Open-air oddities: Madison’s peculiar outdoor drinking and dining spots
705 Java Place's brave little sidewalk tables.
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One of the city’s spring rituals, after another seemingly endless winter, is when local restaurants and bars dust off the patio furniture so patrons can enjoy the breeze with a buzz. (At least until the unofficial state bird and pit-soaking humidity force them to seek shelter and air conditioning.) But while most folks are used to enjoying themselves on perfectly pleasant outdoor patios at places like Genna’s or the Terrace, Decider went out looking for the Madison’s more hidden and less illustrious outdoor drinking and dining spots.
Rising Sons Deli
The jewel of Madison’s quirky outdoor locations, this Thai place’s patio combines mismatched decor (see paintings of Thailand and Rat Pack-themed tables) with some floorboards suspended between two buildings. Yes, it’s a basically a hallway completely surrounded by brick walls, but there’s ivy all over the brick. Yes, there’s a big-ass air conditioner hanging near your table, but there’s goofily anachronistic graffiti on it from when the place was a New York themed café (“Vote F.D.R.”). No, you’re not allowed to smoke, but there’s a fountain (which is never on) and faux windows painted on the walls. The weird charm of the place mostly makes up for what it lacks.
705 Java Place
The outdoor setup at Madison’s self-proclaimed “narrowest coffee shop” isn’t so much cramped as it is surrounded by lots of shit flying past it. The 705 folks have placed two small tables in between a heavily trafficked sidewalk path, a telephone pole, and, usually, parked cars on busy East Johnson street. That said, there’s still free wi-fi out there, and plenty of reading material about last month’s big show stapled to the telephone pole.
Lazy Oaf Lounge, Talula
Both located off of beautiful Highway 51, Lazy Oaf and Talula combat their less-than-picturesque locations with uniform and well-maintained outdoor table and parasol setups. Talula tries to hold off the noise and fumes with a wooden fence that only covers the corner of its large patio, and Lazy Oaf opts for a few small evergreens. And, of course, both are helpless against all the goddamned planes whose flight paths run nearby.
Antojitos El Toril
One of the better spots in town for down-home Mexican food, Antojitos also suffers from its location: Sunny Cottage Grove Road plays a comic foil to patrons’ conversations and olfactory senses. Antojitos doesn’t really attempt to prevent what it can’t do much about anyway, instead opting to enclose outdoor diners in a colorful square with a lime-green fence and bright red 7-foot arches, which does at least make one feel more closed off from the road. But the piece de resistance, of course, is the towering, yellowed wall of the abandoned Royster-Clark fertilizer plant right across the street.
Mondays
A lot of bars around Madison have unofficial smoker spots just outside their front doors; some lucky few have their own backdoor getaways for cigarettes and shouted phone conversations. Where the Echo Tap has a stool propping open its back door and the Crystal Corner Bar has a relatively empty back lot, Mondays went the extra mile and set up a gated and fenced back patio with a grimy white tarp and mismatched table sets. Some large wooden barrels are strewn about to add some more seating and a mild sense of character. The only real “huh?” factor comes from a painted sign ordering patrons to leave their drinks inside, despite the temptation of a railing that’s perfect for holding the strongest drinks in town. At least you won’t get wet while cursing Mayor Dave.
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