Paulius Musteikis
Complex and invigorating: Rainbow trout with garnish of ground cherries, delicata squash and capers.
When Tory Miller bought L’Etoile in 2005, Odessa Piper’s faith in him was about all Madison had to base its expectations on. But as he moved the flagship restaurant to a dramatic new space and opened Graze and Sujeo, Madison has come to know Miller pretty well. Now his fourth restaurant, Estrellón, embraces the cuisine of Spain, a new geography on Miller’s map.
Miller delivers on the Spanish vibe with surprisingly few of his hallmark Wisconsin winks and pan-Asian flourishes. The menu is divided into three areas: “café,” “tapas” and “dining room.”
The breakfast/lunch café menu may remind folks of the old Café Soleil on the ground floor beneath the original L’Etoile. Excellent pastries — slender croissants filled with ham and tomato, or cheese and green olive — are superb and satisfying. Crepes are more French than Spanish, but fillings of manchego, soft egg and more of that jamón will silence any quibbles.
There’s also the legendary Magic Coffee. But during two visits, no one but me was there to enjoy it. I hope the café doesn’t go the way of Graze’s weekday breakfast, or Sujeo’s dim sum brunch, because it’s delightful.
The sprawling tapas menu kicks in at 4:30 p.m. There’s a pintxo (three or four bites of topped toast) with housemade cheddar cheese spread, summer sausage and pickles, and another tapa of cheese curds with fennel and Korean spicing (both very Tory touches) — but also a straight-up Spanish tortilla that was one of my favorite dishes.
Tortilla in Spain is an ocean away from tortilla in Latin America; it’s more like a quiche, and filled here with potato and onion, topped with sea salt and a dollop of eggy aioli. Similarly, the Spanish torta is a crisp, fried olive oil pastry disc, and at Estrellón it is aromatically sweetened with fennel and orange.
Charred pears with walnuts and charred beets with manchego (and charred apples with speck ham on the “dining room” menu) are all enjoyable; this kitchen loves its plancha grills. There’s a deceptively smooth and light blood sausage, and a similarly un-heavy chicken liver pate drizzled with blood orange balsamic reduction that makes the little bite really sing. If grilled shrimp over hummus and a deviled egg are pedestrian, they at least show that the kitchen isn’t likely to trip over the basics.
However, not everything is perfect. Roasted chicken from that larger-plate dinner menu was dry and flavorless, served in overlarge, awkward hunks. It may have been, as our server indicated, one of the night’s last portions, but that’s no excuse for what might be the only truly bad dish I’ve ever had from a Tory Miller kitchen.
Fortunately, rainbow trout followed right on its heels, washing away any sorrow with its crisp skin, tender flesh, and garnishes of ground cherries, richly sweet grilled delicata squash and capers. The two filets are very shareable, though with a dish this complex and invigorating, you may not want to.
But don’t try to hog the massive paella, which serves two. Miller loves crispy rice, and his paella has its almost-burnt bottom layer, socarrat in Spanish. It must be scraped forcefully from the serving pan, a task that Estrellón encourages with the presentation of a sturdy wooden spoon. There are three paellas on the menu; the Valenciana offers a bounty of shellfish, plus rabbit, chorizo, tomatoes and asparagus. Our mussels were a bit scrawny, but the shrimp were tenderly cooked, with luxuriously suckable heads.
The kitchen team, five strong during one visit, whirls and passes dishes with hardly a peep. However, staff is still acclimating to the crush of customers; there can be, for instance, an hour-plus wait at 6:30 on a Wednesday night. Still, service is more over-attentive than under; there’s lots of “How are you liking your tapas?”
In short, we’re liking them a lot. There’s so much you should order: The breathtaking pan con tomate, a simple tomato puree with olive oil and salt atop a toasted baguette. The grilled octopus, hefty tentacles presented simply but at their tender best. A pintxo of boquerones (anchovy) presented as a Caesar salad homage. Simple steak fries — papas fritas — cloudlike in their steaming-hot centers. And an ample plate of charred padrón and shishito peppers — one in 10 will melt your face. A gooey cheeseburger that Miller has been enigmatically promoting on Instagram for Wednesday nights will merit future consideration.
And if you think you know that the churros with Mast Brothers drinking chocolate is definitely the dessert you want (they are quite nice), don’t sleep on the Basque cake, with its custardy center and crunchy exterior. Served next to delicate sour cream frozen yogurt and fresh raspberries, it’s not a familiar dessert, but it’s just one of many Spanish classics that Estrellón will make you crave.
Estrellón
313 W. Johnson St., 608-251-2111, estrellonrestaurant.com
Café hours 8 am-2:30 pm Tues.-Sat., 9 am-2:30 pm Sun.
Tapas bar 4:30-10 pm Tues.-Thurs., 4:30- 11 pm Fri.-Sat., 4:30-9 pm Sun.
Dining room 5-10 pm Tues.-Thurs., 5-11 pm Fri. Sat., 5-9 pm Sun., $1.50-$40
