Evansville had a city-wide garage sale last week so a couple friends and I decided to go down there and shop. After driving around to the houses for a couple hours we decided to scour the downtown shops. They have three or four blocks of downtown shops. There are a couple vintage shops, some re-purposing shops, a consignment shop, and a kitchen store. It’s a really cute downtown. All of the buildings are historical and the road in those couple of blocks is brick! One of my friends started asking the locals where a good place to get lunch would be. They suggested a sub shop called Rock ‘N Rollz, a cafe, and the Night Owl sports bar. We were considering all three locations but settled on the Night Owl, probably because I bought these incredibly heaving UW cast iron bookends and the Night Owl was the closest place when we got hungry!
It’s a cute building on the outside but I got kind of worried when we walked in and it looked like a junky Wisconsin bar. I was pretty hungry so we decided to take the chance. After looking at the menu I was less concerned. They had standard bar food but they also had some really good restaurant specialties. The house burger, Ardy’s Special, sounded amazing with three different types of cheese, and grilled mushrooms and onions. Two of us got the Ardy’s Special and my other friend got a chicken BBQ sandwich. The fries come on the side so we split an order of beer battered and an order of cajun fries.
When the food came we were pleasantly surprised at the portions. The fries were extra but the menu didn’t mention that the sandwiches come with potato chips regularly. I’m not sure if the chips were homemade but they were very good! The beer battered fries were better than some with a great crispiness and very little grease. The cajun fries were also good with the perfect amount of salty spice and again very little grease.
The Ardy’s Special was a great choice! The burger was a good size and perfectly cooked but what made the burger so exceptional were the toppings. The three cheeses were thick and wonderfully melted. The onions and mushrooms were flavorful and plentiful. The burger and fries were an amazing deal for the portion and flavor!
FOODNOTES: The decor is simple but don’t let that fool you. The prices are amazing and burgers are just as good. The service was also impressive. Evansville is about a 30 minute drive from Madison so I won’t be a regular but I would definitely go back if I’m in the area.
Small Town Tourist 