Pitted between Oscar Meyer and Maple Bluff, American Table Family Restaurant, 1201 N. Sherman Ave., is a fixture for North-side residents.
Every side of Madison needs one eatery to represent it, and American Table fits the bill for its part of town. Its menu is without airs, the waitstaff is eager to please and the food satisfies taste buds and wallets.
Situated in North Gate, a mall on North Sherman Avenue, American Table blends into its neighbors. The same bulky lettering that alerts passersby to Mattresses and More and Video Land announces the restaurant. The final \e"" of the sign exposes the neon beneath it and nobody really minds. Like much of the north side, American Table has a bit of age to it, but it's a graceful age that maintains its dignity.
American Table has an atmosphere that's a degree short of proper, but a step past polite. Walk in, look at the employees and see for yourself. They smile with generosity, not forcefulness. Though they might talk about the joys of working elsewhere, they don't show it when they're heaping refills of coffee on you. The friendliness comes with an edge of resignation, but it's a comfort to hear that tone instead of the strained words of discontentment.
Before you have a chance to settle in, there's a menu and waitress asking what you'd like. The menu, in six pages, lays out the burgers, melts and otherwise standard offerings. Entrees mostly run from $4.75 to $5.25 and come as plain or deluxe. Plain gets you soup and a pickle and deluxe adds tomatoes, lettuces and french fries, spaghetti or mostaccioli for about 90 cents more.
The house recommendations are around two dollars more and range from veal to shrimp. The outlier at the top end of the scale is the 16-ounce steak for $13.50. Overall, the prices are sensible to the point of being interchangeable on three-quarters of the dishes.
When I sat down and saw what was available, I opted for the House Burger with some creamy chicken rice soup. The soup was in front of me before I finished a sip of my constantly refilled water. It was mellow and smooth, but not quite as hot as I prefer. Thankfully, the excellent texture countered that drawback. Crackers were unneeded and the soup would be a concoction to envy with a few more degrees of heat and twice the carrots.
The menu said the burger had a healthy smothering of mushrooms, onions and green peppers. It got the first two right but was missing the third. That I cannot easily ignore. Green peppers are the most underrated vegetable and American Table made the mistake of continuing that status. The burger was a firm meal, but could have been a solid one with more green peppers.
It took a bit of cheesecake with strawberries to make up for this small disappointment. It was a bit stiff, but nevertheless brought the short meal to a close with a good gurgle of the stomach.
Places like American Table perform their function for their demographic. The clientele is mostly women in pairs and single men, all over 65. Without a counter, but adorned with signs that point to the ""Wash Room,"" it's a restaurant that's a little old-timey and made for the relaxed conversations of booths. American Table is the place for people to go at the end of the day who are glad they made it that far.
Ben Schultz is a senior majoring in English and history. He can be reached at blschultz@wisc.edu.
