Words by Jesse Serwer

I knew I would be drinking plenty of beer and eating lots of good food when I visited Madison, Wisconsin this past April, but I wouldn’t have guessed that this consumption would include washing down a plate of spicy jerk chicken with several bottles of Red Stripe. I also wouldn’t have figured while having that jerk and Red Stripe that I would only have to walk a few feet down the street to top it off with glasses of Barbancourt and Appleton Reserve—in a cozy yet comfortable nightspot with echoes of Negril. But such are the wonders of Williamson Street, a quiet commercial and residential street just outside of Madison’s much livelier downtown.