For us, it is an obvious choice–when we spend a couple days in a new city, we want to try to get a good mix of the unique and local favorite restaurants–no chain restaurants for us!
I already shared a little about the couple fun places we found in two previous posts–Baumgartner’s in Monroe, WI, and Hubbard Ave Diner in Middleton, WI, but the places I want to share today are right in the heart of downtown Madison.
If memory serves me correctly, we visited these two places on the same day, Marigold Kitchen for breakfast, and The Old Fashioned for dinner. In between dining at these two fantastic places, we hung out in downtown Madison visiting the Capitol, a couple museums, and enjoying the downtown area.
Marigold Kitchen is seated about a half block East of the Capitol on Pinckney Street, we saw that it was pretty popular among locals, so we thought we’d try it out. They only serve breakfast/brunch and lunch, and based on our plans for the day, we decided the night before that we should get there early. Upon entering, it was slightly confusing how the operation worked, but we took our cues from other patrons and got in line to order. After placing our order, we found a couple chairs at the counter. We both love omelettes–I opted for one with zucchini, roasted red peppers and goat cheese, while Matt chose one with chorizo and a corn relish. Major fail on my part for not snapping a picture, but Matt’s will have to suffice! The omelettes were served with “Marigold potatoes” and toast. Despite our attempt at getting there early, things seemed like they were starting to get chaotic; the busyness made for a loud environment, but the food was delicious, the servers were kind and helpful and we would definitely go back again!
The Old Fashioned is also on Pinckney Street, but it faces the Capitol, so if you’re lucky enough, you end up with a view! My word of 
caution about The Old Fashioned–it is a VERY popular place, be prepared to wait. Unfortunately, we didn’t know that it was so popular, so we ended up waiting for a very long time–at the time I don’t believe they took reservations, but that may have changed. So, what makes The Old Fashioned such a hotspot? They pride themselves on being quintessentially Wisconsin–their food sources are all from within the state and they love to share it with anyone who will listen. So, of course we had to start with a cheese plate–remember, WE’RE IN WISCONSIN! Matt ended up with a Sheboygan bratwurst with beer-batter cheese curds, and I straight up went for the carbs and had the Grilled Cheese with both Swiss and Cheddar (I probably had a side salad too out of guilt, but it was not memorable). Everything was absolutely delicious and aside from the wait, this was by far my favorite restaurant we went to during our trip.
After stuffing ourselves finishing our meal, we went for a nice long walk around the Capitol and surrounding area–what a great way to end our day!
The hard hat tours are virtually impossible to do because they are only offered on Friday’s at 1 PM and there is a limit of fifteen people allowed on the tour. The benefits are that it is a three hour tour, you can go behind the scenes of both breweries (The Riverside and the Hilltop), and there is a beer and cheese pairing available. The self-guided tour is essentially walking in the hallways of the brewery and observing the different processes through big glass walls. The hard hat tour allows you into those sections and onto the manufacturing floor.
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