First impressions: Tempest Oyster Bar

Oysters own a reputation as an aphrodisiac for romantic interludes. They are less well known to be bivalve mollusks with rough shells protecting a briny animal, which diners eat in its entirety—internal organs and all. Even more poorly understood is how to best appreciate the distinctive flavor experience, which might require chewing a bit on the flesh and savoring the rind as it slips down the gullet. It isn’t always easy in Madison, an inland enclave in the upper Midwest, to learn about the significant range in taste these marine animals derive from the specifics of their particular shallow water worlds. But lo, landlubbers! With Tempest Oyster Bar, Henry Doane, of Blue Marlin fame, has finally realized his dream of opening a downtown oyster-themed eatery in Madison. And The A.V. Club managed to secure the very first table that Tempest served on its opening night.

The space and service: The successor to the Magnus legacy is finally here, and pains were taken to snap the specter of that beloved old restaurant in two lest nostalgia cast an unfavorable pall over the new endeavor, and when you’re working out of a former funeral parlor, that’s probably the right move. It’s decisive, for sure: That great old wood bar was removed, the walls were reconstructed, and now a cold, black-and-white Herman Melville aesthetic of spare decoration and brushed aluminum chairs makes a powerful statement of “beginner’s mind, new mind.” The austere nautical theme is dominated by a gigantic clam shell structure enclosing a fun-to-sit-in cocktail area, an entire boat in the foyer, propellers, antique tridents, and a new and extremely cool-looking bar made from sawed-off and sanded-down wine bottles. The bartenders are on point and the waitstaff is highly experienced, handily engaging on questions about the travel paths of the seafood, sourcing/sustainability issues, and details of the preparation techniques.

The A.V. Club’s food: This is a place to go slow and order dishes over a span of two or three hours. Craft cocktails wrought of gin, cucumbers, and mint are a natural start, as are Kumamoto oysters in shooters of sake and ginger. A “tower” of appetizers turned out to be more of a raised platform with steely Malpeque oysters from Prince Edward Island, fulsome Middleneck Cherrystones from Virginia, mussels, and exquisite Gulf shrimp all served on a circle of crushed ice with cocktail sauce, horseradish, and perhaps too-acidic shallot mignonette. Care with mignonette and lemon is prudent here anyway; the high-quality oysters should speak for themselves.

Whitefish cakes with celery, red peppers, and green onions arrive with succulent cooked capers and watercress strewn about and over dill cream sauce. Beautiful, fat scallops with crisped lardons and lightly warmed apple chunks on a maple sugar reduction could have been hit a touch harder with high heat at the outset to create a more dynamic textural experience, but were otherwise flawless.

Bacon on a lobster roll (kind of a sandwich) steals attention from rich, buttery lobes of tender and perfectly prepared crustacean flesh, but this rich and plentiful sandwich is a steal at only $15 for a plate piled high with pommes frites.

A pear upside-down cake comes highly accomplished in execution, and soporific in its elegant confluence of mellow green flavor tones.

The verdict: The proprietors have to outshine the memories of a favorite Madison restaurant and forge a new identity based on menu and room design, and even more pressing are the questions on provenance, freshness, and sustainability. We do not live on an ocean, and people here are naturally a bit worried about the age of the oysters. But for Tempest, it’s 24-48 hours out of the water to your table, packed in ice all the way, which is pretty good. The experience wasn’t perfect—a chocolate cake was unpleasantly dry, and at these price points, there should be more precision in searing the fish—but overall, everything about the evening was rather amazing, considering we were the very first table ever served. With a little tightening up and some stick-to-your-guns determination, Tempest should be the oyster bar for which Madison has always longed.