Rigby

In a word: Let it be open a year from now.

The specs: #0765  
Address, hours & details via Isthmus; reviews at Eat Drink Madison, Madison Fish Fry, Yelp; official web site,

Latest Rigby news and reviews

Darby ate the For You Bleu burger with fries and a diet Pepsi.
JM ate the She's Got a Chicken to Ride with fries and a lemonade.
Nichole ate the breakfast special: one pancake, two eggs over easy, hashbrowns and bacon, with coffee.
The bill was $27, or $9/person, plus tip.
Darby and Nichole gave Rigby an A-; JM gave Rigby a B+ (see our grading rubric).

We had some misgivings about Rigby, the Beatles-themed pub on Main Street, only because Eleanor Rigby is such a freakin' depressing song. Seriously. Have you listened to it lately? Die sad and alone already!

In contrast, the Rigby is a warm and welcoming place. They're open an impressive number of hours for what seems to be a two- or three-person operation, and the menu is so chock full of Beatles puns that we can't not love it. While the dishes offered are standard, the three we tried were perfect examples of them. One may remember that the other side of the Rigby 45 was Yellow Submarine.

Darby got the For You Bleu burger: lightly toasted white bun, smallish beef patty, bacon, nice green leaf lettuce. Darby said it wasn't greasy, and the melted bleu cheese was standard.

JM's Chicken to Ride sandwich was a little unwieldy but the bun - the same kind as for the burger - was very, very good.

Today was a lucky day because they were offering breakfast for lunch. One fluffy pancake, two eggs done perfectly over-easy, crisp-tender hashbrowns and Platonic-ideal bacon for $5 was hard to resist, especially with three pats of butter.

We left lunch and headed back to our respective solo daily pursuits. Fortified by Rigby's food and reflecting on Eleanor Rigby the song, we got to wondering who Lennon & McCartney think they are, presuming "alone" means "lonely"? Of course, who are we to argue with two of the most popular songwriters of rock history? Maybe we should stick to the puns.