Kyle Nabilcy
The thickburger at Orchard.
Choose between a thinner smashburger and this handful: the thickburger.
Distilleries, wineries and cider houses across southern Wisconsin have been putting big effort and no small amount of capital into renovations and new builds over the last decade. One of the latest to open is Verona’s Orchard, the new restaurant from The Cider Farm, a maker of ciders from heirloom cider apples, near Mineral Point. It describes itself as a farm-to-table gastropub. Let me tell you, it’s a vibe.
Orchard emerged from the late 2024 closure of The Cider Farm’s tasting room at Brennan’s Cellars on Madison’s west side, and the former spot’s farmstand character is nowhere to be seen. Orchard is more farmcore than farm, a well-manicured Chip and Joanna Gaines-type affair with classy lighting and a minimalist wall decor scheme that evokes both barn slats and tree trunks in a pretty cool way.
It’s a great spot, convenient for the locals to meet after work or before picking up kids at the high school next door, but if you live in Madison or points east, you probably want to know if Orchard is enough to draw you to the far end of fair Verona and, well, that’s complicated.
The Orchard menu isn’t breaking any new ground; it’s the standard modern American casual sit-down fare. The menu is divided into salads, shareables, pizzas, sandwiches and a few larger entrees. There’s a choice between a smashburger or a more traditionally thick patty — a thickburger? Bucking the smashburger trend, I went for the thickburger (called The Orchard). It’s a handful, saucy, and with lots of bacon that brings some essential salt to a lightly seasoned patty.
There are fried cod tacos (as well as the nearly mandatory Friday fish fry), and they’re as generously proportioned as the Orchard burger, but also as lightly seasoned. I’d love a more flavorful crema on the tacos, and also found myself missing the crunch of cabbage over the easily wilted arugula.
But if you’d normally overlook a restaurant mac and cheese as a little pedestrian, think again. This one, which replaces the usual tubular noodle with radiatori, delivers good cheesiness and smooth texture, as well as some fresh cheese curds just sort of tossed on top, because why not. The dish is available with an add-on of truffle hot chicken, bringing the price from $17 (plain) to $23. While owner John Biondi told me the truffle hot sauce is made in-house, and I found it legitimately tasty, that price is a bit much.
Generally, prices feel high at Orchard. Portion sizes are frequently large, but I don’t really want to eat that many mini andouille corn dogs when the casing is still rubbery and the sausages don’t deliver andouille’s zing. The cheese curds come in the same thick hushpuppy-esque cornmeal batter, and they’re heavy.
Kyle Nabilcy
Walleye and eggs at Orchard.
Brunch fave: Superior walleye and eggs.
Lamb meatballs were properly seasoned, but the texture was dense and dry. A margherita pizza’s crust continued Orchard’s tendency toward doughy carbs, though there was ample mozzarella.
My most satisfying visit to Orchard was for brunch. The Sunny Start breakfast sandwich is the sum of its bacon/egg/cheese parts, but the Superior walleye and eggs (a nod to the humble Wisconsin diner dish that I was thrilled to find here) features a lemon butter sauce I would take more of, and nicely crisped cornmeal crust. You’ll also never hear me speak ill of mini donuts, certainly not the crisp and fresh little beauties found here.
So, could Orchard dial in its seasoning and finishing a bit? Are the servers, broadly, on the green side? (There is a high school right across the parking lot, so perhaps that’s understandable.) Are the ciders a little indistinct? Yes to all of these, though the ciders’ differences might be better appreciated in a flight than across my weeks of several visits. Orchard is still an extremely pleasant space in which to spend some time. And Verona can always use more of those.
Orchard
881 W. Verona Ave., Verona
608-514-4478; orchardrestaurants.com
$10-$30
