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Laura Zastrow
Lucille
Lucille is owned by Joshua Berkson and Patrick Sweeney and helmed in the kitchen by executive chef Evan Dannells. Daily drink specials, a live music stage, DJ nights and acoustics that’ll stomp on even a casual weeknight dinner conversation might convince you that this was never meant to be a restaurant at all, were it not for the fact that there’s some exceptional food to be had. If you’re looking for an easy bar meal, proceed directly to the tavern burger (or its Sunday night special variant, the cheese-stuffed Juicy Lucy). The sleeper hit of the Lucille menu is the steel pan pizza. But quality wood-fired pies are also flying out of the oven from late morning to nearly midnight.
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Jentri Colello
The Robin Room
At Robin Room, the chic, Art Deco space that opened this March on East Johnson Street, bartenders highlight some of the harder-to-find libations from the Golden Age of Cocktails. Looking over the menu is less like reading a drink list and more like flipping through an antique bartending textbook, with page after page of recipes, organized by spirit and artfully diagrammed. Really, there are no wrong choices here.
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Rachel Verbrick
Macha Tea Company
Matcha — the namesake of the cozy Macha teahouse— isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. But you are guaranteed to find something you’ll love here. Matcha, a frothy green drink, is created from a powder made from special shade-grown green tea leaves. It has a long history as the basis for the Chinese and Japanese tea ceremony. The folks at Macha take the ritual seriously, using a bamboo whisk to froth up the powder with hot water. You can choose between the thinner usucha or the “thick tea” called koicha. It’s served in a pottery bowl on a wooden tray with a wagashi (a sweet), which you will want to eat to counteract matcha’s bitterness. watch for Macha’s Friday “pop-up” lunches; it’s pretty delicious food.
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Cress Spring Bakery / Facebook
Cress Spring Bakery pizza nights
While the bakery itself vends mostly at the Dane County Farmers' Market, what we're looking at is here is Cress Spring's popular pizza nights on the farm, Wednesday nights from 4:30-8:30 or 9 p.m, from May to October. Built from super-fresh ingredients, the pies have a quick trip to the wood-fired oven and voila. Pizza. Bring a blanket and chairs, plates and cutlery. Live music, beer and appetizers are also sold. There may be up to ten different pies to choose from, featuring fire-roasted tomato sauce and local cheeses from Farmer John’s and Hook’s.
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Beth Skogen
Mini Hot Pot
This charming little spot specializes in a classic East Asian style of soup (also known by the Japanese name shabu-shabu) in which meats and vegetables are cooked, fondue style, in a simmering cauldron of broth. Mini Hot Pot offers individual meals that diners cook on electric burners built right into the tabletops. The trick to a perfect hot pot is timing. Bigger vegetables, like corn and potato, take the longest. Then, cook individual bites as you go, dipping each ingredient in your chosen sauce. Finish with noodles, which require just a quick dip in the hot broth. And the best part? The flavor changes as the soup cooks, making the entire meal a fun, surprising, exploratory event.
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Tracy Harris
Rockhound Brewing Company
The rustic, good-looking space has big windows and a welcoming U-shaped bar in the center of the room. On the periphery there are a few booths, but mostly “tall” tables with stools for parties of two and four, and only a few standard dining tables — in other words, it’s more pub than restaurant. The service is helpful and unfailingly friendly. Not sure about a beer? Samples are freely given. Four or five house beers are on tap along with a dozen or so guest taps of mostly Midwestern craft brews.The pub’s signature pot pies (chicken, beef or veggie) are terrific.
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Paulius Musteikis
Merci
Field Table remains just a bit of an enigma even three months after opening. Is it a coffee shop? A farm-to-table restaurant? A high-end market? A fancy wine and cocktail bar? The answer, to varying degrees, is yes. The pastries are excellent. For lunch, Field Table is getting in on one of the major culinary trends of 2016: healthy food in bowls. Chef Shannon Berry uses a surprisingly light touch in crafting her dishes, letting the ingredients speak for themselves. And late night, this is a true craft cocktail hub.
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Ryan Wisniewski
Taigu, Middleton
Owner Hong Gao named the restaurant after the county in China’s Shanxi province where she grew up. The true standouts are the noodle dishes, Shanxi style, which many Americans may be unfamiliar with. Noodles are made onsite by Gao and her brothers and father. Choose from either cats’ ear, shaped as such, or knife-cut, which are similar to fettuccine in length and girth yet have even more body and chewiness to them; this allows them to hold their own in their simple sauces or broth. The tomato and egg boiled knife-cut noodles — a staple from Gao’s childhood — is a bowl full of happiness.
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Jentri Colello
El Grito
The food cart in a vintage 1969 Fleetwing travel trailer has been holding down the corner of West Wash and Carroll Street on the Square for lunch since April with its locally-sourced, fabulously sauced tacos. Inventive veggie versions join slow-roasted meats as fillings. It’s also a popular stop Thursday nights when it pops up in front of the Robin Room.
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