Merchant Madison

Update: Merchant has lost its way. Like any hotel bar, the menu is limited to a few seasonal drinks and a list of straight-up liquors. Long gone is the "prohibition-era style" cocktails (listed by liquor specialty) that put it on the Wisconsin map. Come here if you need a hotel drink. It's an afterthought, not a destination. Ordered a "last word", the barkeep made a gimlet and charged $15. Ps. The food still looks ok-ish. Original: In a town of old fashioned, best craft cocktails in town! $8-10 drinks, very booze forward. AMAZING prohibition-style classics and worth it!

Got made fun of for ordering an NA drink. The bartender was clearly new. But she was rude. And spent most of the time talking to the other bartender who was apparently on break and drinking beers at the end of the bar. I left after 45 minutes and was never asked to order food. Won't be back.

Interesting atmosphere in a great location between the inner and outer capital loops. High quality small plates from a small menu. Great drinks and expansive whiskey selection.

Wonderful downtown spot, not too far from available parking. Fun atmosphere, quality food with a modern flair. All the meals were very enjoyable it was a Sunday so we went for the brunch menu .

Great place for brunch, the food and service where fantastic, relaxed atmosphere .

Great cheese curds and ambience

A coffee ($5) and a "side of fruit" ($6) with 2 strawberries, 8 blueberries, and 2 raspberries was almost $14 after tax and tip. Love the atmosphere and the staff is always friendly here but the prices and portions are a bit out of whack.

We made reservations for Christmas eve dinner at 5pm. We arrive and they hand us the brunch menu. Apparently they started doing all day brunch on Sundays recently and didn't bother to update their website (which still says brunch till 2pm) or alert the reservation holders. Needless to say we were pretty upset. I ended up getting the burger which was listed as medium on the menu but it was very tough and overdone. I also got a 5 dollar iced tea that was basically a small cup filled with crushed ice and a shot of iced tea poured over it. (Charged another $5 for my refill). Please communicate changes like this to your customers effectively. Had our expectations been brunch on Christmas eve dinner things might have gone different, but just handing us a brunch menu, saying "we tried to tell people" and sorry is not enough. Cheese curds were decent at least