Off the beaten path

Discover for yourself the out-of-the-way parts of Madison that longtime residents know and love

Every city has its marquee sights and attractions. For Madison, there’s the state Capitol, the lakes, the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art. There are beloved weekly events like the Dane County Farmers’ Market, and yearly events that cannot be missed, like Art Fair on the Square and La Fête de Marquette. But live here awhile and you’ll start to find the lesser-known nooks and crannies of the city. They are old and new, natural and man-made, indoors and out.

Hash browns for the table, please

Toby’s Supper Club may be on the outskirts of Madison, but for those who love a classic fish fry, it’s the center of the universe.

It was the fall 2014. I had just moved to Madison after a year out west and I was on the hunt for a delicious fish fry. A few acquaintances suggested Toby’s Supper Club. So around 6 p.m. on a Friday I found myself on the southeast edge of Madison, seconds from the big Stoughton Road/Beltline interchange, but following wooded, winding Dutch Mill Road — South Dutch Mill Road; if you’re checking a map, that’s important. You won’t see Toby’s from the highway, but people know it’s there.

It was already three deep inside the bar. The interior has the casual charm of classic Wisconsin supper clubs, from the low ceilings and lighting to the shouted conversations with friends and locals. It’s easy to down a few Old Fashioneds — trust me. At this point I still wasn’t sure if I liked brandy or whiskey, sweet or sour, so I was determined to try the lot.

At Toby’s you order drinks, then peruse the menu before ordering, either with a server or at the bar. When your food is ready, they let you know where you’ll sit. By the time I put in my order, I was on my third Old Fashioned. After I was seated, out comes not fish fry... but a steak. The cocktails had impaired my ordering capabilities. While the steak was delicious, this was Toby’s — famous for its fish fry.

Fast-forward to 2019. Same winding road tucked away alongside Highway 51. Same classic supper club vibe. But this time I knew to arrive by 5 p.m. Still, we had to park basically in the ditch on Dutch Mill Road. The lot was already full.

While the place was packed, we didn’t have to wait long for a spot at the bar. I arrived at the profound conclusion that I prefer a brandy old fashioned sweet. I ordered my fresh lake perch with confidence, along with fries, and a side of hash browns with cheese for the table. I can’t stress enough that you must order the hash browns with cheese. The dish is cooked to perfection.

Toby’s is worth the hunt and the food is worth the wait. Take the Voges Road exit off Highway 51 and head north to 3717 S. Dutch Mill Road.

— Chelsey Dequaine

We’ll be havin’ some fun

There’s something special about walking on a boardwalk. Is it the smell of the wood? The proximity to water and sand? The access to marshes and other natural areas that would otherwise not be reachable?

Not sure, but I’ve always loved them. Perhaps it goes back to my beach days growing up on the eastern shore of Long Island. The boardwalk at Jones Beach, which is 4 miles long, was always a favorite destination. I can still conjure up the smell of sand, saltwater and tar and the bouncy feel of the wood.

After moving to Madison, I enjoyed the boardwalk at Cherokee Marsh until it was torn down in 2005 due to concerns over erosion and damage to the wetland. A new one was built in 2009, though it’s aluminum and I haven’t been back to check it out.

My go-to fix for the last few years has been the boardwalk behind Edgewood College. Located just off the historic park and pleasure drive that runs behind campus (the road is only open to limited car traffic that begins and ends at the school), the wooden boardwalk can be accessed at several points by foot, all of which require just a short walk on a dirt path. Cattails and other marsh plants grow high around the boardwalk, and there are usually some active red-winged blackbirds who let you know this is THEIR territory. There are two nice sitting areas along Lake Wingra, one of which includes semi-circular benches that really do invite you to sit for a while.

It’s a peaceful spot and, since motor boat usage is restricted on Wingra, usually quiet. Views across the lake include the UW Arboretum. Closer to shore there are often lily pads and water fowl, including ducks and herons. On a clear summer day, the lake is dotted with fishing boats, kayaks and stand-up paddle boards.

Surrounded by such natural beauty and serenity, it is easy to forget you are in the middle of Madison’s near west side — mere minutes from the bustle of Park and Monroe streets; one of the city’s largest parks (Vilas); and downtown Madison.

— Judith Davidoff

To build a fire

For all the lovers out there, here’s a date night idea that’s straight fire: Hoyt Park, one of Madison’s oldest, and yet little known, nature oases, just blocks from West High.

You’ll need to gather up some sticks and logs, a few copies of Isthmus to burn, matches, marshmallows, and maybe a box of wine. Bring camp chairs if you have ’em, too. Then find one of the dozen historic stone fireplaces throughout the park and light ’er up! The fireplaces along Owen Parkway (one of the city’s first scenic pleasure drives) are particularly tranquil and close to the Sunset Point Overlook. There’s a fireplace set back in the woods next to Trail 5 if you’re after some additional privacy.

The city set about preserving this slice of heaven back in the 1890s when it bought the 24-acre site that then contained a stone quarry. The development of Hoyt as a true park really got going during the Great Depression. FDR’s Works Progress Administration and Civil Works Administration kept Italian masons from the Greenbush neighborhood employed by using stone from the former quarry to construct fireplaces, tables and other structures.The workers were so committed to the project that they are rumored to have continued working for free when federal funding dried up.

Nowadays, Hoyt’s biggest charm is all its winding paths and little hideaways. Unlike other community parks in town, Hoyt feels like you’ve gone back to a quieter time. A roaring fire in one of the park’s ancient-looking hearthstones and some good company make for a perfect getaway without ever leaving the city proper.

To get there, take Regent Street west from West High School and just keep going until you hit the park.

— Dylan Brogan

Inclusive acts

My first encounter with Encore Studio for the Performing Arts was way back in the ’90s when the theater troupe was still performing downtown at the Bartell Theatre. I saw Real Life-A Play with Music, a semi-autobiographical show by Encore’s multi-talented artistic director, Kelsy Schoenhaar.

Schoenhaar put together an incredible cast of actors, with and without disabilities, and created a glimpse into life for people with high-functioning autism and Asperger’s syndrome. Schoenhaar is on the spectrum, and is an accomplished musician who played dozens of instruments in the show.

Today, Encore thrives as one of the nation’s only professional theater troupes for people with disabilities, and certainly one of the only ones that tackles the subjects of sex, disability and marginalization with such original material.

The company has its own space now, the Mary Dupont Wahlers Theatre. It’s an attractive if somewhat nondescript building at 1480 Martin St., just off Fish Hatchery Road near the Arboretum — a completely unexpected location for a theater. Neighbors include an engraving business and the town of Madison municipal building.

Inside is a small, well-lit black box theater with comfortable seats and accommodations — of course! — for patrons and actors with disabilities.

The next Encore show is a series of one acts called A Short Stack, Sept. 6-21. Prepare to be surprised and moved.

— Catherine Capellaro

Vinyl cave

Vinyl records are experiencing a phenomenal resurgence and Madison has no shortage of shops for music lovers to scour for gems.

But without a doubt the largest vinyl — and CD — collection in Madison is found in UW-Madison’s Mills Music Library, tucked into the basement of Memorial Library, 728 State St.

As with most music libraries, this subterranean, somewhat hidden location comes out of necessity: phonograph records (especially the old 78-rpm variety, most of which were made of shellac) are heavy. Above-ground floors wouldn’t be strong enough to bear the weight of the collection.

Mills library has 100,000 78 rpm records and about 80,000 33-1/3 and 45 rpm records. What many people may not know is that anyone with a Wisconsin ID can get a UW library card (for $40 a year), which entitles them to borrow any of the library’s vinyl albums, singles and digital-format CDs. (The antique 78s are not available for circulation, but staff will make digital copies for research purposes.)

Circulating items include The Rise and Fall of Paramount Records box set ($650 retail value) or the currently out-of-print Black Europe. The library also has a special mission of collecting Wisconsin music. There are several holdings from now-defunct labels like Boat Records, a Madison indie label started by Butch Vig, and Cuca Records, a Sauk City label.

Tom Caw, a public services librarian at Mills, admits the library isn’t as thrilling to explore as record bins or bookstore shelves. That’s because the stacks — enclosed in chain-link-fence-style walls — aren’t open to the public, who must search the holdings via computer catalogue.

“It’s frustrating for people because they want to be able to flip through the racks,” Caw says. “It’s not that tactile, pleasing happenstance thing that happens when you’re just going through a bunch of records and you’re like, ‘What is this?’”

— Joe Tarr

Homemade haven

Most stores tend to be on well-traveled thoroughfares. Madison has many such shopping areas — State Street, Williamson, Monroe, Atwood, the 900-1000 blocks of East Johnson and of course the greater East Towne and West Towne areas. But One-One Thousand, a gift shop/art gallery/co-working space and event area, is colonizing an offbeat once-industrial pocket of a residential neighborhood off Milwaukee Street at 78 N. Bryan St.

Those looking for a thoughtfully curated selection of gifts should know that the shop portion of One-One Thousand is called the Good Day Shop and is open only Friday (11 a.m.-6 p.m.) and Saturday (10 a.m.-4 p.m.) There, inside a bland corrugated metal warehouse-style building there is a minimalist, spare white space decorated with oversized caricatures of traditional pegboards. Gifters can find handcrafted jewelry, pottery, prints, weaving equipment, small handheld looms, sustainably sourced Wool and the Gang yarn, handmade sage bundles — and some one-offs, like an antique floor loom that founder Sarah Artz discovered in a garage and laboriously restored.

Artz has said that too often people don’t feel connected to the things they have in their home, and she wants to change that: “At one time, all of the things we had were created by people.”

Look for special events, like beer and cupcake parties, announced on One-One Thousand’s Facebook page.

— Linda Falkenstein

Life hack

Local curlers regularly make it to the winter Olympics, most recently siblings Becca and Matt Hamilton. But the Madison Curling Club has been in operation for nearly 100 years. After its launch in 1921, it operated under the bleachers at Camp Randall for the first eight years. (Talk about hidden places.) But its current, world-class, million-dollar facility featuring six “sheets” is even more out of the way. Yes, it is the Madison Curling Club, but it’s actually in McFarland — at 4802 Marsh Road, where city (well, village) meets hedgerows and fields.

The club hosts annual learn-to-curl sessions in the fall before the season starts in earnest, as well as open houses. Once the season starts, take in a bonspiel (a curling competition) — spectators are welcome. Or join a league.

— Linda Falkenstein

Lost and found

Like several of our off-the-beaten-path favorites, Carpenter-Ridgeway Park is located near well-traveled thoroughfares. It’s a minute off East Washington Avenue and lies below a busy flight path to the Dane County Regional Airport. But this neighborhood green space is most easily accessed from the Starkweather Creek bike path between the Bridges Golf Course Clubhouse and Madison College. (When driving there, park on Carpenter Street where it takes a right-angle turn.)

The park at first glance looks like a typical Madison pocket park, with a grassy area for a game of Frisbee or touch football, playground equipment and a picnic table. But there are wooded walking and running trails along Starkweather Creek and a sculpture by east-side folk artist Sid Boyum called “Lantern in Beige” — it is, in fact, a large ornamental lantern made of poured concrete. Less visible — hidden in the grass — is a labyrinth, created in 2011 by volunteers and  the Carpenter-Ridgeway Neighborhood Association. Support came from grants from the city, MGE, Madison Parks Foundation, People for Parks Program and other private donations.

Labyrinths are mazes, paths set in the ground. In Greek mythology, labyrinths with walls were built to confuse one’s enemies. These days, labyrinth paths made of brick, pea gravel or flagstones are designed as sites of peaceful meditation. “It’s a way to bring more neighbors outside, meeting each other and relaxing,” says the city’s grant report on the final project. The labyrinth may help you find your neighbors, but it can also help you find yourself.

— Linda Falkenstein

By the shore of Lake Mendota

People love their WPA/CCC-built parks. The stone bridges at Tenney and Vilas are an iconic part of Madison. Less-seen Hoyt Park has already been lauded in this article. But even more tucked away, accessible at the dead end of Spring Court (though there is no parking) or via a staircase on Lake Mendota Drive, is Merrill Springs Park on Lake Mendota. Merrill Springs boasts three rustic stone picnic tables, but the star of the show is a stone cistern for the then-running springs. It was built in 1934 by the Wisconsin Emergency Relief Administration. In 2011, former Ald. Mark Clear, the neighborhood and the Madison Parks Foundation, worked to buy an adjacent empty land parcel to expand the park.

According to the Spring Harbor Neighborhood History Tour, the mineral springs were seen as healing by early Native Americans who lived nearby; the park is part of a protected area that includes several ceremonial mounds.

Recently the Friends of Merrill Springs Park rebuilt the stairs from Lake Mendota Drive, installed a new informational kiosk that tells the history of the area and offers seasonal information on flora and fauna. A yearly solstice celebration and yoga in the park have reinvigorated the spot as well.

— Linda Falkenstein

OM pioneers

The Bodgery, a Madison makerspace, was most recently located in an anonymous-looking industrial park off Stoughton Road. But if this package of stories has taught you anything so far, it should be that there’s plenty of adventure to be found in anonymous-looking industrial parks.

The Bodgery, however, has moved and is now open in the former machine shop of the old Oscar Mayer plant — its new address is 740 Oscar Ave. This qualifies as off the beaten path, despite the fact that pretty much everybody in Madison knows what and where you’re talking about when you say “Oscar Mayer.” But few are accustomed to thinking of it as a place you can just ... walk into. But you can — it’s now called OM Station, and The Bodgery is among the first tenants.

The Bodgery is a place for crafters, inventors, woodworkers, blacksmiths — makers of all description. The Bodgery has tools from CNC machines and 3D printers to sewing machines and knitting needles. The new space has an old-school industrial vibe with many high windows letting in natural light. No meat was processed here; this was the place where the machinery was fixed (including repairs on the Wienermobile).

The Bodgery holds frequent classes and open shop nights, free without becoming a member. “We take pains to make sure everyone who walks in the door feels comfortable,” says Bodgery member John Eich. “We want people to feel like they belong.” See the event calendar at thebodgery.org/events and get to know this overlooked pocket of the north side.

— Linda Falkenstein

Slide on in

As a music lover and a musician, I’m always craving connection and intimacy. It’s not easy to find that when you also want to dance. I’ve never been fond of thundering bass (and shouted conversations) in cavernous clubs.

After living most of my adult life in Madison, I was thrilled to find my happy place at the Knuckle Down Saloon, an outstanding out-of-the way venue at 2519 Seiferth Road. The only way I know how to describe it is that it’s in an industrial area behind Wendy’s off Stoughton Road at the Pflaum exit. Thank goodness for Google Maps!

There’s a little covered patio outside for smoking stuff (if you’re into that) and the interior is inviting — wood-paneled, with low lighting. It feels like a speakeasy, or as close as we can get since the long-lost Barber’s Closet. Instead of thundering and clattering, the sound is warm, even when the blues guys are shredding or Joey B. Banks (once upon a time, the Clyde Stubblefield All Stars; now, Funky Jbeez) is pounding out the funk on the tiny stage. The “dance floor” is teeny-tiny, so prepare to make contact. But I haven’t had any creepy encounters. It’s really fun to play there and have dancers just inches away, and I enjoy being on both sides of the stage.

Thanks to savvy booking by owner Chris Kalmbach, the Knuckle Down attracts top-notch blues acts from around the country. The longtime Tate’s Blues Jam happens there every Thursday night, plus regular appearances by the Madison/Chicago Cash Box Kings, Rockin’ Johnny Burgin and The Jimmys. Most of the music is blues-oriented, but not all. Check the schedule and take a field trip. You might be surprised.

— Catherine Capellaro