Rohan D.
Yelp
I'm not sure what to make of the mixed reviews here. I play in a band that aims at an elderly consumer demographic; we play a lot of nursing homes. I was talking to an octogenarian who was at that Matthew 26: 40-43 stage of life and I asked, "what do you miss most about (being out and about in) Milwaukee? She said, "the pizza at deMarinis." I figured the place had long since gone out of business, then discovered on YELP that the family was still operating restaurants. I may have to try them all out, we started here. On a polar vortex night, they were having trouble with their heat, the location is an attractive renovated craftsman style hall with big (single pane not insulated) windows. I thought the view was nice, and the patio looks like it would be fun in more appropriate weather. I liked the old fashioned white and red checked tablecloths, the house Chianti was adequate, the pizza was pretty good. If you don't agree on ingredients, you can each get a junior size, or if like me you want to be uncomfortably full, get a small pizza each. It's the crispy thin crust Italian-American style that I'm sometimes in the mood for, and they still have anchovies on the menu.
On Wednesday nights they have a drawing after you order and one table gets to eat for free, on Tuesday they have some similar drawing for your bar tab. The table behind us won, they had initially waffled on whether to stay or not because of the chill inside. The extreme cold outside didn't make for a typical night, but we really enjoyed the ambiance, the service, and the food. It's the sort of place that should serve a pretty good spaghetti and meatballs in red sauce, so I'll be back for that, making sure to not wear a white shirt.
When I was in college (well the second, more successful attempt at college) at the University of Illinois Circle Campus (as University of Illinois at Chicago was then called) the campus was the north end of Chicago's Little Italy, and there were a dozen restaurants like this one. None of them are left, as a result of gentrification and Italian-American upward social mobility. Time hasn't apparently changed the deMarinis place much. I like the idea that they've been consistent, the waitress has worked here for "17 years" and testified that the pizza recipe has been the same over her tenure. Another member of the family has opened up in Bayview with a claim to the first generation's pizza recipe, and that may have been the pizza my nursing home friend was referring to, this will require some further gastronomic research on my part.