Moxie, which opened last fall, is adding a hip, playful note to Madison’s restaurant scene.
The fun begins with the chartreuse-colored International Scout parked in front of the gray Wall Street building. Moxie owner William Plunkett restored the vehicle a few years ago. “I’ve always like them, and they’re fun to drive,” he says.
Billed as a “new American” restaurant, the lively bar and grill serves updated comfort food along with craft beers and cocktails.
“I had a vision of a very simple menu of American comfort food with words you could spell and pronounce and not feel intimidated to say,” he says.
Plunkett hired executive chef Derek Seigfried, a graduate of the New England Culinary Institute in Montpelier, VT, to develop that vision. Seigfried joined Moxie after 3-1/2 years working with Denise Appel at Zinc in New Haven where he began as a grill cook and ascended to sous chef.
Seigfried’s personal favorite on the menu is the Fishnet, the fish of the day served over a colorful mix of Israeli couscous, endive, golden beets and pomegranate seeds with blood orange vinaigrette. “It’s light and refreshing but still has big wintry flavors,” he says, adding that daily catch might be blackfish, mahi, halibut or swordfish.
The meat dishes have proven to be most popular with customers, however. The dinner menu features bourbon-glazed baby back ribs with ancho chili sweet potato mash and pickled peaches ($24); pork tenderloin with bacon-potato cake, fried Brussels sprouts and mojo sauce ($23); and a classic burger ($12) with variations. Rounding out the menu are meatless dishes such as curried squash risotto, which is both vegan and gluten-free, and a housemade beet and pinto veggie burger.
The burgers are a staple on the lunch menu that also offers soup, starters and “samwiches” such the Frenchie ($14), shaved top round with gouda, onions and chipotle jus, and the Flat Tire Reuben ($13), pastrami on rye with gouda, brown sugar and bacon cabbage and comeback sauce.
Moxie switches to a bar menu of light snacks between lunch and dinner service and from 9 to 11 p.m. weeknights and 10 p.m. to midnight on Friday and Saturday.
In developing Moxie, Plunkett hoped to draw a clientele from across all age groups, but he’s especially excited with the younger crowd who has found the restaurant. “We were hoping for that [demographic], and it’s been great,” he says.
Bartender Helen Blanchard has created a menu of specialty cocktails and, as a fan of craft beers, offers a rotating list of about eight microbrews daily. About half of those labels are brewed in Connecticut.
Plunkett, a general contractor who developed the concept for the popular Bar Bouchée, also in Madison, bought the Moxie building five years ago. Built in 1852 as a single-family residence by a local shipwright, the building also has housed a Masonic Lodge, a doctor’s office and a real estate agency over the years. When Plunkett considered buying the building, the amount of property behind the structure, which he could use for parking, clinched the deal. “Parking is critical here,” he says. “Without it, we couldn’t have opened.”
Plunkett says he worked on the building “in fits and starts.” “One of the reasons [the restaurant] looks as it does is because we took the time to make it interesting,” he says. He worked with Guilford architect Elise Hergan to create contemporary atmosphere whose design elements are as “from-scratch” as the kitchen. “If you see it, we built it, except for the chairs,” he says. “I wanted a juxtaposition between casual and sophisticated.”
The bar and dining room are laden with texture, bursts of color and interesting details: red chairs, the contrast of smooth metals and rough barnwood, charcoal walls and banquettes. Bookshelves holding books, model cars and International Scout miniatures decorate the dining room, which seats about 30.
Pendant lighting casts a warm glow throughout the bar, which has seating at both tables and the poured concrete and barnwood bar. Rustic beams traverse the soaring cathedral ceiling, while an overhead garage door opens onto an outdoor deck in good weather. The dining room is more formal but still casual. “It’s the same restaurant but there are two different feels,” Plunkett says. “You can sit in the dining room and have a quiet conversation, then come back [to the bar] and have a drink.”
The Moxie logo is incorporated into the design, appearing on glasses and coasters. On a New Year’s holiday trip to Santa Fe, Plunkett came across a clothing store by the name of Moxie, and the name clicked.
“I was looking for a name that showed what I wanted to do with the restaurant,” he says. Plus, “anything with an X in it is a good word.”
>>Moxie, 52 Wall St., Madison, is open for lunch, Thursday through Sunday, 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m, and for dinner, Tuesday through Sunday, 4:30 to 9 p.m., and Friday and Saturday, 4:30 to 10 p.m. Information: 203-421-6963 and www.moxie-bar.com.
