Daisy Cafe and Cupcakery
2827 Atwood Ave
Madison, WI
608-241-2200

Hours:
Cafe Menu: Monday to Friday, 7am to 2pm; Saturday and Sunday, 8am to 3pm
Espresso & Cupcakes: Monday to Friday, 7am to 5pm; Saturday and Sunday, 8am to 5pm

Daisy Cafe and Cupcakery has opened doors on Atwood Avenue, on Madison’s east side.  Located in the building that used to house Bunky’s Cafe (which has reopened in the former Goodman Community Center a couple of blocks away), it is a welcome addition to the neighborhood. Part bakery, part coffeehouse, part cafe, Daisy Cafe fits right in.

As the name suggests, the forte here is cupcakes.  And the cupcakes are great.  But they are not as good as the scones, which have to be some of the best scones offered in the city.  These scones are have the prefect texture, with just a hit of sweetness hidden in with the fruit and nuts.  The subtle icing adds to the taste experience.  Flavors include combinations like dried cranberry and walnut, and raspberry.

But if you go to Daisy for only the bakery, you are missing the interesting and very good menu that they’ve put together to serve to diners for breakfast/brunch and lunch. Stratas are their specialty, and they do their version of this egg casserole very, very well.  We sampled the Chorizo and Pepper Jack Strata, which also contained green onions and red peppers.  A strata is a welcome change from your typical omelet, though if you have a breakfast purist amongst you, they serve omelets as well.

We also tried the Egg Sandwich.  This sandwich had cream cheese, bacon, purple onion and cilantro on grilled rosemary bread.  The bread was high quality, very good bread that stood up to the test of having breakfast ingredients piled between the slices.

Daisy Cafe and Cupcakery also serves lunch items daily.  Meatloaf is their specialty for lunch, and they serve up a plethora of options.  Ground Beef and Bacon, Turkey/Feta/Pesto, Chorizo, and a No-Meat Loaf can be ordered as an entree or as a sandwich.

Other sandwiches available include a pork loin sandwich with pineapple, a grilled Chicken and Onion Chutney sandwich, a “Sloppy Jose” made with Chorizo, and various burgers.

Don’t forget to take a cupcake home.  They take a lot of care in the packaging of their cupcakes, placing them in appropriately outfitted boxes.  Cupcake are iced with butter cream, and include apple with cinnamon cream cheese, banana with chocolate, banana with lemon, carrot with cream cheese, chocolate with blueberry, chocolate with chocolate, chocolate with mocha, lemon with blueberry, lemon with raspberry, lemon with strawberry, vanilla with blueberry, vanilla with chocolate,vanilla with lemon, vanilla with mocha and vanilla with strawberry.

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The winners of this year’s Mad Diner Awards Best Lunch Spot 2008 are:

First Place: Bluephies

Second Place: Lazy Jane’s

Third Place: Restaurant Muramoto

See all of the 2008 Mad Diner Awards here!

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Mad Diner Ratings:

Service:             
Atmosphere:      
Value:                
Food:                 
Overall Rating: 

Restaurant Details:
546 N. Midvale Blvd.,  441-1090
Open Daily, 11AM – 10PM

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We couldn’t resist. We went to visit the Tilted Kilt within days of opening to see what the fuss was about. And we found a restaurant which certainly may be a bit heavy on the clientele testosterone, but which also serves food that stands up to the test, for the most part.

First, to explain: One reviewer was male, one reviewer was female. This may create some balance to the views expressed (though the female did write this review).

We arrived at the Tilted Kilt around noon, only to find the parking lot packed to the gills and the curbs along the street lined, amusingly, with pick up trucks, work vehicles of all kinds, and midlife crisis-styled sports cars. Spilling from the doors was a line of gentlemen of all ages and shapes, patiently awaiting admittance into the restaurant. There was no end to the male species of diner, but the female persuasion was very under-represented.

When questioned, we were told that there would be a 25 minute wait for a table. We decided to take our chances by looking for a quicker seat at the bar, and we snapped up a couple of the few remaining vacancies.

Tilted Kilt Beer Selection

The first thing we noticed were the beers on tap. Selections ranged from Sam Adams, Killians Red and Coors Light, to more specialty beers like Capital Maibock and Amber, Spotted Cow, Blue Moon, and a Tilted Kilt label, produced by Leinies. The second thing noticed was the intermingled sounds of cackling men and Black Sabbath music.

But everyone seemed to be having fun in a very socially acceptable way.

Tilted Kilt Uniforms

So, do we start with the uniform critique, or with the food critique? Oh, what the heck, lets get the uniform critique out of the way first. By now everyone knows that the female staff dresses in very revealing push-up bra style tops and plaid skirts so short you hope that the server doesn’t drop anything that requires bending over to pick up. Errrr. Well. I don’t know if I speak for my fellow diners with that hope, but as the female reviewer on duty, I know I was pulling in favor of the dignity of the women. (photo taken from the Tilted Kilt website)

As my male reviewer-counterpart commented, ” The cleavage and belly button piercings are just fine so far….”. He also described the uniforms as being from the “Adam Ant 1980′s Music Video” period. From the female point of view, I do need to comment on the fact that while the women’s uniforms were shorter than short, the male bartenders, also in kilts, were covered to the knees. This smacks of discrimination for the female diner, to me.

Now that we’ve got that obligatory commentary out of the way, we’ll move on to the food. The menu is your typical sports bar sort of menu, with a somewhat forced Irish twist. The French Dip is corrected to be called the Irish Dip, and you will find other superficial nods to the British Isles along the way.

Tilted Kilt Meatloaf

We ordered the meatloaf with mashed potatoes and the fish and chips. The meatloaf was actually very good. It had sauteed peppers and onions atop, with the “loaf” meat loosely packed and flavorful. The mashed potatoes were borderline “instant”. Thin and relatively bland, a lot of improvement could be had there.

Tilted Kilt Fish and Chips

The fish and chips were a pleasant surprise. With a very good taste, and flakey inside, this fish exhibited none of the doughy, greasy tendancies that many deep fried fish plates tend to have. As a “British Isles” fish and chips afficianado, I smugly looked around for the malt to pour on the fish and the fries. I was surprised to find it…. until I went to pour it and found that the plastic coated safety seal had not been removed before I arrived on the scene. No fears, I can open a bottle.

Tilted Kilt Garlic Fries

When we placed our order, we had asked that the fries that came with the fish be replaced with garlic fries. Once served, and without a bit of garlic in sight, we reminded our bartender of our request for garlic fries. He looked closely at our basket of fries, agreed that they weren’t garlic fries and came back, good-naturedly, with a basket of garlic fries. To our chagrin, there was no difference. It became apparent that we had actually been served garlic fries to start, though we didn’t know it due to absence of garlic. Still, the fries were crisp and were some of the better fries I’ve had lately.

The gentlemen sitting next to us at the bar provided excellent company along the way. They had consumed a cheeseburger, which they said was acceptable and fit the bill. They were somewhat bemused by the fact that we were taking pictures of food instead of scantily-clad Colleens. They rapidly reached the conclusion that we were there to review the food and threw out some of their observations (positive as well).

Interior View

So, long story short, suck it up, Madison. The food is good for what it is , and if people want to go to the Tilted Kilt, let ‘em go. If you are offended by Wisconsin midriffs (because like or not, some of the midriffs we saw WERE products of a long Wisconsin winter), don’t go. If testosterone bothers you, avoid this place like the plague.

But, if you just want to go to a place with a solid sports bar menu, and if navel gazing at the servers doesn’t offend you, then by all means, go to the Tilted Kilt.

I still want to see the male staff in skirts several inches shorter, however. It is only fair.

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We have now been to the 1855 Saloon and Grill five times and believe that we have experienced enough to even out any reviews that we may have made after each individual trip.

We’ll start with the first time that we went to the 1855.  We had heard that this was a very popular and very crowded new place, and so we decided to go shortly after they opened, for lunch, under relatively stressless staff circumstances.  Our experience was very positive.  We arrived at around 11:15 AM on a Saturday, and by 11:30 the place was packed.  We ordered a caesar salad with sliced beef filet, bleu cheese, eggs and red onion, as well as a panini melt, consisting of “rustic bread, roasted turkey, capocollo ham, pepperoni, crispy bacon, pepper jack cheese and tomatoes”. 

We left very satisfied with both the service and the food, and we eagerly anticipated another return to experience dinner.  And so, obviously, we returned for dinner.  On our first return visit, we arrived by 5:30 on a Wednesday evening.  We were again seated immediately, but within minutes of arrival a waiting list began to form.  The service suffered from the influx of diners, yet it was still adequate.  On this visit, we ordered the Pesto-brushed salmon grill and the Rustic loaded filet. 

Dinners are served with bread and with two butters.  One is your average butter, the other is a roasted vegetable sun-dried tomato butter, which is above average.  The rustic loaded filet was described as “a beef filet cutlet stuffed with prosciutto, sausage, pepperoni, tomatoes, Parmesan, spinach and mozzarella, served with mixed raviolis and a tomato cream sauce”.  And that is exactly what it was.  This time, the salmon did disappoint, being charred and dried out with a very strong fish taste.  The filet, however, was again “adequate”.

On subsequent visits, we’ve asked more people to tag along to get their impressions as well.  On those visits, various diners tried the Prime Rib (Saturday evening special ), filet with crab cakes, steak with beer battered shrimp, shrimp toasted with almonds and cocunut, and an assortment of cheeseburgers.  Again, the food was very adequate, if not spectacular.  On the other hand, with the menu being very moderately priced, spectacular probably should not be an expectation.

The 1855 Saloon and Grill is owned by the same owners of Tru’s in Cambridge.  You will find many similarities in the menus between these two restaurants.  The formulas for both restaurants become obvious fairly quickly.  While on the surface the menus seem almost overwhelming due to selections, those with a discerning eye will find that many of the items are basically the same dish, with minor modifications.  Unique recipe items are used time and time again in various dishes, giving a superficial plethora of flavors.  In reality, peppers, Parmesan, artichokes, prosciutto, bacon and spinach are used in several dishes anchored by different meats to offer seemingly endless options.

Don’t get us wrong - that isn’t a criticism.  It shows a practical creativity that will allow these restaurants to stand out, and yet still charge very reasonable prices.

The main quibble that we have with the 1855 is with their service.  The staff is very young, and very inexperienced.  There is no professional service to speak of, just youthful workers making their way through, apparently, high school.  A recent visit, unfortunately seated in the vicinity of the server stations and kitchen, provided us an indepth understanding on where the staff stood with American Idol contestants.  It also allowed us to chuckle at flashbacks created by overhearing the very childish flirting techniques of high school aged teenagers.  After listening to the rambunctious teenage banter coming from the kitchen window area, you couldn’t pay us enough to return to that awkward age of false bravado aimed at covering teenage insecurity.

But perhaps the most perplexing moment dealing with the 1855 staff came when we ordered a bottle of wine (Seghesio Sangiovese) to have with our dinner.  Our very nice, yet very young and green server asked us if we wanted that “to go”.  This is a question that we haven’t yet figured out.  Needless to say, we clarified our request and asked to have it served with dinner.

We like the 1855 Saloon and Grill for what it is;  a solid restaurant in an area desperately needing such a thing.  As such, one can overlook the hiring compromises that the owners have clearly needed to make, while applauding the crafty yet practical creativity that went into making the menu interesting, and yet still affordable.

1855 Saloon and Grill
218 South Main Street
Cottage Grove, WI  (608) 839-3700

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Hours:  Sun – Wed, 11am to 9 pm; Thurs – Sat: 11am to 3am

Madison has never been able to sustain a real hot dog joint, much to the chagrin of some of us here at Madison Dining Online.  We’ve often talked philosophically about why that is, and we’ve even identified the perfect spot to open such an establishment (we’re not telling though, because who knows, maybe someday…..).  At least one member of our team is a hot dog fanatic, and makes habits out of touring hot dog joints around the country.

And so it was with great interest that we took a trek to State Street and checked out Mad Dogs Chicago Style Eatery.  Located on Henry Steet in a small, unpretensious building, it looked quite promising from the outside.

Don’t go to Mad Dogs expecting to sit down and have a leisurely lunch.  Mad Dogs is extremely cosy, with no seating to speak of unless you count the three barstools placed under the very small railing built into the wall.  Instead, go to Mad Dogs expecting to get one of the only real, authentic hot dog experiences that you can find in Madison.

The menu consists of your typical hot dog menu; the Chicago Dog ($3.50) was an authentic Vienna hot dog, with onion, tomato, sport peppers, pickle spear, green relish, yellow mustard, poppyseed bun, and celery salt.  In other words not only everything you would expect on a Chicago Dog, but, additionally, everything you wouldn’t expect on one either.  Ketchup is not offered here, though you can put it on yourself if you really feel that you must.

You’ll also find “Naked Dogs”, “Chili Cheese Dogs”, “Maxwell Street Polish” sausage, Italian Beef, Italian Sausages, Taco-styled dogs, and other things on the menu.

The one thing you won’t find is cheese fries.  This is a staple in real Chicago Dog houses, but it appears that this may be a bit too ambituous for Mad Dogs.

Give Mad Dog’s a try if you are into hot dogs and other tubular meat. It’s as close as you are going to come to real Chicago-style dogs in Madison.

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