Zaffiro's Pizza The Original
Pizza restaurant · Brady Street ·
Milwaukee's iconic cracker-thin, crisp tavern-style pizza
Milwaukee's iconic cracker-thin, crisp tavern-style pizza
"Family-owned since the ’50s, this East Side institution has remained painstakingly loyal to tradition. In the bustling, ever-changing lakefront neighborhood, it’s easy to take for granted the old school red-checkered tablecloths, blue-collar barstool classicism, and joys of sipping Blatz shoulder-to-shoulder with compatriots under the bar’s neon lights. But it’s worth remembering (and waiting for) Zaffiro’s Midwestern tavern-style pizza: a circle pie, square cut, and loaded up. The sharable, salty version here is a living ode to the style’s birth as beer-drinking food. Zaffiro’s leans extra hard into wafer-thin crust, which lets out a satisfying crackle and snap, while the fennel-inflected sausage is redolent of the time this was the Italian quarter of Milwaukee. Best for: A cozy and carby retreat from a cold winter night." - Todd Lazarski
"Milwaukee does in fact have its own style of pizza—the round-shaped pie is cut into rectangles, has a cracker-thin, crisp, and light crust. The best versions come from this family-owned pizzeria that’s been in business since 1954, when two brothers named Bobby and John opened its doors. Their father emigrated from Sicily, and the same recipe for dough and sauce is still used today. In other words, leave the inventive, wacky pizzas to the new kids on the block. Snag a seat in the dining room and start dipping deep-fried eggplant strips into marinara sauce before downing a classic cheese and sausage pizza. Also, not a single decor detail has changed, including red-and-white checkered tablecloths and wood-paneled walls." - kristine hansen
"tavern-style pizza (Calderone Club, Zaffiro’s, DeMarini’s)" - Eater Staff
Since 1954, the Zaffiro family has defined Milwaukee’s cracker‑thin pizza and Italian‑American comfort; a staple lauded by Thrillist and chronicled by local writers.
"Identified during research as the "gold standard" for cracker-crust tavern pizza, this Milwaukee spot provided the technical and stylistic model that the team sought to emulate when developing their own tavernetta recipe." - Chris Crowley
