Escape!

Sometimes all you need after work is a drink, a snack and an imaginary getaway

by

Everyone needs to get away from time to time. And sometimes, that time is now. Not this weekend. Not the next time you can book your frequent flyer miles. Now. Fortunately, if you free your mind, your itinerary will follow.

Mint Mark is a kind of placeless wonder. It is the hip bistro that could be found in Oakland, Portland, Asheville — but just happens to be in Schenk’s Corners. The menu changes frequently, though the chicken liver mousse and the pierogi with fermented potato have stuck around for a while. The chicken liver mousse is the closest I’ve found to replicating the distinctive liver paste that used to be in the relish tray long ago at the now-shuttered Halverson’s supper club outside Stoughton. It has a great depth of flavor and umami. On any given day, visitors might find an unannounced late-night special like a duck confit, butterkase, pickled jalapeño and caramelized onion quesadilla. Adjust your fake vacation to be a little farther south by showing up on mezcal Mondays, when palomas and margaritas are the special from 4 p.m. to close.

Fresco, from its perch atop the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, feels like a restaurant in another city before you ever open the menu. It isn’t Madison’s only restaurant in a museum — the Madison Children’s Museum has a Roman Candle concession for when the rugrats’ tummies start to growl — but it is our only whole-nine-yards, wine-list, cocktails, dress-up restaurant in a museum, and for that reason it can be easy to think you are dining in a somewhat bigger city with somewhat brighter lights. And speaking of bright lights, the view of the Orpheum’s 1,000-watt sign is your ticket to pretending you’re on Broadway.

Start with a house cocktail — the list is seasonal, but recently on a cold February night things were looking springlike with the “So Fresh and So Green” (gin, orange crema, cardamom orgeat, sencha fiji green tea, tonic and mint) and the “Secret Garden” (barreled gin, green chartreuse, egg white, lemon, thyme and pink peppercorn). Winning starters include the crispy brussels sprouts (secret weapon is the bacon and Russian dipping sauce), tart fried green tomatoes with a creamy burrata, and tiny barbecue pork tostadas on crispy, Ritz-cracker-sized fried tortillas. If you’re drinking and snacking, balance a healthy salad (the mixed greens come with fruit — grapefruit, recently — and wonderful bits of crunchy quinoa) with dessert. The milk chocolate-filled beignets are very splittable … but hope for a reappearance of the house crème brûlée.

Ever since I was a kid, I’ve been fascinated by the bar area at the Mariner’s Inn. It’s the entranceway to the dining room, so it has no lake view (arguably, even the dining room at the Mariner’s has more of a Yahara river view than one of the lake). But there’s something so old-school about it, so boaty, so supper-clubby, a visit there is like a trip into the past. Tall captain’s chairs are lined up along the shiny wood bar, the proscenium for a multitude of antique ship’s lanterns that hang from the ceiling and provide the ambient lighting. The rest of the decor seems drawn from the Spouter-Inn chapter of Moby-Dick — there’s a shark jawbone, a harpoon, a ship’s figurehead, and carved wooden inn signs for “The Crow’s Nest” — who needs New Bedford? Happy hour is 4:30-6 p.m. Monday-Friday, and Friday’s the only day you’re likely to find it overly crowded. Order a craft beer or a brandy old fashioned and choose from the appetizer menu — crispy onion rings, mellow spinach-stuffed mushrooms, or the calamari would be my picks — and pretend you’re somewhere on the coast of Maine.

Working Draft is as 2019 as the Mariner’s is 1919 (or 1819?). Communal tables and a community spirit make it hard to pretend you’re in another city. Consider this your staycation.

You might run into a yoga class, or a poetry reading, or a band playing old-time fiddle music and jazz/funk improvisation. Or your neighbors. Pull out a cribbage board, order up a Bold Font All Caps double IPA or an Up is Up imperial dark mild, snack on the spicy nut mix with candied bacon, or really go all in with the pimento cheese spread atop buttermilk biscuits. Or go healthy with the spring rolls — vegan and gluten-free and stuffed with carrots, cucumber, shiitake mushrooms, and spaghetti squash; these hold up just as well to the bold beers as the heavier snacks.

Table Wine has several communal tables and comfy couches and chairs for sitting and sipping. The food menu is short —there are always a few local cheeses and Potter’s crackers, and packages of Boom Chicka Pop popcorn. It’s not about the food here. Table Wine’s primarily a retail spot for buying bottles of wine, but has also turned into the perfect place to get a glass or, even better, a flight, and catch up with friends. Each day there are several whites and reds, even a rosé and a bubbly to choose from. The staff’s advice is down-to-earth and helpful. The selection might prompt you to dream of Napa, Italy or even France.

And speaking of France…pull up a black bentwood bar stool at Sardine, order some moules frites and a glass of sauvignon blanc or some bubbly and you won’t even need the sound system to be playing French chansons from the 1930s to feel a little closer to Paris.