Madison, Wisconsin recs ...

Will you be spending most of your time in downtown Madison?

Wisconsin is known for its Friday Night Fish Fry. You can walk to many restaurants/bars downtown and find one.

The Dane County Farmers Market just started a couple weeks ago. It takes place each Saturday until 2:00pm or so. All sorts of vendors line-up around Capitol Square. Be sure to grab a loaf of spicy-cheese bread from Stella's Bakery. It is, by far, the most popular option there. Also be sure to grab some venison jerky and ice cream.

On/around Capitol Square...
- For an excellent burger and an Old Fashioned, head to The Old Fashioned. For an extensive, quality beer list, head to Coopers Tavern.
- For a good steak, head to Tornado Steakhouse just off Capitol Square.
- L'Etoile is farm-to-table dining with a well-known local chef.
- Great Dane Pub brews its own beer (it's good, nothing earth-shattering) with decent pub eats and a nice outdoor patio.
- Marigold Kitchen has some of my favorite breakfast/brunch eats.
- Maduro is a very well-known cigar bar with an abundance of cocktails, beers, and spirits.

Heading down State Street...
- On the upper-end of State Street, Ian's Pizza and Parthenon Gyros are both popular late-night stops.
- Paul Pel'meni (about a block off State Street) makes incredible dumplings. This might be my favorite spot to eat in Madison. Grab a full order of beef with the works. You'll thank me.
- On the lower-end of State Street, make sure to grab Mediterranean Cafe. Cash-only spot that dishes up good eats for a great price. It's only open from 10am-4:30pm
- The Memorial Union Terrace is undergoing renovation, but is one of the most popular spots in Madison. An abundance of seating + live music on the lake with pretty traditional backyard BBQ eats and taps of Wisconsin beer.

Off State Street...
- Dotty Dumpling's is another favorite for those that love burgers. Easy walk from State Street. Only a block or two away.
- Mickie's Dairy Bar is right next to Camp Randall Stadium and is one of the most popular breakfast spots in Madison. Incredible scramblers.

If you're going to be spending time outside of downtown Madison, I can provide you some other suggestions, but these are mostly in the downtown/campus area.

Spotted Cow by New Glarus

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Spotted Cow by New Glarus

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Always found Spotted Cow to be a pretty overrated beer, but still good nonetheless. The intrigue is certainly the limit New Glarus places on distribution. You can't get any of their beers outside of Wisconsin.

Personally, for breweries within Wisconsin, I would much rather have a Fantasy Factory from Karben4 or a Wisconsin Belgian Red, also brewed by New Glarus.

Madison is fricking awesome.

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I seriously doubt they intentionally limit their production. I'd guess you're overestimating the volume they produce and underestimating the volume consumed locally. Generally speaking, you don't expand until you can do so without pulling from your local markets.

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I think that's why he said they limit distribution, not production. Though it does look like New Glarus is 25th in terms of volume in the country, and all of it is sold in Wisconsin, which is mildly impressive.

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Point I'm making is if they were able to produce more they would likely distribute more. I don't think it is, in fact, a limit on either distro or production.

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To hear them tell it:

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Sorry about the limited distribution, non-Wisconsinites. There are only so many hours in the day to make beer and we can only keep up with the local demand. If you're ever in town stop by our little gift shop and pick some up.

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I'm sure they have done the math, though, to determine the cost/benefit of expanding and going outside the state, and apparently it didn't make sense (or cents). That being said, I'm a bigger fan of Tyranena and Central Waters beers, if we're just talking Wisconsin craft breweries.

Production has not been an issue for New Glarus since the early 2000's, especially given the new facility that opened in the last half-decade. That has coincided with a much larger production, which has placed New Glarus near the Top-20 of all breweries.

Having a couple friends that work(ed) for MillerCoors, there has certainly been money offered to the Carey's.

So my contribution was shite...

LMAO, sorry Chi-Town ... all you guys were a great help.

I was originally replying to hoops about where they would be, and got off topic.

No disrespect intended.