Eating in Madison A to Z: Main Depot

In a word: Its motives are far from loco.

The specs: #0364
Address, hours & details via Isthmus; reviews at Badger Herald and again;

JM ate the chicken strips and fries with a lemonade.
Nichole ate the bleu cheese burger with chips and a Leinie's Red.
The bill was $15, or $7.50/person, plus tip.
JM gave Main Depot a B; Nichole gave Main Depot an A- (see our grading rubric).

Main Depot is a gem of a friendly, local, downtown bar, just off the bike path on Main Street. There were several ways in which Main Depot and their bartenders did stuff perfectly:

Hosted an office party but didn't crank the tunes too loud to talk.
Recommended a specific menu item (the burgers) instead of saying "Everything is good!"
Answered the phone on the first ring.

The chicken finger basket was fine for what it was, having been simply dumped from a freezer bag into the fry medium. The fries were a titch freezer-burned but came with a very creamy honey mustard (ranch and BBQ being the other offerings) and retained their heat well.

On the other hand, the bartender's burger recommendation was well-taken. The Main Depot's burger, according to Kate's burger rating guide:

Bun: too soft, but buttered and lightly toasted.
Meat: handmade patty from Jenifer St. Market meat, very tasty and cooked to order, medium rare.
Bun/meat ratio: just right.
Cheese: perfect amount of nice, salty bleu cheese.
Misc.: The bartender brought out a bottle of bleu cheese dressing, which Nichole didn't use but thought was a nice touch. Was also offered a pickle, which turned up sadly missing. Kettle chips were average. An 8.5 of 10 overall.

We also appreciated that they offered Pepsi on tap, but also Coke in cans. Plus there was a certain solidarity we felt when we saw the Blugolds pennant. So while the food is mostly just an afterthought to the drinks, we'd trust a guy whose local was the Main Depot.