Sunprint Cafe

Sunprint Cafe recently moved to 10 West Mifflin Street, Madison, Wisconsin, after a long residency at One South Pinckney Street.  Famous for breakfast, and a Capitol Square staple for lunch, their menu now includes breakfast, lunch, dinner, Sunday brunch, and drinks.

Their new space was previously occupied by Cameo Day Spa and is very elegant, but it seems like Sunprint isn’t quite settled in there yet.  The restaurant has multiple rooms and is arranged in a way that seems crowded and leaves little privacy for each table. 

Their lunch menu has a pretty good selection of soups, salads, and sandwiches - ranging from burgers to paninis, to vegan items, to grilled cheese.

The grilled cheese sandwich comes on your choice of wheat or rye bread (I chose wheat) and it includes sharp cheddar and jack cheeses on either side of tomatoes.  It comes with a side (I chose tabouli).  The bread was grilled very lightly and was not at all greasy. It was more toasted than grilled.  It was an uncomplicated wheat bread, with rolled oats on the crust.  The cheddar and jack cheese combination, along with the tomatoes, had a quite respectable flavor.  However, the cheese amount was skimpy -- the corners of the sandwich had no cheese coverage.  My side of tabouli was generously portioned and really fresh tasting.  Overall it was not a bad lunch, but not that special either. 

The Tipsy Cow

The Tipsy Cow, at 102 King Street in Madison, has the best grilled cheese.  Ever.  

The bread is Clasen's European Bakery's Artisan Multi Grain Wheat Sourdough, a robust bread containing flax, millet and sunflower seeds.  Sliced not too think and not too thin, it has a brawny texture and just the perfect amount of greasiness.  Between the bread is a munificent amount of 3-year cheddar and Widmer's brick cheese combined in some magical proportion to create optimal melty gooiness, and a tad of roasted garlic -- which isn't obvious as a flavor on its own, but rather amplifies the savory-ness of the sandwich as a whole.        

As if eating the best grilled cheese sandwich ever was not enough, I was able to enjoy it with two of the best former co-workers ever.  They ordered the BLT and the Griddled Turkey & Havarti sandwiches.  Both were works of art, assembled as if they were going to be in the centerfold of a sandwich magazine.  Both sandwiches featured Nueske's smoked bacon which, my friends said, was thick and delicious. 

The sandwiches at the Tipsy Cow are served with a couple really tangy homemade dill pickle slices.  There are multiple side-items offered on the menu (half orders are allowed), for around $6 or $8 each.  We didn't order any sides, but we should have because it seemed like something was missing from our meal.  I, anyway, just didn't want to stop eating. 

The service was good overall.  We were greeted right away and the food was brought out quickly.  Drink refills arrived without asking and before required.  There was a lag between the time we finished eating and the check was brought, but our change arrived quickly.  The restaurant was clean and the staff was friendly.  Also worth mentioning ... the dining room features a well executed chalkboard drawing of the cow catapult scene from Monty Python. 

This was my third visit to the Tipsy Cow, and I've recommended it several times already.  I will definitely return. 

Famous Dave's

We had a Pre-4th of July picnic lunch at work, catered by Famous Dave's.  Lunch included ribs, barbecued chicken, potato salad, coleslaw, corn muffins and mac & cheese.  I won't elaborate on the ribs since they are so famous and you probably already know all about them.  I'll just focus on the mac & cheese.

Dave's Cheesy Mac & Cheese is unique in that it includes corn and chopped jalapeño peppers with the noodles.  The cheese sauce is ample, but light and almost fluffy.  The main flavor of the dish comes from the jalapeños -- not that it's by any means too spicy, just that you can't taste subtle flavors imparted by the four cheeses that are purportedly used to create the sauce.  It's not the mac & cheese that makes Famous Dave's famous ... but it is definitely tasty.