I go there all the time as I live in the 'hood. I love this place. Service, food, beer--all great. They change their menu quite often. Their cheesesticks are hands-down the best I've ever had.

My favorite pizza there is pepperoni, onion, and provolone. Yum.

I understand that taco pizza is really big in the Janesville/Beloit area. The taco pizza I had there was made with ranch dressing (which they seem to put on everything in Janesville), bean dip, nacho flavored Doritos and orange cheese. I don't know if that is a traditional South Central Wisconsin variation, since I only ate it once (never again).


Here is a link to a menu from Mac's Pizza Shack in Janesville where they make some of the weirdest Pizzas I have seen, including Mac n' Cheese and Baked Potato (mashed potatoes, bacon bits, onions, orange cheese and sour cream)
I got a kick out of their "Garden Pizza" which contains salami, peperoni, sausage, ground beef and Canadian bacon in addition to green peppers, mushrooms and onions.

http://macspizzashack.com/menu.html

Am I the only one who finds both the notion/description and the pics of a "taco pizza" absolutely disgusting?

DutchMuse wrote:Am I the only one who finds both the notion/description and the pics of a "taco pizza" absolutely disgusting?

No.

When I was a kid, you could sometimes find taco pizza on the menu at a Pizza Hut. Their version had refried beans, ground beef, shredded lettuce, chopped onions and tomato, and cheese. I remember it being very good. Despite being from Michigan, I greatly dislike ranch dressing, so I don't think I would enjoy a version with that.

I caught a piece of a Food Channel rerun of a sort of Chicago pizza throw down--Who's got the best pie in town?--sort of thing.

They visited Burt's for stuffed, Coalfire for thin crust, and Dimo's for wtf?--nacho pizza. I don't know how you could pick a "best" out of three distinct styles.

In any case, I was glad to see that Burt's won.

Roots* is having its fourth installment of "Let's Drink Beer & Eat Pizza" series tomorrow night (Tuesday, September 9). We'll be tapping five kegs of Pipeworks and five kegs of Three Floyds at 6pm sharp. The kegs we're tapping are listed on the image below. If any of you do swing on thru, please say hi as I'll be behind the bar pretty much all night.

http://imgur.com/HIdoIJu

*I am an operating partner in The Fifty/50 Restaurant Group which Roots is a part of and I also put together the event as well.

Finally tried Roots on Friday night. I was mostly looking forward to the cheese sticks and wasn't expecting much of the pizza which is exactly how it turned out. There was barely any sauce on the pizza, so I asked for more. I was happy to receive a bowl of warm pizza sauce which was sweet and spicy. It definitely helped the pizza after that. But I didn't care for a mouth full of crumbly sausage in every bite. The cheese was flavorful, while the malt crust was doughy, chewy and bland. I'd go back for the cheese sticks which were like candy bar sized. Not the best sticks I ever had, but definitely top ten. My girlfriend had a chicken caesar calzone type sandwich which she thought was ok, nothing special. I'd go back for the apps (some other ones looked good), but definitely not the pizza.

Get ready for a lot more Quad Cities-style pizza. Roots Handmade Pizza has secured a location in Lakeview to build a third restaurant and is planning to open pizzerias in two other city neighborhoods and possibly in the suburbs.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/dining/ct ... story.html

I've given the pizza a few shots and can't rally much enthusiasm. However, the bland malt crust hot out of the oven in the "foldover" application (their sandwiches) can be a nice thing. Particularly, while nothing about the Italian Beef is Chicago-style - firm thick cut, vinegary giard relish, jus on the side for dipping - it is all clearly made onsite, and with the fresh dough crust comes together into something new, which helps knock down the good Midwest beer list. An interesting side swap for this is broccoli charred in the pizza oven with garlic butter rather than curly fries (which are also fine).