Bringing Chicago to Madison. Foxtail will be ready to roll soon
Despite hold ups, setbacks and delays, the Foxtail Restaurant is on track in Madison.
The Foxtail, which has its origins in Illinois, will house the entire 10,000 square feet of the first building of the Magnolia District, upstairs and down.
When up and running, which should be this fall, The Foxtail will offer craft cocktails, raw oysters, fresh seafood and other eats.
The Foxtail's extensive dinner menu draws inspiration from Middle Eastern cuisine and offers dishes made with fresh, locally sourced ingredients. Diners can start with the zaatar-dusted flatbread and follow that with a sage-spiced lamb shank agnolotti or Moroccan tagine or choose seared tuna tataki or oysters from The Foxtail's raw menu.
Maya Nahouli, who will be executive chef/partner/owner for Foxtail Madison, opened her first-ever restaurant in Madison and is now coming back with Foxtail.
New pub for Madison area: New 'Garden and Gun-style' restaurant/pub coming to Madison area. See where
See this new place for great food: New hip restaurant and bar offers more than just food and drinks. See where it is
"I don't want to put an exact time frame on it because of all of the crazy things that can still happen with construction, but I do expect we will open in the fall and be ready for everyone to come out and enjoy," said Nahouli, who just helped oversee the opening of the second Foxtail in the Chicago area. "We are working on the inside design right now as well as all of the electric and plumbing being installed. It's just a process. We are getting there. That is for sure."
The Foxtail, with its now two locations locations just outside of Chicago, is owned by Tim Canning and Todd Davies.
Nahouli grew up in Lebanon on the Mediterranean and has worked all around the world from Italy to Turkey, Lebanon, Romania and Bulgaria. Her first restaurant was Mezza, which was located at 1896 Main Street in Madison.
She also ran her own food truck called Shawarma On The Go. Most recently, she was the Executive Chef at Bar Siena in Chicago. As a native of the Mediterranean, Nahouli has a love of all things seafood and enjoys food the way that she had when she was a kid.
Nahouli said a lot of people want to blame supply chane and COVID-19, but the fact of the matter is building this restaurant is just taking an extended period of time.
"We want this to be exactly right," Nahouli said. "Yes, we have had some issues with COVID and things like that, but I am sure our contractors are frustrated because we want everything to be exactly right."
The Madison Foxtail will utilize both floors with outside seating.
“It will be an open concept. So, it you are upstairs, you can see downstairs,” Nahouli said. “There will be water mists for the warm weather and heaters for the cold weather.”
There will be two bars and an area for live music.
The new buildings of phase 1 will have an office, retail and dining. There will be a 10,000 square-foot building and a 6,000 square-foot building connected in the middle by an elevator tower.
The larger building will be home to The Foxtail.
The second building will be a mix of professional office and retail space.
Nahouli said the team is already talking with people about jobs, which are listed on their Facebook page and website.
"We are ready to bring Chicago to Madison," Nahouli said.
Ross Reily can be reached by email at rreily@gannett.com or 601-573-2952. You can follow him on Twitter @GreenOkra1.
This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Foxtail getting closer to opening in Madison
