On a Tuesday afternoon in February, when the lake is frozen and the Terrace chairs are stacked inside a warehouse somewhere, the Rathskeller is still open. That’s the first thing most people get wrong about Memorial Union — they think it’s a warm-weather proposition, a place you go when you can sit outside with a Spotted Cow and watch sailboats. The outdoor terrace is genuinely great, fine, no argument there. But that’s not where the building earns its reputation.
The Rathskeller is the basement bar tucked beneath the Terrace level, and it’s been operating more or less continuously since 1928. The ceiling is low and vaulted, the walls are stone, and the whole thing is lit the way a room should be lit when it’s ten degrees outside — warmly, without apology. There are hand-painted murals along the walls, carved wooden furniture that looks like it was salvaged from a German guild hall, and a fireplace that runs through most of the winter. If you were expecting a college dive bar, you’ve come to the wrong place.
The beer list is exactly what you’d want: Wisconsin taps, reasonable prices, nothing that requires a lengthy explanation from your server. The food is simple and honest — brats, pretzels, sandwiches, soup on rotating days. A bratwurst with kraut and a Spotted Cow runs around $10 total depending on the day, which feels almost anachronistic in 2025. The kitchen closes at reasonable hours and doesn’t pretend to be anything other than a bar menu, which is the correct attitude for a bar menu.
What you won’t see on any of the promotional photography: the full cross-section of people who actually use this place. On any given weekday you’ll find professors, undergraduates, visiting parents who’ve wandered off the campus tour, retired faculty eating lunch alone with a paperback, and at least one person who seems to live here and may, in fact, live here. It’s a genuinely public building — technically open to the community, not just students — which gives it a different social texture than most bars in the city.
There’s also a legitimately interesting events calendar if you look for it. The Rathskeller hosts live music, film screenings, and trivia nights throughout the year, many of them free or close to it. The acoustics in that stone room are surprisingly good for acoustic acts, and the booking tends toward folk and jazz rather than whoever has the loudest PA system. Weeknights in January are when it earns its keep.
Getting there is slightly more confusing than it should be. The Memorial Union is on Langdon Street at the edge of Lake Mendota in the East Campus area. There’s a parking ramp nearby, but if you’re coming from the Willy Street side or anywhere walkable, the walk down State Street is obvious enough. The Rathskeller entrance is off the main lobby, which is off the main terrace, which — if you arrive in winter — will look abandoned and correct for a campus on the frozen tundra of the upper Midwest.
Come when the weather gives you no other options. That’s when you’ll understand why the place has been here for nearly a hundred years, and why the Terrace — lovely as it is — is only half the story.
