Summary
Reading recently about the resurgence of New Orleans' restaurants after the hurricanes, my thoughts drifted to beignets, jambalaya and chicory coffee. Then a question occurred to me: Does Madison have a culinary style? Maybe, I thought, we're just white bread, mayonnaise and Oscar Mayer bologna. It wasn't until a few days later that I decided, yes, Madison does have a style. To describe it, you have to look into the city's culinary roots. I was looking for deep roots. I figured that any restaurant surviving for more than 20 years must be rooted deeply enough in the community to have contributed to its "style." These are the places we go back to time after time, after toying with the newest fad. Many have been owned and run by the same family for several generations. A second factor is moderate price. While two of you can leave one of Madison's upscale restaurants $150 lighter in the wallet, nearly all of these deep-rooted restaurants serve good dinners for under $15. With drink and tip, you're out of there for $50. We may feel quite stylish with a Cosmo in front of us or nibbling on a crab claw at the newest hip bistro. But that is stylish, not style. Certainly not Madison style. Old school is leaving a restaurant feeling that you received good value for the money spent.
Rossario's, on Monona Drive, is another Madison classic with direct roots in the old Greenbush. Rossario Parisi presides, using many of the recipes of his mother, Mary Scalissi Parisi. You'll find a treasure of Sicilian favorites here, including lasagna, Sicilian breaded tenderloin, meatball and Italian beef sandwiches, fried calamari, bruschetta and Ross' signature dish, Amici di L'Mare, with shrimp, crabmeat and clams served over fettuccine with a creamy white wine sauce. Ross' marinara is renowned, slightly sweet in the Sicilian style and well balanced with herbs. In fact, it was judged best in a special tasting by the Societa Lavoratori Italiani, America's oldest Italian American club.Another upscale Italian bistro is Lombardino's. Serving Sicilian specialties since 1943, the restaurant had been showing signs of age when Patrick and Marcia O'Halloran bought the place in 2000 and turned it from a spaghetti house to a fine dining establishment serving a wide array of Italian regional cuisines. Here, you'll find linguine with lobster, tomato and saffron cream sauce, shrimp a la sambucca, Sicilian curried mussels and Tuscan-style pork ribs rubbed with juniper and nutmeg and roasted over a wood fire. You won't get out of either [Peppino Gargano]'s or Lombardino's for $15 a plate, but you will experience another level of Italian cuisine.See the full content of this document
Extract
Eating It Old-School
Eating it old-school
A salute to the tried and the trueReading recently about the resurgence of New Orleans' restaurants after the hurricanes, my thoughts drifted to beignets, jambalaya and chicory coffee. Then a question occurred to me: Does Madison have a culinary style? Maybe, I thought, we're just white bread, mayonnaise and Oscar Mayer bologna. It wasn't until a few days later that I decided, yes, Madison does have a style. To describe it, you have to look into the city's culinary roots. I was looking for deep roots. I figured that any restaurant surviving for more than 20 year...See the full content of this document
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