Usually opening some kind of bar — any kind of bar — is a surefire recipe for success in Madison. So Mickey’s Dairy Bar surely raised some eyebrows when it opened its doors years ago and closed them at 2:30 in the afternoon before the bar crowd even got out of class. Without so much as a Miller Lite to be found, this new bar set out to carve its niche in the city. Its doubters were soon silenced as Mickey’s rose to the status of a Madison icon. As generation of students have come and gone, Mickey’s has remained a constant on the west side food scene. While State Street eateries are constantly beckoning our palates eastward, Mickey’s has endured through the decades as a constant reminder that engineering kids really don’t have it so bad after all. Few would have anticipated that a plate piled high with eggs, potatoes, cheese and gravy would acquire such a loyal following, but the scrambler has not only made Mickey’s famous, it has endeared the restaurant to the surrounding community. Legend has it that several engineering professors got their careers started by overseeing a project to reinforce the tables at Mickey’s to accommodate the burgeoning breakfast plate as the scrambler evolved over the years. Perhaps the real reason Mickey’s closes at 2:30 p.m. is because its morning patrons are still too full to return by the time dinner rolls around.