This is Spilling the Beans, where plugged-in baristas give us the lowdown on where to go, what to do, and what to eat (and drink) in their hometown. In this installment, Trevor Gruehn of Bradbury's Coffee shows us around Madison, Wisconsin.
We're going to Madison, Wisconsin—and Trevor Gruehn, coffee director of the acclaimed Bradbury's Coffee, is showing us the ropes. A competitor at the U.S. Coffee Championships and roaster who trains baristas across the country, Gruehn's been posted up in Madison for over seven years. He gave us the lowdown on what's happening in Wisconsin's capital, a city that has the country buzzing over its hip, robust food and drink scene. From where to stay and what to do to where you should be drinking and eating (at all hours), let Gruehn be your guide to the Midwest's best-kept secret.
Where should we stay?
Get out of downtown, and stay at an Airbnb on the Near East Side. If you're limited to hotels, there's the newly renovated Edgewater, just north of Capitol Square on the Isthmus, and another cool boutique hotel west of the Isthmus called HotelRED.
Where should we grab breakfast?
On the weekends, Graze. It's casual, with good sourcing and lots of attention to detail. My fallback there is the eggs benedict, and their Bloody Marys are pretty killer. For pastries, try Batch Bakehouse. And, of course, Bradbury's also has great coffee, a nice vibe, and awesome food.
Best cup of coffee?
Apart from Bradbury's? Johnson Public House. Also, 5th Element Coffee. It's only been around for about a month, but if I were coming to Madison and interested in coffee, I'd end up there. One of the co-owners of the space was the World Barista Champion in 2011.
Best brewery?
Ale Asylum has a taproom and good beers. But, if you have a car or bike, about 40 minutes south of Madison, there's a killer brewery in the town of New Glarus. New Glarus Brewing Company has a lot of buzz—it's really good, but also it doesn't distribute outside of Wisconsin. We get people driving up from Chicago and loading up on cases. The brewery is really pretty, too. They have it designed so you feel like you're stumbling into places you're not supposed to be—like "ruins" they built to look like old breweries in Germany. They have a lot of outdoor patio seating on the top of a hill, so you can walk around, then chill and overlook the valley and the town of New Glarus.
Best cocktail bar?
Gib's. They gutted an old house on Willy Street. You walk in and the first floor is the high-volume quick drink bar, and the upstairs is the slow-experience, lounge-y bar. It's interactive and experimental. One of my friends there made us rosé slushy pops in a plastic tube recently.
Where to see great art?
You could spend an afternoon at the Chazen Museum of Art. There's one interesting part that's mostly Wisconsin artists, but the art in that room is pretty morbid. I don't know what that says about life in Wisconsin, but I guess winters are tough here. There's also the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art (MMoCA).
The best farmers' market to eat your way around?
You have to see the Saturday morning farmers' market on Capitol Square. It's gigantic: the largest producer-only farmers' market in the country. The entire square shuts down from 6 a.m. on Saturday morning until about 2 or 3 p.m.
Hottest new dinner spot?
I find myself at Graze a lot for dinner. They recently opened a new Asian-fusion spot called Sujeo that's kind of cool—and they're ready to open a buzzy new place called Estrellón. I also like the Underground Food Collective's butcher shop, down the street from Gib's, where you can grab a sandwich and slam a can of rosé—good stuff. They also own a great restaurant called Forequarter. Otherwise, there's Heritage Tavern and A Pig in a Fur Coat. For Italian, there's Osteria Papavero, which is for way more than just pasta and tomato sauce, and Salvatore's Tomato Pies is the new hot spot for pizza in town.
Super classic old-school restaurant?
Tornado is an old-school Wisconsin supper club-style steakhouse with a great wine list. There's another place called The Old Fashioned, a mainstay devoted to Wisconsin-y comfort food, like fried cheese curds and elevated bar sandwiches, burgers, stuff like that. They sell an insane amount of brandy old fashioneds, which is Wisconsin's old-school supper club drink. It's a riff where there's a maraschino cherry, a slice of orange, brandy, a splash of some kind of soda, like Sprite. This place is known for them—to the point where they've kept track of how many old fashioneds they've made since they first opened for business.
Where to catch live music?
One place that has a rep for Madisonians is the Memorial Union on the UW Campus, right on the shore of the Northern lake, Lake Mendota. During the day, you can post up and drink beer or eat with friends. On weeknights, they have live music there for free. Downtown, there's a cool, historic, old-school venue that got renovated, called the Orpheum.
Where to get in trouble for the night?
There's a stationary train on some unused train tracks on the western edge of the Capitol area, and this group of dudes, The Foshizzle Family, organizes events there. Some of them are DJs, and they throw underground parties on the train. Like, I don't know whether it's legal. One of the guys is a huge tea nerd, so these DJ-ed parties with house music have a stand set up that serves tea. You can probably find everything else there too. You might end up skinny dipping in one of Madison's lakes afterward. We go to this one beach in particular: B.B. Clarke Beach on the Southern Lake.
Where to eat when the party's over?
The quintessential Madison drunk food experience is a place called Burrito Drive. They're open until around 4 in the morning, and have a small fleet of very responsive delivery people. It's American-Mexican food, with a munchies lean to it. For example, you could get a burrito...with tater tots and Spam in it.
Best day trip?
The Driftless Area. Unlike a lot of the upper Midwest, which has a boring, homogenous landscape because of the glacial drift during the last ice age, this region has cliffs and rock formations. It feels like you're somewhere else in the country. In that area, check out the town of Viroqua. It's small-town Wisconsin, but it's got this super progressive culture and a crazy farming scene. The Driftless Café is a really amazing restaurant there that embodies the farm-to-table movement as best as I've ever seen it.