[<gastro- as in gastronomic, etc. + pub]
Brit. a tavern specializing in serving high-quality food (as opposed to deep fried jalapeno poppers or chicken wings)

The Cooper’s Tavern on the Capital square in Madison is being billed by its owners as a “Gastropub”, which is a British term used to describe a pub that is as well known for its food as it is for its drinks.  It’s filling the same niche in Madison as places like The Old Fashioned and Brasserie V, which means a comfortable bar with a great assortment of beers on tap and a menu with intriguing starters, hearty sandwiches, and salads that venture past the plain piles of iceberg and pale tomatoes seen in most Wisconsin taverns.

We visited Coopers for a couple of mid week lunches recently, and both times the place was jammed times with the downtown office crowd looking for a good lunch.

The first thing we ordered was the poutine, solid evidence that Canada was first settled by transplants from Wisconsin: french fries topped with melted cheese curds and a brown gravy. Poutine is a dish from Quebec that can only be described a delicious, caloric mess. Neither of us needed it for a weekday lunch, but we still whimpered a bit when the plate was wisked away before we could sop up the last puddle of gravy with one of the few remaining fries.

For sandwiches, we ordered the Reuben, since we are both big fans of a good corned beef.  We also took a flyer on the intriguing sounding lamb sandwich.  The Reuben was hands down the winner.  The tall stack of carved corned beef was bursting with flavor, easily the best we’ve had anywhere in Madison.  The menu says the beef is “house cured”, so whatever is going on inside the “house”, they need to keep it up.

(and BTW, the little “house” at the end of the bar is not where the corned beef is made.  It’s called a snug, which is a small private room in Irish pubs where one can drink without being subject to the prying eyes of the public.  Think local beat cops, parish priests, or in the case of Madison, your state elected officials and their lobbyist friends).

The carved lamb sandwich on sourdough with carmelized onions and a tomato “jam” stood out as something you don’t see on many menus, so we had to try it.  And while it was certainly very good, it paled in comparison to the Reuben.  The tomato jam was intended as a tart counter point to the richness of the lamb, but it ended up being more of a distraction.

On another visit, we ordered the burger, which came recommended by the bartender.  And while it certainly stood out from your typical supper club offering, it seemed a bit average when compared to the taste explosion of the V-Burger at Brasserie V or the house burger at the Old Fashioned.  The beef was good quality from Knoche’s, but the only interesting accent beyond the onion and pickle, the thin slice of pork belly, had its flavor disappear under the massive Clasen’s kaiser bun.

The beer list is wide and varied, moving beyond more typical Belgian imports and local craft brews to include a wide range of offerings from Ireland, England, and Germany.

A slightly more involved dinner menu will have  a range of entrees no more expensive that $14. As general manager Peter McElvanna says in this State Journal article:

“For the Capitol Square, it’s relatively well-priced,” McElvanna said. “You can come in and have a burger and a couple of pints and a tip and it’s 20 bucks.”

The Cooper’s Tavern

20 West Mifflin Street, Madison, WI

(608) 256-1600

Open everyday, 11:00AM till close

In early July, when Bastille Day  (July 14th) was still a couple weeks away, we decided to call around to the different Francophone restaurants (Le Chardonnay, L’Etoile, Sardine, etc.) to find out what special menus they had planned for celebrating France’s national holiday.

Our call to Le Chardonnay was the most intriguing.  While they hadn’t finalized the menu, they promised they get back to us when Chef Sami Fgaier had decided what to serve.  And sure enough, a couple of days later, they called back with a list of French favorites that seemed to go on and on.  We made a reservation for three, thinking that our 6 year old daughter would at the very least be able to enjoy their famous frites.

We had often talked about visiting Le Chardonnay, especially since the whole family is very big on mussels, and one thing the restaurant is known for is their all you can eat Moules et Frites on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Chef Sami’s menu is generally French, with subtle Mediterranean/North African accents that reflect his Tunisian background.  A good example was the carrot based turchi that was served with a basket of bread: this addicting spread was an interesting blend of sweet and spice, with the flavor of carrots being balanced with cumin overtones.

He is also one of those chefs who comes out of the kitchen to check on arriving guests, greeting some of that night’s patrons in French.  Note: hearing French spoken by both the chef and patrons at a French restaurant in the US is always a good reflection on the overall experience.

For appetizers we shared the Escargot with red wine and prosciutto and the Roasted Veal Sweetbreads, spicy with chorizo and paprika.  Both were very good, but the Sweetbreads were the hit: so few restaurants even attempt this treat, that it is great to see it on a menu, let alone being done imaginatively well.

Although Chef Sami brought her a taste of the braised rabbit pasta out of concern for a kids noodle centric palate, our daughter ordered the Bastille Day version of Le Chardonnay’s Mussels.  Versus the standard garlic, shallot, and white wine sauce, these “clams” as our daughter calls them, came with a more cream based sauce.  She gobbled them up all the same, along with plenty of the delicious frites.

Both of our entrees were hits: the halibut came on a bed carmelized root vegetables and duck breast with orange sauce over mushroom risotto had a citrusy zing to it.

We also had an interesting experience with our server.  He was clearly brand new, since any basic question about the menu required a visit to the kitchen or host stand for an answer.  But he handled his inexperience well.  He was up front about being new, and enthusiastically tracked down the anwers to all our questions.  What could have been an off note on the night, actually turned out well.  We’ll take someone with an energetic helpfulness over a bored and cynical pro any day of the week.

Le Chardonnay is on a busy street (Johnson) and we have often zipped past, wondering about the restaurant within.  After our great Bastille Day experience, however, we will be sure to slow down and stop more often.

Here is what some other local foodies have to say about Le Chardonnay:

• Decider Madison
• Eating the World
• Madison A to Z

Le Chardonnay

320 West Johnson St.

Madison, WI 53703

608.268.0372

lechardonnay@gmail.com

From its elevator entrance on the ground floor of the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, one rises to a bright open space of floor to ceiling glass walls, which provide one of the more dramatic views of the Capitol Dome, especially with an orange and red sunset playing off the white marble.

The interior itself had a very urban, minimalist decor rarely seen in Madison, with stark table settings of black, white, and red. However, it was the food itself that provided some of the strongest statements of the evening:

For starters, we shared the Shrimp Diablo and the Seared Scallops.  The shrimp was the hit of the first courses, with a fiery chili-citrus crust that was mellowed by a fresh slaw of jicama and orange.  The large sea scallops were seared on the outside to perfection and meltingly tender on the inside.  Being served atop a bed of creamy polenta with diced Nueske’s bacon and a balsamic reduction was an inspired complement, although the bacon was so lean that its flavor impact to the overall dish was very subtle.

From an entree standpoint, the seared piece of Alaskan halibut was cooked to the perfect level of doneness, and the fresh pea and lemon risotto had a bright cleaness that one doesn’t often associate with a dish as rich as risotto.  The dish may have been just a bit too clean in its flavors, however, since this particular preparation bordered on being a bit bland.  Many people have raved about this dish, so we may have caught it on an off night.

The Cioppino Pasta on the other hand, was a flavorful abundance of hearty chunks of shrimp, halibut, and shellfish in spicy tomato sauce that balanced its heat well with the linguine and the seafood.  There were also hunks of grilled bread that were perfect for soaking up the flavorful sauce.

Since we love having a crisp, understated Oregon Pinot Gris with any type of seafood, the presence of an Adelsheim vintage from the Willamette Valley on the wine list was very welcome.  Additionally, the “Other Whites” section of the wine list looked to have several other seafood friendly unique vintages that rose above the typical chardonnay.

From the dessert menu, the chocolate filled beignets with creme anglaise looked the most intriguing.  However, our hearts were set on some gelato down the street at Paciugo off State Street, so we passed.

For those not interested in the sit down dinner thing, Fresco has a late night bar menu that looks pretty tasty, and their signature cocktails are only $5 between the hours of 9 and 10 during the week, and between 10 and 11 on the weekends.

The setting of Fresco truly stands out in such a laid back city as Madison: an urban place to see and be seen in.  For dining in surroundings that look as good as the food, Fresco is the place.

We especially enjoyed the Burrata, which is a ball of solid mozzarella on the outside, and inside, a mix of fine mozzarella pieces and cream.  It is a blend of deliciously creamy textures, like a soft boiled egg of cheese.  Also his pairing suggestion marscapone cheese and a fig compote on slices of bread was an amazingly simple, appetizer-like dessert.

With a chef as passionate as Francesco is about food, we decided to visit Osteria Papavero for dinner.  And while we had already found the lunches of simple sandwiches and pastas at Osteria Papavero to be very good, that hadn’t prepared us for the amazing Italian dinner experience we enjoyed.

Based upon Francesco’s recommendations of dishes to try at his restaurant, we started with the salumi misto as a shared appetizer, especially after he mentioned that they cure and smoke several of the sausages and meats in-house.

The platter we were served was heaped with a venison braciola, a house smoked pancetta, mortadella, prosciutto rosso, and a sopressata.  All of the meats were amazing, but the melt in your mouth pancetta and the tender, but flavorful, venison braciola were especially wonderful.  With the excellent bread basket they brought to the table, this could have been dinner in itself.

However, we then would have missed some amazing entrees.

The entrees at Osteria Papavero are unique because they avoid the typical menu traps of red sauce laden Italian-American dishes, or Italian fusion flights of fancy that never seem to land anywhere recognizable.  The antipasti/contorni, the carne, and the pastas all seem rooted in simple, traditional Italian flavors, with an extensive use of seasonal and local ingredients from the Madison area.

A good example was that night’s fish special of sablefish that we enjoyed: the moist and flaky sweetness of the fish was surrounded by a pancetta accented broth and smothered with the fresh spring newness of locally sourced ramps and morels.

The Cervo pasta dish, another special, was an delicious elk ragu over flattened tubes of tender pasta, flavored with generous gratings of a nutty grana cheese.

Finally, we had dessert.  Normally, we aren’t dessert-in-restaurants people, but as with the entrees, the house made desserts were so unique and intriguing we had to try.  For many Italian or Italian-like restaurants, desserts seem to lack the originality of the entrees, ending up like a monotonous parade of Tiramisu, each identical to the one from the previous menu.

Which is why when we saw a pine nut torte with caramel on the menu, which we then paired with a goats milk sorbet, we decided that dessert at Osteria Papavero may be worth the extra calories. The torte itself was very simple and not cloyingly sweet, but each bite had the nutty texture of the pine nuts smothered with a sticky caramel sauce on top.

But it was the addition of the goats milk sorbet that made the dish.  The flavor of the sorbet was that of pure goats milk, and its tangy tartness provided just the right counter point to the sweet caramel.

The only downside to the meal was that our server struggled a bit with recommendations from the intriguing Italian wine list for pairings with the salumi and the entrees; however, they were more than accommodating with tastings, in order to allow us to find the best fit with the food.

Here are some other local thoughts on Osteria Papavero:

• Quomodocumque
• 77 Square

Osteria Papavero is located downtown on Wilson Street, almost next door to Restaurant Magnus, and open Monday through Saturday for lunch and dinner.

Calling something the best is always a dicey exercise, especially when it’s something like a burger in a fairly good burger town like Madison.  As Doug Moe of the Wisconsin State Journal says:

“Nothing gets the juices flowing like a discussion of who serves the best hamburger in Madison.”

In addition to the places Moe mentions, there is also strong competition from places like Brasserie V, Weary Traveler, Blue Moon, and the sentimental favorite, the Plaza Tavern.

However,  The Old Fashioned, located within the shadow of Wisconsin’s state capitol in Madison, gives everyone a run for the money with their near perfect House Burger.

From their own menu, Old Fashioned describes their House Burger as:

“grilled over a live fire and topped with fried onions, Bavaria’s hickory-smoked bacon, aged Cheddar, garlic sauce and a soft-cooked egg on a buttered and toasted roll”

What makes the Old Fashioned House Burger perfect?

It starts with the burger itself, ordered medium rare.  A sign of a kitchen that gets it right is one that can exactly split the difference between the slight pink of medium and the raw redness of rare to get the perfectly juicy middle ground, medium rare.  At the Old Fashioned this means a flavorful char grilled crust on the outside and a rosy juiciness inside.  The patty is well constructed of good quality beef, which means it’s not too crumbly or fatty.

The bacon is from Bavaria Sausage Kitchen, and its blend of smoke and sweetness tastes likes its just off the griddle, which means crispy on the edges and tender in the middle.  How many bacon strips have you had on a burger that had the leathery toughness of being made hours (or days)  before and then added just before serving?

Toppings are a matter of personal preference, and what goes on top of the Old Fashioned House burger will probably not make the day of the ketchup only crowd.

However, if you have a taste for a just right blend of onions and garlic on a burger, you will quickly realize that the Old Fashioned truly gets it.  The grilled onions are all caramelized sweetness, while the garlic sauce is more of a flavorful presence than something that dominates the whole burger.

Other top burgers in Madison take different approaches to their signature toppings: from the Blue Moon burger, with its bleu cheese and chopped raw garlic, to Bob’s Bad Breath Burger at the Weary Traveler, which revels in being a taste explosion of garlic, green goddess dressing, and pickapeppa sauce: both are very enjoyable in their own rights, but both have a taste that dominates the burgers and that will live with you fragrantly for about 24 hours after.

Presentation is not something that readily comes to mind when talking about burgers.  Most of the times, simply plating a perfectly balanced burger to show off the quality of its ingredients works best, like another candidate for the best burger in Madison, the V Burger at Brasserie V:  a Highland beef burger piled high with crunch fried onions, white plate, and a professional looking steak knife to manage it.

At the Old Fashioned, the burger also came out perfectly on a buttered and toasted roll, but what takes their burger to the next level is a just done fried egg on top, with the sunny side quivering as it is placed in front of you on the bar.   The yolk then mixes with all the good burger juices, along with the cheese and the garlic, to become a grown up sauce that rivals even the legendary Plaza sauce of the Plazaburger.

As with the burger, the Old Fashioned takes the humble Wisconsin special of fried cheese curds to the next level as well.  Fresh to your table, they are almost light, as golden fried balls of mini melted cheese mouth explosions.  The key is to eat them before they cool too much, otherwise they come back down to earth to be very good, but mortal, fried cheese curds.

The Old Fashioned also has one of the best collections of state beer, both on tap and in bottles, to go with anything on the supper club friendly menu.

The Old Fashioned is located on the Capitol square at 23 N. Pinckney St., and it’s phone number is 608-310-4545.  No reservations taken however, and since it can get very crowded, especially with the Farmer’s Market crowd on Saturdays, plan accordingly.

Image by Amy Lynn Schereck

Tapas in restaurants, or small plates, can either be a great way to see how different food tastes and textures are accented by pairings from an interesting wine list, or it can be a series of small disappoints clashing with less than inspired wine options.

Eno Vino on Madison’s far west side is decidedly in the first camp.

The wine list at Eno Vino is a well rounded one, with lots of intriguing options, as one would hope from a wine bar.  A list of white wines by the glass that has Vouvrays, Viogniers, Gruner Veltliners, and Albarinos, along with the obligatory Chardonnays and Sauvignon Blancs, is always promising.  What is also a plus is having a server who is knowledgeable enough about the wines to make sound recommendations.

The list of plates to share was just as tempting, and after expressing interest in all the interesting seafood options on the menu, our server steered us towards the Ahi Tuna Poke and the Seared Fresh Lump Crab Cakes.

The big question when ordering crab cakes in a restaurant is whether they will lean more towards the crab or the cake.  Most places, even those that make a big deal about their crab cakes, tend toward the later.  Too many times you are disappointed by something that resembles a dense hockey puck of seasoned bread crumbs, flecked with bits of crab meat, or even worse, imitation crab.

At Eno Vino, the crab cakes are almost all big pieces of delicate and fresh lump crab meat, held together with the most minimal of binders and then seared quickly for the barest of crusts that provide the right amount of textural counterpoint.

The seasoning for the crab cakes was understated, which allowed the subtle, true taste of the crab to come through.

The champagne butter sauce that the cakes were paired with was basically a beurre blanc with champagne, which provide the right amount of buttery richness to accent the pure, seared crab.  The fresh garnish of baby rocket micro greens reminded us of the little spring shoots we saw coming up after an afternoon of raking out the flower beds in the garden.

We both ordered different wines with our starters, but both worked well with the crab cakes.  The fruity acidity of the Martin Codax Albarino was a great counterpoint to the butteryness of the crab cakes, while the food friendly lightness and subtle mineral notes of the Michel Picard Vouvray acted as more of a compliment to the crab cakes.

The Ahi Tuna Poke was also beautifully done, although it had a couple of jarring hits of wasabi spice.  Another great wine recommendation was the Paso Creek Merlot as paired with the tender grilled Hanger Steak with braised spinach and a pancetta-shallot demi-glace.

Eno Vino is located on Madison’s far west side at 601 Junction Rd.  For reservations, Open Table worked like a dream, but you can always use the old fashioned telephone method: 608-664-9565.

The pizzas are true to a Neopolitan original,  with a thin but lightly chewy crust, cooked quickly in a wood burning oven, and without lots of heavy toppings or gloppy cheese.

The sauce for the Pizza Rosso with Sopressata is very simple, coming across as no more than a puree of San Marzano tomatoes. It is sweet without being cloying, and it compliments the flavor of the toppings, rather than trying to dominate.

The highlight was the Sopressata sausage, which is an Italian dried salami whose edges crisped up wonderfully in its short time in the wood burning oven.

We also tried the Bergamo pizza, whose Gorgonzola cheese was balanced well to the other flavors, including the sun-dried tomatoes and ham.

Pizza Brutta is at 1805 Monroe Street in Madison and its phone number is (608) 257-2120.  At Pizza Brutta, you order at the counter and the tables are seat yourself.  It got very busy between the hours of 6:00 and 7:30 on a Friday night, so plan accordingly with larger groups.