Restaurant review: The Harvey House elevates the Wisconsin supper club

Table Of Content

• Is there such a thing as too much cheese? Takeaways from Top Chef
• Why Pizza Chefs Are Embracing the Tasting Menu
• private dining spaces
• The Harvey House lands in top 10 of national 'Best New Restaurant' list
• Chicago’s New Restaurant Openings
• Everyday Kitchen
• Interest in Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin amps up after 'Top Chef' visit
• Click here to view the menu as a pdf

The winning chef was Charly Pierre, chef/owner of Fritai, a Haitian street food restaurant in New Orleans. His dish had fingerling potatoes with honey and tomato chèvre and roasted pepper creole sauce. Hoping to open their Harvey House in 2019, they had to wait out the pandemic and shift the big debut to this summer. The pandemic has forced many of us to re-discover our own regional culinary traditions, as borders were closed, and the extra year of gestation helped Joe and Shaina refine their updated take on a Wisconsin supper club.

Is there such a thing as too much cheese? Takeaways from Top Chef

The Harvey House, a new kind of supper club, planned for old depot - The Capital Times

The Harvey House, a new kind of supper club, planned for old depot.

Posted: Sat, 08 Dec 2018 08:00:00 GMT [source]

All the classics are here, and they’re poured to perfection. From a pre-dinner martini (with an ice-cold promise) to their whiskey sour (a drink that I can confidently say is the best I’ve ever had), the cocktails at The Harvey House are a perfect start to your evening. Of course, if you prefer wine or beer, there is no shortage of either.

Why Pizza Chefs Are Embracing the Tasting Menu

At its heart, The Harvey House is inspired by the Golden Era of Train Travel and the Post Prohibition boom of Supper Clubs in the Midwest. The next day, each team was given $1,000, or $200 per person, and 30 minutes to shop at the old Madison Whole Foods Market. They then got two hours to prep and cook at The Harvey House, where they would be serving not just the judges, but 40 other “local supper club enthusiasts,” who included friends and family of the “Top Chef” staff and journalists.

private dining spaces

Our meal in the downstairs glassed-in dining room started with two dinner rolls that were warm, dense, a touch sweet and sprinkled with sea salt on top. At the judges’ table dinner, Miller said, “Supper clubs are very big in our family,” then looked across the table at his wife, Kristine Miller, who agreed. “When you add that all up, does anyone know what that becomes? The chefs cooked at stations on the rooftop with the Capitol as a backdrop.

The finishing touches are being put on the renovation of a retired train car from the 1960s, which will host private parties starting in October. If the meal doesn't start with a relish tray the size of a tractor tire, you're not at a bonafide supper club. In the kitchen, Papach focuses on regional flavors and continental classics, driven by French technique. Yes, there’s a relish tray, but it’s not a standard rendition. They will always rotate seasonal crudités and other snacks on the shareable board.

Superior can also describe how it compared to all other walleye my friend and I have eaten. Its crisp crust was made with an ingenious thin layer of buttery rye bread, and it was served with a horseradish sabayon, or sauce made with egg yolks and sherry. An accompanying mixture of kale spaetzle with savoy cabbage was the perfect complement. The smoked kielbasa in a blanket is served with a dark mustard jus. In October, they expect to begin offering private and ticketed events on a converted train car from the 1960s that sits on the tracks. The Harvey House is one of the most striking spaces in Madison, with one of its dining rooms built on an old train platform.

Everyday Kitchen

That started with work on the location itself, a historic train depot sitting in the middle of Madison that underwent a three-year renovation. There is a bar and dining room on each level of the two-story Baggage House, with some tables sprawling out onto the glassed-in train platform, overlooking an actual parked train. Murals of Wisconsin barns and pastures stand in for a supper club's traditional bucolic view and take you on a simulated Midwestern road trip. The restaurant received more national acclaim this year as a host restaurant on season 21 of Bravo's Top Chef. Cheftestants were challenged with making dishes inspired by Wisconsin supper clubs and judges tasted the dishes inside the iconic Harvey House train car. In the early to mid 20th century, supper clubs — drinks, dinner, and entertainment packaged all in one family-owned venue, often on the outskirts of town — were all the rage throughout the Midwest.

Jacobs was responsible for his team’s relish tray, which had chicken liver mousse, steak tartare and crudités. Kish said that legend has it that the first supper club was started in the 1920s by Wisconsin native Lawrence Frank. “That’s right, the supper club, one of Wisconsin’s most beloved traditions,” she said. Before revealing the elimination challenge, Kish said that in Wisconsin there are Friday fish fries, Saturday prime rib and, on Sundays, broasted chicken. Gulley is also known for his beloved fudge-bottom pie still sold on campus.

Click here to view the menu as a pdf

Named after both Shaina’s grandfather and the innovative restaurateur Fred Harvey, the restaurant is truly a family affair, with Shaina leading design and business development and Joe helming the kitchen. Sam Parker, Ryan Huber and Brian Bartels opened The Settle Down Tavern in the middle of a pandemic and serve a mean burger. Parker said the bar is doing takeout and delivery, and can seat customers in the tavern and in the attached atrium under its glass ceiling.

He plans to open a restaurant next door on Jan. 15 called Mafia for Pizza. Everyday Kitchen is part of a coworking space called Lodgic Everyday Community. The restaurant, bar and cafe opened in June 2020 on Marshall Court, and  is visible from University Avenue. General manager Bobby Frizzell said the restaurant is open for delivery and curbside carryout only. "We have not yet determined a hard date for reopening the dining room, but we can’t wait to welcome everyone back!" he said in a text. Jacobs said his parents used to take him to supper clubs during road-trip vacations and he thought his dad was so cool for eating the raw scallions.

But the menu itself offers another way to update the supper club's standards, which are essentially a who's who of classic meaty American signature dishes. The luxe entrées here included a wagyu hand roll with caviar. And because this is Vegas the inevitable Cirque-worth aerialists often spin above diners digging into the wagyu prime rib. Midwest natives Joe Papach and Shaina Robbins Papach—both alums of Michelin-starred restaurants across the country—are bringing a fresh dining approach to Madison, Wisconsin, with a celebratory nod to the past.