Linda Falkenstein
Mark Pavelovich and Annemarie Maitri in the open kitchen at the new Lallande.
Mark Pavelovich and Annemarie Maitri in the open kitchen at the new Lallande.
Plans have changed since last fall, when Annemarie Maitri and Mark Pavlovich decided to take over the former Crescendo space at 1859 Monroe St., next to their Bloom Bake Shop, at 1851 Monroe St. Now, they’re opening a more ambitious, but still intimate, neighborhood-focused restaurant there in early June.
Initially, the idea was to recreate the old Bloom cafe, which was taken over by bakery equipment when indoor dining shut down during the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
But as Maitri began working with the space, and after she and Pavlovich traveled to France, their ideas began to evolve. “It was a natural shift inside Mark and me,” Maitri says, as they asked themselves, ‘Where are we now?’”
They pondered creating more of a French-influenced bistro, centered around small plates, featuring some of the many other foods they love besides baked goods, in a way that would allow them to work together in the kitchen. “It was time to share something different,” says Maitri, seated at a dark wood table in the restaurant-in-progress, samples of rustic, pottery-influenced dinnerware stacked behind her.
The new restaurant is called Lallande, which is Maitri’s maternal grandmother’s maiden name.
Service will begin with dinner Wednesdays-Saturdays and an emphasis on French wines. Lunch will be added by mid-summer. Maitri credits a loyal group of staffers that has stuck with Bloom through the changes since March 2020 with making the new restaurant possible.
Lallande will draw on Maitri’s memories of her childhood and her mother cooking and her “way of setting a table,” she says, which is “something I have been trying to recreate my whole life.” It is clear in talking with Maitri that the look and ambience of Lallande is as crucial as what’s on the menu. Naming it after her grandmother is a nod to “feminine strength” in many ways.
Maitri’s family arrived in this country in the early 1800s from France, settling in New Orleans; her father was in the Air Force, so she saw many parts of the world (and her family “embraced every food culture,”) as a child. Pavlovich spent time in Germany, especially the Black Forest region, with the idea of becoming a brewer. Maitri says all of those influences filter into the menu.
The furnishings are primarily handmade and local, Maitri explains — Jay Larson and Jim Fortner, members of The Bodgery makerspace, built walnut tables and restored the several old doors used in the bathrooms and other parts of the space, which Maitri sourced from Deconstruction Inc. architectural salvage in Madison. Additional vintage pieces came from Deconstruction as well. Kurt Amann, a neighbor of Maitri and Pavlovich, made Lallande’s charcuterie boards. Denise Clearwood of Madison’s Pine Clearwood Architects designed the space, which combines a mid-century modern elegance with rustic touches; there’s a homey working fireplace (pretty much the only design element left from the Crescendo era) as well. The modern, wooden ceiling fixtures are from an artist from Greece who Maitri found on Etsy. “My best friend Denise and I put them together,” Maitri says. The dining area has seating for 30 plus six seats at a bar overlooking the open kitchen. It’s adding a kind of small, more intimate eatery that is not duplicated elsewhere on the street, she says.
The menu is divided into breads, meats, fish, cheese, charcuterie and desserts. Diners can expect such dishes as tarte flambée, housemade pâtés, trout brandade with rye bread, sardine rillettes, seasonal soups and salads, and strong vegetable offerings. Maitri is eager to reestablish her pre-pandemic relationships with area farmers.
Entrees might include tarragon chicken with crispy mushrooms, bistro steak with buttermilk onion rings, duck with rhubarb marmalade, potato dauphinoise, and fish en papillote. And yes, there will be baguette sandwiches and plenty of Bloom bread.
Maitri envisions growing edible flowers and herbs on the back patio, raclette nights around the fireplace, even an escargot tank, and while she and Pavlovich are cheffing, “talking to everybody!”
“It’s serious food, but we don’t want to take ourselves too seriously.”
