If there’s one thing that alumni hate, it’s change, at least with respect to their college town.
In February 2025, the Badger community received an almost inconceivable shock: Paul’s Books had closed for the last time. When On Wisconsin magazine published the news, grads wrote in to share their sorrow. It was “the saddest article,” one wrote, and another was “profoundly grieved,” while others shared wistful memories.
Seven decades of students had visited the used bookstore since its establishment in 1954. Very few living alumni could remember a time when 670 State Street had been occupied by anything else. The musty, dusty space, with its wooden shelves, pressed-tin ceiling, mismatched rugs, and entirely random stock of books, was a temple of analog culture.
Freshmen who arrived in Madison last fall will now remember 670 State as a T-shirt shop called Raygun. Its window advertises it as “The Greatest Store in the Universe.”
Though Paul’s is no longer a State Street storefront, the Badgers who mourn it shouldn’t feel completely bereft: they can still get their fix of musty old books, if they venture a little farther from campus and check out Augie’s Cellar Door Books in Madison’s Atwood neighborhood. The proprietor, August McGinnity-Wake ’17, bought around 2,000 books from Paul’s stock (as well as the shop’s hand-lettered shelf signs) to try to re-create at least a little of the old bookstore’s vibe and provide shoppers with access to out-of-print math textbooks and old copies of Asterix the Gaul.
“Like a lot of Madisonians, I was really bummed when I heard Paul’s was closing,” says McGinnity-Wake. “But unlike a lot of Madisonians, I had an opportunity to do something about it.”
McGinnity-Wake bought Paul’s collection of literature and literary criticism, and he’s been expanding his offerings as fast as he can, bringing in hardcovers and paperbacks from estate sales and from people who are downsizing and no longer have shelf space for all their favorite volumes. McGinnity-Wake hopes to sell them and find them a new home — though the temptation to get wise on his own supply by reading (and hoarding) his stock has been strong.
“I try not to pull books out of the collection to keep for myself,” he says, though there have been exceptions: a biography of Ford Madox Ford, Graham Greene’s early novel Rumour at Nightfall, Elaine and Harry Mensh’s Black, White, and Huckleberry Finn have all found their way out of circulation and into his home. But overall, he keeps the books available to buyers. “My relationship to books has changed a lot,” he says. “I try to own fewer and share more.”
So if you miss Paul’s, try Augie’s.
And for those who want to re-create other long-gone college experiences, we’ve put together a guide to help you find a reliable approximation of your memories.
Miss Ovens of Brittany’s morning buns? Try the ones at La Brioche.
Ovens of Brittany offered a high-calorie breakfast treat with its beloved morning buns, made with croissant dough and plenty of cinnamon sugar. Its original location operated at 305 State Street from 1972 until 1995, and its last location closed in 2000. The staff at Ovens of Brittany was made up of “young people, novices, operating from their heart,” according to the website for Madison restaurant La Brioche True Food. “Many former employees — cooks, bakers, managers, waitstaff — went on to create their own restaurants which were highly successful.” La Brioche is one of those restaurants. It was founded by one of Brittany’s co-owners, David Yankovich, who opened La Brioche Bakery on State Street in 1988 before moving to its current location on Midvale Boulevard in 1995. La Brioche offers a similar morning bun, along with a strong connection to the original Brittany’s.
Miss Ella’s Deli’s grilled pound cake hot fudge sundae? Try the brownie boat at Babcock Dairy Store.
Different generations of Badgers can argue about which location was the true Ella’s Deli, the original on State Street or the longer-lived spot on East Washington Avenue. At both sites, Ella’s offered traditional Jewish deli favorites such as matzo ball soup and noodle kugel, but its star attractions were on the dessert menu. The biggest star of all — both in popularity and in size — was the grilled pound cake hot fudge sundae, a concoction as understated as the constantly moving mechanical toys that filled Ella’s East Wash location.
Ella’s closed in 2018, but if you want a dessert served stacked on another dessert, you can find one without leaving campus. Babcock’s brownie boat offers warm brownies, three scoops of ice cream, caramel, fudge, whipped cream, and a cherry.
“It is HUGE,” says Bethany Jones, a communications specialist for Babcock Dairy. “I love brownies; I love brownie sundaes; but with three scoops of ice cream, all the fixings, it’s more dessert than I usually eat in a month.”
Miss spaghetti from the Italian Village? Try Lombardino’s.
The Italian Village (or IV) at 651 State Street was a favorite for Badgers from 1947 to 1966 — often a first introduction to Italian food in an era when pasta was an exotic treat. The IV was founded by Sicilian immigrant Mateo Lombardino. He went on to run Lombardino’s at the corner of University Avenue and Highland Avenue. You can still get spaghetti there, whether with a meaty bolognese or topped simply with tomato and basil.
Miss pizza from Gino’s? Try Ian’s.
Gino Gargano owned Gino’s in the 500 block of State Street. Gino’s closed in 2013, slicing a pizza-shaped hole in the hearts of Badger alumni. But Ian’s Pizza has been running on State Street (and three other Madison locations) since October 2001. It may not have the thick, Sicilian-style crust that Gino’s offered, but over the last two decades, creator Ian Gurfield has won over Madisonians with his inventive toppings, including the famously Wisconsin-friendly macaroni-and-cheese pizza.
Miss the Donut Factory? Try Zippy Lube.
Badger students love a doughnut at every hour, and grads from the 1970s remember the Donut Factory on Regent Street, where the fare was simple (three varieties) and priced for a student budget. In 1971, you could get a dozen for 75 cents. (That’s about $6.17 in today’s dollars.) At Zippy Lube on Sherman Avenue (owned by alum Ben Altshul ’10), you may not get doughnuts for six-and-a-half cents apiece, but they’re served hot and fresh for $7.99 per dozen, from 7 in the morning to 8 at night.
Miss the Garibaldi at Paisan’s? Try MacTaggart’s.
The Garibaldi from Paisan’s was a truly unique Madison treat. Paisan’s invented this sandwich, and it didn’t appear on a menu anywhere else in the world, except at Paisan’s sister restaurant, Porta Bella — and it’s unclear why the chef named it for Italy’s nation-building hero Giuseppi Garibaldi. The recipe remains secret, but it included ham, salami, cheese, tomatoes, and peppers on French bread, the whole thing toasted.
If you miss the Garibaldi, you can re-create the experience at another longtime campus-area favorite, MacTaggart’s Market and Deli on West Lakelawn Place, just north of Langdon Street. MacTaggart’s was founded by Tim Taggart in 1985, essentially as a grocery serving the student-heavy population of the Langdon Street neighborhood. Taggart wanted to highlight his Scottish heritage, and so he lengthened the shop’s name by adding Mac. Students rejected the lengthening and almost universally refer to it as “Tagg’s.”
Since 1991, Rick Shober and his husband, Ken Kaiser x’91, have owned the joint, and over time, its business has evolved to focus on made-to-order breakfast and lunch items.
“Before COVID, we were mostly a grocery,” Schober says. “Since then, we’ve been mainly a sandwich and breakfast sandwich shop.”
If you want to try to re-create a Garibaldi, you’ll have to order it a la carte. All Tagg’s sandwiches are made fresh, while you wait. Ask for smoked ham, Genoa salami, three-pepper Colby cheese, tomato, and banana peppers on a sub roll, served hot. Then get a stamp on your frequent-buyer card, because 10 purchases gets you a free sandwich, and you’ll likely be back.
Miss date night at Porta Bella? Try Lucille’s.
Earlier this year, Porta Bella closed for the last time. The Italian restaurant on Frances Street had hosted innumerable first dates over its 58 years of operation, and many Badgers wept when it shut its doors — whether those first dates led to lasting relationships or ended with awkward handshakes.
To find a modern substitute, we asked our intern Bella Wolfe x’27, in part because she’s a current student who has had a date, and in part because she shares half a name with the departed restaurant.
Wolfe suggested Lucille, an Italian restaurant on King Street just off Capitol Square. “They even have date-night deals on Wednesdays.”
But she also cautioned that there’s a reason why date-night restaurants suffer in Madison. “Honestly,” she says, “I don’t know anyone who has gone out to dinner for a first date.”
Miss Jingles? Try Lucky’s 1313.
On football Saturdays, Badgers like a watering hole that’s within walking distance from Camp Randall. For many years, Jingles Stadium Bar on Monroe Street was that hole. Bill “Jingles” O’Brien sold it in 1999, and it closed for good in April 2013. But Lucky’s 1313 on Regent, owned by former UW basketball player Rod Ripley ’87, MAcc’88, offers a brewpub atmosphere, plenty of sports, and shuttles to the Kohl Center for Badger games that are farther away than Camp Randall.
Miss Botany 240: Plants and Man? Try the cooking classes at Orange Tree Imports.
For four decades, from 1971 until his retirement in 2010, botany professor Tim Allen combined education, entertainment, and culinary advice in his popular lecture class, Botany 240: Plants and Man. Allen, who died in 2025, would stand before the rows of students and tell them about the biological, sociological, and political aspects of plants while chopping, dicing, and cooking those same plants into a delicious, nutritious dinner.
Botany 240 still exists, though it’s now called Plants and Humans and its emphasis has shifted. But if you miss cooking lessons, you can always head up Monroe Street to Orange Tree Imports.
Carol “Orange” Schroeder MA’74 and her husband, Dean, opened Orange Tree the year after she graduated from the UW — Orange being a nickname that her college roommate gave her, due to her red hair. (She is not, she insists, a carrot-top — “Carrot tops are green,” she says.) The store offers an eclectic mix of toys, decorations, pots, pans, spices, and specialty foods, some produced locally and others imported from Europe. They added their cooking school in 1981, bringing in local chefs to teach patrons how to use the various gadgets from the store’s inventory. The courses run two or three times a week from September to November, though the space is much smaller than a UW–Madison lecture hall and can accommodate only eight to 10 students.
“One of the things that I wish I could have convinced my younger self to do was make that cooking school area bigger,” Schroeder says. “We have really great chefs come in, and the classes are very popular, but we’re at capacity, so it’s an intimate experience.”
Miss the Pad’s sandwiches and coffee? Try Madison Sourdough.
Ever since Starbucks arrived on State Street in the late 1990s, fancy coffee has been the bourgeois beverage of choice in Madison. But in the 1950s, a coffee house was a haven for beatniks, and the heppest coffee in Madison could be found at the Pad, which opened at 527 State in 1959. An early newspaper ad highlighted its “caffe expresso.” The Pad “used to come about as close to a coffee house as Madison has ever seen,” wrote a jaded editorialist in the Daily Cardinal, until it moved to 414 W. Gilman in 1965 and lost its java cool to “a growing take-out sandwich business.” Those sandwiches then became a legend on their own. But the Pad closed in the 1970s. If you miss it, you can still get a first-rate sandwich and high-quality coffee at Madison Sourdough, which opened in 1993 and has been on Williamson, or “Willy” Street since 2010.
Andrew Hutchison ’06 bought Madison Sourdough with David Lohrentz ’92, MBA’99, and Hutchison now focuses on the legacy and the artistry of classic bread-making.
“I became really interested in sourdough baking after starting work at Madison Sourdough Company in June 2006,” he says. “The history and culture surrounding that style of baking were captivating. As an artist, I learned a lot about the throughlines of art history in contemporary art and felt a similar historical connection in the traditions of baking sourdough bread. I started to believe I had something to contribute to that tradition.”
When Hutchison and Lohrentz bought the shop, they decided that it should be not just a bakery but also a café that serves ready-to-eat sandwiches and treats, as well as a range of hot and cold coffee drinks.
“We didn’t create our food menu and our sandwiches until we moved from the west side of Madison to our current location on Willy Street, where we built a proper kitchen, bakery, and dining area,” says Hutchison.
The grilled cheese is served on rustic sourdough and comes with a side of soup. “Expresso” is extra.
