First Impressions Craft Table & Tap

What hale and hearty Wisconsin resident doesn’t, on occasion, want to chomp down into a fat cheeseburger, and then chase it down with a deep draught of cold beer? Even our lovable local vegans scramble to approximate the cheeseburger’s sheer perfection of form with complex tofu and soybean-based constructions, then wash them down with an ice-cold brewski. Craft Table & Tap, the new Food Fight outpost in Middleton, dabbles in salads and sandwiches but mostly focuses on the perfect combination of burgers and beer, possibly in an attempt to recreate the impressive long-term success of The Old Fashioned for those who live way out west. The A.V. Club will drive any reasonable distance to check out a new restaurant that brags about its beer list, and it didn’t take long for us to run this one down.

The space and service: It’s airy and light, with high ceilings and a luxury of space difficult to attain downtown. Service is friendly and kind, but a bit confused, with host staff spending too much time duplicating offers to fill water glasses and not enough directing traffic, so the waitstaff is forced to navigate redundant offers to take orders or bring more napkins.

The A.V. Club’s food: “Little fishes,” Fat Tire Ale-battered and deep-fried haddock, smelt, and tiny rock shrimp, served with sides of horseradish cocktail sauce and tartar, are a mixed success, with the shrimp nicely balanced, but larger hunks of haddock too heavy and leaden for the cute metal mini-pail in which they arrive. The deep-fried cheese curds with buttermilk dressing for dunking use Carr Valley curds, sometimes too gigantic—like six ounces of cheese when fused together—but The A.V. Club noticed there weren’t any left after about four minutes. The Craft burger is a behemoth, a beast, an over-sized whale of a smokey beef patty topped by thick slabs of bacon, cheddar, and garlic mayo. Surrounded by shoestring fried potatoes, it’s really too much food and, at nearly 10 bucks, feels a little top-heavy. The beer list, though, is a minor masterpiece, mixing local Wisconsin beers like Ambergeddon from Ale Asylum and Lake Louie Warped Speed with Belgian beers, like the Lindemans Pomme Apple Lambic Ale.

The verdict: It’s a win for that quadrant of the West Side, even though there’s no new ground being struck and service protocol needs tightening. But everyone from young suburban professionals to backwoods Wisco folks will snarf down burgers and beer, and with cheese curds in the mix, it’s gonna be like honey on an anthill out there.