Chicago style pizza in Milwaukee? (delivery, eat, rated)

[Milwaukee Ronnie]

This thread is making me hungry.

[Fishtacos]

Originally Posted by Drover

Edwardo's on Blue Mound in Wauwatosa is a solid bet. In fact my ex and I had our rehearsal dinner there. Edwardo's is a Chicago-based chain that has stayed local and the quality is good at each one I've been to. Stay away from any Unos in the area however. Uno's as a chain went national and I have found the quality at every single one of them to be well below what you find at the two flagship locations in Chicago.

The Edwardos in downtown Milwaukee imo is very hit or miss in terms of quality. It can be good, and it can be disappointing.

[Fishtacos]

Originally Posted by Drover

I'm pretty sure they deliver.

Yes indeed they do. Length of delivery time will be greater than other pizza places, but should be within an hour.

[Fishtacos]

Originally Posted by Drover

Well the "Milwaukee-style" you speak of is really Chicago-style thin crust, except that I've never seen it square around here --the only place I've seen that besides the occasional offering from a national chain is at Rocky Rococo's, so maybe the square pizza is a southern Wisconsin thing. But the cracker-thin crust with the cross-cut (aka "the party cut") is really a Chicago thing that migrated up to Milwaukee. And it's actually the far more common style here than is the stuffed pizza that out-of-towners associate with Chicago.

While the stuffed style is exquisite when done right and while 80% of the mom-and-pop and almost all of the local-chain pizza places here offer it, its' just not something you can sit and casually eat like a good ol' thin crust. You have to sit down and eat it like a meal, knife and fork and all. Plus it takes so damn long to bake. So even though we're known to outsiders for stuffed pizza and we do eat it ourselves now and then, it's still a distant second in popularity to cracker-thin thin-crust.

And yeah, Giordano's is a local Chicago chain, though they have a few in Florida too, probably mostly to serve erstwhile Chicago-area residents who have moved/retired to Florida. Many people rank their stuffed highly, but I can't stand it, so IMO you're not missing much there. Their thin-crust is rather good though.

Milwaukee style thin is closer to St. Louis style thin, with different cheeses used in each city, cut in thin squares. Much to my own surprise there are still a couple of Rocky Roccoco's in Milwaukee, on the West side in Tosa and North side as well. The big huge doughy square pizza with the large sweet sausage. One even has a drive thru window. I

As for Giordano's in Milwaukee, everything "dies" at Grand Ave mall. That isn't exlusive food either.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by Fishtacos

The Edwardos in downtown Milwaukee imo is very hit or miss in terms of quality. It can be good, and it can be disappointing.

Evidently you weren't alone in your assessment since it's been closed for a couple years now.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by Fishtacos

Milwaukee style thin is closer to St. Louis style thin, with different cheeses used in each city, cut in thin squares. Much to my own surprise there are still a couple of Rocky Roccoco's in Milwaukee, on the West side in Tosa and North side as well. The big huge doughy square pizza with the large sweet sausage. One even has a drive thru window.

I love Rocky Rococo's even though in the grand scheme of things it's pretty lousy pizza. I think it's mostly a nostalgia thing. As an otherwise pizza-snob, Rocky's is a guilty pleasure I just can't shake.

[Fishtacos]

Originally Posted by Drover

Evidently you weren't alone in your assessment since it's been closed for a couple years now.

That's about the last time I was there. So that makes sense. Service wasn't strong, pizza was inconsistent at best.

Suppose I should have checked to see if it was still there. I'm not surprised it isn't.

[Fishtacos]

Originally Posted by Drover

I love Rocky Rococo's even though in the grand scheme of things it's pretty lousy pizza. I think it's mostly a nostalgia thing. As an otherwise pizza-snob, Rocky's is a guilty pleasure I just can't shake.

I can say that I just recently ate at the Rocky's in Tosa, within the past week, which is down the street about .25 to .5 miles away from Edwardo's.

I dined in extremely random for lunch, much for nostalgia sake. I've tried the North side location but it's been close to 2 years since I've tried that one.

The result was exactly what I expected and remembered. I go straight for their sausage pizza. I had the super slice of Sausage and pepperoni, with breadsticks. I literally did not eat, nor need to eat the rest of the day. Breadsticks were what I remembered, a little crunchy on the ends, but soft and flimsy the rest of the way. You need to eat them fast or quality and enjoyment deteriorates. Dipping sauce was straight marinara, uninteresting, and cheese sauce was an option on which I passed.

Finding a random NY Times next to my booth, bumped up my experience.

I couldn't eat it on a regular basis, but I'm not a pizza snob by any means.

Overall:

Fullness factor a 10.
Taste was a 6 or 7.
Value was a 9.

[Fishtacos]

I admittedly prefer NY style pizza as a first choice, and I do get picky as far as evaluation of quality. But I'll eat most pizza. As someone who has lived in Chicago and spent a lot of time in Chicago, I struggle from time to time with finding what I like. Places like Lou Malnati's as a random local chain example, just don't do it for me.

Speaking of St. Louis, discussions get heated when it's provel cheese vs not provel cheese. I am like switzerland, I'll eat provel, in no crust, square, St. Louis style fashion, but I prefer La Pizza in U.City in St. Louis.

As for Milwaukee, tough decisions. I'm a long time Pizza Shuttle guy, and not just for pizza. It has been a past 3am haunt for subs. Zaffiro's is good, for cracker thin crust, good sauces there. The mentioned Ballistreri's doesn't do it for me all that much, sometimes too much garlic and too often too bland too.

There used to be a place way back in time called Guiliano's by Marquette University and that was a favorite of mine, long since out of existence.

[almost3am]

Hey, I was thinking of going to a Mama Mia's this weekend, I haven't been to one in about 20 years. I can't even remember, do they have super thin crust pizza? I vaguely remember liking the pizza, but that was a loooong time ago.