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| - So, I ate here last night as part of the Madison Fair Share fundraiser dinner and my group was very excited. We paid $50 for our tickets which included 3 courses - each paired with a beer from One Barrel Brewing. What could be better than a menu that is hand crafted from local ingredients that were grown and brewed around Madison, right? Well, unfortunately for us it was a huge disappointment.
We had an appetizer that consisted of shredded cucumber, a rich buttery sauce, and nice pieces of bread. Very delicious and refreshing.
The first course was braised rabbit served on a bed of RPs fettuccine with a creamy mushroom and beer sauce. This was really delicious, especially whatever crispy things they put on top. The only complaint is that it was, at best, lukewarm when we received it. The beer was very delicious - an American Pale Ale.
The second course was where things went wrong. Strangely enough, they served us salad after the main course. It consisted of a pile of pickled vegetables, including pickled morel mushrooms, rhubarb, radish, and asparagus. It was served on a bed of greens with an ipa vinaigrette. Now, I was very excited about this dish at first - I LOVE pickled stuff. I thought the idea of pickled morels was very exciting and interesting. Unfortunately, everything about the dish was absolutely overwhelming and rather cringe worthy. The vinaigrette mixed with the pickling brine made our eyes water, the anise was confusing and disgusting (admittedly, this may be a personal preference, but we all disliked it), and the greens were overshadowed by all of this. I wish this had been A. served before the main dish, B. had fewer pickles OR a less intense vinaigrette, and C. had more greens to even it all out. The beer with this one was also a loser for us - but we don't like IPA, so that is hard to gauge.
The third and final course was a dessert consisting of a strawberry and rhubarb sauce, a key-lime curd, and a rather odd white puffy thing resembling a cham tort. None of us finished it. It was insanely sweet, the white puffy thing was kind of gross, and it was just not satisfying. The beer served with this was really rather ghastly as well - it was a wheat beer and it seriously tasted like cigarette ash. We each managed to take 2 or 3 sips to try and figure out what it was we were tasting, but after that couldn't take another drink. I would rather drink budweiser or old milwaukee, which is just about the worst insult I can give to a beer.
Final comments: I had a really delicious old fashioned (brandy, sweet), and the service was really great. The wait staff were really on top of things, and the owner was out there busting his butt, too. I will consider going back for their regular food some day, I just hope this poorly executed menu was a fluke rather than the norm. In the end, it helped support a group I think is doing really great things and I am happy I did it, I just wish it had been a little better.
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