When Sit in the tavern opened in May 2020, the menu consisted mainly of a burger and fries. With takeout and circumscribed seating being the order of the day at the time, getting a few things right seemed like a clever move for the recent kitchen. There were a few other compact bites on the menu, but burgers were the focus from day one.
Settle Down’s Good Idea Twice-Fried Burger is a very good burger with nice lacy edges, crispy pickles, and plenty of Settle Sauce, a creamy, seasoned concoction that’s clearly not called “special,” but you and I know what’s going on there . And where many veggie burgers try to recreate the taste of beef, Settle Down’s Prit’ Near veggie burger chooses instead to recreate the feel of the hit burger. Fry, char, salt, but all this is applied to a patty consisting mainly of black beans. It’s not a burger, but it’s, well, pretty close.
Since then, Settle Down has exceeded expectations. I wouldn’t have thought that a compact kitchen would be able to handle the number of guests that Settle Down can accommodate (with indoor, outdoor and atrium seating), but it not only manages it, it makes every work day enjoyable unique, and even these change frequently.
Friday fish is available in the form of a sandwich and a established plate with fries. The sandwich is bulky but delicious, anchored by crispy beer-battered cod. Saturday spices up the standard burger with a rotation of stylish toppings, like fried eggplant toppings, bold romesco sauce, or (during the Milwaukee Bucks’ championship run with Giannis “The Greek Freak” Antetokounmpo) gyro and tzatziki seasoning.
On Tuesdays there’s a fried chicken sandwich, and on Wednesdays there’s a basket of petite, battered Underground Meats mini heated dogs filled with Chicago dog treats. This brought me back to middle school, when my high school cafeteria served breaded cocktail heated dogs and inexplicably called them “weenie critters.” I didn’t feel comfortable enough to compare with my server, but I liked the updated version. (On subsequent Wednesdays they were replaced with fried pickle chips.)
Thursday’s chopped cheese, an East Coast bodega sandwich that’s vaguely reminiscent of a Philly cheesecake, is probably my favorite of all the daily specials. Gooey cheese sauce, a dollop of homemade steak sauce, lots of peppers and onions, and gently grilled beef? Give me an extra order of Settle Down’s excellent Matchstick-style fries and I’ll be golden. Adding optional sautéed mushrooms doesn’t hurt either. These mushrooms are also available as a meat substitute.
There’s no shortage of bar snacks, as befits a space that in many ways resembles a dive bar (if you ignore the fact that it was most recently a hair salon and a third-wave café). This is one genial serving of pickled vegetables; during my visit, the mixture consisted of pickled cucumber, carrot and turnip, crunchy and slightly sour.
The menu calls Devil Birds “jam,” and while mine weren’t quite as sticky, they were good enough to consider ordering more than one. Think of them as Scotch eggs without the sausage, or simply fried deviled eggs. Ghost Fries take the wickedness even further by sprinkling standard fries with a pleasantly zingy pepper mixture. No tricks, everything works.
Brunch is also surprisingly heated, with savory items on the Sunday menu. Jalapeño heated sauce brightens up the Hey Sunshine sausage sandwich, which would have completely stuck to the deck if the English muffin had been properly toasted. Cheese Puppies, a cottage cheese/hushpuppy hybrid, also arrived with an unannounced but not understated airy dusting of this ghostly powder. Order a Settle Down, America crisp lager — made for Settle Down’s Full Mile Brewery in Sun Prairie — if you need to quench your thirst.
I appreciate that the brunch experience is vastly improved compared to a pre-review visit earlier this year, when everything from the Bloody Mary to the Croque Madaaamn Hash Browns was poorly seasoned. But my group left a recent brunch feeling well fed; The potato pancakes were delicious, crispy and creamy at the same time.
Settle Down seems to have a lot of resources of its own, and that’s not a criticism. From genial chatty bartenders to waiters spending brief moments of silence dancing to the music playing in their own heads, you’re starting to feel it too. “Here you can be calm,” says the logo of a lounging tiger without words. You noticed the name of this place, right?
Sit in the tavern
street S. Pinckney 117
608-442-6335
11:30-14:00 and 16:00-22:00 Tuesday-Wednesday, 11:30-14:00 and 16:00-23:00 Thursday, 11:30-14:30 and 16:30-23: 00 Friday..- Saturday, 10:00-14:30 Sun.
$3-19
settlementdownmadison.com; IG:@settledowntavern
