Creamery Cafe

Update 9/3/14: Creamery Cafe is closing (#1, #2).

In a word: In small town Wisconsin, things can move at a different pace.

The specs: #0166
Address, hours & details via Isthmus; reviews at Cap Times, 77Square, official gallery web site;

Latest Creamery Cafe news and reviews

JM ate the Albuquerque Melt with a side salad and a root beer.
Nichole ate the prosciutto salad with coffee and a slice of key lime pie.
The bill was about $30, or $15/person, plus tip.
JM and Nichole both gave Creamery Cafe a B+ (see our grading rubric).

Creamery Cafe is located in the bustling metropolis of Paoli (actual motto seen on bumper stickers: "We've got everything but gas").    The drive was beautiful and not too long once out of Madison.  On this beautiful spring afternoon, we opted to eat al fresco.

The bread was pretty to look at, but was low on flavor and texture. The sweet-ish butter (and this is where we reveal our culinary naivete again) seemed to be pink from red pepper infusion.

Is this not the sexiest grilled ham and cheese sandwich you have ever seen? Messy too.

Nice legs on the salad, also. Even JM applauded his side salad, saying it was well-made considering he didn't like any of the ingredients.

Truth be told, the key lime pie was the high note.

On the 30-minute ride home, after the bloom of beautiful-food lust had worn off, we reflected that the lunch took a lot longer than it should have. Even with reservations, we were made to wait before getting seated. Meanwhile, other folks just wandered onto the dining patio from the bike path and got served. The lone server seemed unduly harried by the handful of laid-back tables, and while the menu even begged our patience for the handcrafted art that was our nosh, topping 80 minutes for a light lunch tried our patience. It's a different world, the rural art gallery scene.

Comments

[Slowfood]

The art of a meal is not well appreciated in our society. I think all lunches, lite or otherwise, should take at least an hour.

[Nate]

Does that include time spent waiting to be seated while others who have been waiting less are seated first?

[nichole]

My memory is a little fuzzy - this was 2+ years ago. But Nate, yes and no. Yes, 80 minutes included all our wait time. No, we were seated and served later than people who skipped the hostess station and sat themselves down.

Upon reflection, that makes sense. Our harried waitress wanted to check out the newer table, not the punctual reservation-holders.

Upon further reflection, who cares? It was an awful long time ago (and an awful tasty lunch).

[Nate]

I was actually asking slowfood if every "artfully long" lunch should also include time waiting to be seated. I'm a smartass, and I apologize. :)

That said, I think 80 minutes is a definitely long for a light lunch. Just trying to point out that your original comment about your patience being tried probably had more to do with waiting to be seated/served/etc than not taking the time to fully (artfully?) appreciate said lunch.

[nichole]

Whoops! Sorry I missed that, Nate. Blame it on low blood sugar (I had just donated a pint to the Red Cross.)