Saturday my SO and friends went out to Graze for dinner. While we were expecting to make an attempt to destroy the entire regular menu the Restaurant Week menu was still in place.
The appetizers that were listed all looked good and we finally settled on the truffle Oil Popcorn, Deviled Eggs, and Fried Cheese Curds. The three eggs were quickly devoured and hardly mentioned (not because they weren't good) before deep fried hot cheese curds and great popcorn began to disappear from the table. Even after being deep fried the cheese curds still had a bit of squeak and the sauce with them kept the flavor from being single denominational. The popcorn was great as always. Grabbing a handful and picking kernels to eat leaves your hand with a pleasant truffle smell without having oily popcorn.
As a good meat eating group the first course filled the table with Sauteed Calamari and Liverwurst Toast. A wonderful discussion of how we all learned to love liverwurst soon had stories of thick sandwiches with mayo and regrettable evening with a spoon and a tube of braunschweiger. At which point we all acknowledged the difference between the two. The Calamari was perfectly matched with the turnip flan. It wasn't as addictive as the fried calamari at Johnny Delmonico but that's a comparison between the addictive nature of finger nail biting and heroin.
For the second course there were two pork schnitzels, a plate of gnocchi, and a Graze Burger. The Graze Burger was done as requested and with a nice side of crispy fries. The more reviewed Pub Burger is the messier younger brother to this equally tasty dish.
The two Pork Schnitzels were very good with lots of lemon butter and smooth celeriac puree. The crisp fry on the pork wasn't greasy, in fact with the lemon it almost tasted light (for a Wisconsin/Austrian dish). Certainly the best schnitzel I have ever had at a restaurant.
The Gnocchi was also very good and quickly left an empty plate and a satisfied diner.
Desserts were favored to the Salted Caramel Brownie sundae three to one verse the Bread Pudding. The portions to the dessert were very nice. Too often a dessert needs to be split in order to not end up in a diabetic coma. This also left more room and time to enjoy drinks.
The drinks and Graze have consistently gotten better. Working with slightly different mix ratios and different glasses many of the drinks are worth sitting down for themselves. The Rhum Fire has a great ginger kick, the Manhattan had the correct punch, and I enjoyed the Marquez Collins with dessert as a great contrast.
Graze has certainly gotten lots of good press and it is well deserved. The food is wonderful, the location and build makes it that more enjoyable. Sitting to look out at the capitol makes Madison dinning unique. There are also the almost quiet booths keeps everyone from needing to shout over the room to be heard.
While I wasn't able to destroy the regular menu we made a good attempt at the limited restaurant week menu. I don't think it would be wise to attempt the regular menu with just two people but I'm sure I can convince our friends to come out again so the four of us can eat ourselves into a Graze coma.
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