Food & Drink

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Balistreri’s Italian American Ristorante Has The Secret Sauce 

BY: CHRIS DROSNER

WHEN YOU’RE EATING SUBPAR PIZZA, it’s easy to identify where it went wrong. The crust is too chewy. There’s too much cheese, or not enough. The sauce is too sweet or too bland or too what is that? The sausage is flavorless, the mushrooms mushy. 

The flip side of that coin is a Balistreri’s pizza. I know it is my favorite Milwaukee-style pizza, but I don’t know exactly why. Some strange alchemy is happening here, foiling my ability to deconstruct the factors contributing to its greatness.

I do know the crust is thin, chewy in the middle, crusty and barely blistered on the edges.

I know the sausage is tasty and firm, the mushrooms overcome their canned origin (and add a little saltiness on the way), and the pepperonis are crispy little bowls of yum. The sauce is delicious, but I can’t even discern where it falls on the sweet-spicy spectrum. 

What I can say is that the total package is pizza perfection, a savory bomb of crunch, squish and umami. Many pizza joints have something approaching the quality of the components of Balistreri’s pies, but at some point in its 57 years, this place somehow put it all together. 812 N. 68th St., Wauwatosa

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North Pillar Brewing is the Newest Pillar of Our Beer Scene

 

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Atwater Beach is Our Little Haven

BY: BRIANNA SCHUBERT

THE FIRST TIME I WENT TO Atwater Beach, I was in immediate awe. I paused at the top of the bluff for a minute, taking in all of the view, the lake expansive and welcoming. How lucky are we to live near such beauty? With each turn down the winding path surrounded with wildflowers, seagulls barking overhead, the world slips away and a secret paradise unfolds. 

In the summer, you might hear the squeals of children playing, or the soft thud of a volleyball against the sand, and always the waves breaking against the sand and sunken piers. But fall, with its quietude and stillness, is my favorite time of year to visit. I might set up a blanket on the boardwalk and read for a while, or just look for rocks and listen to the water. 

Every time I go back, I feel that familiar rhythm of the beach – the lake, the winding path, the busy world disappearing into soft foliage and the foot of our great lake. It’s a special secret in Milwaukee, but one we all can share and appreciate together. 4000 N. Lake Dr., Shorewood

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Shopping & Services 

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Ohhh, That’s What I Need

BY: ARCHER PARQUETTE

I STILL REMEMBER THE FIRST TIME I smelled a hardware store. At 8 or 9, I lacked the vocabulary to describe the magnificent aroma that had me frozen by the sliding doors, sniffing frantically like a golden retriever. Now, I know what it was: the heady mixture of lumber, polished metal, fertilizer and bagged topsoil. 

That unmistakable odor fills Elliott Ace Hardware’s four stores, and it’s the entry point to a wonderland of the esoteric and the utilitarian. There’s the wingnut for your camp stove, the heavy-duty flashlights you can’t not hold in your hand, the bag of old-fashioned hard candy you grab on the way out.

And the staff – they know of what they speak. When a guy like me shows up talking about a “broken, uh, metal thingy” on his snowblower, they figure it out, find the shear bolt you need and offer a couple useful tips to boot. If it’s a trickier fix, they seem energized by the challenge – and always meet it. 

Elliott Ace embodies why you shop in person: the experience, the people, the joy of finding something you didn’t know you wanted or needed. And, yes, the smell. 15360 Watertown Plank Rd., Elm Grove; 11003 W. Oklahoma Ave., West Allis; S64W15732 Commerce Center Parkway, Muskego; 1268 Capitol Dr., Pewaukee

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