After some consideration, we decided to drive out to a town just west of Madison called Middleton. Middleton is a nice community. It often appears near the top of those "best places to live" lists. I think one year, not too long ago, it was actually ranked as the #1 place to live in the country. When Scott and I were looking at houses, we looked in Middleton. What happens, though, when an area is designated as a top place to live, homeowners pay for that through high property values and high property taxes. As a result, Scott and I just couldn't find a house in Middleton that we liked and could afford.
Downtown Middleton is quaint and charming, kind of like downtown Stoughton but more upscale. When we got there Friday evening, it was dark and you-know-who was rushing me, as he often does, when I was trying to take pictures, so I didn't get many good shots of the downtown. The picture below gives you the flavor, though, of what some of the shops look like. The place on the far left is a coffee shop. The place on the far right is a pizza joint. I'm not sure what that little shop in between is.
Below is another picture taken in downtown Middleton. There is a women's clothing boutique on the left and the place on the right with the blue neon sign is a restaurant named Louisianne's. We haven't been to Louisianne's yet, but I've heard good things about it. The restaurant is actually downstairs. They serve cajun/creole food and most nights they have someone playing the piano for dinner music. Sounds lovely.
Next shot is a fountain in downtown Middleton. Kind of hard to see the statue on top, but the fountain is kind of pretty all lit up and I love the sound of moving water- whether it's the ocean, a stream, a fountain, etc. OK, to clarify, I probably wouldn't love the sound of moving water in a flood or tsunami or if my toilet was over-flowing, but you know what I mean. I love the sound of moving water in moving-water-appropriate places.
Recently, the National Mustard Museum moved to Middleton.
Yes, that's right. There is an entire museum devoted to mustard. Hey, I like mustard. Scott and I peeked inside (it was closed when we were there) and it actually looks like kind of a neat place. I think at some point we will check it out. There is also a brewery in Middleton, Capital Brewery, that does tours. Maybe one of these days we'll get wild and crazy and tour the brewery and go to the Mustard Museum.
I'm getting off track here. This post is supposed to be about my birthday dinner at Vin Santo. My friend at work, Kori, recommended this place to me. You may recall a number of previous posts highlighting places Scott and I have gone based on Kori's recommendation. She has given us lots of tips of places to go and things to do around Madison. All of her recommendations have been excellent, so we felt good about going to Vin Santo. It was something new to try and Kori, who has never steered us wrong, recommended it. So let's do it.
This shot is the view we had walking towards the restaurant. We had just passed the women's clothing boutique- the same one you can see in the picture above- and there is the blue neon sign for Louisianne's, which you can also see in the picture above.
Vin Santo is right next to Louisanne's on the right as you face it (the place with the green light in the window, as seen below in a shot taken from across the street.)
Close up of the green light.
Scott peeked in the window as we approached. After looking in, he said skeptically: "Honey, are you sure this is where you want to have your birthday dinner?" Based on the interior appearance of the place, we probably wouldn't have decided to have dinner there if it wasn't for the fact that Kori said it was good.
We decided to go ahead and give it a try. Here are a few shots of the inside. As you can see, it's pretty lackluster. This place will most assuredly NOT win any interior decorating awards. Seriously, can't people tell when pictures hung on the wall are totally out of scale?
The two pictures above depict the entire dining area of Vin Santo. It's tiny. BTW- that's me on the right of the picture above, imbibing.
So, the appearance of the dining area sucks and Scott said he wouldn't put marbles on the table at which we sat.
Not exactly level. Oh, and did I mention that none of the chairs at any of the tables in the place matched? I don't have anything inherently against non-matching chairs, but couldn't they at least have come up with a better one than this?
That chair looks like it belongs at a conference table in a cheesy, low-budget office somewhere.
Enough harping about the lackluster interior. I will now just briefly harp on one other thing before I get to the good stuff. Our server was one serious, stuffy m-f'er. He embodied the stereotype of a pretentious gay guy. The service was good, but not friendly. I prefer both to enhance my dining experience.
Alright. That's the not-so-good stuff. Poor decorating. Arrogant server.
In spite of those two things, Scott and I considered our experience at Vin Santo outstanding. It was all about the quality of the food. I would rate the food we had there as the second best food I have ever eaten at a restaurant. First on the list? Oscar-style filet and lobster mashed potatoes at Smith & Wollensky's. Second on the list? Vin Santo.
Scott and I both had a glass (I had 2) of wine. And, like many Italian restaurants, they served bread with dipping oil. I love bread and dipping oil with fresh ground pepper.
We thought about ordering calamari for an appetizer. At Vin Santo, they saute their calamari instead of frying it. I'm not going to lie. I like my calamari fried. So, instead, we ordered the mussels.
Shut up! They were so, so good.
Scott did polish off the final three.
We shared a Caesar salad. I didn't get a picture of it before we dove in, but below is evidence of how good it was-- clean plates.
The Caesar salad at Vin Santo had anchovies in it. Now that's a real Caesar salad. I do like anchovies, in Caesar salad and sometimes on pizzas. They are some salty little suckers but they push the taste of a Caesar salad over the top.
For my entree, I ordered the nightly special. It was a butternut squash ravioli with a light olive oil and brown sugar concoction. It was also chock-full of pine nuts. Fresh basil. Sun-dried tomatoes. Freshly grated Parmesan. A couple twists of the mill of freshly-ground black pepper.
When I took my first bite, I told Scott: "I think I just had an orgasm." I'm fairly certain I had several mini-orgasms while I indulged in this beyond-words, outstanding entree. Words are inadequate. This was a meal to be experienced.
Scott had some kind of shrimp, linguine something or other. I don't remember the name. OMG. It was so good too. When the entrees first came to the table, we tasted our own and then tasted each other's. As we finished eating, Scott saved the last shrimp from his entree for me. When you give the last shrimp from a delicious entree to someone else, that must be a sign of true love.......or maybe it was just because it was my birthday. Either way, yum.
After we indulged ourselves in the decadence of mussels, the Caesar salad, our entrees, wine, and 2 baskets of bread with dipping oil, we had no room for dessert. That didn't stop us from ordering one though. But we did get it to go. Chocolate tiramisu. Check out this bad boy.
It was so big they couldn't close the lid on the carry-out container so they had to tape it. By the time we drove back to Stoughton from Middleton (about 30 minutes), Scott and I decided we had enough room in our big, fat bellies to at least taste the tiramisu. I love tiramisu. It's my favorite dessert. I have to admit, though, I wasn't crazy about the tiramisu from Vin Santo. Maybe because it was chocolate instead of "regular". I don't know. I just didn't care for it. That's OK, though, because Vin Santo provided me a multi-orgasm in-house dining experience.
Good food, nice wine and multiple orgasms. Really, what more could a girl ask for? Happy Birthday to me.
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