A half-century ago, Odessa Piper opened L’Etoile at 25 N. Pinckney St. on the Capitol Square. Fittingly located across the street from the Dane County Farmers’ Market, L’Etoile quickly became the nucleus of the Midwest farm-to-table movement, putting the locally-sourced ingredients used in its dishes front and center.
Piper sold L’Etoile in 2005 to its current owner, Tory Miller. On the City Cast Madison podcast today, host Bianca Martin talks to Piper and Miller together about how they are celebrating the restaurant’s lasting legacy.
As the restaurants celebrates its golden anniversary with special events, such as a dinner on March 31 featuring James Beard Award-winning chefs from the Milwaukee area, here’s what you need to know about L’Etoile past and present.
The Roots of Farm-To-Table Dining
Piper was drawn to move to Wisconsin by the organic farms that proliferated in the late 1960s. In 1972 (the same year the Dane County Farmers’ Market opened), she helped open Ovens of Brittany, a celebrated restaurant that sourced much of its food from its own farm.
She broke off on her own to open L’Etoile in 1976, inspired by the cuisine of northern France. Every Saturday, Piper would take her wagon over to the farmers’ market and load it up with ingredients to use at L’Etoile.
As a result, its menu wasn’t set in stone, but created in response to the growing seasons and what could be found at the market. Each dinner service begins with the server telling the diners exactly where their food came from, making each meal an education as well as an experience.
“At L'Etoile, we believe supporting our local farmers and artisan producers has a direct impact on our community,” the restaurant says on its website. “It strengthens local economies; it encourages variety and enriches our food traditions; it promotes health and wellness by offering menus made from natural, seasonal and wholesome ingredients.”
Her approach drew chefs from larger cities like Chicago and Minneapolis curious about her approach (and jealous that her restaurant was located so close to one of the country’s biggest farmer’s markets.). When she won a James Beard Award in 2001, Madison’s place at the center of the farm-to-table movement was secure.
Odessa Piper sold L’Etoile to Tory Miller in 2005. (Photo courtesy of L’Etoile)
Changing Hands
Piper sold L’Etoile to her chef, Tory Miller, in 2005, and Dianne Christensen came on two years later as a co-owner. While Miller has continued the ethos of L’Etoile (now he’s the one taking his wagon to the farmers market on Saturdays), he’s also taken the restaurant into the future.
With its aging original location outliving its usefulness, Miller moved L’Etoile to its current glass-fronted spot overlooking the Square at 1 S. Pinckney St. in 2010. The same year, he opened Graze next door, a gastropub younger sibling to L’Etoile. It was Miller’s turn to win a James Beard Award in 2012.
As a reviewer for Eater wrote in 2016, the dishes at L’Etoile have the elegance of upscale restaurants in major cities. But what sets them apart is that “the ingredients brim with such life, such barefaced freshness, that they transcend the fussy presentations and radiate goodness.”
The kitchen at L’Etoile has become a launching pad for Madison chefs who have transformed the local dining scene. Itaru Nagano and Andrew Kroeger went on to create Fairchild, and the two also won James Beard Awards in 2023. Jamie Brown-Soukaseume went on to found Ahan (and the new Ba Lao cocktail bar), Evan Dannells opened Cadre and Lola’s Hi/Lo Lounge, and Eric Rupert founded Fortune Favors candied pecans.
