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Pizza
crust a ‘masterpiece’
at Martino’s
April
11, 2006
| If
You Go |
Name: Martino’s Restaurante.
Established: June 2004.
Owners and operators:
Ron and Karen Haas.
Address: 965 Pine St.,
Stanley.
Telephone: (715) 644-3334.
Wheelchair accessible:
Yes.
Smoking: No.
Restaurant hours: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily.
Parking: In on-site lot.
Pizza prices: 12-inch medium pizza, cheese
only, $9.99 — each added ingredient costs
$1; 12-inch medium specialty pizza, $13.99.
Extras: Appetizers, soups, pastas and
subs also are offered. With pizza or any main
dish, the small but attractive salad and soup
bar costs $2.95 for unlimited trips.
A lunch buffet runs from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.,
$8.18 including soft drink
and tax.
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Without
reader Frank Reith, who called to question our pizza
sense, we might never have found Martino’s.
That would have been a shame. Martino’s makes
some of the best Wisconsinstyle pizza we’ve
tasted.
The
night we visited, the restaurant and restrooms were
spotless. Service was welcoming, attentive, witty.
Take the Stanley exit off Highway 29 and head toward
town. At the BP station, turn right onto Pine Street.
Martino’s is about a mile up on the left.
Our first pizza was classically simple: pepperoni
and cheese on Martino’s “original”
crust — a half-inch of breadstick-crisp,
house-made dough with a sturdy rim, $10.99. Martino’s
cheese is a tasty all-
Wisconsin mix of mozzarella, young
provolone and Cheddar, and comes properly
baked into lovely reddish-brown peaks and deepgolden
valleys.
The
houseblended sauce is a study in fresh and mild:
bright tomato flavor and color
with pleasant acidity and understated
Italian herbs. The pepperoni is spicy and a little
unctuous, just as it should be. This was a well-crafted,
satisfying pie with each good ingredient prominent
and none dominant.
Our second pizza was more complex: Martino’s
House Special on thin crust, $13.99.
Like many “specialty” pizzas, this one
comes overloaded: pepperoni, sausage, ground beef,
Canadian bacon, tomatoes, green peppers, onions,
black olives, mushrooms. But Martino’s manages
to keep this pizza astonishingly light by using
less meat and cheese than most other makers.
The happy result is a fine fresh-vegetable casserole
sparked by the spice and salt of the meats and sauce.
The bland Italian sausage bits were our only disappointment.
And Martino’s thin crust? A quarter-inch masterpiece.
The bottom surface is crisptender. Under the sauce,
the top stays soft and moist, breadlike enough to
balance the pie’s generous inch of rich ingredients.
This is a crust that even thin-crust foes can love.
Thanks, Frank!
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