Madison Sourdough Company

Short Summary:  Delicious cafe fare in a comfortable, casual environment.

Location:  916 Williamson St. Madison, WI 53703 

You can get Madison Sourdough Company bread all over Madison, and their tents are a staple of farmer's markets and sidewalk fairs all summer, but the cafe at their home on Willy Street is an establishment in its own right.  Their menu takes the Company's bread and builds off it to make all your basic cafe staples:  breakfast plates, hot and cold sandwiches, and a good selection of sweet pastries. 


Bread on Center Stage

It's the "Madison Sourdough Company," after all -- the bread is front and center in just about all the dishes.  Fortunately, it's good bread.  Fans of sourdough with find the crunchy-on-the-outside, chewy-on-the-inside character they're looking for.  Less adventurous bread-eaters can always try the Country Loaf, which is loaded down with enough seeds and crunchy bits that the sourdough tang is more of an afterthought than a driving force.

The Company makes enough breads that you're not going to get bored with everything being sourdough.  Sandwiches come on white sourdough, toasted buns, open-faced cracked rye, and more.  Breakfast options include a sandwich on a croissant and a killer brioche French toast.

Pleasant Dining

The menu at Madison Sourdough is simple enough that it doesn't need too much describing.  Portions are ample, quality is high, and service is casual and quick. 

The cafe is high-ceilinged with big front windows, making a light and airy space.  Decor is rustic-funky -- lots of art made out of wooden spoons, farm furniture, and more.  Tables and chairs are randomly assorted (and sometimes a little too small for very tall customers).  It can get crowded once the East Side starts waking up, which gives the rest of us plenty of time but can mean a little elbow-rubbing by afternoon.

All in all we're glad to have M. S. Co. around as a dependable "Hey we're on the east side lets..." option. 

The Tipsy Cow

Short summary:  Refreshingly ordinary pub-grub right downtown -- but still at Capitol Square foodie-driven prices.

Location:  102 King St., Madison, WI 53703

It's always interesting to see how many entrepreneurs arrive at the independent conclusion that what the capitol square really needs is another burgers-and-beer joint.

The Tipsy Cow is the last in a string of re-imaginings for the space last occupied by the late and not-particularly-lamented King & Mane.  Whether it's got the staying power to outlast the previous tenants or not remains to be seen, though the crowd on a weeknight doesn't really suggest it.  They've got a decently active Facebook page but no dedicated website, always a strike against a newer business.

Better Burger Basics

To give credit where it's due, the new 'Cow does avoid the foodier-than-thou trap of a lot of capitol-area pub-grub joints.  Burgers are slabs of ground beef on buns, usually with cheese, and if the beef or the cheese are a little higher-quality than usual it's still the same, recognizable material.  Orders are In N' Out Burger style, going from a single 1/4 lb. patty "1x1" at five bucks on up to a full-pound "4x4" at eleven.

The sandwiches, burger and otherwise, are solid and simple.  There's no messing around and what's on the menu is what you get.  The Spicy Slaw Dog is not to be missed by fans of sausage-and-slaw; the kielbasa with kraut was a disappointingly inferior cousin.

One weird point to beware of is that the sandwiches are priced as stand-alones -- any kind of side is extra.  For some of them, the prices seem a buck or two high, comparable to what you'd pay for a sandwich-and-side most other places.

Best Fries in Town

If the Tipsy Cow sticks around, we hope it's on the strength of the fries.  They're thin, crunchy on the outside, meaty and soft on the inside, and come covered in all sorts of different, exciting options.  With one dissenting voice favoring the frites at Brasserie V we're inclined to say that these are the best fries in town.

Our advice?  Go on Monday for half-price fries.  Even really good French fries shouldn't be seven or eight bucks an order.  Toppings weren't always heaped on very generously either, making them a delicious treat but a bit of an expensive indulgence. 

There's a lot to like about the Tipsy Cow's approach.  They're keeping it simple, and on the Square that's a refreshing and novel approach.  If they can get their prices balanced a little better and tighten up the service (our waitress had no idea what sort of beer any of the listed taps were, and food arrived at different times for each of us) the 'Cow might at least have a shot at outlasting its predecessor.