Milwaukee pizza, custard and books: Calderone Club + more

Heading home after a weekend trip to Madison, my wife and I decided to stop in Milwaukee for some used book shopping, pizza and custard. Unfortunately, we found the legendary, massive (400,000+ volumes), and invitingly decrepit—from the outside, at least—Renaissance Book Shop closed on Sundays. A return trip to the equally cavernous, labyrinthine and eclectic Downtown Books, however, confirmed that store’s status as a truly great bookstore, superior in breadth and depth to any of its Chicago counterparts, including the Hyde Park Powell’s and Myopic Books.

While my wife and I take great pleasure in uncovering the many overlooked gems hiding on Downtown Books’ stuffed shelves, our best find of the day was undoubtedly a food-related one—the Calderone Club, a downtown Italian restaurant (just down the street from Mader’s) that has been serving the same very tasty thin crust pizza for over 30 years. Although the Calderone Club cannot compete with the atmosphere of the well known pizza joint-cum-striking vestige of Milwaukee’s fading proletarian industrial culture, Zaffiro’s, its pizza far surpasses that of the latter establishment in taste and texture. Like Zaffiro’s pizza, though, Calderone’s is entirely devoid of pretense—it doesn’t attempt anything fancy, but what it does, it does very well indeed. Aside from its rectangular shape, the most unusual aspect of the Calderone pie is its crackery, intensely crisp crust. So crisp—one might even say crunchy—is Calderone’s crust that many pizzas noted for their crackery rigidity---like, say, Candlelite’s—seem like miasmas of soggy insubstantiality by comparison (OK, that’s probably going too far.). The assertiveness of the crust is tempered by a mild but pleasant tomato sauce, an above average and greaseless mozzarella cheese, and ample servings of a coarsely ground Italian sausage characterized by a pleasing but sharp fennel bite. Top it all off with some finely chopped, omnipresent onions and you have a thin crust pie that ranks with the better renditions found in Chicago.

Upon encountering the Calderone Club pizza, one may speculate as to how the remarkable rigidity of the crust is maintained given its near communion wafer thinness. Indeed, my wife and I debated this very topic even as we happily stuffed our faces. One theory we entertained was that the CC partially bakes its crust before topping it—a method that is, of course, anathema to many on this board. Nevertheless, even if the restaurant does employ such a widely excoriated technique, I don’t think the final product suffers as a result. Next time you’re in Milwaukee, though, give this pizza a chance and see what you think.

Before leaving the city, we made our customary pilgrimage to Leon’s, our unquestioned favorite custard stand in the city, and another remnant of Milwaukee's industrial heyday. Before the Kopps zealots label me a heretic, though, let me say in my defense that I do not harbor an ill opinion of Kopps’ custard—rather, I greatly admire its pervasively creamy density. Still, after repeated visits to Kopps, I have found that its custard is marred by a slightly artificial, chemical aftertaste that suffers by comparison to the honest, “old fashioned” and readily accessible pure butterfat flavor typical of Leon’s vanilla custard. Given that both custards have an outstanding texture, Leon’s flavor identifies it as Milwaukee’s best I’ve tried so far. And on a hot evening, you can't beat its glowing neon, beckoning cruising motorists from up and down 27th St. For the record, here’s how I rate my recent (last 3 months) Milwaukee custard experiences (vanilla is my standard for each stand):

1)Leon’s
2)Kopp’s
3)Oscar’s—the vanilla is way better than the chocolate, which more closely resembles soft serve than custard
4)Robert’s—perhaps a little sweet, but very good texture
5)Bella’s Fat Cat—strikingly similar to Kopps in texture, but suffers from an overwhelmingly artificial flavor
6)Kitt’s—decent texture, but nondescript flavor: I may have to re-evaluate this stand shortly as my taste buds may have been compromised by a minutes-earlier pastrami sandwich at Jake’s
7)Gilles—a classic stand that was all sizzle and no steak; good burgers, though

So far, only Leon’s has been able to produce a consistently transcendent experience while Gilles remains the lone stand to which I would not return.

Random closing thoughts: Milwaukee remains a fascinating city, almost eerie in its not-quite Chicago-ness. If, as one author has recently argued, Chicago provides a “history of our future” via its postindustrial culture, Milwaukee constitutes the looking glass through which one may grasp the repressed, but not entirely forgotten, industrial past in the present. It is a reminder both of the tremendous social consequences wrought by deindustrialization and of the fact that in some urban centers, the new postindustrial social order has not yet fully taken shape, and that the future, therefore, has yet to be written.

Downtown Books
327 E Wisconsin Ave., Milwaukee

Renaissance Book Shop
834 N Plankinton Ave., Milwaukee

Calderone Club
842 N. Old Third World St., Milwaukee

Leon's Drive-In
3131 S. 27th St., Milwaukee

Kopps Frozen Custard
5373 N. Port Washington Rd., Glendale

Oscar's
2362 S. 108th St., West Allis

Robert's
6005 W. Appleton Ave., Milwaukee

Bella's Fat Cat
1233 E. Brady St., Milwaukee

Kitt's
7000 W. Capitol Dr., Milwaukee

Gilles
7515 N. Blue Mound Rd., Milwaukee

Kenny, I've been meaning (well since you posted this) to respond, well to thank you for the post. As you may have seen from posts I've done, I've had rather enjoyed my trips to Wisconsin this year, including a few visits to Milwaukee. But no one told me about this book store. And after eating, shopping for used books is about my favorite thing. We are trying to configure a short trip to the Wisconsin State Fair and the Dane County Farmer's Market next week. Now, I have something else to squeeze into the trip.

We went to Leon's and Gilley's a few months ago, and greatly preferred Leon's too. It's been a while since I have been to Kopps (the last time we tried, we got lost and ended up taking in downtown Waussau instead).

Rob

As you may have seen from posts I've done, I've had rather enjoyed my trips to Wisconsin this year, including a few visits to Milwaukee. But no one told me about this book store. And after eating, shopping for used books is about my favorite thing. We are trying to configure a short trip to the Wisconsin State Fair and the Dane County Farmer's Market next week. Now, I have something else to squeeze into the trip.

I'm glad you found the bookstore information useful. Downtown Books is definitely worth seeking out, and from the looks of it, so is Renaissance Book Shop. The two are only about a two or three minute drive apart, on opposite sides of the river. Unfortunately, every time I try to go to Renaissance, it is closed for one reason or another.

Anyway, I love the feel of Downtown Books, and the fact that it is, indeed, downtown. Its somewhat run-down facade and wonderfully sinuous aisles and decaying interior provide the kind of book shopping experience not readily available in Chicago anymore. When you go to Downtown Books, you undeniably find yourself in Milwaukee's commercial center, but the store's almost breathtaking immensity, subdivided into different floors, odd rooms, twisting aisles and unexpected, cozy nooks, create an "open" feeling, a sense of wandering and drift that perhaps is more readily associated with what you have called the "Old" Chicago than many areas of the city today.

The selection is also fantastic, and I love the store's democratic approach to the written word: It has impressive holdings in a wide array of categories, from high literature to philosophy to National Geographics (a whole roomful of these) to comic books. It is truly a bookstore for all ages and all readers.

By the way, Madison's Capitol Square, home to the Dane County Farmer's Market, also houses a pretty good used book store--for some reason I can never remember the name, but I think it's called Shakespeare Books. More towards the University, on Gilman St. is a left-wing bookstore called Rainbow Co-Op, which, if you swing that way, has a fairly small but very well chosen selection. Also available are some pretty funny political posters, t-shirts and bumper stickers.

When I was last at the Dane County market, I really regretted not bringing a cooler. The meat selections there are fantastic and, in my opinion, the highlight of the market. Sometimes you can also find a vendor who sells this extra-dark, incredibly rich and smoky maple syrup that is just simply mind-blowing, the best, by far, I have ever had.

If you're having breakfast in Madison, I would avoid Monty's Blue Plate, which has been recommended on this site. I like the look and smell of Lazy Jane's, but have never actually been there.