RyanHuber
The veggie burger replicates the smash burger vibe with a great sear.
When the Settle Down Tavern opened for business in May 2020, the menu was pretty much burger and fries. With takeout and limited seating the order of the day at that time, doing a couple things well seemed like a smart move for a new kitchen. The menu featured some other little snackies, but burgers have been a focal point from Day One.
Settle Down’s double-pattied Good Idea smash burger is a very good burger, with nice lacy edges, crisp pickles, and plenty of Settle Sauce — a creamy, seasoned concoction that is conspicuously not called “special,” but you and I know what’s going on there. And where many veggie burgers try to replicate the flavor of beef, Settle Down’s Prit’ Near veggie burger chooses instead to replicate the smash burger vibe. Sear, char, salt, but all applied to a patty that’s predominantly black-beany. It’s not a burger, but it is, well, pretty near.
Settle Down has since moved into exceeding expectations. I would not guess that the small kitchen could handle the volume of diners the Settle Down accommodates (with indoor, outdoor and atrium seating), but it not only handles it, it makes a daily special every day of business, and even those change frequently.
Friday’s fish is available as a sandwich as well as a traditional plate with fries. The sandwich is unwieldy but delicious, anchored as it is by the crisply beer-battered cod. Saturday snazzes up the standard burger with a rotation of stylish tweaks like the additions of fried eggplant, a vibrant romesco sauce, or (during the Milwaukee Bucks’ championship run with Giannis “the Greek Freak” Antetokounmpo) gyro seasoning and tzatziki.
There’s a fried chicken sandwich on Tuesday, and a basket of little battered mini Underground Meats hot dogs served with Chicago dog fixins on Wednesdays. Those brought me back to junior high, when my school cafeteria served breaded cocktail wieners, inexplicably calling them “weenie critters.” I wasn’t quite comfortable enough to bring up the comparison with my server, but I did enjoy the updated version. (They have been replaced on subsequent Wednesdays by fried pickle chips.)
Thursday’s chopped cheese, an East Coast bodega sandwich that bears some resemblance to a Philly cheesesteak, is probably my favorite of all the daily specials. Gooey cheese sauce, a splash of house steak sauce, plenty of peppers and onions, and tenderly griddled beef? Give me a side order of Settle Down’s excellent matchstick-style fries and I’m golden. Adding optional sauteed mushrooms doesn’t hurt either. Those mushrooms are available as a meat replacement as well.
There are bar snacks aplenty, as befits a space that resembles a dive bar in many ways (if you ignore that the space was most recently a barber and third-wave coffee shop). One Friendly Round of Pickled Vegetables is just that; during my visit, the mix was pickled cucumber, carrot and turnip, crunchy and lightly acidic.
The menu calls the Devil Birds “jammy” and while mine weren’t quite that gooey, they were good enough to contemplate ordering more than one. Think of them as Scotch eggs without the sausage, or just fried deviled eggs. Ghost Fries ramp up the wickedness even more by dusting the standard fries with a pleasantly spicy pepper blend. No trick, all treat.
Brunch gets surprisingly hot as well, with spicy elements throughout the Sunday-only menu. Jalapeño hot sauce brightens up the Hey Sunshine sausage sandwich that would have fully stuck the landing if the English muffin had been adequately toasted. Cheese Puppies, a curd/hushpuppy hybrid, also came with an unannounced but not unappreciated light dusting of that ghost powder. Order a crisp Settle Down, America lager — made for Settle Down by Sun Prairie’s Full Mile brewery — if you need to quench anything.
I appreciated that the brunch experience improved dramatically from a pre-review visit earlier this year, when everything from the Bloody Marys to the Croque Madaaamn Hash Browns was mis-seasoned. But my party came out of the more recent brunch meal feeling like we’d been fed right; the hash browns were exquisite, crisp and creamy at once.
Settle Down appears to be high on its own supply, and that is not a criticism. From amicably chatty bartenders to servers spending brief moments of quiet by dancing to music in their own heads, you start to feel it too. “You can take it easy here,” its lounging tiger logo speaks wordlessly. You did notice the name of the place, didn’t you?
Settle Down Tavern
117 S. Pinckney St.
608-442-6335
11:30 a.m.-2 p.m. and 4-10 p.m. Tues-Wed., 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m. and 4-11 p.m. Thurs., 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. and 4-11 p.m. Fri..-Sat., 10 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Sun.
$3-$19
Settledownmadison.com; IG:@settledowntavern
