Linda Falkenstein
Do you know the Labor Temple? The headquarters for the South Central Federation of Labor at 1602 S. Park Street has offices and meeting space and, in its lower level, a bar. It’s maintained a low profile over the years, with a typical, simple, Wisconsin bar menu. It’s been a home to the euchre community. And as of Jan. 1, the bar concession was taken over by Laila Borokhim, of Layla’s Persian Food and Noosh.
“The board of directors approached me last fall, the longtime bartender was retiring, so they were looking to revamp and do some different stuff,” says Borokhim, who’s signed a 3-year lease. She’s excited to be back on the south side (Noosh was originally launched in an ex-Taco Bell not far away) and wants to “make nice stuff happen in the community.” She’s looking forward to working with the South Madison Farmers’ Market, which vends on the Labor Temple grounds Sundays and Tuesdays in season.
Borokhim describes the bar’s former menu as basically “a hamburger, a cheeseburger, or a double hamburger.” The bar is just ramping up for its new food service. “We’re doing different food with the equipment that’s already there,” says Borokhim. “We do a fish fry and fish boils every Friday. I’m trying to get away a little bit from the fried food, but it is kind of fun for me to play with the fryer.” None of her other restaurants has featured a fryer: “It’s fun to just throw things in there and see what happens.”
She’s been doing brunch on Saturdays, “and sometimes Sundays, we’re kind of feeling it out.” Current hours are always posted on the bar’s Facebook page.
Borokhim is also trying lamb roasts on Saturday nights, a nod to the traditional supper club prime rib Saturday special. “It’s a little twist on that. Why not be different? Madison has enough of the traditional supper club-bar restaurants out there.”
While she says the food at the Labor Temple Bar will be “more fresh” and local than it was, with “lots of veggies,” as at her other restaurants, it will still be affordable fare. “We’ll still have a $6 burger — with locally sourced meat and all that jazz.”
