Cafe Muse

Update: Cafe Muse is now a Barrique's.

In a word: Coffee shop that's not just for drips (OK, JM wrote that).

The specs: #0189
Address, hours & details via Isthmus; Coffee across Madison review at Dane101.

JM ate the philly cheese steak on a baguette, a kiwi-berry smoothie and a piece of chocolate confusion cake.
Nichole ate the roast beef and cheddar sandwich and soup.
The bill was $22, or $11/person, plus tip.
JM gave Cafe Muse a B+; Nichole gave Cafe Muse a B (see our grading rubric).

Latest Cafe Muse news and reviews

When we visited Cafe Muse, formerly Ancora, it was very clean & shiny, with lots of wifi-enabled customers and a nice BookCrossing shelf.

We've had a bit of a summer holiday from blogging, which left Nichole drawing a blank when it came time to do this writeup. After wracking her brain, she recalled something about a pleasantly messy, squishy sammich, with fresh ingredients & tasty horseradish mayo. The chicken rice - or was it potato? - soup was filling, at any rate.

JM's baguette sandwich was quite good altogether, although for being the most expensive sandwich on the menu, he'd expected a little more volume. He found the cake rich (though Nichole detected a Duncan Hinesey motif) and the smoothie delightful.

It's no Coffee Gallerie but it is a coffee shop JM wouldn't mind finding himself at again. He did note the lack of a performance space, which the west side desperately needs to conform to the requisite Madison-ness. In toto, not thrilling but quite good.

Comments

[Crystal]

I've noticed that Nichole always gives a score lower than JM.

I just thought it was cute and worth pointing out.

[JmSR]

Now, don't go jumping to conclusions.

Of the 189 restaurants rated so far, I've given a higher score 58 times and Nichole has given a higher score 67 times, most notably at coffee shops (cf: Ancora, EVP, Escape Java Joint). We've actually agreed more times than I've rated it higher than her (64). I will say that our average grades are eerily close (JM = 3.206 and Nichole = 3.212).

[Kyle]

JM: Always reliable for breaking down the math.

[nichole]

*rolls eyes at JM*