Maria’s and Lisa’s have more in common than their female names. They’re two old-school Milwaukee pizzerias (Maria’s dates to 1957, Lisa’s to 1960) with rabid fan bases and a similar problem – their owners were getting out of the business. Happily, each has a new owner in possession of the original recipes and eager to bring back the magic. Not reinvent the wheel. Restore the luster. Amen to that!
When I write this, it’s about a month since Maria’s and Lisa’s reopened, in February, within a week or so of each other. Lisa’s – where a familiar flight of stairs leads to the unchanged low-lit, red-walled East Side dining room – is busy, but ordering a pizza is completely manageable. Maria’s, its wood-paneled dining room still decorated with strings of colored lights and a few framed religious prints, is something else entirely.
It’s time to pick your Milwaukee favorites for the year!
From the time it opens at 4 p.m., it’s besieged by those yearning for the misshapen oval pie that is like no other. It’s still a few weeks from transitioning from carryout to dine-in.
“We’re working on introducing a few more items and learning the recipes from Maria [Story, the founder’s granddaughter],” co-owner Brian Francis tells me at the time. I order at the counter, the line behind me quickly building. “It’ll be about an hour,” the young clerk tells me.
The kitchen is cranking. Orders are barked out, the dough stretched, sauced, topped and slid into the oven. The phone rings nonstop. At around the 1:45 mark, I finally have my pie, balanced precariously on two round sheets of cardboard inside a paper sleeve.
I’m tempted to rip it open in the car, but I restrain myself. Once home, I find the mushrooms are missing and the pizza has only a few pieces of onion. But there’s plenty of rich, juicy sausage spread over the lightly sauced crust, a crust I remember – chewy in some spots, crusty in others.
Not quite cracker thin, but bordering on it. This is not Maria’s replication, but it’s almost there, and for that I rejoice – with another piece. Francis tells me he knew they’d get pulverized at the start, but this is a battle I think they will win. And yet I am not planning a repeat visit until things settle down.
Address: 5025 W. Forest Home Ave.
Phone: 414- 543-4606
Hours (subject to change): Wed-Sun 4-9 p.m.
Pizzas: From $22, large only – because as the founder’s daughter Bonnie Crivello says, her mom “wanted to feed the whole family.”
In comically contrasting fashion, Lisa’s is easier to get than it ever was before. The new owners moved from the archaic only-phone ordering to an online platform (huzzah!). The dining room is not full either time I come, but it’s definitely buzzing.
The classic thin-crust generously topped with Lisa’s trademark sweet tomato sauce is the main draw, but they’ve added thick, focaccia-like Detroit-style pies to the menu. I stick to the traditional and find that the coaching these newbie owners got from Lisa’s founding family is paying off.
This is a round cracker with crispy, bubbly edges, mucho sauce (thick and sweet!), globs of gently spiced Italian sausage and a smooth pool of melted mozzarella. I will not be a stranger.
Fans of both establishments can rest easy. At each spot, south and east, the pies tell a Milwaukee story – a story too good, too important to change.
Address: 2961 N. Oakland Ave.
Phone: 414-332-6360
Hours: Tues-Thurs 4-9 p.m.; Fri-Sat 4-10 p.m.
Pizzas: Start at $12.75 for a small cheese.
