1855 Saloon & Grill Brings Historic Flavor To Cottage Grove, Wisconsin

Food with a twist is what's on the menu at 1855 Saloon & Grill in Cottage Grove.

Craig Martin says the twist is taking familiar American comfort foods and giving them a new edge of flavor you won't find at the chain restaurants or anywhere else.

One twist favorite on 1855's menu is a prime rib specialty called The 1855. Martin, who co-owns 1855 with his wife Lisa Martin, says he modeled The 1855 after an open-faced meatloaf sandwich he used to get at the old St. Louis diners when he was a kid. "You would tell them what you wanted: beef, pork or turkey. What you got was white bread, gravy, and sliced beef, pork or turkey.

"What I do is take that same theme and instead of white bread I use Texas Toast. We use shaved prime rib instead of beef and a red wine sauce instead of gravy and top that with crispy onion straws (shaved yellow onions lightly breaded in flour). All this and a healthy portion of smashed potatoes (smashed potatoes have skins on) with lots of butter, cheddar cheese, bacon, sour cream and chives."

Quality food, a quality place and quality prices are what Martin says keeps people coming back, but he is finding that they especially enjoy 1855's menu variety.

"Our menu selections can satisfy everybody's flavor preferences and taste expectations," said Martin, referring the wide selection available on 1855's lunch, dinner and grill menus. "So if you have four people in the car ready to go out to eat and one is screaming chicken, two want seafood and another says pasta, you go where all those needs can be satisfied."

Opening in December, 1855 has already gained great popularity, and many of their signature dishes are bringing people back for seconds, thirds and more. One of those mouthwatering winners is their Tavern Burger. Martin describes it as a special grind that they cook to perfection with a hearty slice of Wisconsin cheddar cheese and topped with fresh panco breaded cheese curds. Instead of serving a ranch dressing, Martin says they make a Ranch mayonnaise that's served on the side. It's another one of those twists that Martin says sets 1855 apart.

Another item he says sells "tremendously well" is their pizza, cooked in 1855's wood burning pizza oven. The brick oven is the restaurant's centerpiece - greeting guests with its warm glow and aroma as they walk in the front entrance from Main Street.

Martin says being the first restaurant of its kind in the area, he hopes other restaurants open nearby to create an environment unlike that found in the chains. "Cottage Grove has the face to be the new cool part of town. The east side of Madison is not just about the mall. It's about the neighborhoods where people live and having some real choices when it comes to eating out."

The new mixed-use development of retail and residential space coming to life along Main Street is a sign of this evolving identity. The new brownstone building, where 1855 is prominently housed, is part of a collective effort to bring back a traditional downtown feel. "All the pictures that we have up in the restaurant are of when Cottage Grove had a downtown." The restaurant decor is a throwback to earlier times, with wood floors winding throughout the establishment, making the smooth transition from the rugged saloon feel of 1855's bar area to the old-fashioned elegance of its three dining areas, with seating for up to 200 people.

With a restaurant this size, a big crew to run it is necessary and Martin has about 70 people on staff - many of whom live right in Cottage Grove and surrounding communities. Most of the kitchen managers, Martin says, are not only people that he works with but friends that he has known in his professional circles for years. It's experience that is necessary to run an upscale casual dining establishment like 1855 and Martin certainly brings much of that experience himself.

He started in the restaurant business in the early 1970s, washing dishes while attending junior college on a basketball scholarship. "Five of us living with the coach and he always wanted us doing jobs. After school and basketball practice, I worked part time loading Coke trucks, cleaning the bar, cooking, doing homework. When I got through junior college, I realized that I wasn't going to make a living at this (basketball), so I went to a four-year college in Moline, Illinois, and worked in the kitchen washing dishes and cutting meat."

The restaurant where he worked was bought out and turned into a chain. Martin stuck with the chain and started traveling throughout the country helping to open new restaurants - training waiters, meat cutters and cooks.

He has since worked for some of the biggest national chains, including TGI Fridays, which he helped to grow from five to 105 restaurants. His travels have taken him to places throughout the United States, but it was a recent trip to open a restaurant in Middleton, Wisconsin that made him think that it might be time to settle in one place.

"I got transferred here on a corporate thing to open Johnny's Italian Steakhouse in Middleton and I knew that I wanted to do my own restaurant." While leasing a home in Cottage Grove, Martin saw there was a need in the community for an American grill restaurant, but Cambridge, Wisconsin would become his first choice.

"I was in a position of being transferred again and I decided that I wanted to stay in Wisconsin. Cambridge was around the size of town I grew up in. I'm raising two young boys and Cambridge felt good. I found a 160-year-old building that was an old mill that became my first restaurant, Tru Tavern and Grill, which we opened in April 2007.

"I love Wisconsin. It's similar in many ways to where I grew up in Missouri. Missouri is a wildlife state, as is Wisconsin. I look at Colorado when I lived there and Wisconsin is kind of like Colorado, without the mountains. There are a lot of things that I did in Colorado that I can do here. I can fly fish, I can pheasant hunt, I can do a number of things. It's hearty, it's robust, the people are genuine, and there's a love to have fun and be outdoors."

1855 Saloon & Grill

218 S. Main Street

Cottage Grove, WI

Phone

(608) 839-3700

Hours

Monday 

Lunch 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Dinner 4:30 to 9 p.m. (Pizza oven till 9:30 p.m.)

Bar 11 a.m. - midnight

Tuesday 

Lunch 11 a.m. -4:30 p.m.

Dinner 4:30 to 9 p.m. (Pizza oven till 9:30 p.m.)

Bar 11 a.m. - midnight

Wednesday 

Lunch 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Dinner 4:30 to 9 p.m. (Pizza oven till 9:30 p.m.)

Bar 11 a.m. - midnight

Thursday 

Lunch 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Dinner 4:30 to 9 p.m. (Pizza oven till 9:30 p.m.)

Bar 11 a.m. - midnight

Friday 

Lunch 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. 

Dinner 4:30 to 10 p.m. (Pizza oven till 10:30 p.m.)

Bar 11 -1 a.m.

Saturday 

Lunch 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Dinner 4:30 to 10 p.m. (Pizza oven till 10:30 p.m.)

Bar 11 a.m. -1 a.m.

Sunday 

Lunch 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Dinner 4:30 to 9 p.m. (Pizza oven till 9:30 p.m.)

Wood burning pizza till 4:30

Bar 11 a.m. -11 p.m.