New Town Pub

Update: New Town Pub is closed.

In a word: Everything old is old again.

The specs: #0763  
Address, hours & details via Isthmus; reviews at Trip Advisor, Yelp; Madison city Guides, Facebook,

Latest New Town Pub news and reviews

Chris ate the grilled ham and cheese and chili.
JM ate the summer sausage sandwich and a lemonade.
Marissa ate the Swiss burger with fried onions.
Nichole ate the Reuben with a Paulaner.
The bill was about $10/person, plus tip.
JM and Nichole gave New Town Pub a B- (see our grading rubric).

New Town Pub was Old Town Pub. It's different, but not. They renovated and the staff has changed, but it's still a neighborhood bar. Before the visit, Nichole discussed the advertised 14 taps with a homebrewer friend, and we made the following guess for 12 of them:

1. Miller Lite
2. Bud
3. Bud Lite
4. MGD
5. High Life
6. Guinness
7. Spotted Cow
8. Blue Moon
9. Coors
10. Leinies Honey
11. Leinies Red
12. PBR (Nichole's sole contribution)

Amazingly, we were only right about half: Miller Lite, Bud Lite, Guinness, Spotted Cow, Blue Moon, and PBR. Filling out the other 8 taps were Coors Light, Leinie's Seasonal (could have been Red or Honey, there was some confusion), Ale Asylum Hopalicious, Capital seasonal, Cap Amber, Cap Supper Club, Paulaner (Nichole tried that one, and it tasted tired after its transatlantic voyage), and Labatt's. Woof.

OK, the food. It was an off night for the kitchen staff, so to speak (somebody just got fired), but the bartender stepped up and did well. Deep-fried mac and cheese bites were standard, and the homemade beef and bean chili was the kind that won't fill you up unduly.

Here's the ham and cheese on pumpernickel with onion rings, pretty standard for a bar basket.

The Reuben was less good than the Old Town version; the Swiss burger was probably the best of what we tried, with good greasy fried onions and lots of cheese.

JM's summer sausage sandwich was fine and a little better implemented than his previous try at Slice's. But this was also the sandwich that indicated to him that he probably didn't much care for this kind of sandwich. So take a positive and a negative and cancel 'em out to a meh.

The sides, when they matched what we ordered, were good, but matching seemed to be a problem.

We missed the knife fights, car crashes, and all-out brawls, but seems those are common enough to be worth figuring in to any visit to New Town Pub.

Comments

[Dru]

Word around the watercooler has it their lease is up @ end of Feburary and is not being renewed. It is being replaced by Pancake Cafe. My guess....at least 1/2 as many knife fights.