50 percent. He also dropped the amount of wheat malt used, so while the beer has the appearance of a big, bright hefeweizen, it doesn't strictly meet the style. That certainly doesn't bother Madden, who takes pleasure in deviating from brewery norms and beer classifications. The Boombalatty offers bitterness in the spirit of a pale ale, with spices like coriander in the background. >MoreA toast to the 75th anniversary of Prohibition's end! Vintage Madison ales and lagers are brewed once again Robin Shepard on Thursday 04/03/2008 12:18 pm, (12) Recommendations April 7 may be just another day on the calendar to many people, but to those who truly love beer it's Independence Day. On April 7, 1933, beer returned to the public following 13 years of Prohibition in the U.S. The Cullen-Harrison Act, a modification to the original Volstead Act which established Prohibition, took effect, and the result was the legalization of 3.2 beer. >More
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