Sunny Frantz
With more space, Pasture & Plenty’s menu options are expanding.
After less than a year at 2433 University Ave., Pasture & Plenty has taken over the space next door, nearly quadrupling its space. It now has expanded offerings and a beautiful new look that encompasses the building’s history as a Rennebohm drugstore.
Pasture & Plenty launched with farm-to-table meal kit subscriptions, prepared farm-to-freezer meals, a Wednesday night dinner feature and occasional events.
Its recent expansion from 900 square feet to 3,500 square feet gives the business room to grow. It’s already providing new business-lunch catering and has added a farm-to-table breakfast and lunch menu, which can be taken to-go or eaten in the spacious new dining room. Owner Christy McKenzie gets provisions from more than 30 local farmers, ranchers, and bakers and wants to increase that as well.
McKenzie will eventually host kitchen takeovers by other local chefs and food businesses, wine and beer tastings, and Saturday brunch.
The new space includes a demonstration kitchen to be used for special events and classes. A new “market” area includes housewares and provisions from several local artisans and cooks. The original dining space now functions as a community room, available for meeting space or private dining.
McKenzie says she wanted a space that could offer “multiple ways for the community to connect around local food.”
Especially striking are the historic details that have been restored throughout the new Pasture & Plenty. The building began as a Rennebohm pharmacy and lunch counter in 1929. Since the drugstore closed in the late 1960s, the building changed hands several times and many of the original architectural details had been covered up.
Restoration was funded in part by a city development facade grant. Architect Ed Linville and contractor Nick McDonald uncovered the beautiful, high windows on the Highland Avenue side and restored the stunning floor tile, as well as the original ceiling, storefront glass and corner door. McKenzie says they were also able to snag a few other salvaged Rennebohm elements from the original drugstore of the local chain, once located at University and Randall Avenues (torn down to build the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery) from Madison’s Deconstruction, Inc., an architectural salvage company on Walsh Road. These are included throughout.
“We saw that [the building] had the bones to serve the goals we had in mind, and also root into the history of the neighborhood and small business in Madison,” says McKenzie.
