FIRST LOOK: Madi

Brunch has been marooned on the weekend for far too long. As of today, it will no longer abide by your strict constructs of when and where fun-breakfast can or should be consumed. Brunch is all day, every day at Madi.

The light, bright, and airy new restaurant is the product of a romantic relationship ten years ago, which evolved into a working relationship, then a break up, and now a clearly indestructible friendship and bond between duo co-owner Matthew Sieve and GM Trish Rowley.

It’s the new sibling to their restaurant Madison on Park—both of which also involve co-owner Jeffrey Fink, whom we delayed to mention because he didn’t fit into our romantic evolution narrative to start this story.

But Madi is every bit as individual—with mimosas and wine, pastries, a walk-up coffee bar, breakfast burritos (and elote breakfast tacos), waffle-churro sticks, strawberry-mango pancakes, skirt steak benedicts, paleo bowls, white bean shakshoukas, ceviches, sandwiches, burgers, salads, a whole build-your-own-bowl part of the menu, and free sunshine.

“My family has a breakfast restaurant that is just going on 100 years old—I’ve been doing this since I was a kid,” says Sieve, noting the strawberry-mango cakes are a 60 year-old recipe from his grandma Helen. “That is a big part of our restaurant back in Minnesota—everyone loves the pancakes.”

The design of the place also has that wooden, come-sit-on-my-patio-a-while friendliness of the Midwest. Which tracks, since some call San Diego the Midwest on the Sea. Designed by husband-and-wife duo Dave and Anna Sindelar (whose firm, Archisects, created Madison on Park’s stunning Noah’s Ark-like environment), Madi is light and airy, feels like the structural manifestation of morning.

Accordion style doors open to the sidewalk, there’s a corner patio with lush plants, and floor-to-ceiling windows let the natural light in. The woodwork is intricate, and the color palette is a retro pastel revival of the 70s and 80s. In the corner at the walk-up coffee bar, there is cozy-casual diner-style seating for locals and regulars.

“We really want to incorporate ourselves into the community, we want to be a place that people come to on a regular basis,” Rowley explains.

Madi opens today.

3737 Adams Ave., Normal Heights