I’m a huge fan of Context Clothing’s mailing list and thought it would be a fun drive drive up to Madison, WI to check out the store in person.  I talked my brother (who used to cover men’s fashion) and my friend Doug McCombs (who also knows a thing or two about men’s fashion) and off we went.

Well, not so fast.  We had to stop at Lula first.

We grab our iced coffee and hit the road.  Led Zeppelin 2, Obits, and Wipers get us most of the way there.  We were making amazing time (almost under two hours?) until we came up on an accident on the road.  A 8 squad cards and an ambulance surrounding a flipped minivan.  Yikes.

Brady effortlessly navigates us around Madison (he used to go to school here) and we find the place.  Looks pretty nice from the outside, let’s go in!  Oh, hello to you also.  Did I know that you are having a sale?  Really?  APC half off you say?  ts (s) as well?  This could be a problem.  I went a little crazy, while the other guys tried stuff on and talked leather belts with the guys in the shop.  The vest I found fit me like a glove, and they had some great Gitman Brothers ties too.  Score!

Time for some lunch.  We walked around the capital building and found one of our recommended joints over looking the square.  Graze looked like my kind of a place, and was I right.  My standard opening question to bartenders is “what beer do you have on tap that’s made closest to where we are standing?”  They all were.  Fried pickles?  It would be wrong not to.  Doug had a crazy looking bahn mi sandwich (in a good way) and Brady had a sick (in a good way) hamburger.  All local meat and produce.  Huge window with sunlight streaming in.  I could stay here all day, but we need to get back in Chicago!!

Trying to beat rush hour traffic we zoomed by Bradbuy’s Coffee for an espresso, or “shooter” if your Doug.  They had a Kickapoo blend and a single origin espresso.  Yum.  Got caught in a hailstorm on the way out of town, and bogus rush hour traffic back near Chicago too, but was worth it.