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| - I was feeling indecisive amongst my Madison bookmarks and proferred the wife to make a selection amongst my selections. I hardly had to spit out the word Graze and its connotations before she made that her choice. I didn't complain; a bit of homework led me to understand that Graze is run by a Bearded chef. That's Beard, as in James Beard. Shaken, not stirred.
Graze sits a modest, modernist glass case of emotion directly across from the Capitol. It's connected to its sister restaurant, the starry-eyed named L'Etoile. The view from either is quite spectacular.
Of course, a place that calls itself Graze screams farm to table, though exactly what farms are left unclear by the menu. The menu, like the chef-owner, has a Korean slant to it, with Wisconsin farm overtones. It also has a $21 burger purported to be one of the best in America.
It is perhaps unfair that I had just eaten the best burger in Chicago, the meticulously simple concoction at Au Cheval. So, and especially for a Jackson plus Washington, there was barely a chance for Graze's burger to equate. Graze's burger is good, and there are parts that are great--the tangy caramelized onions, the delicious on-the-side aioli, and the wonderful fried egg I stole from my wife's bibimbap bowl.
Here's where it falls short. The first is the at times delicious and at other times overtly sour-acidic patty. It's a combination of bacon, sirloin, ground beef, and short rib, and if you just drooled on your phone or computer screen a little, it's OK. That all sounds as mouth-watering as it should, but the patty was a little too big, didn't hold together well enough, and was splashed with just too much Worcestershire-cabernet jus, killing the proper taste of the meat. The second is the fact that the burger plain done fell apart, whether from too much jus, too much meat, or my daft idea that a stolen fried egg would be the cherry on top. Burgers. Shouldn't. Fall. Apart. Period. (And if they do, as in they are meant to, you had better dang well wrap the sucker in white paper first.)
Extremely high expectations for the burger aside, the meal went really well. The cheese curds, a delicacy we had to order, this being Wisconsin and all, were fantastic. Special kudos to the house ranch that tasted a mite like tartar sauce, a plus for me. The pickle board was also a great deal of fun, with six different pickled plates ranging from kimchi to beets in a citrus vinaigrette. Yes, kimchi--remember the Korean thing.
As we hadn't had Korean food during our duration in Chicago, now approaching eight months, the wife narrowed in on the bibimbap bowl. The gochujang and its spiciness set her back a bit, but the bowl was chock full of fresh, delicious vegetables and marvelous blocks of crispy fried rice. Even at its price point, the bibimbap was tasty and impressive.
Too full for dessert, I'll call the night here. Graze is a great space with charming, inviting decor and a solid wait staff. If the burger had been mindblowingly good and worth the price tag, this would be a five-star review. But like I said, it was a high bar to reach, and a fantastic meal nonetheless.
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