Stamm House is a historical dining destination
Restaurant was once a stop on trail, speakeasy
Roughly 170 years ago, the Old Sauk Trail ran from Milwaukee to the Twin Cities, passing through what was then known as the Pheasant Branch settlement near the western edge of Dane County’s Lake Mendota.
It was a natural spot to build a store and stagecoach stop in 1847 to serve both the small community and travelers.
Five years later, it was converted to a hotel for itinerants, who took rooms on the second floor and tied up their horses, buggies and wagons in the back.
There was a tavern on the first level of the impressive limestone building, where locals and travelers alike could get a bite to eat.
Much has changed in Wisconsin since then, but the building — now known as 1847 at the Stamm House — is still serving meals in a structure that was lovingly restored starting four years ago by Troy Rost, a Nebraska native who has rehabbed 20 other old buildings in Dane County.
Before Rost and partner Jim Hagstrom got the structure, it went through several iterations, including a purported stop long ago on the Underground Railroad — complete with a mysterious and now bricked-in tunnel. It was also a dance hall and an oftraided speakeasy during Prohibition. The restaurant got its present title after the building was purchased in 1925 by Heine Fuller, who shortened “stammtisch,” which means "regulars table" in German, to Stamm.
Craig Madigan, a Detroit native who runs the restaurant, said it became a supper club in the 1950s and was known for its Friday night fish fries. In recent years the restaurant fell on hard times and Rost was able to buy it out of foreclosure in 2013.
“I’ve been rehabbing old properties since 2000 in Dane County, buildings that have interesting bones, but that no one else wants,” Rost said. “In this case, an architect I’ve worked with said the Stamm House would be right up my alley and I saw it as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
“Most buildings like that have either been redone or turned into museums,” said Rost, who figures he and his partners put $500,000 into the restoration, not including his sweat equity.
Rost and his crew first pulled the red wood siding off the building and gutted it, in the process “reimagining” how it would look. He said he tried to put himself in the place of the people who lived in what was essentially a wilderness back then, working with horses and wagons, hand tools and laboring in primitive sawmills that could cut huge beams.
“Some of the building’s internal posts had rotted, but its footings were good,” he said. “In fact, it was remarkable how intact the structure was, which says something about the craftsmanship that was practiced in those days.”
Rost took his time on the project, spending two years to uncover the old stonework and patch and repair the walls where needed.
He and his crew also replaced the front parking lot with an 88-person patio that is the largest outdoor dining locale in Middleton, the Madison suburb that absorbed Pheasant Branch.
Rost said he wanted to take the building back to its roots. He also wanted to honor the early Wisconsin residents who would have lived and worked in the region. To do that, he obtained numerous large photographs from the state historical society that show farmers, loggers, miners, American Indians and other stakeholders, including one striking shot of an African-American mason and another of a mostly happy family posing with a grim widow dressed in black.
The restaurant reopened in 2015 and tried to compete with what Madigan called Madison’s fancier, chef-driven restaurants.
“It was very ‘foodie,’” he said. “But it didn’t really speak to the community because people around here saw it as a fancy, special occasion place.”
The Stamm House went through several chefs before Madigan, who had run Johnny Delmonico’s and the Statehouse at the Edgewater Hotel in Madison, decided to return the restaurant to its supper club origins. He hired Sergio Lopez, who he’d worked with at Francesca’s al Lago on the Capitol Square, to run the kitchen.
Madigan also got Motor City friend Emelia Juocys, an associate of award-winning food author Michael Ruhlman, to create the modern supper-club menu. He also re-did the bar, focusing on Wisconsin beers and spirits, which he said are used to “make every kind of Old-Fashioned and Manhattan imaginable.”
“Essentially, we wanted this place to be about good food, and not have a chef over-complicating things,” he said. “That means steak and good lake fish. In fact, potato cheese pierogis are about the most exotic things we have on the menu and they are the topselling appetizer.”
There’s also the impressive Stamm Burger, made from certified Angus beef that comes with caramelized onions, arugula, tomatoes, crispy cheese curds and bacon-herb aioli on a buttered brioche bun.
“I’d say the food is a little better than regular supper club fare, but we won’t die on the sword for the farm-to-table label, though our produce is fresh and I’d match our steak with any other restaurant in town.”
When a friend and I dined at the Stamm House recently, we shared baked trout and hash-brown encrusted walleye entrees that were delicious. We also liked the fresh beans, garlic sauteed spinach and crispy brussel sprouts.
For dessert, we shared a blueberry crumble, a la mode, created by Hagstrom’s wife, whom Madigan called a pastry expert.
Madigan, who has three kids including a 16-yearold daughter who works with him at the restaurant, said he wanted the Stamm House to be family friendly. So he added a children’s menu, which he said parents appreciate.
“We’re not seen as special occasion so much anymore and that’s fine by me,” he said. More information:
The restaurant is open from 5 to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 5 to 10 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday for brunch and 5 to 10 p.m. for dinner, and from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sunday for brunch.
See 1847stammhouse.com or
call (608) 203-9430.
Getting there: The Stamm House, 6625 Century Ave., Middleton, is about 90 miles west of Milwaukee via I-94, Highway 113 and County Highway M.