Hi,

I am hog tying my family to Wells Brothers for pizza tonight. Yes, the $20 large single-topping pizza, pitcher of pop and garlic bread deal.

I plan to order the salad, too. They have a base price for the salad, then $x per person. It always seems to be a big salad, do people really add more servings to the salad. I ask now to avoid the eye roll from someone at the table.

Regards,
Cathy2

Cathy2 wrote: It always seems to be a big salad, do people really add more servings to the salad. I ask now to avoid the eye roll from someone at the table.

C2, it’s your birthday today. Live a little. Order all the salad you want!
Happy Birthday!

Hi,

We did order the Tuesday special: one large single ingredient pizza (We added more: sausage, pepperoni, mushroom, onion and pepper), garlic bread and pitcher of pop with one refill (or several small beers or a bottle of wine). Plus Buffalo wings, their pizza of the month (Mediterranean with feta, artichoke, tomato, olives, feta and a Balsamic drizzle), and their antipasto salad for four (we were five).

I remember the antipasto salad for two was big, but doubled up it was really, really big. Nobody had less than two servings and still half came home with us.

To my delight, my family liked it enough they agreed they could be easily persuaded to return. I live with practical people who consider an 80 mile round trip for pizza a bit much. Now they have experienced how wonderful cracker thin crust pizza can be, they are willing to take the dive again. Of course, only time will tell.

Regards,
Cathy2

The Wednesday 1 or 2 topping pizza has gone from $10 to $12.
The other $20 Specials remain the same.
-Richard

Sweet Willie wrote:After trying Wells Brother's, I now have a new thin crust favorite north of the border. The crust is ultra thin & crispy, and the sauce, as Fishie notes is good, but I did like the toppings, one especially to to note was mushrooms, at Zaffiro's they are canned but at Wells Bros they are fresh.

Mushrooms were canned in my latest visit to Wells Brothers on Saturday. Big disappointment. Everything else was excellent.

I haven't been to Well's Bros in years. I prefer Mike and Angelo's on HWY 20 in Mt Pleasant. I always ask for a crispy crust. Bud, have you ever tried Mike and Angelo's? It's been our Racine go to and carry out Pizza for over 30 years. The other pizza place in Racine is Nonna Wells, a relative of Well's Bros. I like Wells Bros over Nonna Well's and Mike and Angelo's is my favorite.

CSD

chicagostyledog wrote:Bud, have you ever tried Mike and Angelo's?

I have not, but did note that you are a fan, the fact that Mrs Willie had never been to Wells Brothers sealed the deal to take her there. We visited the SC Johnson HQ designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, had Wells Brothers, then were intending to go to Wingspread but ran out of time, we'll be up to see Wingspread and will visit Mike & Angelo's

Have not tried Mike & Angelos.
Once I found the crispy thin crust Basil Pizza at Well’s I was hooked.
The $20 Specials and the then $10 Pizza (Now $12) on Wednesday along with $1 cans of Hamm’s reinforced my habit.
BTW Wingspread is not be missed. Climb the observation stairway.
-Richard

I've had Mike and Angelo's once. I do remember preferring Wells Brothers. What about the pizza joint attached to the chocolate store - Derango The Pizza King? How's that? It looked pretty good when I was getting some chocolate. In my heyday I would have gotten a pizza too.

From Wells Brothers facebook page:

It has been brought to our attention that rumor around town is Wells Brothers is closing. These rumors are NOT true!

Maybe people are confused because our dining room is closed (until we can go 100%), or because we are running limited carry out hours. Whatever the reason, we are here to tell you WE ARE NOT CLOSING!

Thank you to all of our customers who have continued to support us during these difficult times. We appreciate your support and hope to see you all soon!

This week only brought back by popular acclaim,
Lasagna Pizza!!!
Double Dekker with thin crust and lasagna noodles separating the two layers with
sausage on the bottom and basil on the top.
The extra large is almost $30 but sufficient for us for two meals.
A similar pizza is offered on Valentine's Day but in the shape of a heart.
You can see the pizza in the Wells Facebook page.
-Richard

budrichard,

Do you think a Wells Brother's Pizza travels well?

Thanks!

Regards,
Cathy2

"Traveling wel..." is such a subjective term, but there is a way to improve your "buy now and eat later" Wells Brothers experience: Put the the pizza(s) in your car in a single layer (do NOT stack them) and tear a hole in the paper wrapping to let the steam escape while driving home. This helps to prevent the dreaded "Soggy Crust".

CAUTION: Plan on some extra drive-time (and pizza) , due to the frequent stops required to "have just a small piece" while succumbing to the lure of the "pizza aroma" that will fill your vehicle.

Cathy2 wrote:budrichard,

Do you think a Wells Brother's Pizza travels well?

Thanks!

Regards,
Cathy2

We are 20 min away at the most but the best way to enjoy Well's thin crust is just out of the oven,
So much in fact that my standing order is that the pizza is brought to us immediately after coming out of the oven, A warm pizza is returned.
That said at present we don't dine in anywhere so reheat it is in our oven.
The Lasagna pizza being more akin to a deep dish does travel well as I suspect, the currently offered 'bambino' will travel but we just haven't got around to ordering the bambino yet for take out.
-Richard

jimd wrote:"Traveling wel..." is such a subjective term, but there is a way to improve your "buy now and eat later" Wells Brothers experience: Put the the pizza(s) in your car in a single layer (do NOT stack them) and tear a hole in the paper wrapping to let the steam escape while driving home. This helps to prevent the dreaded "Soggy Crust".

CAUTION: Plan on some extra drive-time (and pizza) , due to the frequent stops required to "have just a small piece" while succumbing to the lure of the "pizza aroma" that will fill your vehicle.

Good strategy which I employ when there are two of us at some stops.
While on the way to Road America via Chesters in Plymouth, the fries always get eaten before we reach the Track!
For Well's if you come from Illinois and do not want to dine in, eat in the car!
-Richard

Tuesday 02/07/23
Anxiously waiting. A Dave Portnoy review of Wells Brothers is said to be on the way. We shall see.

buckthorne wrote:Tuesday 02/07/23
Anxiously waiting. A Dave Portnoy review of Wells Brothers is said to be on the way. We shall see.

If this 'Internet influencer' doesn't proclaim Wells Brothers the absolute best pizza of its genre, it will just confirm my opinion of him & his ilk.

jnm123 wrote:

buckthorne wrote:Tuesday 02/07/23
Anxiously waiting. A Dave Portnoy review of Wells Brothers is said to be on the way. We shall see.

If this 'Internet influencer' doesn't proclaim Wells Brothers the absolute best pizza of its genre, it will just confirm my opinion of him & his ilk.

No idea if this is related but Kenji Lopez-Alt was in town (CHIand MKE) hitting up all of the tavern pizza go-to places a few weeks back; everything from Vito & Nicks to Kim's Uncle in Westmont to Zaffiro and Wells Brothers north of the cheddar curtain. See his IG account for specifics.

Here is Dave’s review… If you are offended by F-bombs, feel free to mute him…
https://youtu.be/HdN122Ferq0

Barstool Pizza Review - Wells Brothers (Racine, WI)

The review is in. "The best pizza in Milwaukee". (geography is tough, he is from the east coast)
The rating was 8.1 on his 0-10 scale where 75% of his pizza ratings falls in the 6 to 8 slot on his bell curve. For a Boston native whose New York / New Jersey pizza tastes find Nirvana in New Haven, that is respect. It was an interesting diversion this weekend.

cito wrote:Here is Dave’s review… If you are offended by F-bombs, feel free to mute him…

This is why midwesterners don't like people from out east: "Do dey gotta talk like dat? Keerist, what if dere's kids listenin'?"

On the other hand, I didn't realize that there is an official Milwaukee style thinner-than-tavern square cut pizza. I wonder if Waukegan/Antioch style is actually a compromise between the two.

Will be interesting to see Kenji's take on the situation.

tjr wrote:On the other hand, I didn't realize that there is an official Milwaukee style thinner-than-tavern square cut pizza....

Maria's served a version that fits this description. Sadly, the pandemic spurred the owners' desire to retire, and what was a decades old Milwaukee Pizza institution closed last summer. Everything about it was one of a kind. The inside was like walking into a furnished basement from the 50's, including strings of lights, and dozens of paint-by-numbers religious "artworks" covering the walls.

The thinner than cracker-thin crust was formed into an amoeba-like shape, overlapping the edges of a rectangular baking sheet before the sauce, cheese and toppings were applied. For some reason they were always very generous with the sausage, but relatively stingy with the far less expensive veggie toppings. Also, they used canned mushrooms.

My ideal Maria's pie was sausage with double onion, which just about balanced out the meat to onion ratio to my tastes. I would have added mushrooms if not for them coming out of a can.

Buddy

Maria's Pizza (Now closed, but looking for a new owner)
5025 W Forest Home Ave.
Milwaukee, WI
https://www.milwaukeemag.com/milwaukee-needs-marias-pizza-to-reopen/

cito wrote:Here is Dave’s review… If you are offended by F-bombs, feel free to mute him…
https://youtu.be/HdN122Ferq0

:::sigh::: 'JE-sus, Mary & Joseph...' (in Irish brogue)

Maybe I need to get out more, but I never heard of this doofus. And from his attitude, I figured just on geography alone he was gonna tear Wells Bros. a new one.

Had this idiot's delight NOT had pizza grease oozing out his pores, and had he NOT taken a piece while standing outside in the middle of winter (if that's his modus operandi, then Salut, Don Corleone) he might have been able to savor the subtleties that places Wells Bros. at the top of the heap.

"Oh, this is Milwaukee pizza." (It's Racine, you stugats, and there's really no such thing as that 'style'.) "It's thinner than tavern-style." (It's not.) "Love the undercarriage." (Go get your shine box...)

But...this ignoramus is worth $120M. So there's that. :::looking for shine box:::

Good description of Maria's and it was in my top three with Zaffiro's, and Balistreri's on 68th. When I described it, I always said the decor was a mix of religious and sports stuff. There was a spot where there was a bobblehead of Robin Yount, Bart Starr and Jesus next to each other. All the ladies who worked there wore red. Hopefully someone good buys it and keeps the same recipes. Here's hoping.

tjr wrote:Will be interesting to see Kenji's take on the situation.

On Instagram, Kenji said he really liked Wells Bros when he went there last month.

jnm123 wrote:

cito wrote:Here is Dave’s review… If you are offended by F-bombs, feel free to mute him…
https://youtu.be/HdN122Ferq0

:::sigh::: 'JE-sus, Mary & Joseph...' (in Irish brogue)

Maybe I need to get out more, but I never heard of this doofus. And from his attitude, I figured just on geography alone he was gonna tear Wells Bros. a new one.

Had this idiot's delight NOT had pizza grease oozing out his pores, and had he NOT taken a piece while standing outside in the middle of winter (if that's his modus operandi, then Salut, Don Corleone) he might have been able to savor the subtleties that places Wells Bros. at the top of the heap.

"Oh, this is Milwaukee pizza." (It's Racine, you stugats, and there's really no such thing as that 'style'.) "It's thinner than tavern-style." (It's not.) "Love the undercarriage." (Go get your shine box...)

But...this ignoramus is worth $120M. So there's that. :::looking for shine box:::

This is your first time seeing one of his videos? Let me fill in a few blanks.

- He only gets cheese pizzas to compare apples to apples. (As I typically do out East even though I usually get sausage on my tavern-style at home like I had at Kaiser's). He prefers it very thin (overall), crisp and well done with not too much cheese (all things I look for in a pizza).

- Geography. He isn't the one researching where to go (he does have a big company to run plus lots of other ventures) so imagine not having a clue where your driver took you, then they say "We're here," and you think you are still in Milwaukee, but you really have no idea because you may have been on the phone doing business or personal calls or who knows. He can be a deer in the headlights when it comes to location and usually asks, "Where are we again?" The idiot cameraman may not even remember sometimes and on that day it was below zero so I don't think they care. The fans can easily look up where Wells Brothers is.

- Weather. He doesn't care how cold, hot, rainy, snowy, windy it gets. If he's in town, you are getting your review as he travels a lot and doesn't know where he'll be but he wants to hit everything. He does it immediately after it's out of the oven (if timed right); don't have it sitting waiting, that never goes well (and I hate it when it's my pizza) so even though it's freezing, he may still be blowing on it.

- He cannot understand why Chicago and Wisconsin pizza boxes have hinges that lock the box and he plays up to the "difficulty" in opening them as to illustrate how pointless the boxes are (and I have to admit, it's a lot easier to open the boxes without them but personally I don't care either way).

- He is putting on a little show for the locker room/sports guys that are his fans and like his style of talking. For those who get offended, too bad. He has so many fans someone is always honking or shouting during every review no matter where it is. He can be a genuine nice guy as well. He knows that his scores can hurt a small business and he loves meeting a lot of the owners but he hates when they know it's him and try to influence him with bribes or "re-cooks." He wants to judge your pizza based on how you give it to the average person. He also doesn't like (rightly so) when the owner stands there waiting for the score. I personally would hate it too. "No pressure" as Dave says while the owner is standing there smiling. He likes to rip on chains and gimmick pizzas.

- He grew up in the north suburbs of Boston and in my opinion is a Johnny come lately to pizza because I knew many of the famous places he eventually went to and he lives a only few hours from places like New Haven and New York yet never went to them?! I would have been going over 30 years ago for all that pizza had I lived close by! He thinks Detroit pizza is good, but typically scores those around 7.6. Neapolitan he typically gives 6.8. He grew up with Massachusetts style bar pies, not New York or New Haven style. He did like Malnati's and Giordano's here.

- He is doing everyone a great service with these reviews and putting many places on the map for us. I have been to dozens and dozens of places he has reviewed (many I didn't know about). I don't always agree with him but sometimes he's on the mark.

- Once Dave reviews a pizzeria and he likes it they will be overwhelmed with explosive growth. It will take time for the wave of interest to die back down if it ever does. The regular patrons hate it (for good reason) because their go-to pizza joint is now super busy. Now that his scores are up forever, places like Sally's (9.2) are likely to be slammed for a long time because many people are now more inclined to make the trip. It's a blessing and a curse I guess.

- He was told by a server at Zaffiro's that Milwaukee style thin is always thinner than Chicago tavern style literally the day before the Wells Brothers review so he thinks she was right and is why he said it. We know that is not always the case (Pat's, Countryside Saloon, Joe's Italian Villa, Vito and Nick's, etc) but Zaffiros (and Maria's, Wells Brothers) are all thinner than most Chicago thin joints - especially the mom and pop generic recipe that most around Chicago have with the thicker cardboard crust.

- His biggest mistake is not getting sausage in Chicago or Wisconsin because that is what we are known for. Our thin tavern-style pizza reaches another level with sausage but to me a tavern-cheese pizza is not usually going to compete with the greats of the East Coast. I am the first to admit that. Their dough is superior. You could easily make a bread from their dough, not Chicago pizza dough. But I feel if someone was able to let him try Vito and Nick's or Wells Brothers with sausage those scores would go up a bit. East Coast sausage is typically inferior (although Zuppardi's in West Haven, CT is as good as ours). The sauce and cheeses are quite different as well. But if you ask me that's exactly how I want it. I love that it's all different. And no one city is clearly better than the other for pizza.

- He did like Vito and Nick's and Wells Brothers equally - two of my favorites (plus Barnaby's of Northbrook had a solid score) so the cream does rise to the top

- I think the ghosts of Chicago threw a little karma on him for giving lesser scores to Chicago pizzerias during a review of Salerno's because he bit his tongue really bad during the review and he had to "play hurt" for other reviews. So I guess the old-timers may have been telling him to go get his shinebox from beyond the grave?

I unabashedly love Dave P’s One Bite pizza reviews. It’s entertainment, fun and occasionally pick up a tip or two.

Not everything needs to be serious.

Ram-O--

I was feeling my territorial pizza oats a little bit when I watched that review, thus the Godfather/GoodFellas references. You liked Kaiser's when we were there, right? Wells Bros. is even better than that. If you haven't been there, trust me. Or we'll go sometime. And we'll sit inside like normal human beings and eat it right out of the oven. Sausage.

No doubt the video was entertaining, albeit in a morbidly fascinating 'why are you eating pizza outside in below-zero weather?' kind of way. Good content is in the eye of the beholder. He grew up on Massachusetts tavern pizza? My family's from there, my cousin owned the Newtown Grill on Mass Ave in Cambridge, rated for many years the 'best dive bar pizza'--whateverthehell that means. They really like their pepperoni in Boston. And truth be told the quality was only fair in comparison to the top of the line thin around these parts. However, your most accurate comment was this one, and for that I must give out props:

"Our thin tavern-style pizza reaches another level with sausage but to me a tavern-cheese pizza is not usually going to compete with the greats of the East Coast. I am the first to admit that. Their dough is superior. You could easily make a bread from their dough, not Chicago pizza dough."

Be good to see you at a future LTHNLG luncheon.

Jay

Really nice, thorough write-up, Ram4. Thanks for taking the time. I agree with Jay: it'll be good to see you at more LTHNG lunches --- especially when really good pizza is involved!

Echoing others, thanks for the write-up, Ram4! I still haven't clicked on the link for the Dave P's reviews, but you gave some helpful backstory.