MIDDLETON — The Prairie Café & Bakery here has served as a commons of sorts for Middleton’s new urbanism community, Middleton Hills, since it opened 10 years ago.
And it’s easy to see why. The cafe has a pleasant, calming atmosphere with a couch, fireplace, framed photos on the walls, and handmade purses, baskets and dolls for sale around the room.
“It’s a warm, nice setting. Very serene and cozy,” said a companion, whose dream was to live in Middleton Hills when the first homes were built in 1996. He’ll never be able to afford a home in the mostly upscale development, but settled for breakfast on a sunny Saturday.
When the neighborhood’s commercial developer, Dan Erdman, opened the cafe in January 2000, it was the only retail business there. Now there’s the kid-centered, health-conscious Bean Sprouts Cafe nearby and Byrd’s Pub & Grill a block away. A Copps grocery store, UW Credit Union branch and a Starbucks add to the retail mix, serving owners of the more than 600 homes.
The cafe was bustling on two recent visits, and on one we were lucky to secure one of the two booths in back.
Erdman gives a lot of credit for the success of the business to his manager, Alisha Rapp, who was trained at the French Culinary Institute in New York as a pastry chef and also produces the cafe’s baked goods. I didn’t try any of the pastries — not with all the Christmas cookies and fudge in the office these days — but Prairie’s buttery croissants are first-rate.
A cafe and bakery needs to have high-quality coffee, and Prairie customers can help themselves to four varieties of strong Alterra organic fair trade coffee ($2.25 for a bottomless cup). On one visit, a companion gave his hot chocolate a ranking of five on a five-point scale.
The food itself is standard cafe fare, but the portions and prices are both reasonable.
The best thing I tried was a cup of butternut squash soup ($2.95). It wasn’t hot enough, but the texture and flavor were perfect. A friend had a cup of bland clam chowder ($2.95), which had so many potatoes it was more like a potato soup.
The daily quiche ($6.95) with ham, broccoli and Cheddar was fine, but ordinary. It’s normally served with mixed greens, but the counter staffer allowed me to substitute the squash soup.
The Wright burger (named after the cafe’s street address, $7.25), a 1/3-pound patty topped with grilled mushrooms and Cheddar and Swiss cheeses, came with leaf lettuce and a juicy tomato slice. It was a bit overdone for my friend’s taste, but we both enjoyed the fresh, square ciabatta roll it was served on.
For a Saturday breakfast visit, I ordered the superb from-scratch pancakes ($5.95 for a stack of three, $1.25 extra for blueberries or bananas) that were almost as thin as Swedish pancakes.
The prairie scramble ($5.25) with a choice of two ingredients (a friend chose broccoli and Swiss cheese) had a lot of broccoli, and could have used some seasoning and more cheese. He raved, however, about the Bavarian dark rye toast that came with it.
The breakfast burrito ($5.95) was filling, but unexciting. Eggs, ham, black beans, tomatoes and cheese were rolled inside a flour tortilla and served with salsa and sour cream.
All plates, even a single croissant, came with a welcome fruit garnish. On one visit, it was pineapple and orange. On another, it was pineapple and cantaloupe. Both times the pineapple was deliciously sweet.
A companion tried a half order of the fruit plate ($1.95), and it was so generous she questioned whether it was really a half order. It came with three pineapple slices, three orange slices, a piece of cantaloupe, green grapes and two strawberries. Everything was fresh and ripe.
“Is this place open on Sundays?” one companion asked.
I answered affirmatively. “I’ll be back,” he replied.
PRAIRIE CAFE AND BAKERY
3 stars
Address: 6720 Frank Lloyd Wright Drive, Middleton
Phone: 827-2437
Website: prairiecafeandbakery.com
Hours: 7 a.m.-3 p.m. Monday-Friday; 7 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday
Notes: Parking lot behind building, street parking; wheelchair accessible; no credit cards, cash and personal checks only.
