When we’re thinking about the good times, we’re often thinking about the people who were there to share them with us. So what’s the point of eating out if you’re not planning on having a good time? You might bump into a familiar face, share a few laughs with some new ones, or simply enjoy the company of friends and family at the table. Phillip Hurley and John Gadau have opened a handful of successful restaurants in the Madison area, but their third undertaking, Gates + Brovi, stands out as a love letter to the good times.

In the ’90s, the two lived in the same apartment building in Chicago. Their paths rarely intersected, until one snow day “the city just got pummeled,” says Phillip. “We found ourselves having a couple beers with John’s then girlfriend [now wife] and my wife down in his apartment. We just started talking about how we were both cooking out in California basically at the same time in different cities [John in L.A. and Phillip in San Francisco]. We had a lot in common for how we approached food and the whole dining experience. We were like what are you going to do? What are you doing? Are you going to get your own place one day? It sort of started there.”

John says, “It was just so random. … We cultivated a relationship about let’s go into business together type of thing. We were jonesing to do something on our own—together, once we met. We went to places in Southport on the north side of Chicago, and that spawned the idea of doing something together. Then when Madison came up…hmm…interesting.”

There were many aspects of Madison that appealed to John, recently engaged, and Phillip and his wife, who had a five-year-old. Not only would a smaller city be a great place to raise a family, but a slower pace of life would provide the types of opportunity they sought professionally. “Chicago is a great food city, but it’s hard,” says John. “It’s kind of a rat race. … I think people in Madison appreciate what restaurant owners have to offer, and I just think it’s an easier place to live.” After living in Madison for only one year, the pair opened Marigold Kitchen in 2001.

Five years later, the success of Marigold as a casual breakfast and lunch place with high-level cooking led to Phillip and John wanting to open Sardine, which would be more in line with what they were doing in California. “It was a big jump, putting a full-service restaurant with waitstaff and a full bar,” says Phillip. “A big jump and intense leap of faith.” As with Marigold, Sardine focused on using local ingredients to develop their menu, but the scale of everything was much larger.

Sardine’s success came quick, and only two years in, Phillip and John were chewing on the next idea, a casual, community-based neighborhood restaurant. Whatever the food, whatever the décor, what would become Gates + Brovi needed to have a strong sense of place—an ode to Wisconsin supper clubs and watering holes.

That said, they never planned on becoming a prime rib and fish fry joint. They had conceptualized an east-coast-inspired Italian fish house, so off to Boston they went to drive up to Portland and work their way down the coast hitting “every rinky-dink place,” says Phillip. “Fun fish house clam places.”

Inspiration from the journey would come together in white shiplap walls and aged boards for their own restaurant. “The wood is out of Wausau,” says John. “An old box factory that packed ammunition for the old Badger Army Ammunition Plant.”

Phillip adds, “85 percent of all the wood in here, the tables, the floor, the ceiling, all the booths, were made of these over-100-year-old boards.”

To top it all off, customers would be sitting at the site of the old Parman Place, a landmark for many locals. Phillip and John have fond memories of the building. “We’d take our bikes and put air in our tires when our kids were little,” says Phillip. “It was a beloved little corner here with Parman.” When they heard someone was developing the corner, they didn’t have to think too hard about making this the home of Gates + Brovi. Six years since they had the concept, it was finally happening in 2012.

So what does an east-coast-inspired Italian fish house serve? Whatever is in season. Specials change weekly, and “the menu is riddled with everything local,” says John. “Our Chicken Piccata is the most well-known dish we have here as far as an entrée. We’re using local potatoes and local green beans for as long as we can. The chicken is coming from the Midwest.”

Oysters, cheese curds, calamari, chicken wings, bluegill BLT, burgers, ricotta gnocchi, and don’t sleep on the pizzas. Gates + Brovi is a modern marriage between the panache of upscale dining, the comfort of authentic Italian food, and the relaxed atmosphere of a hometown bar. Much of what people love about Sardine is here. The chef is from Sardine. The general manager is from Sardine. Even the bar manager from Sardine has developed the bar program for Gates + Brovi.

“It may look slightly different from Sardine,” says Phillip. “But the quality, the ingredients, the construction of the cocktails we make are at a high level. It elevates everything when you come in here. … This is a neighborhood spot that punches over its weight a little bit.”

Phillip and John have a way of doing things that has worked for 24 years. They think local first, going out of their way to support local farms through Garden To Be and like-minded wholesalers. They adore Madison and show their appreciation for the city in most everything they do. As John says, “We’re in Wisconsin—this is what people grew up with. We’re tapping into the warm and fuzzy Wisconsin family place.”

Kyle Jacobson is a writer whose mind and body often work in opposition to one another.
Photographs by Eric Tadsen.

Gates + Brovi
3502 Monroe Street
Madison, WI 53711
(608) 819-8988
gatesandbrovi.com