Food History of Madison

Key eras

1836, the city is founded as Wisconsin's territorial capital

Madison was platted in 1836 between Lake Mendota and Lake Monona to serve as the Wisconsin Territory capital, with the Capitol building anchoring an isthmus food economy that grew up around the Saturday market. Early settlers from New England and Germany established the agricultural surplus economy and tavern culture that the rest of the city's food history is built on, with the Pinckney Street market emerging by the 1850s.

1880s, German and Norwegian immigrant brewing and dairy

German immigrants brought brewing and pretzel bakeries to Madison in the 1840s through 1880s; Norwegian and Danish immigrants brought lefse, kringle and dairy farming to surrounding Dane County. Joseph Hausmann took over the Capital Brewery in 1863 and built Madison's largest 19th-century brewery; Peter Fauerbach took over an 1848 Madison brewery in 1868 and ran Fauerbach Brewing into Prohibition. The dairy farms that ring Madison supplied the cheese curd and frozen custard tradition the city is famous for today.

1972, the Dane County Farmers' Market on Capitol Square begins

The Dane County Farmers' Market launched on Capitol Square in 1972 with five vendors and a producer-only rule that meant every item sold had to be grown or made by the seller. By 2026 the Saturday market is the largest producer-only farmers' market in the US, with 150 vendors and 20,000 weekly shoppers, and the Wednesday market on Martin Luther King Jr Boulevard supplements the Saturday flagship. The market drove Madison's farm-to-table restaurant ecosystem.

1976, Odessa Piper opens L'Etoile and farm-to-table is born here

Odessa Piper opened L'Etoile in a small storefront on the Capitol Square in 1976, choosing to source virtually every ingredient from regional farms a generation before the farm-to-table phrase existed. L'Etoile is the seminal Midwestern farm-to-table restaurant; Tory Miller bought it from Piper in 2005, won the James Beard Best Chef Midwest award in 2012 and added Graze next door in 2010.

2005, The Old Fashioned makes the brandy Old Fashioned the city's signature

The Old Fashioned opened on North Pinckney Street in 2005, taking its name from Wisconsin's defining cocktail, the brandy Old Fashioned with muddled cherries, oranges and a Sprite or sour mix splash. The restaurant codified the Wisconsin canon, fish fry, cheese curds, brats, butter burgers and Old Fashioneds on one menu, and remains the city's most-visited single restaurant for visitors. Heritage Tavern under Dan Fox followed in 2013.

Immigrant influences

• German: Brewing, bratwurst, lager beer and pretzel bakeries from the 1840s through 1880s. The Old Fashioned and Essen Haus on East Wilson Street carry the German tavern tradition into 2026.
• Norwegian: Lefse, kringle and Norwegian dairy traditions from settlement in surrounding Dane County in the 1850s. Wisconsin's official state pastry, the kringle, is Danish-Norwegian in origin and still baked at Greenbush Bakery on Regent Street.
• Italian-American: Lombardino's on University Avenue, reborn as modern Italian under Michael Banas in 2000, plus Salvatore's Tomato Pies, the Trenton-style operator from Sun Prairie that opened a Madison location in 2014.
• Mexican-American: Tex Tubb's Taco Palace on Atwood since 2006, South Park Street taquerias and the Latino-owned panaderias along South Park supply Madison's strong Mexican food line.
• Hmong and Lao: Hmong farmers are the largest vendor contingent at the Dane County Farmers' Market on Capitol Square, supplying lemongrass, bitter melon and Asian greens. The Lao restaurant tradition runs through the West Side.
• Ethiopian: Buraka opened on State Street in 2000, moved to 1210 Williamson Street in 2016 and remains Madison's flagship Ethiopian restaurant for injera and the Wat stews.

Signature innovations

• Farm-to-table ethos defined at L'Etoile under Odessa Piper since 1976
• Dane County Farmers' Market, the largest producer-only market in the US since 1972
• Wisconsin brandy Old Fashioned codified at The Old Fashioned restaurant since 2005
• Plazaburger on North Henry Street since 1964 with secret sauce
• Kosher dairy donut bakery at Greenbush since 1998