{"id":4300,"date":"2012-09-29T14:00:06","date_gmt":"2012-09-29T20:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/driftlessappetite.com\/?p=4300"},"modified":"2015-10-25T18:11:05","modified_gmt":"2015-10-26T00:11:05","slug":"they-are-making-it-hard-to-be-unhappy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/driftlessappetite.com\/?p=4300","title":{"rendered":"They are making it hard to be unhappy"},"content":{"rendered":"\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"rss\"<\/a>

How is it that something that isn’t even really a restaurant could be the best restaurant in Wisconsin? Well I don’t know how…but I think it just might be.<\/p>\n

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Milkweed is a private dining club* at the home of Isaac and Havvah Spicer, on\u00a0Isaac’s family’s farm in the hills southwest of Spring Green.\u00a0 The drive from our house is beautiful, taking us through the Wisconsin River Valley past some of our favorite<\/a> places<\/a>.\u00a0 This was our second trip to\u00a0Milkweed for dinner<\/a>, although we’ve had a few other experiences<\/a>\u00a0with Isaac’s cooking.<\/p>\n

When we arrived the first people we met were Isaac and Havvah’s young\u00a0children, who seemed curious about who was coming to dinner tonight.\u00a0 Next was Havvah, who brought us glasses of champagne with Aronia (i.e. chokeberry) syrup, mint, and grapes- all from their garden.\u00a0\u00a0Before sitting down for dinner, we wandered around the gardens while we drank the champagne, picking berries from the same bush Havvah had earlier to make the syrup.\u00a0 You instantly feel at home here.\u00a0 But even though the atmosphere is casual, the service is not.\u00a0 During our visit, the staff was always one step\u00a0ahead of any potential hiccup.\u00a0 This is one of the biggest attractions of Milkweed to me; they have managed to combine\u00a0a friendly, approachable\u00a0bearing and professionalism\u00a0that would make Grant Achatz<\/a> proud\u00a0into\u00a0a single\u00a0cohesive, consistent experience.<\/p>\n

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Eventually we took our seats and the meal began.\u00a0\u00a0The seating\u00a0at Milkweed is\u00a0mostly outside and the kitchen has a wall of windows, so you can watch as\u00a0your food is made.\u00a0 First up was a trio of melon: a\u00a0honeydew cup held a ball of watermelon and a sliver of cantaloupe and mint.\u00a0\u00a0Next\u00a0was a bacon, dried cherry\u00a0and red pepper tart.\u00a0 The soup course was a potato bisque with roasted garlic\u00a0chips, kale, and cr\u00e8me fra\u00eeche served with fresh bread and roasted\u00a0pepper butter.\u00a0 The salad was a filet of lake trout served over mixed greens, roasted beets, mozzarella, cherry tomatoes,\u00a0and pear.\u00a0 All pictured above.<\/p>\n

At this point in the meal the sun had set and I didn’t want to disturb the other dinners with a camera flash, so I’m afraid the are no pictures for the rest of the meal.\u00a0 The main course was pork tenderloin served on a bed of\u00a0thinly sliced\u00a0pan fried apples and potatoes with green beans and carrots.\u00a0 The next course (the first dessert) was walnut shortbread and molasses cookies.\u00a0 The molasses cookies must be a\u00a0signature, because we had them on our last visit as well.\u00a0 Seems like a good choice, since they are virtually perfect.\u00a0 With the cookies we had\u00a0coffee (Kickapoo, I’m guessing).\u00a0 The last course was cr\u00e8me br\u00fbl\u00e9e topped with assorted fresh berries and a candied anise hyssop leaf.\u00a0 The crunch of the candied leaf perfectly mirrored the hard caramel\u00a0on the cr\u00e8me br\u00fbl\u00e9e.<\/p>\n

Leslie wants me to add that one of her favorite things about being at Milkweed is looking up at the stars during dinner.\u00a0 With so little light pollution (it is in the dark region north of Dodgeville in this map<\/a>), you can see so much more,\u00a0and the\u00a0well-known constellations are a bit harder to find.<\/p>\n

To be clear, compared to restaurants in the area, Milkweed is a bit pricey.\u00a0 But I’m not sure that’s the right comparison to make–Milkweed isn’t like any of the restaurants around here.\u00a0 Let’s put it this way: it’s\u00a0about the same price as a meal at L’Etoile<\/a> or the three course prix-fixe at TRU<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The title of this article is something I said to Leslie during dinner.\u00a0 I tend to not be satisfied with my life– I’m always looking for “more”.\u00a0 This can make me an unhappy person at times.\u00a0 But at Milkweed, I was just happy to be there.\u00a0 Don’t know anything better to say than that.<\/p>\n

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*Milkweed holds dinners on Friday and Saturday nights during the warmer seasons.\u00a0 To make arrangements for a dinner, or for more information, just give them a call.<\/em><\/p>\n

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