THREE YEARS AGO, when Shaina Robbins Papach and Joe Papach moved to Madison, Wis., Ms. Robbins Papach’s hometown, the couple brought with them a serious culinary pedigree. She’d earned her chops at Chez Panisse in Berkeley, Calif., and Gramercy Tavern in New York; her husband, at Gramercy Tavern, San Francisco’s Quince and Napa’s French Laundry, among others.
When they opened the Harvey House in Madison this summer, they did it ambitiously. Inspired by Wisconsin’s supper-club tradition, the sprawling, multilevel restaurant occupies a former baggage handlers’ building behind a historic train station. The gleaming renovation took 2½ years to complete. “We’ve been busy,” Mr. Papach said. “Busier than I even expected!”
