Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
passion to indulge in one of the nation's
top dairy states—and he maintains a huge
selection of artisanal Wisconsin cheeses,
including a number of sheep's milk and
goat cheese. You can order a complete
tasting of the entire cheese board, but be
warned, you'll be tasting upwards of 30
cheeses, all of them top notch.
Wisconsin is northern enough that it
has a fairly short growing season, but that
doesn't seem to faze the folks at L'Etoile—
the restaurant's long list of suppliers
includes several with extensive root cel-
lars and environmentally correct unheated
hoop houses to extend crops into the win-
ter months. What's more, the restaurant
follows the farm wives' strategy of “put-
ting up” quantities of produce in season,
so that preserves, jar-packed, and dried
vegetables and fruits will be available for
cooking year-round.
Wholesome as it all sounds, this is still a
fine-dining restaurant: Most entrees cost
over $25, and it's regularly voted Madi-
son's top place for a special dinner. On the
second floor of an older building on Capi-
tol Square, it's a relatively small wood-
beamed dining room with a lovely view of
the state capitol dome. Downstairs, you
can also pick up sandwiches and baked
goods at Café Soleil, which—no surprise—
serves only fair trade organic coffee.
25 North Pinckney St. (
&
608/251-
0500;
www.letoile-restaurant.com).
(
Dane Regional Airport, Madison
(7.2km/4
1
/
2
miles).
L
$$$
Mansion Hill Inn,
424 N. Pinck-
ney St. (
&
800/798-9070
or 608/255-
3999; www.mansionhillinn.com). $$
The
Edgewater,
666 Wisconsin Ave. (
&
800/
922-5512
or 608/256-9071; www.theedge
water.com.)
Straight from the Farm
180
Patowmack Farm
Virtuous, with a View
Lovettsville, Virginia
Talk about transcendent experiences.
You're sitting in a hilltop glass pavilion,
looking out over the Loudon Valley, punc-
tuated in the hazy blue distance by the
Point of Rocks Bridge and the Potomac
River. As night falls, crickets chirp in the
nearby vegetable gardens; roosting chick-
ens ruffle and sigh. You're feeling very
good about yourself, because you know
that the meal you're about to eat is com-
pletely organic and sustainable. Not only
that, no carbon emissions were expended
delivering produce, for it all comes right
here from Patowmack Farm, from the
spring's first tender shoots of asparagus
to the last butternut squash of autumn.
Following sustainable farming methods
that exceed the technical requirements for
organic growing, Beverly Morton Billand
and Chuck Billand began to cultivate fresh
herbs and specialty vegetables in 1986 on
this hilltop 50 miles (80km) from Washing-
ton, D.C. In 1998 they added a farm-to-table
restaurant, where they showcase their har-
vest, complemented by natural meats, sus-
tainable seafood, artisanal cheeses, and
organic wines from other responsible sup-
pliers.
Luckily, they found an ideal chef, Chris-
tian Evans, a self-taught cook who shares
their love of fresh natural foods. Throughout
the seasons, his ever-changing menu may
include things like an heirloom tomato
gazpacho; chilled truffle pea soup; “soup
and sandwich” (an oniony duck broth with
floating crouton of toast topped with goat
cheese); puff pastry filled with a cream of
elephant garlic, pimento, black olives,
