Bonfyre, Madison

A new place opened recently in Madison, Bonfyre. Vic and I had perused the menu online. It looked good - a little pricey. There aren't many detailed descriptions of dishes. Things are listed like "Chopped Salad" without description, or the descriptions are brief, "San Francisco style fish stew." Anyway, the other thing that kept us from visiting right away was the location. The restaurant is in the bottom floor of a new office building in which the street level has been turned into a strip mall. It's next to a sub shop. We read some good reviews and decided to stop in for burger at the bar. I'm glad we did because this place totally rules.

Despite its odd location the restaurant is very large. Lots of stone and wood on the interior makes you forget the glass front. There are several dining areas, a large exposed kitchen and a big beautiful bar. The bar is very comfortable. Just flat granite with no rail. Lots of bars have some big rail on the bar's edge, preventing one from pulling their plate forward when dining. No such problem here. The bar stools are also nice and cushy with backs. Plenty of TVs surround the bar without making you feel like you're at Hooter's. It's very comfortable - relaxing even.

We started with the Maytag Blue Potato Chips. These were thick-cut perfectly cooked home made chips covered in a mix of blue cheese and pepper jack. Delicious! Then we both had a burger. We think they're the best burgers in Madison. Flame-broiled 1/2 pound patties on toasted ciabatta buns. They've got every cheese you could want. The burgers come with with fries, smashed potatoes, asian slaw, tabbouleh, or vegetables. I had the asian slaw, which was a little dry. Vickie had the smashed potatoes, which were very rich and cheesy. Oh, and the burgers are $9 with fixins an additional fifty cents. Incredible.

On our next visit we hit the bar again. This time we started with the Queso Fundito. It was a blend of white Mexican cheeses, chorizo, and chiles, served with blue corn chips. It was another winner. Vickie said she could have it every time we come, but then remembered how awesome the potato chips were. This time we shared a burger with bacon, pepper jack and fried onions. We noticed that for $2 we could add either a caesar, wedge, house salad, butternut squash soup, or gumbo with our burger. And not instead of the side, but in addition to it. I love wedge salads, so we got that and fries. The wedge was small, but very good. Great blue cheese dressing with lots of blue cheese crumbles on the top. The fries were solid. The burger was once again, fantastic.

The service so far has been great and they pour a good drink. We haven't been for dinner yet, but now I can't wait. Thank god for Bonfyre, my new favorite place in Madison.