Posts Tagged ‘Verona’

Food news and events April 20, 2017

Thursday, April 20th, 2017

beardcompetitionheaderLotsa Stone Fired Pizza is now selling 16-oz tap beers, including local and seasonal.

“We are very excited to launch this program,” COO Anthony DiGangi said in a statement. “Madison is a beer drinking city so we figured this would be a great way to provide another amazing product to our guests at a great price.”

Domestics are $2 (one kind will be $1 on Thursdays) and craft beers are $3 ($2 on Tuesdays).

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Wisconsin Brewing Co. will resume its free backyard concert series on Friday, May 5, with a performance by WheelHouse at 6 p.m.

Other bands slated to perform include the Jimmys, Pat McCurdy and Piano Fondue. A full schedule can be found on the WBC website.

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Wisconsin Whisk is currently soliciting recipes for its first e-cookbook, which will be used to show the community a snapshot of its diverse membership. Submissions are due May 6.

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Bos Meadery will be releasing Baeries Wear Boots at an event beginning at 2 p.m. Saturday, May 6. It’s a sparkling session mead made with elderberries, aronia berries, Pinot Grigio juice and wildflower honey.

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Do you think your beard is award-winning? If so, you should enter the first Madison Craft Beer’d Championship taking place 7-10 p.m. Thursday, May 4 at the Great Dane. The categories are:

  • Freestyle – Full beard, not matching any other category
  • Whiskerina – For the ladies: Fake beards and mustaches welcome.
  • Natural full beard – Less than 6″
  • Natural full beard – More than 6″
  • Mustache/Partial Beard – Can include goatees, sideburns, etc.

Pizza Ranch

Sunday, October 16th, 2016

20161007_175359Is good pizza worth an annoying restaurant setup? That’s your dilemma when you go to Pizza Ranch, which opened another location in the Madison area, this time in Verona.

The buffet ($11.37 for adults) includes fountain soda and dessert (soft-serve ice cream and dessert pizza).

Great variety of pizza. The lengthy list includes BBQ pork, the Trailblazer (pepperoni, sausage, Canadian bacon, mushrooms, green peppers), BLT, the Bronco (meat lovers), buffalo chicken, taco and my particular favorite, the steak and onion.

  • The flavors for the pizzas were true to their names, and each had plenty of toppings. The crust had a nice chew.
  • You also can order a custom pizza while dining in, a seemingly odd choice at a buffet (though I saw plenty of tables do so).

20161007_180036Besides pizza, Pizza Ranch promotes its fried chicken as the Country’s Best Chicken. And actually, I thought it was the star of the buffet. The meat was very moist, and it was coated in a perfectly crispy, semi-salty skin.

Also worth noting: the fried fish was surprisingly acceptable, having a good fish-to-breading ratio. (If you need tartar sauce, you are out of luck.) Meanwhile, the clam chowder was mainly slices of potato, and the cheese stick was oddly flavorless (it’s basically cheese pizza, isn’t it?).

Lots of drawbacks. There’s always a line to get into Pizza Ranch, and it’s not because of its popularity.

  • Plates and tables are not cleared quickly. This is a double-negative, since the restaurant is seat-yourself, and it’s hard to discern if people have left a table since their plates aren’t removed in a timely manner. That’s why you see so many would-be diners hover near tables, which is quite annoying for everyone. A host would easily solve this issue.
  • No condiments at tables. For example, if you want ketchup, you need to grab individual packets in the buffet line.
  • Pizza could be brought out more quickly. I think diners could be in and out more quickly if they didn’t have to wait so long for food to be replenished.

Pizza Ranch is open every day for lunch and dinner.

Pizza Ranch Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Dahmen’s at Hawks Landing

Sunday, October 2nd, 2016

20160930_173613There’s really not much beyond housing surrounding Hawks Landing Golf Club, so you have to make a special trip if you’re going to eat at Dahmen’s at Hawks Landing. In fact, the vast majority of diners appear to be either nearby residents or members of the club.

But now, with the recent closing of Dahmen’s Pizza Place, it’s worth a trip to get that delicious thin-crust pizza.

One you may want to try is the gyro pizza ($13 small, $15 medium, $18 large) because it truly resembles a gyro. It comes with a generous portion of lamb and just the right amounts of onion, cucumber and tomatoes, plus there’s a nice, slight char to the bottom of the pizza.

Other pizzas on my hit list include the volcano pizza (includes jalapenos and crushed red peppers) and the chicken bacon ranch pizza. You may also build your own pizza, and Dahmen’s offers an extensive list of toppings.

20160930_173557Dahmen’s Famous Breadsticks ($4) are warm and fluffy, with a very mild garlic flavor. The marinara sauce needed to be thawed more–it was served as a solid block. Still, they’re a nice way to start the meal. The other apps, such as wings and nachos–are what you expect at a clubhouse restaurant.

Speaking of garlic, there’s SO much of it on the Bunker burger ($10) that I couldn’t discern the grilled patty, sauteed onions, aioli or cream cheese on the toasted bun. Consider this your warning if you can’t handle garlic.

Next time I’ll get the Eggstraordinary burger ($9), which has a safe combination of eggs, bacon and cheese. Either that or I’ll go for the fried lake perch ($14) during a Friday fish fry.

Dahmen’s at Hawks Landing is open every day for lunch and dinner.

Dahmen's at Hawks Landing Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

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