liz_c

Thanks for all the suggestions!! We had looked at Birchrunville and it's definitely something we'd like to try, but will have to call and see if they do a large table. We do always ask to make sure that the children are o.k. and our older son (15 yrs, not a foodie - prefers to stop at McD's on the way there!!) can take the baby out to the van and entertain her if she gets fussy. Middle son is into duck and fois gras, so his expensive tastes make up for what we save on his brother Much appreciated!! Liz

We're going to be traveling to Kimberton, PA for an event in late April and we have one evening free where we'd like to visit a decent restaurant. We have three kids, ages 15y, 13y and 18 months - all are very good in resto's, but we don't want anything where we might upset other customers just b/c we have kids. We're from Madison, WI, so decent is relative to the small resto's of a college/lakeside town We like slow food, classic euro cuisine, some interest in places like Alinea, but we know it's hard to get into something like that with kids. The kids like sushi and asian fusion - we're willing to go along with that too. We can't travel too far from Kimberton because this is for a dog show and we will have several dogs in the van with us. Probably a 30 minute radius is about all we can handle. Thanks in advance for any suggestions! Liz

Did anyone from the forum make it to the Decade dinner at L'Etoile? We were seated in the back with the 11 month old (the reason I don't have time to post on forums anymore ). She loved the foie! Very relaxed night and wonderful, wonderful food. Here's the menu - the wine pairings were excellent, but I forgot to bring those notes with me to work. First Course: Baked Fantome Farm Chevre in Herb Infused Olive Oil, with Black Olive Tapenade, Pickled Mushrooms, Oil-Roasted Garlic and Crostini Second Course: Seared Foie Gras on Lavendar Biscotti with Blackberry Gastrique Third Course: Lightly Smoked Artesian Farm Rainbow Trout 'en Papillote' Baked in Parchment with Shiitake Mushrooms, Haricots Vert and Hickory Nut Compound Butter Fourth Course: Fountain Prairie Farm Highland Beef on Heirloom Tomatoes with Haystack Potatoes, Béarnaise Sauce and Worcestershire Jus Fifth Course: Salad of Creekside Greens with Pleasant Ridge Reserve in Creamy Basil Vinaigrette Dessert Course: Molten Chocolate Vesuvius with Framboise Truffle, Caramel-Sea Salt Crème Anglaise, and Raspberry Coulis Liz

I think Willy St. only uses small independant farmers and has higher organic standards. It's run by the Willy St. coop - they've got a web page on their site: http://www.willystreet.coop/ESFM/ I tend to shop like a European, so I've got a series of little stores I run to for things rather than try to get things done at the downtown farmers market. After 20+ years around here the crowds are just way too much - although I've been told driving a circuit from Sun Prairie to Oregon to Middleton and back through Madison just to shop is ridiculous Neat!! We'll have to take the rugrats for that. Luthers French Quarter did a Sunday night tasting menu last winter - not sure if they're continuing it this year or not. They also do reduced price meals in off peak hours. Nick's at 226 State is an old Madison standby - diner food, reasonably priced, huge portions. There's Dotty's for burgers, but since their recent upscaling I haven't felt the same way about them (and I've been eating at Dotty's since high school!). The Vientiane Inn at 151 W. Gorham is good for Lao-Thai food - they're serious about heat - if you ask for spicy, you get it Himal Chuli is very good - they started out in Sun Prairie - Nepalese food in a town of 22,000 - I think they're doing much better on State Street. Amy's Cafe on Gilman used to do good veggie sandwiches - haven't been there in ages though. Some of the carts on Library Mall and the Square can be surprisingly good - there's a Vietnamese cart on the square by the glass bank that used to do great spring rolls and baos. Glass Nickel pizzas are awesome - there's another good pizza place on Monroe street - Urban Pizza Co. - kind of a haul from Bascom, but you could do a pick up. Oh - and across from Urban Pizza is North American Rotisserie - great chicken and sides, plus they sell day old fried chicken cheap. That's about it off the top of my head - I'm partial to gyros from the Parthenon on State, but I know that's a disgusting habit and shouldn't be passed on to others (my husband tells me that all the time) Liz

o.k., o.k., I've been reading e-gullet for years but never registered till now. So...you've lured at least one Madison area lurker out of the closet :) I'm sort of a "townie" - grew up overseas in the '60's (army brat - Thailand & Korea), moved to Madison in 1977, living on what was the west side and is now the near west side, went to HS & college here, worked as a cook, waitress and dining room manager at the sadly missed Cafe Palms, also worked as a cook at Lombardino's under the Maglio and Viviani establishments. Moved to the east coast for a while, then decided to have kids and came back to Madison in 1991. We're now living in Sun Prairie, but we go out to eat a LOT in Madison - both of my kids have been brought in and around restaurants. Ennyway - enuf intro :) Some comments.... Will have to try Montmartre - haven't been there yet - Jolly Bob's has a nice mussel app if you haven't been there yet. They're on Willy St. and they don't do reservations, so try to shoot for an early weeknight. We tend not to do the Madison Farmers Market anymore because of the crowds and the ban on dogs. The East side FM is small but *very* good and Sun Prairie has a fairly decent market as well - I've also heard good things about the Monona FM. We tried Muramoto right after they opened for the 13 year old son's birthday. Fun but got very expensive fast because we had to try everything. I was impressed - didn't try desserts though - he wanted to go to Delmonico's for their chocolate cake. And how could you diss the Tornado?!? It's my nine year olds favorite - he loves to go their for duck on his birthday :) It's a good standby and always predictable - the venison is my favorite, but I can see where it wouldn't make a very strong impression. Have you tried Bunky's on Atwood yet? A friend of mine runs it, she's another townie and her husband is from Morroco - they do a combo of Greenbush neighborhood Italian and Med dishes. Very casual and fun. For sushi, give Wasabi a try - they're always rated the best in Madison. Personally, we like Takara on State St., but they can get sort of crowded - it's a very large, open setting. There really isn't much decent Mexican in Madison - there's a little taqueria on a side street off Fish Hatch that's good, there's a new place in Sun Prairie that will be good once they work out their service issues, and there's La Hacienda on Park St. - also El Dorado has a pretty good tex-mex thing going. We're looking forward to trying the new Malaysian place out in Middleton, but haven't made it that far west yet, plus the kidlets are clamoring for grilled eel (they wanted to me to cook it yesterday and we had a tough time convincing them that Sentry, Sun Prairie doesn't sell eel), so we might just bag the west side and head for Takara some time this week :) Liz (grammer edit)