Ryan Wisniewski
There are no weak links in this roundup of four sausages and their various toppings.
Longtable Beer Cafe, the second restaurant from Brasserie V owner Matt Van Nest, recalls Tolkien’s pub from The Lord of the Rings — the Green Dragon. Big communal tables and lots of hard surfaces mean this is a loud and raucous spot on busy evenings. Its glassy facade looks out in one direction onto a flurry of development on Hubbard Avenue, the new face of Middleton, and in the other onto the Village Green Bar and Grill, very much the old.
One key — and intentional — difference between Longtable and Brasserie V is the ratio of tap beer to packaged beer. Longtable favors the latter, with some 300 choices in a vast beer cooler. All bottles are available for consumption onsite or for taking home. Longtable’s taps — there are 12 — are reliable, well curated and worth checking out.
Dead-center on the menu for a reason are the shared boards. The sausage board is made up of four of the six links on the menu (wild boar, Polish, spicy Italian and bratwurst — missing just the frankfurter and a veggie walnut lentil “sausage”). These come heaped with their respective toppings and accompanied by three split, toasted buns. That’s all you really need.
There’s good heat in the spicy Italian, and the delicate wild boar is better served by shedding the bun altogether to appreciate the Brussels sprout leaves that adorn it. The Polish sausage and bratwurst conformed deliciously to breed standards. Perhaps best of all, it’s a downright steal at $25. Ordered separately, these would run closer to $40.
The fish board is also a good value at $21. Cured salmon with mustard seeds was tender; whitefish rillettes were a bit bland but pleasant enough. Finally, a proper little heap of flaked smoked trout, dill and cucumbers came atop what I think was more smoked trout, mixed with a rich creme fraiche. There wasn’t quite enough toast, but bread ratios are hard to get right. There are also poultry, cheese, meat and vegetable boards.
Sandwiches came off as underfilled, not because they were skimpy, but because the bread was so voluminous and, frankly, uninteresting. The Italian at least had quality cold cuts, but there was an awful lot of hoagie roll. A ham and cheese with blueberry-jalapeño chutney was more interesting on paper than the plate and that one really was skimpy.
The brisket, appropriately messy, didn’t deliver much smoke, but it was a fine sandwich. The best was the burger (technically a special, not on the menu proper). The center was perfectly pink, and the patty bore just the right amount of seasoning.
At a place like Longtable, with its experimentation-friendly beer cooler, you’d be tempted to start with little salty snacks. The frites, which at Brasserie V are my favorite in Madison, did not live up to that reputation: They lacked the crisp double-fried texture. But they do come with a broad variety of sauces beyond Brasserie V’s standard two, which I appreciate.
Cheese curds and goat cheese puffs were fried better, and satisfied the craving for crunch, but only briefly. The portions were small for the price, and disappeared quickly when shared among four. The stuffed mushrooms are decent — but at over $2 per mushroom cap, they’re not worth it. A better choice would be to share the hearty smoked trout salad — it’s a bounty of spinach, and Rushing Waters trout is impossible to do wrong.
Vegetarians will find enough on the menu for there to be choices, from the vegetable board to plenty of cheese options. Vegans will not have that luxury. The vegetable sandwich is vegan, if ordered on gluten-free bread, and the vegetable board is vegan, if you skip the yogurt and cheese spread sides.
Longtable needs some fine-tuning. On a busy Friday night, my group of first-timers were confused as to whether we should sit or wait to be seated. And I wish the menu detailed the sources of more of the ingredients, since the cafe bills itself as using local produce and artisanal meats. That seems reasonable in an era when you can barely open a hot dog cart without a hanging a chalkboard that thanks every single one of your farmers.
The kitchen may come to express itself more over time. In the meantime, smart beer curation and those excellent shared boards are good reason to visit.
Longtable Beer Cafe
7545 Hubbard Ave., Middleton; 608-841-2337; longtablebeercafe.com;
11 am-11 pm Tue.-Sat., 11 am-4 pm Sun.; $5-$25
