It’s our favorite time of year again!  Madison Restaurant week kicks off on July 26th and runs through July 31st this summer.

Organized by Madison Magazine, the summer Madison Restaurant Week gives you the chance to sample special menus put together by some of the premier restaurants in the area.  We come up with our game plan early and hit as many restaurants as we can.  It’s hard to do, because there are so many tempting options. Restaurants will offer three special, fixed-price, three course menus for just $25 per person (beverages, tax and gratuity not included).

Participating restaurants include:
Blue Marlin
Blue Spoon Cafe*
Bluephies Restaurant & Vodkatorium*
Brocach Irish Pub
Cafe Continental*
Capitol Chophouse*
Captain Bill’s
Dayton Street Grille
Eldorado Grill
Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar
Fresco
Frida Mexican Grill
Harvest
Inka Heritage
Johnny Delmonico’s
Johnny’s Italian Steakhouse*
La Brioche True Foods
Le Chardonnay
Liliana’s Restaurant
Lombardino’s
Mariner’s Inn
Ocean Grill*
Osteria Papavero*
Quivey’s Grove Stable Grill*
Quivey’s Grove Stone House
Ruth’s Chris
Samba Brazilian Grill
The Continental Fitchburg
The Dardanelles Restaurant*
Zander’s Capitol Grill

* Starred restaraurants also offer a three course lunch for $15/person.

See Madison Magazine for more details!

Liliana’s Restaurant
2951 Triverton Pike
Fitchburg, WI 53711
Phone: 608-442-4444

Hours:

Restaurant
Lunch Monday through Saturday 11am-2:30pm
Jazz Brunch Sunday 10am-2pm
Dinner every day 5pm-9pm

Bar
Sun 10am-2pm, 5pm-9pm
Mon-Thu 11am-10pm
Fri-Sat 11am-Midnight
Happy Hour Mon-Fri 4-6pm

Liliana’s in Fitchburg has introduced a new summer menu.  This menu features  appetizers such as Barbecue Prawns, Shucked Oysters, and Ceviche, salads that include what we believe to be the best salad in town (their Cucumber Watermelon Salad, pictured below), and entrees like Chicken Roulade, Pasta Fresco,  and Pulled Pork Pasta.

In addition to the new menu, be sure to check out their Tuesday Tasting Menu.  They’ve taken a unique approach to what has become a relatively common trend in Madison restaurants.  Each week they offer a unique menu, which is put together by a holding a competition with the chefs.  The best ideas are compiled together for the three course Tuesday Tasting Menu ($30), after which that menu is retired.

Liliana’s also offers music Tuesday through Saturday nights, with no cover charge.  Click the video below to catch a glimpse.

When you get tired of dining out in Madison, and you just want to kick back, throw a few steaks on the grill, and serve it with some nice, healthy, fresh, local produce, where are you going to go?

That’s right, you are going to head to your nearest Madison-area Farmers’ Market.  And you are in luck!  Cuisine Capers has posted a guide to the 2009 markets.  There’s a market available every day of the week.  Now there’s no excuse for going to the mega-mart - support your local food suppliers!

You can find the listing here.

It appears that the previous owner of JT Whitney’s was premature and overly optimistic with his announcement that new owners were lined up, a lease was signed, and the establishment would be opening within days.

JT Whitney’s is not only still closed, but there is now a Space Available sign hanging over the Whitney’s logo.

We doubt we’ll see this establishment open any time soon, as JT Whitney’s or so something else.

An alert Mad Diner sent us an email to tell us that Cloud 9 was unable to be contacted.  When the number was called, they were told the restaurant was out of business.

This is confirmed by a visit to the website.  A short yet succinct message states:

“Temporarily closed for ownership change.  Reconcepting to open between June 1 and July 15.”

And so we’ll see what the future holds for this location.   The building is fabulous, and the east side of Madison desperately needs some restaurant success stories.  There’s no good reason that a well run establishment could not thrive in this location.

It seems the continuing saga of the closing of JT Whitney’s has now come to an end.  We’ve been informed that there is new ownership and the building lease has been finalized as of this afternoon.  

JT Whitney’s is scheduled to re-open under new ownership as of Friday soon.   A message from the previous management, as he moves on to concentrate on his Oregon establishment, Hawthorn’s:

“I only wish the best for JT Whitney’s, the staff and the great customers that have been there over the years.”

We wish them (continued? renewed?) luck.

We get lots of feedback here at MadisonDining.com.  Feedback from diners.  Feedback from restaurants.  Feedback from diners about restaurants.  Feedback from diners about our reviews… and, somewhat surprisingly, feedback from our restaurants about both MadisonDining.com staff reviews as well as diner reviews and comments.

The feedback from restaurants varies in a few ways.  We’re still extremely impressed with the class that owner/chef David Heide showed in his response to our staff review.  But at times the feedback comes in the form of phone calls from restaurants, demanding that we remove negative reviews left by our readers.  Sometimes the calls are polite and professional.  Sometimes the calls are irate in tone.  At times the irate calls end with the threat of lawsuits.

One common request seems to come up in that sort of call - the request that we take down all the reviews that are negative in tone, along with the request to take down “old” reviews - comments left 6 or more month in the past.  We haven’t complied, but it brings up some questions that we’d like to pose to you.

How likely are you to be influenced by comments/reviews on websites?

Which reviews tend to influence you more - negative comments/reviews or positive comments/reviews?

Do you find value in comments/reviews that are six months old, or older? 

Do you believe that comments/reviews over six months old should be deleted?

We’d love to hear from you on this - or on any other feedback!  Just leave a comment!

Here’s an update on the recent news that we published regarding the closure of JT Whitney’s.

MadisonDining.com was contacted by the previous management of JT Whitney’s and we were informed that the business has been sold.  Work is being done to finalize the deal, and there is an expectation that the brewpub will re-open “very quickly”.

We’ll pass along more information as it becomes available.

Tru Tavern and Grill in Cambridge has closed.  Additionally, the recently opened Countri Grill in Stoughton, owned by the same entities, has also closed.

This leaves the 1855 Saloon and Grill as a remaining establishment in the stable of restaurants owned by Craig Martin.

We wish him continued success with his Cottage Grove restaurant.