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Underground Food Collective opening restaurant in Cafe Montmarte space
on 01/25/10 at 10:37 am | Underground is also planning to renovate the vacant restaurant space at 127 E. Mifflin St. -- most recently home to Cafe Montmartre -- and open a restaurant there by mid-summer. The work will start as soon as Feb. 1, with attention paid to recycled building materials and sustainably-harvested wood. No name has been selected yet, but expect it to fall under the Underground Food Collective brand. |
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Bonfyre American Grille is big, bold and worthwhile
on 01/15/10 at 9:00 am | You can't miss them. The new Arbor Gate Towers are an imposing presence looming over the Todd Drive interchange with the Beltline. At the ground floor, like a cornerstone, sits Bonfyre American Grille. The interior of this boisterous restaurant is centered on the bar, which takes up close to half the place. There's an aisle of cloistered booths on one side of the bar, and an open-concept table section fills the other. |
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The Coopers Tavern opens its doors to Madison
on 01/12/10 at 4:53 pm | The menu is still a work in progress, but this early lunch incarnation offers the four food groups: soups, salads, sandwiches and starters. Lots of carbs on the starter menu, with pretzels, frites, and a poutine that will make lonely Canadians and fans of gravy-soaked cheese curds very happy. |
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Pork-Off chefs and guests choose pig over pigskin at the Weary Traveler
on 01/11/10 at 12:29 pm | For a couple hours on Sunday, over a hundred people filed hungrily into the front half of The Weary Traveler to take part in the first ever Pork-Off. Chefs from eight kitchens in the Madison area put their best spin on pork shoulder, plus a few bonus goodies. |
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Madison food and culinary culture: 2009 in review
on 12/28/09 at 4:30 pm | Another year of eating has come and almost gone in Madison. Those years that begin with a presidential inauguration always seem to breeze by faster than others. Indeed, even the advent of a new administration in the nation's capital had an impact on the food scene in Madison, as Troy Gardens' Claire Strader was the top vote-getter of three finalists for the unofficial position of White House Farmer. |
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Fringe Foods: Hook's Cheese 15-year Cheddar from Fromagination
on 12/17/09 at 2:00 pm | Yeah, you can get a 2-year aged cheddar from Hook's. You can get a 4-year, a 7-year, or even a 12-year cheddar, and most ages in between. But right now, there's one vintage that everyone's talking about, from Los Angeles to upstate New York: the 15-year cheddar currently selling for no less than $35 per pound at Hook's factory store and more elsewhere. |
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JA's Soul Food is Madison's catfish headquarters
on 10/30/09 at 9:00 am | Madison has seen quite a few cherished soul-food storefronts disappear, including Kipp's Down Home Cookin', A Place for Friends and the east-side location of Madtowne Fried Chicken. Jada's Soul Food was another, but there was one thing going for Jada's that the other restaurants didn't have: Larry Jackson, now the owner of JA's Soul Food. |
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Fringe Foods watches Andrew Zimmern's Bizarre World episode in Wisconsin
on 10/28/09 at 2:00 pm | Food critic, chef, and Minnesotan Andrew Zimmern has been revealing the strangest of foreign foods to American television viewers since his show, Bizarre Foods, debuted on the Travel Channel in February 2007. He has expanded his focus to culture as well as cuisine with Bizarre World, and on Tuesday night we were treated to his trip to Wisconsin. |
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Marc Stroobandt wants you to drink your dinner
on 10/25/09 at 12:00 pm | The time has finally come. Beer has officially been invited to sit at the adults' table, and the coordination of beer/food pairings is emphasized more now than ever. Those of us who tire of our wine-drinking friends constantly tossing around "oaky" this and "tannins" that can at long last stand up and say, "this beer would go great with a nice steak au poivre." |
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The Underground Food Collective's guerrilla cuisine
on 09/25/09 at 9:00 am | In the kitchen of the Goodman Community Center on Madison's east side, the Underground Food Collective works to craft another event meal they call A Celebration of the PreIndustrial Pig. It's meant to bring back a bygone era of food production. Ingredients are supplied, grown, raised, processed and cooked locally. Invitations to the meal are informal at best; news is often spread by word of mouth and social networking websites like Facebook and Flickr. |
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Heirloom hogs
on 09/25/09 at 9:00 am | It might seem odd to revel in eating a pig that's critically endangered, but that's how you work to save a breed like the Red Wattle (sometimes spelled "waddle"). Rescuing endangered livestock breeds is a contradictory practice; eat them to save them. |
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Gone in 60 seconds at the Ian's Pizza eating contest
on 09/11/09 at 2:00 pm | I watched as the guy carrying the hot-bag walked up the mall toward the platform to cheers and applause. Within minutes, the tables were set up and the first plates were filled and then emptied by the first six hungry souls. Techniques varied, from typewriter to pizza roll-up. |
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Public Enemies exhibit opens at the Oshkosh Public Museum
on 06/29/09 at 3:00 pm | It hardly seems like it's been over a year since Public Enemies, opening in theaters nationwide on July 1, was filming in the streets and buildings of cities across Wisconsin. But while that time flew by for me, at least, the folks at the Oshkosh Public Museum were busy using it to compile and coordinate an impressive collection of Public Enemies-related artifacts and reproductions for a new exhibit. |
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Fringe Foods: Crispy pig bung from Asia Express
on 06/24/09 at 2:00 pm | Like menudo, pig bung is a product of efficiency, frugality, and a little bit of poverty thrown in for good measure. When the finer cuts -- the belly, the hocks, the loin -- are gone, "what's left" becomes "what's for dinner." Think ears, hooves, jowls, and bung. |
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Small (-ish) bites at Burgers and Brew: REAP Food Group serves gourmet in miniature
on 05/31/09 at 1:00 pm | Do you like burgers? Beer? Enjoy supporting local food growers? If the answer is yes, then Burgers and Brew, held at the Capital Brewery Bier Garten in Middleton, is the festival for you. |
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In my grill: HuHot and BD's turn Madison Mongolian
on 05/15/09 at 9:00 am | In my younger days, I'd go out with a big group of my friends to a Chinese buffet and we'd eat until we could barely walk. "The Sunday Plow," we called it. The food was mediocre, mostly fried and slathered in thick sauce. Would that we were in high school today, when ravenous youths from all parts of Madison can enjoy the bounty of the latest, ahem, foreign food in town: Mongolian grill. |
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Fringe Foods: Rajbhog from Maharani Indian Grocery
on 05/05/09 at 2:00 pm | The Maharani grocery, like rajbhog, is small but packed with goodies. There are a lot of spices, naturally; the dishes that Americans are most familiar with are often differentiated only by the spice profile. There's also a lot of pre-made items, frozen and awaiting only a warm-up. And there are the shelf-stable, prefab items like rajbhog. |
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The food empires of Madison
on 04/17/09 at 9:00 am | I am used to taking risks when I go out to eat. You don't order raw oysters or cold chicken feet without throwing caution at least a little bit to the wind. But the risk is not all on the part of the diner. |
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Fringe Foods: An Easter egg hunt at Brocach, The Old Fashioned, and Muramoto
on 04/06/09 at 2:00 pm | There's one symbol of easterosity -- a concept I'm using in the spirit of Stephen Colbert's "truthiness" -- that crosses almost all demographic lines, and that's the egg. |
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Behind the kitchen door with the Underground Food Collective
on 03/08/09 at 6:00 pm | An evening with the Underground Food Collective is an evening filled with dualities. There's the pig, raised with care and individual attention by Henry Morren of Morren Farms, and standing in stark contrast to The Way Things Usually Are of massive commercial hog operations, relatively poor diet, and more of an eye towards dollar signs than developing a flavor profile. |
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Getting sauced at the Italian Workmen's Club
on 03/01/09 at 11:00 am | The afternoon didn't start out that well for me. The Italian Workmen's Club smelled incredible, all tomatoes and garlic and herbs. The man at the desk was very friendly, with a dry wit. But I was having trouble fitting in there. |
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Food and tunes meet on stage at the Cabaret Dinner Theater with David Burhnam
on 02/20/09 at 11:00 am | I'll be honest; musical theater kind of escapes me. It's the original emo, swinging wildly from "quiet as a whisper" to "bellowing from the rooftop." And so much gesticulating! From either the hands waving or the lung capacity being expelled, a fellow's likely to have his hair blown back. So it's with that background that I assure you that an evening of cabaret dinner theater at the Overture Center for the Arts entertained even me -- cynical, stick-in-the-mud me. |
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Fringe Foods: Erotic confections and The Beer Lube at Naughty Novelties and Bakery
on 02/12/09 at 2:00 pm | You know you've seen it. Whether you're off, pole in hand, to hit the slopes at Cascade Mountain, or looking to get wet at Mt. Olympus, you've driven past it at Interstate speeds. But being in a hurry is a convenient excuse: anyone passing Naughty Novelties Bakery & Adult Gifts in DeForest has probably joked about what exactly makes up an "erotic cake." |
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L'Etoile moves to the first floor for Second Tuesdays
on 02/11/09 at 11:00 am | A wise man once told us all to love our neighbors. But man, sometimes your neighbors are weird. Chef Tory Miller of L'Etoile has found an easy solution: prepare a meal that everyone loves, and get 'em all around the same table. Step back, and watch the magic happen. |
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Fringe Foods: Alligator at Liliana's Restaurant
on 01/26/09 at 1:00 pm | When we humans eat alligator, the best we can say is that it tastes like chicken. Chicken! The animal most often equated with cowardice! Who's a gator got to maul to get some respect around here? |
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Let the Cherry Limeades flow at the new Sonic in Madison
on 01/25/09 at 6:00 am | Opening a chain franchise isn't always easy. Fuddrucker's tried in Madison, and failed. Steak 'n Shake similarly dropped out in short order. Krispy Kreme never even got a shingle hung in Madison. Known commodity plus a new market equals a lot of expectations to be met and doubts to be cast aside. |
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Madison eats trends in 2008 and wishes for 2009
on 01/06/09 at 12:00 pm | We're not a big town, but we're awfully tumultuous. Last year was no exception to that rule. As we reflect on the year that was, take in a small sample of some noteworthy culinary developments of 2008, and some new ones yet to come in 2009. |
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Fringe Foods: A winter wonderland of unexpected Madison chocolates
on 12/18/08 at 11:00 am | There's an old joke chocolatiers like to tell this time of year. "When is Christmas not really Christmas? When it's a white Christmas." See, it's funny because white chocolate isn't really chocolate, plus the whole Bing Crosby, "White Christmas" thing... Okay, it's not only cornball and a little obtuse, it's also not an old joke. I just made it up. |
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America's Dairyland vs. 'I'm going to Disneyland!'
on 11/24/08 at 2:46 pm | Other than a few close Rose Bowl games in the Barry Alvarez era of Wisconsin Badgers football, there's really never been much of a Wisconsin-California rivalry. |
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Fringe Foods: Lutefisk dinner at Lakeview Lutheran Church in Madison
on 11/10/08 at 2:30 pm | Lakeview's lutefisk doesn't stink, and I mean that in every way possible. Primarily, it truly doesn't smell badly. I could tell as soon as I walked in the front door that fish was being cooked, but that's true of any Door County fish boil or a VFW hall on Friday evenings. Nothing was retch-worthy, nothing approached the stank of durian. I was seated with a happily chatting group of diners at a front table, and loaded up my plate. |
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