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Posts Tagged ‘downtown’

DLUX

Saturday, December 1st, 2012

I was a little surprised when Food Fight, Inc. decided to close Ocean Grill to create a new restaurant, but the successor, DLUX, has been a pleasant addition to the already burger-heavy Capitol Square.

Its unique premise is the upscale atmosphere. You can have a fancy burger before seeing a show, and come back afterward for a martini. More on that in a sec.

All burgers are $8. On one visit, I ordered the Farmhouse burger, topped with Monterrey jack, fried green tomato, bacon and baby greens. I really enjoyed the crispy tomato along with the juicy burger. The tomato jam that accompanies the burger was clever, but I prefer salty over sweet and thus didn’t use much of it.

I loved the Carnegie burger on a subsequent visit. The corned beef and sauerkraut were fortunately not overpowering, though I would have liked a little bit more of the Russian dressing. On future visits, I have my eyes on the Sunrise (topped with a fried egg and shoestring potatoes) and the Backyard BBQ (topped with coleslaw and BBQ sauce).

The French onion dip with house-made chips ($4) had huge chunks of onion in it, and after a few bites the onion became overwhelming. I probably should have ordered one of the other sides, like the blue cheese and bacon fries ($2/$5) or the sweet potato fries with sriracha mayo ($2/$5).

I tried several of the 12 specialty cocktails on the menu, and my favorite was the whiskey smash ($7), consisting of Buffalo Trace bourbon, lemon, Turbinado syrup, mint and seltzer.

On a Friday night one week and a Saturday night on a different week, I noticed the crowd consisted of mostly young professionals as well as college students. But all of them were dressed up, to follow the vibe of the venue. Neither night was packed, but for a restaurant, it was a decent showing.

DLUX is open for lunch, dinner and late-night every day and brunch on the weekend.

Tags: American, downtown
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Ivory Room

Friday, November 2nd, 2012

Madison’s only piano bar, the Ivory Room, expanded into portions of the former Ian’s Pizza this summer. If you’ve ever been to the former incarnation, you know how tight the space was. Now, patrons have more elbow room as 1,000 square feet was added.

Even better, the single piano is now dueling pianos–like you find at Howl at the Moon or Pat O’Brien’s–on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Those are the only nights that have a $5 cover charge, though that’s waived if you show a dinner receipt from Capital Tap Haus or Buck & Badger, both of which share the same owner as Ivory Room.

I have to admit, I actually like the new Ivory Room, because it finally feels like a piano bar. Also, I’ve noticed the average age for patrons has gone down. Whereas the old Ivory Room was usually packed with people 40+, now it’s more 20s and 30s. A bartender told me it’s because of the later opening hours (8 p.m. vs. 4 p.m., for example).

Regarding the musicians, I was happy to see familiar faces in Josh Dupont and Michael Massey of Piano Fondue, as well as the husband-wife duo of Anthony and Leslie Cao, as regular performers. They do a great job of charging up the crowd.

One major strike is the fact that you have to pay $250 for any size group up to 20 to sit in the VIP area, which is on the same level as the pianos. So if you and four friends want to sit up there, you’re looking at $50 each, all for having slightly closer access to the pianos and a dedicated server. Puh-leeze. This is Madison, not Chicago or New York.

Ivory Room is open Tuesday-Saturday, with Sundays and Mondays reserved for private parties.

Tags: downtown
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Steepery Tea Bar

Saturday, October 27th, 2012

In my quest to drink less soda–I’ve eliminated about 60 oz. a week–I’ve been drinking more iced tea. However, it’s been disappointing drinking the tasteless iced tea served at most restaurants.

Well for fans of tea–either iced, hot or bubble–we have a new place to quench our thirst: Steepery Tea Bar, which opened on State Street last month. I was invited to tour the store to see how the tea was made and sample some drinks.

The owner told me her goal is to become the next Starbucks. With five other stores (all in Minnesota) and a great product, I think they have a shot.

Any drink can be customized, including by sweetness level. As another example, you can add one of nine flavors of bubbles (called pearls and jellies here) to any drink for 50 cents. The texture of the bubbles is absolutely perfect, as Steepery staff make the pearls every two hours. I recommend adding either the passion fruit or the lychee to a glass of iced tea ($3.30).

On the hot side, I thought the individual tea press (see photo) was a clever approach to serving tea. You’ll have to make the difficult decision of choosing among the more than 50 kinds of fair-trade & organic looseleaf teas and tisanes, but be comforted in knowing there’s no bad choice. A cup is $2.30 and a pot is $3.25.

I did ask about the “bar” in the name, and the owner told me the space (formerly the Taste of Tibet) was unfortunately too small to have a bar set up, like in the other locations. Steepery also sells light fare, all locally sourced.