How could you possibly top great pizza and service? Oh yeah - amazing beer! Lucille's is hands down one of Madison's best pizza places. It's not often that my wife and I can have a date out where it's just the two of us; so when we go downtown we'll often consider treating ourselves to a pizza date night at Lucille's - especially during the holidays when they do "Miracle on King Street" and transform into a Christmas-themed pop-up cocktail bar. However, even if it's not for a dinner date we'll more often than not make an effort to dine there with our little ones. Honestly for me it's one of the best places in Madison, and I love the ambiance in there. For starter's their gourmet pizzas are delicious. But what really separates Lucille's from most pizza places is their beer selection. I don't know who manages their beer selection, but they have a great rotating tap of around two dozen craft beers and you'll often be delighted to find awesome rare releases like Surly Darkness there as well - which if you don't know about... well then you're missing out.

Anyway, good beer plus delicious pizza is always a winning combination, but the real reason we come back to Lucille's time and time again is the outstanding service we always get there. I've been to a lot of restaurants, but Lucille's stands out in my mind as a cut above. I think the best example I can provide of this is once when we ordered a specialty pie and got half way through eating it when we realized it was missing one of the main toppings it was supposed to have. We politely mentioned this small oversight to our waiter and he promptly ordered us up a new pizza (which was more than satisfactory), but when we got our bill we saw that unbeknownst to us, he had comped us for the pizzas. I don't know if that's a restaurant policy of if Lucille's just empowers their staff to ensure their customers have great experiences, but it worked. I mean not only did we tip him as if the pizza had been on the bill, but we added a little extra; and it's certainly a story we've shared with numerous friends.

So in summary if you've got friends or family in town or are just looking for a great place to eat in Madison, I highly recommend Lucille's. You can't beat the level of service you'll get there; and the pizza and beer are like no pairing you'll find anywhere else in the area.