Home to the Slow Food Movement, Harvest reconnects you to the love of the dining experience, with a passion for local sustainability.

Love. You won’t find it on any spice rack, but you can always taste its presence.

In recent years, food made with love has become a rarity, replaced by menus that are standardized and homogenized, leaving little room for regional or seasonal variation. Worse yet, we’ve left little room for passion or creativity in the kitchen.

Luckily, the Slow Food Movement is changing that. As the name implies, Slow Food is the antithesis of fast food. Instead of centralized production and corporate farming, the Slow Food philosophy promotes the enjoyment of foods that are locally-produced and sustainably-grown, seeking to reestablish the bonds between farmer and chef, between chef and food, and between food and heart.

These principles are embodied by the menu of Harvest, a local gem situated on the Capitol Square. This is not merely coincidence – the Madison chapter of the Slow Food Movement was founded by Harvest’s owner, restaurateur Tami Lax.

Here, artisan-crafted ingredients and heirloom-variety vegetables take center stage on the ever-changing, seasonal menu. Dishes are painstakingly but simply crafted to allow each flavor to shine, using time-honored cooking methods and ingredients with a modern twist.

Following the precedent set by its menu, the setting and service at Harvest are impeccable: simple and elegant, forward-thinking with a reverence for tradition. An amuse-bouche–a few bites designed to whet the appetite for what follows and presented as a gift from the chef–greets each guest upon seating, evoking a sense of occasion.

And an occasion it is sure to be. Reading through the menu is likely to introduce you to ingredients you haven’t heard of before, or pairings of flavors you’ve never imagined. Don’t be shy; ask the well-informed staff about a new flavor or ingredient that catches your fancy! After all, the Slow Food Movement is ultimately about education – reintroducing the world to forgotten ingredients and traditional methods, as well as simply informing diners of their meals’ origins.

Whatever you try, you can be assured that your meal was a labor of love from start to finish. From farm to table, Harvest is serving up a dedication to quality and a passion for flavor.

Harvest
21 N. Pinckney St
Madison
harvest-restaurant.com
(608) 255-6075