5.20.2008

Adventure 18: The Old Fashioned


The Old Fashioned (website)
23 N. Pickney St.
3 Adjectives: Full, classic, relaxing.
Price: app (3-16) entree (5-24)
Authenticity:
Atmosphere:
Overall:
Other Opinions: yelp, dane101, thebrewlounge, wisconsinfishfry...
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Want to impress an out-of-state friend with the delicacies of Wisconsin? The Old Fashioned is where you want to go. The restaurant serves almost exclusively food originating from Wisconsin and is (mostly) an upscale version of a burger and sandwich restaurant. Like L'Etoile, but definitely not as fancy, this restaurant gets a lot of its ingredients from farms all over the state and then arranges them into a tasty meal.

The Old Fashioned is located right off the square and has a beautiful dark interior and is usually packed full of people. There is a large bar, and tables dispersed throughout the restaurant.

Our trip to The Old Fashioned was nice but not extremely remarkable. For an appetizer, we got the beer battered cheese curds. This was probably the most tasty part of the meal. The cheese curds were delicious and soft and gooey. For my main course, I had the grilled eggplant and portabella mushroom sandwich (with red pepper, zucchini, goat cheese, and black olive spread). The sandwich was nice and crispy and the flavors mixed well. However, the $8 a pop left me feeling like I could get the same effect for less elsewhere. My boyfriend got a summer sausage sandwich and said that it was also good. Unfortunately, besides the sandwiches, the prices of the very few entrees were much steeper, and therefore we steered clear of those.

The Old Fashioned deserves kudos for their ability to incorporate as many Wisconsin-y ingredients on their menu as possible. However, the restaurant in the eyes of a native Wisconsin college student is merely a fancy sit-down place for lunch if you are around the capital.

1 comment:

Bree said...

I've always wondered about the place. I walk by it all the time, but I wasn't quite sure what all the hype was about. Like you said, it is always packed. Maybe I'll bring my parents if they are ever in town, otherwise, I think I'll have to avoid it. Although those cheese curds are kinda making me droll right now.