Daisy Café and Cupcakery, an east side Madison staple since 2009, has announced it will close as of Aug. 26.
“We have so many special stories about customers, employees and social good groups that we’ve loved,” Daryl Sisson, who owns the space with his wife Kathy Brooks, wrote in a recent email. He said there’s no news yet on what’s next for the space at 2827 Atwood Ave., which they lease.
In addition to Daisy, The Ready Set, open in Oregon since February 2022, has served its last burger. On Aug. 4, the owners posted on Instagram, “we have decided to close our doors. A sincere thank you to the community of Oregon and everyone else who supported us.”
Finally, Kettle Black Kitchen, a Monroe Street restaurant born out of pandemic-era freezer meals, announced it will pass the torch to a new family. Notably, Kettle Black won’t close — it’s a sale, said chef/owner Brian Hamilton.
“I’m considering this a win,” Hamilton said. “My main goal wasn’t to open a restaurant and sell it three years later, but life happens. I’ve got to take care of my dad, take care of my daughter.
“It wasn’t a money thing, more like a life thing. I think the new family is going to do great.”
Daisy Cafe's four “Cs”
Sisson and Brooks opened Daisy Café in May 2009, at a time when cupcakes were already booming on the coasts.
“We had no idea it would take off like it did,” Brooks told Our Lives magazine a few years later, after more cupcake shops popped up around Madison. “We were the first within a very short period of time.”
Daisy became known as a family friendly café, with no deep-fryer but plenty of vegetarian options and a thoughtful kids’ menu. Early reviews praised the breakfast dishes served all day, omelets and stratas leading into evening fish fry, smash burgers and classic meatloaf.
Not long after opening, Cap Times critic Susan Troller wrote “the cupcakes are their own best advertising. They’re baked fresh from scratch every day … the cake itself is moist and airy, and the frosting flavorful but not too sweet.”
In its good-bye message on social media, Sisson and Brooks wrote that the café’s opening premise was summed up in “four Cs” — “café, cupcakes, coffee, community.”
“We are proud to have employed so many authentic, caring, much-loved employees,” they wrote. “And we know that we’ve made important ongoing financial contributions to local groups that work toward the social good like Porchlight (supporting the homeless), The Rainbow Coalition (supporting victims of domestic abuse), libraries, schools, fire and police departments.”
Changes wrought by COVID, they wrote, were “brutal, and we are proud to have survived the worst ofit. But the post-COVID difficulties continue, and it’s just too much.”
Previous restaurants in the space included Leske’s Supper Club, the Arthouse Café and Bunky’s Café. Sisson and Brooks say no business lasted there longer than theirs.
Upon news of their closing, dozens of fans shared memories of wedding brunches, breakfast with kiddos, carrot cake walnut cupcakes and vegetarian scrambles.
“We will miss you terribly,” one fan wrote. “My husband and I met at Daisy’s, were engaged there and have celebrated so many other special moments. … pretty please sell a cookbook with all your tasty foods, especially that biscuitsand gravy recipe.”
The Ready Set shutters
The Ready Set, a small-town restaurant aiming to be “a little bit of everything to everybody,” opened in February 2022 in the former location of Charlie’s on Main.
It was one of several restaurants run by Good Bothers Hospitality, including an east side Madison tavern, Brothers Three Bar & Grill, and Good Company at the Pioneer Pointe golf course. Matt Stebbins was the primary owner, and the menu ranged from pizza and pastas to steak and martinis.
This past weekend, The Ready Set announcedits closure, effective immediately. Some posters on Facebook noted that they still have gift cards to redeem. (Requests to the business, including Stebbins and business partner Noelle Tarpey, were not returned by press time.)
A new Kettle Black
When Brian Hamilton announced that Kettle Black Kitchen, his restaurant at 1835 Monroe St., would pass into new hands, reactions were split.
“A lot of people think when a place closes, it’s a bad thing,” Hamilton said, but “it’s very much a positive situation.”
Hamilton had a decades-long history in the local restaurant industry before starting a meal kit service in 2020. In 2021, he took over the space that had been Joon, Burgrito’s and Double S BBQ.
He mostly ran Kettle Black Kitchen solo, with help from family and a few industry friends.
“In general, it was a one man show,” he said. “And it’s too much for even a small place. I couldn’t really meet the full potential.”
Hamilton ran the restaurant for “60 hours a week for three and a half years,” and “it feels like what I ate three meals a day was adrenaline and anxiety.” Meanwhile his aging father in New York needed more support than Hamilton could give with intermittent visits, and his wife Alicia’s business, Bohemian Oasis, was booming.
On July 29, Hamilton finalized the paperwork for a new family to take over Kettle Black Kitchen. The chef will be Chris Lund, recently the executive chef at Draper Brothers Chop House and before that, chef de cuisine at The Mission in Scottsdale, Arizona.
They’re calling the new iteration of the restaurant KBK, and it will serve new American cuisine with Latin influences. Lund cited Peruvian and Venezuelan cuisine he made in the southwest under chef Matt Carter, and intends to put his own spin on some of Hamilton’s dishes as well.
“I enjoyed the steakhouse, learning more of that traditional American cuisine,” said Lund, who’s from the California Bay Area. “Now I’m going more into my roots. There’s only a certain amount of creativity you can do, cooking with restrictions, and now I have none. So expect some weird stuff.”
A fewdishes he is considering are a smoked brisket empanada with cream sauce and pickled red onion, and Faroe Islands salmon with smoked chili risotto.
Lund is a co-owner of the restaurant with his wife, Emily, and his in-laws, David and Sara Anderson. Sara worked for a time at the beloved Alt n’ Bach’s Town Tap and will run the front of house. The Andersons live on Madison’s near west side, and their three children went to West High School.
“We plan on having game-day stuff, to take advantage of the hundred thousand people down here,” Sara said, namely smash burgers, wings and brats.
The family is already redecorating KBK with an “eclectic” vibe and hopes to open by mid-August, “sooner rather than later,” Lund said. They’re taking over KBK’s social media accounts (@kettleblackkitchen on Instagram) and will make their own introductions soon.
Hamilton “worked really hard and built something with his family,” Anderson said. “We want to respect that.”
