The dining room at Water Street Tavern looks like something out of the 1950s. There’s a working rotary telephone behind the bar, midcentury modern-inspired furniture and a cigarette machine that’s been converted into a vending machine for miniature art prints.
The Stoughton restaurant opened in 2022 after taking over the riverfront building previously home to bar and grill Nauti Norske. After a year, Water Street Tavern closed for renovations, reopening in fall 2024 as the retro-modern supper club that’s there today.
The renovation also created an opportunity to fine-tune the menu. Matt Adkins, an operations manager at Water Street Tavern, refers to the restaurant’s elevated supper club staples, like the clam chowder and the steak sandwich, as “barely updated classics.” Another dish, the chicken cordon bleu, has been a standout since 2024. The kitchen staff once tried to swap it out for something else, and regulars took notice. “There were almost riots,” jokes Amelia Rhinerson, Water Street Tavern’s front of house manager. To appease guests, they put the dish back on the menu, this time served in medallion form alongside mashed potatoes and bacon-topped Brussels sprouts.
The chicken cordon bleu has a dijon bechamel sauce and comes with mashed potatoes and brussels sprouts.
Photo by Nikki Hansen
Water Street Tavern features a different menu special nearly every day it’s open, Wednesday through Saturday. On Wednesday’s date night, couples can choose three courses from a prix fixe menu for $75. The kitchen tries out new recipes on some Thursdays — the pork tenderloin that is now a permanent menu item started as a special. The restaurant offers a Wisconsin fish fry on Fridays and a prime rib special on Saturdays.
This is the first summer that Water Street Tavern is serving weekend brunch. Dishes like eggs Benedict and stuffed French toast are intended to feel elevated yet approachable. “We don’t want to scare people away,” says Adkins, “but we also want people to experience something a little bit different than what you normally get [in Stoughton].”
However, no dish outshines the restaurant’s most iconic feature: its large outdoor seating areas alongside the Yahara River. In addition to those spaces, Water Street Tavern has a 35-seat dining room that converts into a partially covered patio. Come spring, the staff spends a day removing the heaters, carpet and temporary vinyl walls to prepare for the covered patio’s highly anticipated return.
Tiny Treasures
Photo by Nikki Hansen
Water Street Tavern is home to one of more than 200 active Art-o-mat machines in the country. A concept created by North Carolina-based artist Clark Whittington, Art-o-mats are refurbished cigarette machines which dispense tiny works of art. Items in Water Street’s machine include prints, sculptures, jewelry and more — each made by a different artist to fit inside a cigarette box.
Lily Spanbauer is a contributing writer to Madison Magazine.
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Dining and Cooking