Madison’s food culture is built on its farmers’ market. The Dane County market circles the Capitol square on Saturday mornings and is among the largest producer-only markets in the country — everything sold there is grown or made by the person selling it.
Wisconsin cheese is the through-line. The state’s cheesemaking tradition is genuinely deep, and Madison restaurants have easy access to small producers, which shows on the menus. Cheese curds, fried and squeaky, are the standard bar order.
The supper club tradition survives here too: an old-fashioned before dinner, a relish tray, a slab of fish or prime rib. It is a Wisconsin institution more than a restaurant format, and worth experiencing once.