A First Look at the new Jovian Taphaus
Ok, we get it. There are people out there that have a grudge against the old Cloud 9 Grille. Of course from our comments that we get and don’t allow through due to language and vindictiveness, most of the grudge is from a select few former employees with a personal grudge – many of the comments come from a small number of people who try to fool us with fake names and email addresses. IP addresses are sort of like the DNA of the online world though, so the assumed names don’t fool us that much.
We prefer to keep our views of Madison-area restaurants focused on menu, service, food, atmosphere and value. We loved Cloud 9 when it first opened, then we ran into a very unfortunate run when we dined there several meals in a row. Towards the end, they seemed to be desperately trying to turn the place around, but alas, too late. There are too many restaurants in Madison to choose from to allow an establishment to easily come back from blatantly disrespecting the Madison dining public.
And so, with the controversy that certain contributors seemed determined to draw us into, we of course had to visit the newly opened Jovian Taphaus on opening night. And we came away quite pleased.
The first test was in asking for a table upstairs, something that the previous establishment failed at miserably. Jovian Taphaus passed with flying colors, seating us in the majestic upper level without blinking.
The second test came in the service. On this visit, the service was very polite, if tentative. It was, however, opening night, so one must be prepared to make allowances for nerves. Our server was friendly and did a good job, and we expect that the service should only improve with practice.
The third test was the food. And the food passed with flying colors. The menu is quite different this time around, with a more limited menu balanced between appetizers, sandwiches, and entrees heavy on steaks. We opted for the sandwiches on this trip, ordering the slow-roasted pork sandwich and the burger. The pork sandwich was a winner, with a topping of crunchy cole slaw and a hidden tang of horseradish placed atop a crisply grilled ciabatta roll.
We’re not going to go into a long review. We’ve done that before after one visit and ended up eating crow. We’re going to go back a couple of times, try more of the menu and then give a more thorough review. But, what we saw, we liked.
As we dined on this evening, the management of the restaurant made a point of patroling the floors to ensure that the dining experience was meeting expectations. Chris, the manager, asked us how the meal was going, and then joined us for a few minutes to discuss the new endeavor. We introduced ourselves and he recognized and acknowledged MadisonDining.com, noting that he paid attention to what was being discussed on the site in regards to Cloud 9/Jovian Taphaus.
We were also joined by one of the roving management members who talked to us about the wine list. He sat in our booth for a few minutes telling us about the direction that Jovian Taphaus was taking with their food and beverage menus. He admited that he was there for a short time, on loan from establishments in Kansas City. He discussed the dedication to locally produced food. The cheese, for example, is from Kraemer, a local cheese producer.
So, again, we’ll write up a more formal review of the restaurant after we’ve been there a few more times and have tried more of the menu. We’ll see how the service settles in, and if the management continues to be on top of dining experience, as they were on this evening.
Until then, we recommend that you give Jovian Taphaus a try… and of course, let us know what you think!
Please keep in mind that if/ when the restaurant gets busy and you do not have a prior reservation, you may not be able to get seated upstairs because there is not room which may have often been the case at Cloud 9.
That makes perfect sense.
Cloud 9 had a very unfortunately policy, however. At one time, even if there was room upstairs, they refused to seat people up there upon request unless they had specifically made a reservation to be seated up there. So “busy” wasn’t the issue, as seating was indeed available.
See this discussion of the situation:
http://madisondining.com/has-the-halo-slipped-off-the-cloud-9-grille/
Our belief is that Jovian Taphaus does not maintain that policy. If so, we’d certainly like to know that.
hi, im a host at the new place
and we do our best to let the customer have a preference of any seat.
if we are busy we will seat you and the next best thing.
our goal is to make the customers feel at home and like a family to us.
come on in and enjoy
)
I enjoy the new atmosphere and beer selections. The staff is more attentive and polite. That being said I have one suggestion: In Madison on a friday night you need to serve 2or3 pieces of fried fish, french fries and cole slaw… nothing fancy, simple fare with a fair price.
My wife and I went to Jovian’s looking for this and were sadly disappointed. A large bun with 3 small strips of over battered fish does not qualify as a fish fry. That is a fish sandwich… If you had a good fish fry the fridays business would catch on, Madison loves it’s fish fries….for Jovian not to have one is disappointing…..
They will have a fish fry. Also alot of other great things to come. Give it a little time and see.
A note by MadisonDining.com: We will continue to approve comments and responses that are submitted by the Jovian Taphaus, such as this one. The Jovian Taphaus should feel free to post as themselves rather than as assumed identities.
We will indeed have a fish fry starting in October as well as several other great specials during the week! Things we have considered include ribs, brats and tacos just to name a few. If anyone has questions or comments please feel free to contact me directly.
Jason, still waiting for the menu on the website. Any ideas when that might be up?
It should be up sometime this week!
I recently went in to visit my fiance who was a bartender there and felt like I was treated as a pest rather than a customer. My fiance was informed that the managers watched him for ten minutes only pay attention to me which was not true. I happened to sit near the area where server drinks are being made and a small rush of drink tickets happened to print up at that time. Wouldn’t a management team have something better to do than watch an employee for ten minutes straight? After this experience occurred, I vowed that night to never go back in until staff changes occur.
I am not saying to not try the place out but be aware that the management team does not appear to like it when friends/ family come in to see their friend or family member and give the restaurant business.
The food is ok but tends to run on the heavier side. There are few entrees on the menu that on the lighter side.
Brenna,
Are you saying that the management had the nerve to supervise an employee that was there to serve their customer, and to make sure that his social visitors weren’t diverting attention away from the paying customers??? Why, how dare th…. Hey Wait A Minute!
Hallelujah! It sounds like the management is working hard to correct the wrongs of the past management of this location.
I’m glad you vowed never to go back while your fiance is working – maybe that means that when I, a paying customer and not a family member or friend, wants to order a drink I might be able to do so – something that was almost impossible at Cloud9 due to really bad service.
Your comment alone makes me think that maybe Jovian is going to make it, while Cloud9 did not. Congratulations to the new management team on this remarkable turn around.
My last experience with Cloud 9 was a bad one, but since there are so many comments about them, I’ll just move on.
Jovian was a nice change. The service was friendly and prompt, and we were seated upstairs as requested. I have to say the bar area is quite noisy and so is not ideal if you want to carry on a conversation.
I had the BBQ salmon. It was perfectly cooked rather than overdone/dry which is common in many restaurants. The BBQ was a new flavor and at first I thought it was heavy and strange, but once the flavors started mixing it made sense and was nice. The au gratin potatoes were delicious but yes, they are heavy. I was pleasantly surprised the seasonal vegetable was NOT plain old steamed broccoli. It was a great mix of grilled, seasoned veggies. My mom enjoyed her meal as well.
Both the food and mixed drinks were very reasonably priced. The service was attentive but not too pushy. I look forward to returning and trying more items.
Comments for Jason – Please get the website up soon! It’s hard for me to tell my friends and convince them to come to the east side when your web site just says you are accepting applications. Get that yummy menu posted! Also please consider a small senior discount. There are a lot of retirees in the area and you have the potential to increase business by offering one.
Thanks for all the great comments folks. The website hopefully will be done by the end of this weekend! I have been waiting on some professional photography to arrive so I can show everyone how beautiful this place really is! Again, my e mail address is jkinslow@joviantaphaus.com if anyone has questions or comments. I can not begin to express how nice it is to have some life and energy back in such a beautiful place. Thanks!
I dined at the new Jovian Taphaus last night with my two friends. I have never blogged about a restaurant before, but I’ve also never had a dining experience like the one I had last night. This experience deserves a review! Our evening began with trying to get the three hostesses’ attention to seat us,and to also alert them that we still had one more person joining us. I kept trying to talk, but they kept talking amongst the three of them and not even pausing to see what I was trying to tell them. We were then taken to our table. We ordered our drinks and an appetizer to start the meal. Our waitress was nice, but awkward. Once our drinks and appetizer came (with no appetizer plates, so we had to eat it over our napkins until someone brought us some), this is when the experience took a turn for the worse. Our waitress came back with another round of drinks on a tray and proceeded to drop them all over our table. This wasn’t just a drop, where a drink was spilled or tipped over. We had two glasses shatter everywhere on our table. We had big and small chunks of glass in our appetizer and in our drinks. A piece of glass flew up and hit one of my friends in the face and I was spilled on. The waitress was of course embarrassed, but did not know really what to do. We moved to another table, and a couple other workers did then come to the rescue. They gave us a new appetizer, but we had to ask for new drinks since glass was in them. We then waited for our meals to come. During this time, we had our waitress come up to the table (she was almost in tears, and it was so awkward that I felt I had to comfort her and make her feel better). Another waiter came up and rambled about some things too, and then the manager came to our table twice, and lastly a bartender came to the table again asking if we wanted another round of drinks. Out of all of these times, none of these people asked us what we would like to make this situation right. Not only was it very uncomfortable, but it didn’t leave much time for my friends and me to actually catch up with one another since we were constantly being interrupted. My favorite interruption came from the manager who proceeded to rip on the movie that we told him (he had asked us what our after dinner plans were)we were going to see after dinner. Our food came and it was ok. The BBQ salmon and tilapia were ok, but nothing amazing. I will say that the fish tacos were really good though. We received our bills and paid for the full bill… yes, you read that correctly. We paid the full bill for this fantastic dining experience. Please know that I am not blaming our waitress. I was once a waitress too and I know these things do happen. But I am extremely disappointed by how management handled the issue. All they needed to do was apologize and then offer to compensate us on our bills for it. I’m not saying that our entire bill should have been free, but all of the restaurants that I have ever worked at would have offered/insisted on taking off a round of drinks, appetizer, or even 1/2 off of the entire bill. If that would have been the case, we would have laughed it off and been done with it. However, this wasn’t the outcome of our experience. Therefore, it is clear to me that my patronage was not appreciated and that there is no need for a return for a repeat experience. Now I know that it will be best that we dine at 1855 for our next outing.
Julie you are exactly correct and let me be the first to apologize to you and your friends. As the General Manager of Jovain Taphaus it is my duty and obligation to provide the best experience for everyone that enters my store. With that being said the waitress you had was new, in fact it was her first weekend night on the floor. Definetly no excuse as it is also my job to train the staff in the standards in which we expect them to perform. I was also the manager that talked to you and your two friends. The bill should have never been dropped at your table as it was my intent to cover the you and your guests dinner and drinks. Furthermore, I have been in this industry for almost twenty years and I can not begin to explain the feeling I get knowing someone was disappointed with the expeience I provide. Please accept my personal apology and thank you for your input. If there is anything I can do please feel free to contact me directly.
We just came home from Jovian and were pretty disappointed. When our server stopped by our table he was very friendly, unfortunately his stops were few and far between. There was a good beer selection and if the server had come to our table more often, we would have tried a few more. The food menu selection was a little smaller than expected, though we didn’t have a problem finding things we wanted to try. We did enjoy the appetizer we ordered, then had burgers and a salad, which were fine, but would have been better if they were still warm when we got them. Cold mashed potatoes are just never good.
I guess we had high hopes for the restaurant, based on the great location and the new atmosphere. It didn’t seem too busy for the service (or lack thereof that we received). Unfortunately I don’t think we’ll be back to try again.
Average food, average service. I couldn’t believe our waiter came by and asked my boyfriend if he wanted a beer and didn’t ask if I wanted a refill on my wine, which sat empty for 10 minutes. We had to flag him down to get a glass. The soup was cold, sent it back and they warmed it up. Sandwich was okay, seemed lacking. Friday Fish Fry was a few small pieces of fish – where’s all you can eat on a Friday night?? Definitely left something to be desired.
Just went there for my boyfriends birthday. i was sad to see no birthday special especially when cloud 9 had such a great one. The beer selection made my boyfriend really happy. My best friend and i both had delicious cocktails. The menu had much more variety than the old restaurant and everyone was extremely happy with their meals. I personally had the mac & cheese which i would have preferred with bacon rather than its unsmoked counterpart pork belly. The meat in it had little flavor and had like 5 large chunks. The noodles and cheese were really good though. My boyfriend had a steak which was delicious. The rest of the table had sandwiches and plates were practically licked clean. We also had the flaming fries as an appetizer, extremely fun to see a plate on fire. too much cheese to fry ratio, but our waitress noticed and brought us a refill. Presentation was beautiful. the manager on duty was a little overzealous explaining all of the dishes (making us wait to eat while our food started to get cold). Overall it was a great experience, but then again i liked Cloud 9 too.
Still no menu or website online??
The website is now up and running… Also we are in the process adding a few new and exciting dishes and Beers.. Starting on November 9th come check us out.
Went a month or so ago and haven’t stopped raving about it since then. Going back this weekend and can’t wait to see if the result will be the same. Yes, the menu is quite small, but the food choices are amazing and the beer selection out of this world. Not your typical brew pub!
Keep up the great work!
This is the first time I’ve written a review about a restaurant, but it seemed necessary in this case.
I’ve been wanting to try eating here for a few months now. A friend of mine stopped in about 11:30pm a couple weeks ago with our fingers crossed but they had already stopped serving food at 11pm, dang. We still had a beer at the bar. Nice server, good beer, good price.
Last night my wife and I went there for dinner. The service was great. Exceptionally friendly, attentive but not annoying. We sat upstairs; they have a beautiful building and a great view of the Madison skyline.
I ordered the Seafood Tacos and my wife had a Kansas City Strip. This was my first time having fish tacos. I’ve never been a cod fan, but these were outstanding. My wife is very critical of everything she eats. That being said, this is now her new favorite place for steak.
The bill ended up being a little pricey but not unreasonable by any means, especially for what we got. I’ve spent more at TGI Friday’s or Outback.
We will defiantly be returning- Jovian is now a regular on our dining out list.
First time customer last week and was disappointed with service, food cold way overpriced for what you get.
Bergie, I would love to talk to you about your experience at our restaurant. I am very open to suggestions and am always willing to correct if there was an issue. Please give me a call at the restaurant or email. We are very passionate about the business and want to make every experience a great one, We work hard on training the staff and making sure we go to great lenghts for the food to be always fresh/hot/and a experience you want to come back time and time again. And this goes for everyone out there if there is something that you find not great or needing of improvement as well as a good compliment, let us know. we cant improve if we dont hear about the issues Please let us know and we will be glad to take care of it. Email Me personally at Csimonsen@joviantaphaus.com
My wife and I just went to Jovian for the first time a few weeks ago. We sat upstairs. No reservation – - no problem. The server was very good. Very engaging, but not too much. We had the chips with Blue cheese for an appetizer. There were very good, with a truckload of Blue cheese on top. If you don’t like blue, you won’t like these. I had the corn chowder. It was excellent, and had a good kick. The wedge salad was big, and one of the best I have had. I thought it was better than one of my favorites, which is from Del-Bar in WI Dells. My wife had the steak and blue cheese sandwich. It was excellent. She also liked the Sangria. I tried hers, and thought it was ok. The beer selection was very good, and I got to try two beers that I have never had.
Overall, good service, great food. A little pricey, but we had quite a few leftovers that we took home. We tried to like Cloud 9, but couldn’t. I will go again, and I will try it for lunch with clients.
Well done!
My friends and I ate at Jovian last December. We are planning on going back this Sat. which is what prompted me to comment.
We were seated upstairs. Our server was very informed on the menu and the wine. He let us sample the wine we wanted to order. We all enjoyed the crabcakes for an appetizer. Our server was fantastic, I can’t remember his name or I would mention it here. We had a very pleasant dining experience, and look forward to our return for good food, good service and good ambiance.