Low, cozy ceilings give Greenbush Bar the appearance of a speakeasy. Hidden away from the hustle and bustle of Regent Street, owner Sam Brown said the bar is a place “you could never get approved today.”
Brown, owner of Leopold’s, Fabiola’s and now Greenbush Bar, wants one thing to be clear: he won’t be changing a thing about what makes Greenbush Bar unique.
All too often, restaurants are purchased and remade into the new owner’s image, a process which ends up being to the detriment of everyone, Brown told The Daily Cardinal.
With the advent of a new owner, not much has changed. The iconic Christmas lights still hang from the ceilings, and the thin crust pizza is “just as good as the last time I was here,” one patron told the Cardinal.
“I’ve always taken that idea as a warning,” Brown said. “We’re keeping things as people have come to love over the past 30 years.”
Brown told the Cardinal he feels “strong judiciary responsibility” to keep institutions like the Greenbush Bar alive. He hopes that when patrons come and visit, they don’t even notice the change in ownership.
“The highest compliment they could give me is ‘well, it tastes the same as last time I was here,’” Brown said.
One of the few things changing is Greenbush Bar’s logo. The new logo is inspired by the design of the exterior of the Italian Workmen's Club, with the main crest of the logo having been taken from the seal of the Island of Sicily, Brown said.
“The Italian Workmen’s Club was a Sicilian club,” Brown said. “We wanted to honor that history in our logo and honor the history of The Italian Workmen’s Club.”
Why Greenbush?
Greenbush Bar is famous for more than just its thin crust pizza. Residing in The Italian Workmen's Club’s basement, the bar is thought to be one of the oldest Italian social clubs still active to this day.
“We’ve been coming here since a friend introduced me to it in the 90’s,” said one patron. “It’s such a hidden gem, and it has the best pizza in all of Madison.”
Brown described Greenbush Bar as a distinctive space with a “real cosmopolitan and urban feeling” that few other areas in Madison have and hopes to continue Greenbush Bar’s tradition of utilizing the eccentric space to its fullest.
Brown, the board president of the Neighborhood House Community Center, said he’s “all too familiar” with historic buildings being torn down in favor of new developments. While that may not be a fear for Greenbush Bar yet, it was certainly a factor when he approached the owners looking to buy, he said.
Brown hopes that by purchasing Greenbush Bar, some of its history can be preserved for future generations.
“I’ve been going to Greenbush for most of my adult life, and it’s a unique institution here in Madison,” Brown said. “If it was not to exist the neighborhood would lose so much.”
Bringing life back to Regent Street
As a lifelong native of Madison, Brown said he’s been intertwined with Regent Street ever since his first job at his father’s restaurant when he was just 14.
In that time, Brown noticed Regent Street is a “magical area,” and a “melting pot of students, retirees and young professionals.” But the area is “woefully underserved and underdeveloped,” leading to a distinct underservice in the area, he said. Brown hopes to change this with the revival of Greenbush Bar.
Brown plans to keep the bar open later and to implement a cocktail program in order to appeal to a more diverse range of customers. The goal is to turn Greenbush Bar into a late-night dining option, something Madison lacks, he said.
“There’s a market for more restaurants here and a market for more businesses that appeal to both long term residents and students who live here,” Brown said.
But at the end of the day, the restaurant business is all about having fun, Brown said.
“You get to throw the parties that people want to go to,” Brown said. “I think there’s something wonderful and comforting about keeping a place going that people have already gone to at a time when there’s so much change.”
For anyone who does come to the bar, Brown recommends trying their New Haven pizza with shallots, roasted garlic and pecorino romano, along with their garlic bread, which comes with a head of roasted garlic, parmesan and olive oil.
