Sunny Frantz
The pretty avocado toast defies the millennial stereotype.
Pasture and Plenty started as a celebration of all things local. Its initial picnic service developed into a farm-to-table meal kit business and Wednesday night dinners. Within a year, the business (on old University Avenue where University Heights meets the campus) expanded into a larger space next door, gaining kitchen space, a larger dining area and a demonstration kitchen. Its services expanded as well to include daily breakfast and lunch, Saturday brunch, dinner specials Wednesday through Friday, catering and cooking classes featuring local chefs.
Farm-to-table is still the focus. A large bulletin board lists the dozens of local vendors that Pasture and Plenty works with. There’s a market area with eco-friendly wares and a wall of coolers holds farm-to-freezer meals.
Saturday brunch is Pasture and Plenty’s newest offering, launched last winter. Housemade granola provides a welcome crunch with creamy whole milk yogurt and a drizzle of honey and raspberry thyme preserves. An egg sandwich bursts with SarVecchio, red pepper jam and greens. Toasts, eggs and a seasonal grain bowl round out the menu, and the cocktail selection is surprisingly wide-ranging. Standbys like bloody marys and mimosas hold court, with a few fun inclusions like a tequila punch, a mai tai, sangria and a housemade kombucha spiked with vodka.
The kitchen team has a knack for taking a simple dish and making it divine. I was smitten with the eggs benedict, made with a crispy, airy English muffin, a layer of thinly shaved Enos Farms ham, perfectly poached Riemer Farm eggs (if you’ve ever tried to poach your own, you can appreciate there is an art to this), topped with a creamy Hollandaise sauce that shines with the slightest bit of lemony flavor and sprigs of fresh dill.
While it’s often ridiculed these days, avocado toast is a trend worth embracing. Here it starts with the bread: a slice of chewy, crusty, slightly bitter Madison Sourdough Co. miche. One drawback: it’s so thick you need to saw it apart with a knife (and sharper knives would help), but you’ll be rewarded for the effort on your first bite. Next is a thick layer of avocado sprinkled with chili lime sea salt, then a checkerboard of crisp, fresh mini cukes. The finishing touch of chive flowers from Vitruvian Farms scattered across the top brightened the creamy texture of this dish with a colorful crunch. I added an over-easy egg, which came on the side, and promptly broke my yolk and drizzled it over everything, adding yet another layer of creamy, savory flavor. Like everything at Pasture and Plenty, this dish isn’t flashy or overly complicated. Just six simple ingredients brought together expertly to enhance all the flavors.
Breakfast and lunch are served Tuesdays through Fridays. Breakfast focuses on eggs, but the granola makes a reappearance. And the seasonal grain bowl reappears at lunch.
Lunch is weighted to sandwiches, but there’s also a market salad and a seasonal soup as well as a fresh vegetable sandwich. Grilled cheese is enhanced with fresh mozzarella as its base, a thin layer of roasted red pepper jam which gives just a hint of smokiness, and arugula for a good punch of peppery flavor. There’s also a chicken Caesar wrap, a BLT, turkey and Swiss, roast beef, and ham and gruyere. Most sandwiches are served with a side of mixed greens lightly tossed with a vinaigrette, a perfect complement.
The Wednesday night dinners continue. Offerings rotate; there’s always one chicken and one vegetarian option, which most recently were pot pies with a green salad and strawberry shortcake for dessert.
Fridays are, as one might expect, a fish fry with the fish sourced from Wisconsin. Diners choose from breaded and pan-fried smelt or walleye, plus two sides from a long list that includes kohlrabi apple slaw and four-onion gratin.
Thursday is pizza, and these pies are exceptional. Ours was Thai-style, with a tomato sauce seasoned with Thai basil. A generous amount of marinated, grilled chicken chunks were complemented by more Thai basil and spring onion. I loved the topping of chopped bok choy, which likely was given a quick sauté in rice vinegar; it had a satisfying sour burst to each bite. Bonus: with a side salad, the pizza fed a family of four for under $15.
Chefs Nate Carney and Jack Huibregtse are crafting quality ingredients into simple dishes that delight, from the new dishes that were created by chefs Evan Dannells and Edward Chwae. Even though farm-to-table is a buzzword in this city, owner Christy McKenzie is offering something that shouldn’t be taken for granted.
Pasture and Plenty
2433 University Ave.; 608-665-3770; pastureandplenty.com
$4-$20; 6:45 am-7:30 pm Tues.-Thurs., 6:45 am-8 pm Fri., 9 am-1:30 pm Sat.
meal kit pickup only 3:30-7:30 pm Mon.
[Editor's note: This article has been amended to note that Evan Dannells and Edward Chwae helped create the new menu.]
