RP Alder's - Thur., June 8, 2006

Address: 8202 Watts Road.
Phone: (608) 828-1250
Webpage: www.rpadlers.com

Out in the middle of the vast taupe expanse that is the urban sprawl of Madison’s far west side, comes yet another uninspiring bar called RP Adlers in yet another uninspiring cookie cutter strip mall. Having thought and hoped that we were done with visiting boring, uninspiring far west side bars, we were more than a little pissed when we found out about this newest opening.

RP Adlers was packed with young professionals enjoying a drink after work during our visit. The bar is to the left of the front foyer and the restaurant to the right. The bar is decorated with dark walnut wainscoting, terra cotta colored walls, hardwood floors and a mirrored walnut back bar. Large windows wrap around the room looking out at what should be a nice outdoor seating area, but isn’t. One of the amenities that a strip mall bar should offer when space is obviously not a constraint is a nice outdoor seating area.

RP Adlers has a large reasonably priced menu. Although our appetizer order wasn’t what we ordered, they were good. Tap beer selection includes Spotted Cow, Fosters, Capital Seasonal & Amber, Widmer Hefeweizen, Guinness, Lake Louie Seasonal, Newcastle, Red Hook Blonde, Bud Light, Miller Lite and Esser’s Best. A chintzy 14-oz pint of Spotted Cow runs $3.75 while the same size of Bud or Miller Lite runs $3.

If you live or work in the area, RP Adlers is a pleasant enough place to enjoy a drink, but it’s nothing special. The best we could score it was a C while a couple of us scored it a soulless C-.