Eating in Madison A to Z: Fosdal Home Bakery

In a word: Makes any house a home.

The specs: #0514
Address, hours & details via Isthmus; reviews at Bountiful Cupboard, Yelp, official web site,

JM ate the small pulled pork sandwich and a chocolate donut.
Nichole ate the chicken salad croissant and a filled raspberry sugar cookie.
We also got a loaf of bread and some hot dog buns.
The bill was $15, or $7.50/person.
JM and Nichole both gave Fosdal Home Bakery an A- (see our grading rubric).

We did carry-out from Fosdal's in Stoughton so we could sample their lunch fare. The menu was small but not short on options. Each of a half dozen kinds of sandwiches can be made with a choice of bread, roll, or croissant, a side of chips and a pickle - not a crispy, garlicky dill, but the softer, sweeter, more Scandinavian-style slice. And the service was very friendly and chatty, full of good recommendations.

The chicken salad croissant had good meat, very fresh lettuce and wasn't overloaded or soggy with filling. JM's pulled pork sandwich was serviceable, and while he wouldn't necessarily make a special trip for it,he felt like his choice of the small size was virtuous but ultimately regrettable.

The sweets were another story, and very worth a visit. The chocolate filled donut was dreamy and dense. A raspberry-filled sugar cookie managed to make a very simple idea interesting: the top of the cookie, exposed to more heat, was more firm, while the same dough underneath had been shielded by a layer of tangy raspberry jelly and was pillowy and soft.

We couldn't pass up a loaf of bread and a few hot dog buns. The traditional, soft white bread made excellent toast and the buns made us look forward to summer grilling season all the more.