Alimentari

Alimentari kept getting hyped to me as the takeout sandwich spot in Madison, so I showed up hungry and started firing off orders. It lived up to it.

The Spicy Soppressata is as big as my head. They use Madison Sourdough bread baked fresh every day and you can immediately tell. Capicola, hot giardiniera spread, muenster, Tuscan greens and mayo. I thought the bread-to-sandwich ratio might be off because it's so thick, but it's perfect.

The farro salad got me and I am not a salad guy. Butternut squash and raisins is a weirdly great combo: some bites earthy, other bites straight flavor. The cannoli was unreal, and that's basically all I need to say about it.

It's a cute little space: boutique grocery on the left, sandwich chaos straight ahead, baked goods and a wine market situation too. There's no seating, so it's grab-and-go. Wingra Park is close enough to make it a park lunch.

I don't say this lightly. Alimentari might be my favorite sandwich spot in Wisconsin right now.