I had heard a lot of good things about this restaurant and I really wanted to like it. I am still searching for a reason to give it at least four stars. Alas, I cannot justify more than three.
It was really busy post Badger game. They have a pretty good system where they take your number and text you when a table becomes available. The table became available sooner than the hour and a half they first quoted us, so we were about a block and a half away and hustled over. There was a little eye rolling from the host when we arrived, the sort of "Where have you been we texted you 10 minutes ago" sort of look. They gave us a nice table by the window, though.
Our server was very good in terms of knowledge of the menu, food recommendations, and speed. He didn't look happy to be serving on such a busy night and I felt bad that he had to keep squeezing through the masses of people near the entrance to get to his tables. He did a commendable job given how busy it was.
The food was okay. Just okay. The best thing was the salad -- greens were very fresh and the vinaigrette was lovely. The beer battered fried cheese curds were pretty good. The grilled summer sausage sandwich was also pretty good. Everything else we had was so-so. The chili was fairly mediocre, not very spicy or tasty. Prime rib sandwich was average. Eggplant/portabella sandwich similar. We didn't bother with dessert. The Northern Exposure Old Fashioned was pretty decent.
Still looking for a reason to give this place more stars ... but no dice.