557 North St., Madison, WI 53704
https://www.northstreetmsn.com/
3.5 out of 5 (Good to Very Good)
This summer a developer turned a former chemical reagent lab in Eken Park into a hipster shared-space for three existing businesses. It houses a coffee shop (Cafe Domestique), a tasting room for Young Blood Beer Company, and Bloom Bake Shop. Cafe Domestique and Bloom are open mornings and afternoons, with the beer tasting room open at night. It is a really cool idea that maximizes the space, especially as coffee shops have been closing a bit earlier post-pandemic. If you haven’t been out there, you should certainly check out the building, which also features some really cool murals (sorry for the terrible pic). It is also on the same corner as Ogden’s diner and The Tip Top Tavern, and down the street from North Street Cabaret, making North and Commercial perhaps the coolest intersection in the city.
This is all very exciting, of course, but what makes this even more exciting for me is that it is all just down the street from my house. For my entire coffee drinking life I hoped that one day I could just stroll down to a hipster coffee shop, instead of planning a trip. When I was in DC I was always in coffee marginal neighborhoods. My neighborhood was never cool enough for 6oz cappuccinos and latte art. But with the “arrival” of Eken Park on the scene of top hipster neighborhoods (we have a record store in the basement of the parole office and a hipster coffee shop in an old chemical facility), things sure are looking up.
Cafe Domestique’s first location is on Willy Street, and is adjacent to a bike shop (that is sort of their theme). It is a cool little shop, that has the additional benefit of serving baked goods from Batch Bakery (two doors down), which I thin
k is the best bakery in town. In the Eken Park location, you get your baked goods by walking down the hall to the bakery counter. Don’t miss Bloom, because they are very good (especially the sweet potato donuts). And, of course, if you stay until 3pm you can grab a beer right after your cappuccino.
The cappuccino itself was quite good, but the milk was better than the espresso. The milk had a perfect consistency and sweetness. The latte art was also quite nice. However, the espresso itself was a touch bitter, which I could taste even through the sweetness of the milk. It wasn’t off-putting exactly, but the best espresso in a cappuccino will tend to complement the milk (with its caramel,
chocolate, fruitiness, etc.) rather than fight with it. It was actually more of a problem when the drink was hotter, and got better as it cooled. This isn’t too uncommon, but kept the cappuccino from being among the best the city can offer. I’m not sure what caused this. Cafe Domestique serves Ruby coffee out of Stevens Point (along with some other roasters), and I know that those coffees can be quite good. It’s possible that the espresso was slightly over-extracted, though I can’t be sure. However, for this part of town I think Ledger serves up the better espresso.
All of that being said, I will of course be back to Cafe Domestique on North Street. They have a solid cappuccino offering, and the addition of a bakery in the same building along with awesome space makes it a great place to enjoy your coffee and hang out.
and….Subdivisions!
As one emerges from the nature preserve adjacent to Middlton Hills, you are treated to an interesting sight. This part of the Middleton Hills (the north-east side) is full of new and large prairie homes. That was what impressed me the most; these are very expensive homes, and that lends a certain air to the experience. It is yuppie, ordered, and clean (to the point of almost being sterile); how you respond to those three adjectives will likely determine how you will feel about Middleton Hills.
All of the lawns are perfectly manicured (more so than I have every really seen) and every house looks to be in perfect condition. The little trees and bushes seem to be carefully placed in a very deliberate way; and in fact, their placement is defined in the building plans. All of this has been approved by the community design board; I didn’t like it; neighborhoods with a great deal of complexity and nature make me feel like there is something alive there. Large, rich suburbs make me feel a bit uneasy;if I actually lived in such a place, I might start drinking a lot more. However, we should remember that this is far newer than many of the neighborhoods that might seem more friendly or natural. The complexity of old neighborhoods takes time, so perhaps Middleton Hills will become less sterile as it ages. However, I wonder if the extensive controls of buildings and landscaping would allow for this development. Only time will tell, I suppose.
Above is the boulevard; perhaps when the trees grow up it will create a nice place to be but right now it just makes for a large expanse that is void of any life. It does function as an indication of the main road; it made it easy for us to find the path to the community center but didn’t do much else. One thing that started to bother me was the lack of people out and about; we had ridden through a good portion of the place without seeing a soul outside of their cars. This entire construction (higher density, with front porches very close to the sidewalk) is supposed to make more people walk around the community but on such a beautiful Sunday afternoon, the streets were vacant. That makes it seem like something is very wrong with the neighborhood.
The closer one gets to the community center, the higher the density becomes. Here you see duplexes (I think); I actually think these are pretty attractive and I like the idea of increasing density in this way. However, these are extremely expensive. I recently found 
Here is the “community center”; the supermarket is off to the left (outside of the picture); it is a prairie style strip mall, I suppose. The idea of having a shopping center close to ones home is that you might walk there. I got the impression that most people took their car, even if they were just going to get a cup of coffee (and remember this was a near perfect day to be outside).
