Courtesy Ben Altschul
Jane Capito and her dog, Lily, on the patio at Mickey's.
Jane Capito, of Willy Street’s Lazy Jane’s Cafe, passed away on Oct. 11. She left a lasting mark on the Madison restaurant scene as the restaurateur behind the Wild Iris Cafe, Greenbush Bar, Botticelli’s and Mickey’s Tavern.
Her son Ben Altschul tells Isthmus that his mother had been diagnosed with dementia about 12 years ago. “We came to understand something was shifting around my mother cognitively. So in many ways [her death] was not a surprise to us as a family; [we] had seen the progression. At the same time the timing can never really be expected. As a family we're all in the wake of a very powerful experience.”
Capito would have been 81 on Oct. 21.
Tommy Washbush
Exterior shot of Lazy Jane's Cafe, located at 1358 Williamson St.
Lazy Jane's Cafe, located at 1358 Williamson St., reflects Jane Capito's "love for community," says son Ben Alschul.
Altschul says that Capito was born in Salt Lake City in 1944 while her father was overseas serving as a colonel in the U.S. Army during World War II. Post-war, the family was stationed in Washington, D.C., Germany and the Philippines. “My mother was exposed to culture and a sense of global citizenry, [and] humanity in a way that profoundly shaped who she was,” says Altschul. By the time Capito was a teenager, the family was stationed in San Francisco.
She went to college at the University of Oregon-Eugene where she majored in art history, also studying in Italy. She returned to the Bay Area to start a master’s degree program in social work — Altschul isn’t sure if she finished the degree or not, but she began working as a social worker in the Bay Area in child protective services, a role that took a toll psychologically. “She would sit in some of her favorite cafes in San Francisco and dream about having a cafe of her own,” says Altschul. Then one day at a Berkeley community bulletin board “there was a posting that said, ‘I'm driving to Madison, Wisconsin, and I'm looking to split gas with someone.’ And my mother took it.”
That move, more or less by chance, coupled with another — upon arrival Capito got a job as a dishwasher at the Ovens of Brittany on State Street — ended up giving Madison some of its most iconic restaurants of the next four decades. “Pretty quickly they said, ‘Who is this?’” says Altschul. “‘Let's let's make her the front of house manager.’”
Altschul describes this as a formative time where Capito met lifelong friends, including his father, Dan Altschul. “My dad was the cabinet maker as my mother was designing the Ovens of Brittany East on Fordem.”
Capito went on to establish a string of restaurants downtown and on the near west and east sides that reflected the area’s love of upscale comfort food and local ingredients, with a vibe that could range from elegant to low-key hippie.
Breaking out on her own in the 1990s, she teamed with Anna Alberici to open the Wild Iris Cafe (now Indie Coffee) and the Greenbush Bar (Alberici sold that business to Sam Brown in 2024). From 1991-97 she and Dan Altschul ran Botticelli’s at 107 King St. (now Ancora), a much loved slightly upscale restaurant that was in many ways a culinary sibling to the Ovens of Brittany. “This was when King Street was a red light district,” says Altschul.
Botticelli’s was “where I first came to understand the flavors of life, it's where my palate began to develop,” Altschul told Isthmus in 2015. When Botticelli's closed in 1997, the family was “all cast in different directions," Altschul recalled in that interview.
"My mother would never describe herself as a chef,” Altschul says now. “She was a restaurateur. She was an artist, an interior designer. But what she had was a spectacular palate. It was informed really honestly. It was never about what other people think is good. She was able to really trust herself. She was an incredible artist and her medium was restaurants. The spaces, the menus.”
In 1998 Capito opened the eclectic Lazy Jane’s, a new home for the Botticelli scones that the family used to sell at the Dane County Farmers’ Market. Lazy Jane’s menu leaned to vegetarian-friendly breakfast and lunch fare and was a perfect fit in the Willy-Marquette neighborhood. “I feel like Lazy Jane’s is such an honest reflection of my mother and her love for community,” Altschul says.
Capito had bought Williamson Street’s Mickey’s Tavern, a longstanding blue-collar tap, in 1997 but found it difficult to offer food there until the city’s smoking ban went into effect.
Tommy Washbush
Exterior photo of Mickey's Tavern, located at 1524 Williamson St.
Jane Capito transformed the blue collar bar Mickey's Tavern into a welcoming space in the Willy-Marquette neighborhood.
“But she funkified it. She made it inclusive and safe and fun. God, she was such a hard worker.”
Mickey’s kitchen, known for opulent burgers and “sexy fries,” launched in 2007.
Ben Altschul, as well as Capito’s stepson, Gil Altschul, ended up opening restaurants in Madison too, often collaborating with Capito. Capito and Ben refurbished The Tip Top Tavern, which opened in 2014. Both Ben and Gil have followed in the family tradition of rehabbing somewhat unlikely venues for eateries, with Ben opening Zippy Lube on North Sherman Avenue as well as taking over venerable working class neighborhood bar Busse’s Tavern next door. Gil is behind Gib’s Bar and Grampa’s Pizzeria, 1374 Williamson St., in the former Grampa’s Gun Shop, with Capito helping with the design. He also owns Bandit Tacos and Coffee on West Washington Avenue at the depot.
Altschul praises his mother’s skill as a businesswoman, but stresses that she was “doing it because her heart was in it.”
And fans of Lazy Jane’s and Mickey’s don’t have to worry about those places going away. “We've established what is in many ways a team to carry on and steward this legacy in these restaurants.”
Altschul says the family is making arrangements for a memorial gathering and will “get the word out as that's available.”
