Linda Falkenstein
A half-dozen people seated at the lobby bar at Flix.
Have a snack at the bar at Flix Brewhouse, or inside the theater during a film.
As the Wisconsin Film Fest moves a chunk of its programming from Hilldale to East Towne’s Flix Brewhouse this year, west-siders and others may find themselves in the unfamiliar environs of the Greater East Towne Area, or GETA, aka “TriBeClo” (Triangle Below Cloverleaf for I-39-90-94/U.S. 151) and looking for a bite before or after their movie.
Okay, it’s no Tribeca. East Towne’s Interstate adjacency means that it is home to pretty much every national chain you can think of. Hankering to hit Madison’s only Cracker Barrel? It’s convenient. However, here are our ideas if you want to try something less cookie-cutter.
Granted, this is a chain, but a small one. Eating where the films are showing saves you from calculating when to leave your restaurant to arrive on time. Food is served in the lobby and in the theater itself during the screening. Order beforehand and servers will bring your meals to your seat, or press a quiet button on your chair during the film and hand the server a slip of paper with your order written on it. It’s as discreet as possible, and the aisles are wide for easy waitstaff access to all seats.
Because you’ll be eating in the dark, I recommend sticking with easier finger foods. The fries, crisp and battered, are a great choice and come with the sandwiches and wraps. The classic cheeseburger is more than average — the ample patty is made from a blend of short rib, ground chuck and brisket, and it’s gussied up like a Big Mac (Thousand Island, lettuce, cheese, pickle, tomato, brioche bun). It also comes as an Impossible burger. The beers cover the bases: there’s a malty Scottish ale, a wit, a Mexican lager and of course a hazy IPA.
East Towne Food Court
Among the expected mall chains there are a couple interesting one-offs. Los 4 Fogones is a locally owned Mexican spot that serves burritos, tacos, tortas, cemitas and the like, with filling choices of carne asada, pollo asada, birria, al pastor and milanesa de pollo. The birria street tacos are a good pick, and I always like milanesa in a torta.
Weirdly, a stall called Cairo Gyro sells summer fair desserts (fried Oreos/Snickers/brownies, as well as funnel cakes) just in case you can’t wait for the Dane County Fair.
The old Babies R Us at 2161 Zeier Road is now an Asian food court (with the exception of one Tex Mex spot, Arod’s, which serves good birria tacos and the sometimes hard-to-find Frito Pie). Worth noting: More than once, near the back of the food court, I’ve smelled cigarette smoke. I think/hope it’s wafting in from the loading dock of the grocery store next door.
The Glazed stall sells just two things: mochi doughnuts (made with rice flour and decorated colorfully) and Korean corn dogs. They are both must-orders if you’re feeling junk-foody. The Korean corn dog can be ordered as a hot dog, half hot dog and half mozzarella, or all mozzarella (essentially a big mozzarella stick) — rolled in your choice of one of several crispy-spicy junk foods (Doritos, Takis) and drizzled with a condiment (I recommend the sweet chili sauce and Kewpie mayo). File under “you don’t need this but you will want it.” If this place were at Hilldale there would be lines.
Linda Falkenstein
Red bowl filled with cukes, hard boiled egg, daikon, greens and shrimp tempura.
Shrimp tempura saucy rice at Kawasaki.
Dumpling House (not to be confused with Hilldale’s Dumpling Haus) is the place for handmade dumplings. At Kawasaki, a Japanese stall, I can’t speak to the soups, but I like a section of the menu called “saucy rice” — rice bowls. Pick from a wide selection of proteins that come with a sauce, served over white rice, with a pretty scattering of sauteed greens, pickled daikon, sliced avocado, diced tomatoes, cucumbers, and half a hard-boiled egg. The shrimp tempura (#72) comes with four crispy shrimp and yum yum sauce (a sweet mayo-ketchup blend) plus a side of the daily soup (miso or egg drop).
Also near the mall
Java Cat
Cake batter-flavor gelato in a cup.
Pretty gelato from Java Cat.
Java Cat, recently transplanted from Monona Drive, is a great coffeehouse in a cute white house at 4221 Lien Road (open until 5 p.m.); it also serves gelato. Maharana, in a strip mall at 1707 Thierer Road, serves dependably good Indian food, with really good chicken biryani, a nice dal tarka, and often outstanding vegetable samosa (potato). Niji Asian Cuisine is also a spot to sit down and have a more leisurely meal; it’s in the former Doolittles Woodfire Grill, 4222 East Towne Blvd. The restaurant is a new incarnation of Takumi. (The owner also owns Fugu on West Gilman Street). There’s a daunting menu of sushi rolls, plus hibachi, and a page of Chinese and Chinese-American standards.
You have not one but two opportunities to stop at La Taguara: its small location at 3502 E. Washington Ave., and a larger outpost in a former Pizzeria Uno at 3020 Crossroads Drive. Its Venezuelan/Latin American menu ranges from pabellón (the Venezuelan national dish of stewed beef) to outstanding stuffed arepas. Whether you ever set foot inside the mall or not, La Taguara is worth a trip to the east side.
