This is a quirky little restaurant on Madison's funky Willie Street. The restaurant is small so it utilizes a couple long communal tables in the center with a handful of tables around that. It only serves wine and beer. The menu is very small and the emphasis here is firmly on the food. I highly recommend examining the menu before you go. The selections are not only very limited, there are no \"safe corners\" of the menu. By that I mean pretty much every dish other than the duck fat fries contains at least one \"challenging\" ingredient that may be off-putting for the less adventurous diner. \n\nWe tried four dishes:\n\nBeet salad with goat cheese puree, watercress and pickled carrots. This is a dish that seems to be everywhere at the moment. This one is delicious with beautifully roasted, earthy beets. The distinguishing ingredient here is the pickled carrot. That really helps elevate the dish.\n\nNext we had Ravioli/ egg yolk/ bacon/ ricotta/ brown butter/ swiss chard. This was an intensely salty dish. I happen to like that. It is very, very rich. The egg yolk is very runny and combines with the brown butter to make a very hearty dish. We both liked this one a lot. \n\nNext up was Mussels/ crazy water/ leek/ spinach/ chilies/ toast. This was just a basic bouillabaisse with just lots of muscles. I didn't detect any chilies in the dish which I think would have given it more excitement. This was just average to me. \n\nLastly we had Panna Cotta/ orange/ brandy/ cherry/ shortbread. This was beautifully done. The panna cotta had a wonderful texture and the cherries had absorbed plenty of the brandy flavor. \n\nService was attentive and friendly. The isn't a hint of pretense here, the interior is sparse with plain wood tables and hanging exposed filament light bulbs. The one flaw is that the light level was too high. It actually hurt our eyes and made the place seem less intimate than it is. I'd strongly prefer much lower light and a candle on the table.\n\nWe'll definitely be back to try other dishes here.
places reviews