Brennan’s Market

I have never met people so enthusiastic about helping you shop for food and beverages in my life. I love it! :)
If you have a piece of fruit in your hand that you like, they can help you find the most perfect cheese and beer/​wine to go with it. It’s like a mastermind at work watching these people pair.
Love love love the ‘chin drippin’ peaches here. Cheese spreads and cheese selection in general is amazing. The pick your own 6 pack is also fun! :)

I love going to browse. They have an amazing cheese selection and a great wine and beer selection as well. The majority of items they carry seem to be local and/​or small business products; many of which they private label. They have seasonal items as well. I bought my fall mums and gourds there and was surprised that they were so affordable for a small gourmet-​type store. They are constantly sampling out cheeses, jams and spreads, wine and more. The staff is friendly and helpful. I love stopping in for a good bottle of wine and some cheese to share with friends. A bit pricey though.

LOVE the cheeses here. They are worth the price. Great for finding treats for a special dinner or picnic. Nice on sample days. Yum!!! Top quality meats. Nice selection of non brand frozen veggies. Veggie chips are mega tasty. Always quick and friendly check out. Produce not as stellar as it once was, but also not finding better in Madison.

Love this place! Awesome variety of fresh produce, wine, beer, and cheese. They also have wine sampling, that changes weekly !

Funny story. I was wondering around my hotel and found this market. There were so many food samples that I felt guilty for snacking and ended up buying a whole bunch of cheese. The next day, an airline lost my luggage — with said cheese and I was quite upset.
This store was so great on social media that I would buy more produce from them! They were so hilarious!
Unfortunately I never got to go back and buy more cheese, but if I were in town I would!

While their selections are OK. they are ridiculously over priced. my cashier was truly the most obnoxious human being on the planet. She literally snatched my credit card out of my hand and behaved as if I had ruined her life I will not shop there again. Too many other shops around with decent pricing and nice help

Brennan’s has a wonderful produce and cheese selection. It’s fun going in to sample different cheeses to help expand your palate. For the quality of cheese they offer, the prices are reasonable. Their farmer basil cheese is wonderful in grilled cheese sandwiches.
The wine and beer selection are good as well.

We just love Brennan’s. They have the best produce in Madison and of course the samples are always great! The more we sample, the more we buy here! They have some of the best meat and cheese in town too.

Every time I go to Madison, I have to go here. I used to live on the West Side and Brennan’s was my source for fruit, cheese and beer. This place always hits its mark. This time did not disappoint. Delicious cheeses, amazing fruits and yummy beers. Thank you

Good selection of well priced wine. The guys in the wine section helped me and recommended two wines. The hostess of the party loved them both.

I love this place! My mother was visiting from my home state and I knew I had to take her here to sample cheeses! We spent our time wandering through. She was amazed selection and found a great one. I had been a few times before this, but it took me a good three years to visit this place after I moved here and I wish I would have done it sooner! This is now my go to place for good cheese!

I love this place. Amazing cheese selection, great beer selection ($ 8.99 make your own 6-​pack!), enough samples to fill you up for a light snack! Friendly, helpful staff. Wish they had one in San Fran!

A few weeks ago a friend told me they closed up shop.
Pishaw!
They are SO open, and we’re no longer friends.
(Not really, but it does make me wonder if she wanted to keep this gem to herself.)
Brennan’s has quickly become famous for being a one stop shop for produce, cheese, meat, beer and wine! You could seriously spend hours in the place sampling ripe fruit, trying creamery bites of cheese, and shmearing homemade spreads on crackers and bread. I absolutely love the «try before you buy» thing they have going on, because not only are you getting locally sourced products, but you know they taste good because you sampled them.
I’ve been to a few now in Wisconsin and I have to say this one is pretty rad. It’s big, it’s clean, the staff there is so friendly and always willing to answer questions. They know their stuff and if you’re worried about ripening type things (over ripe, under ripe, when will it be ripe) ask them! They’ll cut, open, slice, sample… whatever, if it means giving you the important info you need before you spend some cash.

The sandwich counter was a surprise and will be back to have another. The local blue cheese I picked up was exceptionally creamy, will be back for that as well. I did enjoy being able to sample different items around the store. The cheese curds were good but … While I see the quality of all they sell, I think they push the limits on their pricing.

This is probably one of my most exciting discoveries in Madison to date. If you haven’t been here yet, RUN to the one nearest to your location. The only negative thought that crosses my mind when I think of Brennan’s is that I didn’t find it earlier.
The produce overall is pretty good and cheaper than most grocery stores in the area. The fruit is AMAZING. Way better selection and prices than anywhere I’ve been in Madison. (Also, they have kumatos!!! The most tasty tomato hybrid ever!) I’ve been looking for a place like this since I moved here from California 2.5 years ago. They also have a HUGE selection of awesome local cheeses and meat products, all of which look delicious. The staff is very helpful and friendly. We had several people offer to help us, and we got some great recommendations for cheese purchases. The deli looks good, but I didn’t buy anything. Same with the meat. It all looked fresh and the cuts looked nice. I’ll have to come back to try those items. They also have tons of baked goods, a decent selection of coffee and tea, and a good amount of snackables. And did I mention the build-​your-​own-​6-​pack option for the selection of beers they have?! Pretty great if you ask me, but at $ 8.99 a little on the pricey side.
So glad I came across Brennan’s, will be my go-​to place for produce and the occasional quality cheese/​beer/​meat splurge. Check it out if you haven’t already!

OMG cheese heaven for those shopping for Wisconsin cheese LIKE ME. They have a huge variety of cheese from amish cheese to yogurt cheese. I helped myself to quite a few different kinds of cheese. I did get some cajun cheese curds which was really fresh and yummy. They have habenero Monterey Jack cheese to Chipotle Monterey Jack cheese. YUM! If you spend over $ 50 you get $ 5 off a $ 9.99 cooler to hold all your cheeses. Love it as its easy to carry all the cheese to the airport and it will stay cool and fresh. I am coming back to this location each time I visit Wisconsin!

One of the best markets of its kind in the country. Look no further for fresh local fruits, breads, cheeses, and beers. They buy everything in bulk (the ‘whole’ cheese wheel) and then break the food down at a good value.
Their smoked mozzarella string cheese has to be my favorite all time cheese anywhere, and that includes Pleasant Ridge Reserve and other artisan classics. It tastes like barbecue but with creamy overtones. Great vegetable options too. They only have what’s fresh and in season so if you’re looking for comprehensive produce options look to Willy’s.

Awesome selection of cheese, sausages, wine and beer. I’d love to explain it in more detail, but frankly they have such a wide selection of high-​quality stuff that I can’t fit my brain around it! Microbrews, artisan cheeses, samples from cheese contests, the list goes on!
Oh, did I mention how great a selection of fresh produce and baked goods they had?
Can you say SAMPLES? They have nibbles of a lot of items out there, it was VERY HARD not to walk out of there with $ 50-​$ 75 of cheese! Amazing stuff. The no-​sugar-​added fruit spreads were also awesome!
This was in February and March, I only hope I get a chance to visit in summer /​fall when the really goods stuff is in season!
Bottom line: if you’re in Madison, you’ve got to visit Brennan’s!

This is by far the best of the Madison-​area Brennan’s Markets (the original store in Monroe is #1 overall). It’s larger than the other Madison locations, the staff is friendly, knowledgeable, and helpful, and the selection seems to be a little better.
Case in point: we stopped by Brennan’s this afternoon and inquired about the status of their «chin drippin’ peaches» — my coworker needed a full case for the weekend (he’s going to a family reunion/​vacation in Indiana).
The gentleman working the produce area took us over to a huge stack of crates filled with the peaches and asked a few questions — how soon would Phil (co-​worker) be eating them, when would he be transporting them, could he keep them at a reasonable temperature, and so on.
After answering his questions, he reached into one of the cases, grabbed a peach, cut it in half and gave it to us. He sampled one himself and said, «These will probably be ready by Saturday. Let’s try this stack here — it’s a day older.» And we repeated the test… we definitely liked the 2^nd one better. The produce gentleman told my friend that he’d save him a case of those peaches and that he could pick them up tomorrow afternoon — that way they’d be kept safe/​nice until he needed them.
We sampled some of the other fruits — all of which were amazing (especially the Fat Boy blueberries — holy cats). I scored a nice container of Wild Blue popcorn, then went inside to check out the cheese spreads and deli.
While browsing the cheeses, one of the cheese worker folks came by and asked if he could help me find anything in particular. I said I was just browsing and made a casual comment about a «Hollow Cheese» that they had in one of the coolers. He immediately lit-​up and told me the history of hollow cheese and how it’s his favorite.
I asked him for more details about it and he said, «let’s just try some, shall we?» And he cut open a pack of the cheese and let me try a monster chunk of it — it was phenomenal, so I bought a block.
That’s the beauty of Brennan’s — employees seem happy to be at work, and they know everything about the products they sell. I also appreciate that they have the liberty to let you sample whatever you’d like to (within reason).
Woodman’s may have low prices on staple goods; Metcalfe’s may have a nice «upscale» selection of goods; but Brennan’s has them all beat when it comes to service, enthusiasm, freshness, and knowledge.

I am very disappointed in Brennan’s.
I’ll start by agreeing that Brennan’s is a nice market with great customer service, great products and loads of tasting.
I really like the fruit tasting because I am picky about fruit and when you can taste to make sure it’s just right — that’s a real winner.
However, NONE of their fruit in the store was organic, most were sourced from far away like California, and the few sourced «locally» came from places like Michigan. For an ag state like WI, this is surprising.
When I asked if there were any organic blueberries, I was told by staff that they didn’t carry any organics — that’s ANY, none, zip, zilch — and that they get the «best quality of fruit around» and so organic just didn’t make their list of best quality.
Um, hello?!
For a very local market, and one that specializes in wine, fruits and cheeses, this is highly disappointing. I can find more local fruit at Whole Foods.
So, while I gave it three stars due to customer service, quality of products and the «gourmet» feel of the place, I am truly disappointed in this local grocer.