A Toast to Wisconsin Traditions: The Old Fashioned
by nate on 04/26/10 at 4:35 pm
As Featured in the August 2007 Issue of Madison Originals Magazine.
Open the door to The Old Fashioned, and you may find yourself instantly reminiscent. Steeped in the tradition of Wisconsin taverns and supper clubs, The Old Fashioned is a place where brass and hardwood greet you as brightly as the staff. With its comfort foods, beer-gulping clientele, and festive hometown mood, the restaurant is something of a throwback, occupying a niche of its own creation on Capitol Square. Enter into this charismatic setting, and you’ll witness how The Old Fashioned is melding the best of Wisconsin tradition with a gourmet flair honed by its founders’ previous success as restaurateurs.
The Old Fashioned is a joint project of co-owners Tami Lax of Harvest, Patrick and Marcia O’Halloran of Lombardino’s, Bob Miller, and Daniel Momont. I recently had the chance to talk with the restaurant’s three on-site managers: Jen DeBolt, Bob Miller, and Daniel Momont. Each echoes a fundamentally collaborative spirit about what this group has created in The Old Fashioned.
“It was a vision of Tami’s for years,” begins Jen, who, as Tami’s partner, has witnessed the project take shape over time. “The concept was developed first between Tami and the O’Hallorans. They wanted to bring back some of the Wisconsin flair of the old-time supper clubs,” Jen explains. She points out that each of The Old Fashioned’s co-owners contribute to the restaurant in different ways because “they’re all from different parts of the state.” She gives as example Patrick O’Halloran and Bob Miller, who are both from the Milwaukee area, and Daniel Momont, who has roots in Madison. “They remember the food they ate as children—and as adults—and they’re able to bring them to the restaurant,” Jen says. Whether in bratwursts and beer or cheese and wine, each co-owner brings a different Wisconsin experience to bear on The Old Fashioned’s menu.
Unlike its owners, The Old Fashioned is a relative newcomer to Madison’s restaurant scene. When Cameo Day Spa moved from its Pinckney Street location, The Old Fashioned’s founders jumped at the chance to place their new restaurant there. Following renovations, the restaurant first opened for business on December 1, 2005. “I was the project manager during construction and just stuck with it,” Jen says.
Though she has been involved from the start, the restaurant’s popularity with locals and non-locals alike continues to keep Jen on her toes. As lead manager (and, according to Daniel, “morale officer”) of The Old Fashioned, Jen now runs lunch and handles “the promotions end of things.” Jen says that one of the most challenging aspects of her job is “just trying to cater to the needs of the diverse clientele that we have. It’s a mix of in-town and out-of-town. So we do find ourselves educating people from out of town on Wisconsin fare; even just explaining what a cheese curd is. Educating the public on the different products we have—I’d say that’s the biggest thing.”
Asked what she likes best about her job, Jen doesn’t hesitate to respond: “The people. The clientele, especially the regulars. I love working lunch and walking down the bar and knowing half the people there.” The opportunity to interact with customers every day, says Jen, is what makes the job most enjoyable.
Co-owner Bob Miller agrees that the restaurant’s character is one of its defining features. “I definitely enjoy the casual atmosphere and the people we have here,” he says. Of course, that effect didn’t happen by accident. “It was years in the planning,” says Bob, who has known Tami for a number of years. “We had worked together in the past, in the kitchen,” he says simply, referring to their shared tenure at Madison’s L’Etoile. Bob was on the East Coast when he first felt the magnetism of Tami’s new restaurant idea. “Tami called me and described the concept of putting together a traditional Wisconsin tavern,” he recalls. “I was working out in Boston at the time, and it seemed like just the thing to bring me back.”
Since returning to the Midwest to bring The Old Fashioned to life, Bob has thrown himself into the task of ensuring that the restaurant’s taste and feel involves elements distinct to Wisconsin. “We did a lot of eating the summer before we opened,” he says. “We ate a lot of sausage and a lot of cheese. We had lagers from all over the state.” As the restaurant nears its second anniversary, this same sampler’s quest is still a big part of Bob’s livelihood. “We’re constantly searching for different things and new things,” he says. “Fortunately, there are so many incredible Wisconsin products out there. It’s wonderful going out and finding something new just around the corner.”
The local pride evident in The Old Fashioned’s menu originates in the communities where the restaurant obtains its ingredients. “Many of the things we buy directly from the producers,” says Bob. “And not just farmers, but a whole range of people who make things in Wisconsin. For instance, we drive up to Seymour, Wisconsin, for Seymour sodas. We go to Green Bay, Wisconsin, for the brats. We make the personal drive out to Watertown to get hot dogs, because these are our favorite things. There’s no other way to get them, and that’s okay with us.”
As Daniel Momont explains, all this hard work translates directly into customer satisfaction. “It’s wonderful watching people read the menu for the first time and react to all the things they see there,” he says. “They’ll spot Braunschwager, and they haven’t seen that since they were five.” Meisfeld’s Market meats, Wisconsin microbrewery specialties on tap, and prizewinning cheeses from around the state are also crowd-pleasers. “I get e-mails a couple times a week from people in different parts of the world saying they can’t believe we’re serving those items,” says Daniel.
Daniel’s involvement with the restaurant is a direct result of his prior work with Tami. Returning to Madison after working in New York City, Daniel was a waiter at Harvest until Tami—with a nudge from serendipity—provided him a promotion. “I broke my arm during a basketball game and couldn’t wait tables,” Daniel says, “so Tami made me a manager.” He laughs a bit, adding, “I’m still not sure it would’ve happened that day if not for the break.”
Now a co-owner of The Old Fashioned, Daniel is grateful for the ongoing opportunity to work with people who are excellent at what they do. “Working at Harvest was the best job in the world,” Daniel says, being quick to note that in a different way, The Old Fashioned is just as rewarding an experience. “Before, it [restaurant work] was just what I did. But seeing it done so well gave me the desire to want to try it on my own. There are some long, hard hours—it’s a grueling industry—but it’s a lot of fun, too.”
When I ask how the restaurant has managed to make macaroni and cheese something approaching a delicacy, Daniel laughs. “Definitely, working with people that’ve created such fine restaurants already, the taste—to me, anyway—shouldn’t be a surprise. But it’s wonderful to see people react to the quality of the ingredients. To apply that to a Wisconsin tavern or supper club is fun.” Daniel emphasizes the energetic planning that has gone into the restaurant’s details from the start, “all the way up to opening the doors. The brainstorming sessions were a lot of fun. I think the size and scope of the menu and concept reflects on those sessions.”
As the restaurant’s website notes, “The Old Fashioned was created to pay tribute to the foods and spirits that make Wisconsin famous.” Savoring the summer sausage sandwich or the ribeye beef, one gets the impression that “spirits” may refer not only to alcohol, but to the friendly, homey Wisconsin atmosphere the restaurant’s co-owners and staff have succeeded in creating. From the fine points of its menu to its stated homeland pride, it’s apparent that The Old Fashioned is a labor of love for all involved.
