Barriques Market
In a word: Is Madonna dropping in for a surprise visit? Never fear, Barriques has (most) everything you'd need. Oh, and the food's pretty good if you can deal with frou.
The specs: #0023
Address, hours & details via Isthmus; reviews by Ultimate Madison Bar Tour, Dane101,Yelp: Wine Cave and Coffee Trader, Maillard Reaction; 
Latest Barriques news and reviews
JM ate the Wisconsin Dip sandwich and tomato fennel soup with a Stewart's Strawberries and Cream soda and worked the January 1990 Atlantic cryptic crossword.
Nichole ate the Barriques fruit salad with a POM pomegranate juice.
Kayla ate the T-bird sandwich with greens, got a bottle of Voss water, and treated the table to pretzels and honey mustard dip.
The bill was about $30, or $10/person, plus tip.
JM gave Barriques a B; Nichole gave Barriques an A; Kayla gave Barriques an A- (see our grading rubric).
As with so many restaurants, diners' expectations are key to the impression a place makes. In this case, JM found Barriques was not his speed, as they serve what he called the world's smallest (but good) grilled cheese sandwich, with a "dandelion salad," for a gourmet price.
Kayla, interpreting Barriques as an upscale coffee house, found it very yuppified and fairly pricey, but her turkey sandwich was generous compared to JM's. She picked up some Voss, a Norwegian artesian water in a very sexy glass bottle, and the clerk told us that Voss is the only water Madonna will drink. It tasted like tap water to us, but our mouths were full of pretzel and mustard residue.
Nichole swallowed her reverse snobbery (avoiding eye contact with the BoBo customers helped), ordered a fruit salad, and ended up happiest of all. She got a plate of dandelion salad (her favorite) piled high with sliced plums, apples, strawberries, blueberries, a scoop of very tasty cottage cheese, and a sprinkle of nutty, sweet granola. It was a great dish for a summer night.
We topped off our meal with a marzipan strawberry and browsed the abundant booze paraphernalia before beating our retreat back inside the beltline.
Barriques would be a really good shop if they would spend less time trying to look "shabby". Their coffee is good, their wine an fromage selection is excellent and this is a wonderful resource for the Fitchburgian foodie who doesn't want to travel far to find his more exotic ingrediants. Very few other places in Madison offer you a comfortable chair and a good glass of Muscat, I just wish the enviroment wasn't so obviously contrived. Stand on your products, not on your atmosphere and they will come.
Posted by: Parintachin | July 02, 2007 at 01:16 PM
Barrique's "shabby" look is chic. It is based on reused materials, such as from barns. Nice concept.
The food is as described, "they serve...the world's smallest (but good) grilled cheese sandwich, with a "dandelion salad," for a gourmet price." Portion and price complaint applies to everything else. In another establishment, their meals would be appetizers. But, the food is tasty.
Posted by: steve | May 24, 2012 at 05:22 PM
I wonder which location this was. My trips to the ones on Park and Old Sauk have found fairly generous sandwiches, if a bit pricey. But considering the $7 sandwich includes a side, I wouldn't exactly call it "gourmet" pricing. Subway's sandwiches are $5. The breakfast egg sandwich (had some sort of name I believe) is also pretty good and is $2 and some change. If that's gourmet pricing you guys don't get out much.
Posted by: Alcimeire | January 05, 2014 at 07:17 PM