Saturday, April 27, 2024

This Madison, Wisconsin Restaurant Is Reviving the Midwestern Supper Club Tradition

harvey house madison

There are three bars all serving the house cocktail, a classic Old Fashioned, and the menu offers every iteration of surf and turf. Fittingly mounted on a wall near the entrance and overlooking the crowd is a row of animal heads—Texan wild boar, Oklahoma buffalo, South Dakota coyote—posed like the Mt. Rushmore of wooly America. It was Madison’s most anticipated restaurant in recent years. The Harvey House opened in summer 2021 to fanfare that matched the anticipation for the supper club-inspired restaurant, which was built in a historic train depot on West Washington Avenue. Owners Joe Papach and Shaina Robbins Papach previously worked at The French Laundry (Papach was sous-chef at the Thomas Keller three-Michelin-starred restaurant) and Alice Waters’ Chez Panisse Restaurant (Robbins Papach was a cook).

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The sweet nostalgia of it helps the evening linger a bit longer. The newly opened Harvey House in Madison pays homage to the glorious Upper Midwest supper club tradition. "While opening a restaurant during a pandemic has had its challenges, the restaurant is busy and doing great," Shaina Papach told T+L. "We feel so fortunate to have such an amazing group of people working at The Harvey House, as well as such a supportive community in Madison." Ru Yi Hand Pulled Noodle opened in mid-January on the 300 block of State Street to eager, high-energy crowds.

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Dine-in is offered at a limited capacity, usually one or two tables, said Melody Lin, whose parents own the restaurant. Todd Allbaugh and Marleni Valle opened Finca Coffee in August 2019 in a modern building on Rimrock Road owned by the Alexander Company, which Allbaugh said has been great to them during the pandemic. Finca's tacos are among the best tacos you'll find in Madison. The shop offers limited indoor seating and curbside carryout.

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Ragin Cajun Seafood, in the works for about a year, was delayed by the pandemic, and opened July 10 in the former Ginza of Tokyo on the Far East Side. The restaurant’s basic seafood boil is one of the best splurges a person can make after months of quarantine. Jordan Zhou, the nephew of owner Ting Cai Zhou, said "everything is going well." The restaurant is doing dine-in, carryout and delivery. Kosharie, which opened in late 2019 on Regent Street, is owned by Fawzy Mohamed, whose impressive restaurant resume includes 13 years as executive chef at Smoky’s Club and three years as a sous chef at the Madison Club. Kosharie's namesake Egyptian national dish, above, combines spaghetti, elbow macaroni, rice, lentils and chickpeas. Mohamed said the restaurant is "doing very well for corona time." He's offering takeout and delivery and is able to seat customers at two tables under dine-in restrictions.

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"It’s the next best thing to being outside without being outside," Parker said. The tavern is also expanding into the space next door that used to be the men's clothing store Context. Williamson Street's new upscale dumpling restaurant, FEAST Artisan Dumpling and Tea House, serves dumplings so good, they don't need dipping sauce. Mike Wang, who opened the restaurant this summer with his wife, Judy Zhu, said business is going OK and that the restaurant is open for dine-in, carry out and delivery.

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harvey house madison

The restaurant isn't offering dine-in for now and is concentrating on carryout and delivery. The result is one of the most striking spaces in Madison, which is more incredible when you consider that the Papaches glassed in the old train platform for a dining room. There is also dining on two levels in what was once the baggage claim building. Owners Joe Papach and Shaina Robbins Papach, who have worked at some of the country’s most exclusive restaurants, spent three years creating The Harvey House, which they’re billing as a modern-day supper club. Its name is a nod to both Shaina’s grandfather and the endlessly entrepreneurial Fred Harvey; This restaurant is a true family affair with Joe leading the kitchen and Shaina leading all aspects of design and business development.

Hidden behind Madison’s Historic Train Depot, The Harvey House is a celebration of Wisconsin’s iconic supper clubs. Brought back to life by Midwest natives Shaina and Joe Papach, the old Baggage Claim House (and Train Car!) is now home to a stunning renovation where the history, culture and cuisine of the 19th century collides with modern design and culinary inspiration. She said the chefs would be creating a traditional supper club menu, cooking and serving at the Harvey House, on West Washington Avenue, a modern-day supper club owned by guest judges Joe and Shaina Papach. While relish trays with celery, carrots, radishes, dill or ranch dip, crackers and cheese spread are a hallmark of supper club dining, and usually included with the meal, The Harvey House’s version “built for two” is $18 and not detailed on the menu. We passed, but as it was delivered to nearby tables, I got relish tray envy.

The Revival of the Classic Wisconsin Supper Club - Food & Wine

The Revival of the Classic Wisconsin Supper Club.

Posted: Wed, 11 Aug 2021 07:00:00 GMT [source]

The supper club is just one example of renewed interest in older culinary traditions, if only because quarantines forced many to rediscover the homegrown foods that were most accessible and comforting. Just 30 miles north of Madison, the classic supper club Ishnala, founded in 1953, is so swamped now that you can expect a two-hour wait for a weekend dinner. The expansive wood-beamed restaurant, perched over photogenic Mirror Lake, feels like a jerry-rigged tree house that just kept spouting new Escher-worthy terraces and wings.

The Revival of the Classic Wisconsin Supper Club

Book your own completely private space with separate entrance. Contestants drew knives to break into two teams of five responsible for making a relish tray, a fish dish, chicken dish, beef dish and a dessert. Kish asked if any of the chefs had been to a supper club. Only Jacobs, a Chicago native, who moved to Milwaukee in 2011, raised his hand. Walking into The Harvey House, especially on a snowy winter evening, feels both special and familiar. The drinks, and the gorgeous bar set up, mirror that feeling.

The supper club can seem like an amorphous thing, though there are some concrete signifiers. Having largely evolved in Wisconsin, its spiritual home, it took early root during Prohibition but flowered mid-century, when diners were looking for one big blow-out of a convivial, fancy destination dinner. The husband-wife duo, with restaurants including The French Laundry, Quince and Chez Panisse on their combined resumes, met while cooking at New York’s Gramercy Tavern. After years in acclaimed kitchens on the coasts, it was time for the couple to make their way home, landing in Madison, where Shaina grew up the daughter of a classically trained baker.

Ten chefs remain and the episode opened with a beautiful view of the isthmus. The remaining cheftestants on the "Supper Club" episode are, from left, Dan Jacobs, Kevin D’Andrea, Rasika Venkatesa, Savannah Miller, Michelle Wallace, Danny Garcia, Laura Ozyilmaz, Manuel "Manny" Barella Lopez and Charly Pierre. Amanda Turner wasn't feeling well and is missing from this scene. Yet in 2018, raising one child and hoping for more, they didn't look east or west but squarely in-between. "We're both Midwesterners," said Shaina, "and we wanted to be closer to family and open our own restaurant, The Harvey House, in a place where there was still room to grow." When Joe Papach and Shaina Robbins Papach decided it was time to claim a sense of home, after bouncing around the country as peripatetic chefs, they knew exactly where to go.

Kamau Bell on the top of L'Etoile with "Top Chef" host Kristen Kish. Most of the “cheftestants” were shown frantically running through the market, dodging other shoppers. The contestants were given $100 each to spend and instructions to meet Kish on the rooftop of neighboring L’Etoile, Madison’s top fine-dining restaurant. Reservations are recommended, though walk-ins are always welcome! As the years go on, stories and memories will help build The Harvey House’s legacy, but right now the owners are enjoying the early days of finding its identity. Co-owners Shaina and Joe Papach met at New York City's Gramercy Tavern, before working in some of the top kitchens in the country.

Joe (who hails from Indiana) spent six years at The French Laundry in Napa Valley, and Shaina (a Madison native) did stints at Chez Panisse and Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture. Esquire magazine writer Kevin Sintumuang praised the service and said "The Harvey House charms with Great Lakes supper-club elegance." Joe, 41, spent six years at The French Laundry in Napa Valley, California, working up to sous chef; Shaina, also 41, cooked for a year each at Chez Panisse in Berkeley and Gramercy Tavern in New York.

Though the pandemic meant a pause the reopened club came roaring back this spring, packed with a fresh, younger crowd of supper club fans feeding off an eclectic menu. Staying true to the original owner's Turkish and Armenian background, the reincarnated Turk's Inn menu features a relish tray that's more of a mezze platter but it never loses sight of its Midwestern roots. The original building’s exposed brick walls, windows and beams and the station’s sliding wood doors have been preserved, but the rest has been completely redone into an elegant, multi-faceted establishment. An expansive open kitchen and a handsome bar anchor the warm and inviting first floor dining room. Upstairs is equally striking, with another full bar, ample seating and a semi-private dining alcove. And a former train platform has been enclosed in glass, featuring floor-to-ceiling windows and additional seating.

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