Beer is an integral part of Wisconsin culture, as we all know. This is especially prevalent in Madison, where you can barely even turn a corner without running into a drinking establishment of some sort. Even then, though, most of these establishments are bars, dedicated solely to the purpose of serving alcohol. There are a few places, though, where beer is merely a pleasant addition to the atmosphere, and the true purpose of the establishment lies elsewhere. Two such places exist just steps from campus — Electric Earth Café and Laundry 101. Electric Earth, at 546 W. Washington Ave., lies just across the street from the Greyhound bus station. Surprisingly, many students who live in dorms or closer to State Street don’t even know of EE’s existence — which is probably okay with the Bassett-Mifflin-Dayton-area students who make it their personal home base for studying, socializing and shows. Electric Earth is one of the few coffee shops in the downtown area where patrons can get a full meal as well as coffee. There is a full menu of deli-style sandwiches (both grilled and cold), two kinds of salad, a daily soup selection (always vegan) and a full smoothie menu. The best part? The sandwiches are amazing and inexpensive. They range from simple ham (or turkey) and cheese and BLTs to more elaborate creations, like the Tofu You! and a grilled cheese sandwich that throws in several kinds of cheese as well as sun-dried tomatoes and mustard. Even if you’re not hungry, the specialty coffee drinks warrant a special trip to the café. Madison’s favorite newsweekly, Isthmus, named the Electric Earth latte the “best single-shot latte in town,” and they weren’t kidding. Of course, this is a bar column, so what about the drinks? After 9 p.m. most weekend nights, Electric Earth morphs from a coffee shop filled with studying students into a full-blown music venue, complete with great, reasonably priced beer. Local favorites like Big Fat Ass, Driftless Pony Club and the now defunct but always-legendary Five Dollar Foundation have all graced the stage at one point. The best part about EE’s “bar” is that all the beer is good — I’m talking New Glarus, Newcastle — and inexpensive, with most everything priced at $3.50 or less. If music isn’t your scene, grab a brewski and check out Electric Eye Cinema, an independent filmmakers’ showcase, once a week. It’s a great way to relax in the middle of a hectic week of classes! If you’re more centrally located on campus and have some dirty clothes (as so many of us do), make Laundry 101, at 437 W. Gilman St., your first stop. If you’ve never been there, what in the world are you waiting for? It’s possibly the coolest laundromat in the country, and it’s just half a block from State Street. We’ve all done laundry in skuzzy, sketchy laundromats that have just creeped us out. Laundry 101 is nothing like that, thankfully — it’s well lit, clean and huge. With bright orange, mural-covered walls and washing machines that look like they came from the future, it’s just a fun place to hang out, even if you don’t have tons of laundry to do. And if you do, that’s even better. Laundry 101 is run on a debit-card system — before starting your wash, you put money on a card given to you by the cashier. The card works in all the machines (washers and dryers), and when you’re done you just return the card and get back whatever money is left on it. Most people are looking for something to occupy their time while they’re waiting for their clothes to be done, and this is where 101 shines. It may, in fact, be the only laundromat in the country that has drink specials — the most popular of which is the $1.01 bottles of Rolling Rock on Thursday nights with a student I.D. There are several beers on tap (including Guinness, Newcastle and Blueberry Ale), and many more in bottles, so the selection is never lame. The bar area at 101 is actually really cool, with a real “bar” as well as lots of high-top tables. The computers (with free Internet) are also in the bar area, as is the snack bar — featuring hot pretzels, chips, candy bars and more. There are also specialty coffee drinks available and there’s a television right above the bar that is always tuned to something interesting. So, at Electric Earth you can eat vegan soup, see a fantastic local band and throw back a quality beer. At Laundry 101 you can clean your clothes, snack on a pretzel, check your e-mail and throw back a quality beer (for little more than a dollar on some nights). Is drinking culture alive and well in Madison? I’d say so. Questions, comments, or column ideas? Talk to me at .