The best free restaurant bread in Madison 🥖
Who serves the best free restaurant bread in Madison?
Inspired by this hyperfocused long read by Caity Weaver in the Atlantic, I considered the question. My top contenders start with the golden bun at Harvey House, warmed and brushed with butter and flaky salt. I fondly recall the cinnamon rolls in the bread basket at Toby’s Supper Club, near McFarland. Tornado Club’s bread service comes with a sesame-sprinkled bread wand.
Sardine, like many local restaurants, serves Madison Sourdough baguette and miche, but has charged for it since reopening after the pandemic. Restaurants can spend tens of thousands of dollars on a “free” bread basket.
Weaver quoted one restaurateur: “If you’re going to give customers bread, ‘it should be as good as the rest of your food. If that’s the case, you should charge for it.’” But, Weaver writes, “No one outside the food industry ever tells me they’d prefer paying for excellent bread to receiving mediocre bread for free. Most people just want to be given bread they have not paid for.”…