Paulius Musteikis
Stalzy's Deli: Opt for the fried boglogna.
It was the Chinese philosopher Laozi who wrote in the Tao Te Ching that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. My man probably needed a little spiritual encouragement to start his day, because the Zhou dynasty might have been getting it done culturally, but they hadn’t invented anything like a breakfast sandwich yet and those things are great.
There’s a degree to which I am indiscriminating about breakfast sandwiches. At that time of day, at the start of a journey that can feel like a thousand miles, anything savory between carbohydrates will ultimately do the trick — but there are certainly standouts in the category. And while I’d be loath to recommend a sandwich based solely on how easy it is to eat while driving, there’s a bit of car culture-centrism here that I do have to cop to.
Take, for example, the croissant sandwich. Clearly, it takes the R&D budget of a major global fast-food corporation to make these things one-handable. Williamson Street’s Madison Sourdough Co. makes a fine croissant breakfast sandwich, as does Heritage Bakery & Cafe on Cottage Grove Road — but they’re both as huge as they are unwieldy. If you have time to sit somewhere and eat, though, these babies will fill your morning. Rich and packed with scrambled eggs, meat and cheese (plus aioli in the MSCo version), both sandwiches arrive steaming hot and display their unkempt un-fast-foodness proudly.
Colectivo Coffee’s breakfast sandwich comes rocket hot on a cornbready biscuit — a unique offering in the market.
The Old Fashioned serves an English muffin breakfast sandwich on its weekday-only breakfast menu; the sunny-side-up egg is runny, and the smoky bacon is cooked perfectly. Slightly off the Square, you’ll find Short Stack has you covered (Thursday and Friday anyway), with a three-napkin affair loaded onto your choice of pretzel bun or Stella’s spicy cheese bread. It’s not particularly car-friendly, but the rhubarb jam that appeared on mine recently is a welcome addition.
Paulius Musteikis
Gotham's breakfast sandwich needs to be ordered on an everything bagel. Take our word for it.
My downtown all-star sandwiches are served at Marigold Kitchen and Gotham New York Bagels and Eats. Marigold’s version juggles a variety of textures and flavors quite adeptly: smooth boursin cheese, crisp bacon, sweet tomato, rich egg. Gotham’s is a simple sandwich: cheddar, fried egg and slightly spicy griddled capicola ham. But if you don’t order it on an everything bagel, well, it’s like I don’t even know you anymore.
If you’re far from downtown, though, there’s another excellent sandwich that shares some breakfast genetics with the Marigold version, and you can find it at Crema Cafe on Monona Drive. It starts with a creamy herbed cheese blend, piles a fried egg and bacon on a toasted ciabatta roll, and finishes it with lightly dressed mixed greens. This makes it one of the most brilliantly constructed breakfast sandwiches in the city. Acid cuts through fat, smoke balances sweet — it’s wonderful.
The Victory on Atwood offers a basic and a vegan breakfast sandwich, or an amply loaded smoked salmon, onion and caper version for a respectable six dollars. Down the street and around the corner on Winnebago, the Mermaid Cafe presses its egg sandwiches like Barriques, but dials up the quirkyness with a coconut-curry aioli.
Paulius Musteikis
Mermaid pressed egg sandwich with coconut-curry aioli.
The three breakfast sandwiches at Johnson Public House may, like the pour-over coffee there, require a bit of a wait, but they’re worth it. I prefer the version called the Sunday Morning (though it is available daily), a pressed ham-egg-cheese sandwich doped with maple syrup. The formerly hard-boiled and sliced eggs (acceptable) have been fried to order (hooray!) for the last few months now.
Regardless of the day of the week, Stalzy’s Deli puts together a superlative lineup of sandwiches. The breakfast sandwich there can be constructed with bacon or ham — surely, a fine pair of choices — but at Stalzy’s and in life, when fried bologna is available, you go with fried bologna.
If you’re far from downtown and not on the east side, Barriques (with six mostly west-ish locations from downtown to Middleton to Fitchburg) makes a tidy, fast and supremely inexpensive ($2.65) pressed sandwich available with bacon or a sausage patty for an extra $1.25.
Biscuit sandwiches are what tempt me the most in my moments of car-bound, drive-through breakfast weakness. There’s really only one place in Madison that attempts a biscuit breakfast sandwich and sticks the landing: 4 & 20 Bakery & Cafe. You could order the meatless version with egg, havarti, and veggies, or order the fully customizable version. Cheddar or Swiss? Bacon or ham? Mushrooms, spinach, or another of a shifting list of vegetables? The biscuits are rich and tender, and there’s always some sort of fruit accompaniment to refresh your palate.
I will carpool with a breakfast sandwich whether it’s simple, complicated, neat, messy, pressed or three eggy inches tall. But it should feel like a restaurant has put some thought into the sandwich, or at least some care. This lineup of sandwiches is the culinary foundation of Madison’s collective workweek, a municipal utility that starts all of our daily journeys.
And no, I don’t think I’m overstating things at all. I love breakfast sandwiches.
Though these sandwiches are available during the work week, most are available on weekends, too.
