i love restaurants with good lighting.

sunday afternoon, in between hours at the job, i snuck into borders for some quick reading and snagged a copy of madison magazine, whose cover suggested an oodle of cheap eat options inside its pages.

i suppose madison magazine's readers make substantially more than i do.

still, the mag managed to highlight a few spots i figured i'd keep in my pocket for a cold winter's day. with a list of 6 or 7 taquerias in madison featuring $1.50 tacos, testing out a new place was an obvious no brainer. so come monday, jon and i went out on gammon past the beltline to visit el cabrito for lunch. it's kind of a clean hole in the wall, sitting at the end of a mini-strip mall, next to a laundromat, which is next to a supermercado. i had potato tacos, i think, which were surprisingly yummy, but jon was less than thrilled about his el pastor and steak tacos. the long and short is that it's not exciting, but it's a lot of food and it's decent. it's not necessarily cheap (i think our meals were about $15 total) and i'd be just as happy to visit chipotle.

but again, this isn't part of the real date night. so let's move ahead to the evening.

at about 6:30, jon picked me up to head up to cafe porta alba (yet another feature in madison magazine's cheap eats issue), on butler street up near the capitol. i immediately recognized it as the old espresso royale, though the waitress shared that it had been through numerous different hands since those days - a few more coffee shops, a pizza spot, and finally cafe porta alba. the decor was just what i wanted. relaxed, warm, totally unpretentious, and simple. the warm track lighting on the ceiling, the large wood-fired pizza oven in the back of the dining room, and the size of the room all contributed to a feeling of intimacy. it reminded me of my favorite spots in chicago - it may be a little out of the way, but once you're there, the vibe is quite obviously this: stay and linger and enjoy.

i ordered the margherita pizza, which was excellently light on the sauce, just the right amount of cheese, but a little too stingy on the basil. jon ordered the margherita con salame, which arrived with perfectly sliced large circles of salame on nearly each slice of his pie. i devoured the entire thing.

before we left, i asked for a cappuccino which came with a few tablespoons of coffee grounds at the bottom (ugh), but i couldn't mention anything, because the waitress was so nice and friendly, i just didn't care. i drank as much as i could anyway. jon had an espresso which was - thankfully - fully ground and drinkable.

afterwards, we walked a few blocks over to cafe montmartre for half-price wine night and selected a bottle of pinot noir. i love cafe montmartre but it always makes me feel a little self-conscious, like i'm suddenly exposed in the view of all the trendy, hippie-ish, 20-somethings in madison, caught wearing my grey wool sweater from gap's 1998 fashion line. i shake my head at myself, throw back the last sips of wine, and pour myself a fuller glass. i really like montmartre, but i HAVE to remember to get in the zone before i go, otherwise, my emotions begin to run high, and pretty soon jon is left with a silently crying mess of a fiancee.

maybe it was just the wine.

overall? cafe porta alba is DEFINITELY a place to visit again. i'd be a regular there if i could.
and cafe montmartre is always a good bet - just make sure you call forth your inner hipster before you enter the doors.