Even a little bit of traveling around either Madison, WI or the surrounding Dane County quickly shows that Germans were the most numerous ethnic group to settle in Wisconsin (around the turn of the 20th century, almost a third of Dane County had been born in Germany), and their stamp is seen everywhere from the many breweries, churches (particularly Catholic and Lutheran), place names, and culinary traditions (I think Wisconsin eats by far more bratwurst per capita than anywhere else). But as time progresses and migration patterns continue, while the traditions are certainly strong, Madison doesn’t have nearly as many actual German restaurants and watering holes as it used to. While Der Rathskeller in the Wisconsin Union remains a staple for the University crowd, there aren’t that many other places around town; most are further out in Dane County. And one of the longer-standing ones, Essen Haus (itself a replacement for the earlier Hoffman House) is slated to close later this year and get turned into more apartments. But there has been a nice addition to both the German food and beer scenes in recent years: Prost!
Prost! (the name includes the exclamation mark) is located a few blocks east of the capitol, and it has a rather funky building. The building itself, a Gothic Revival church, was built in 1897 by the Our Savior Lutheran Church, a Norwegian Lutheran congregation that had split from the Norwegian Evangelical Church of Madison in one of the many internal schisms of the Lutheran Church that even today leave several different Synods through the United States (in the case of Our Savior, the schism arose over disagreements about predestination). After that, the place was home to several Italian restaurants and a sports bar over the years, until 2022, when it got a Bavarian-themed makover and reopened as a second location for Prost! (the original is in Chicago).
The combination of the Gothic Revival architecture, arched ceilings, and Lutheran stained glass with the Bavarian-flag and seal themes of the updated paintwork make for an environment that’s, while not being [i]quite[/i] perfect, actually does a really good job of making a space that feels like a proper German bierhall.
And that’s good, because while many of the other places around town focus on the (quite good) Wisconsin craft beer scene (Spotted Cow from New Glarus being one of the most common tap handles in the region), the vast majority of their 24 tap lines are dedicated to imported German beer. Since I always enjoy a classic German brew, I was happy to see a favorite of mine on the daily happy hour list: Hacker-Pschorr’s Hefe Weiße.
For my meal, I went for a classic: a chicken schnitzel, served up with spaetzle. A good schnitzel (pork, veal, or chicken) is really about simplicity: a nicely pounded slab cooked just to the point of still being tender, with a consistent thickness, a nice, crisp breading, and served up with a minimum of accompaniment (usually a wedge of lemon). This was a good chicken schnitzel, with a nice flavor, good texture, and a breading that stayed nicely adhered. Add in some good basic spaetzle with a lot of butter and parsley, and this was a good lunch. I’d happily get this again.
Overall, I loved Prost!. It is filling in a vanishing niche in the local scene, in a fantastic building, and offering up a very good list of German beer and food. And I’m not the only one, while I was the only person there when they opened, by the time I left at 1pm the place was already busy, and swinging by later in the day the place was packed. It’s definitely worth checking out.
