Last week I hinted that Brenton and I were going to go on the Milwaukee Pizza Bus Tour. For those of you that aren’t familiar, Milwaukee Food Tours combines the history of Milwaukee’s neighborhoods with culinary exploration. It’s the perfect activity for an out-of-towner or someone who has lived here their entire life.

I’ve taken their Wauwatosa Food Tour and their Bloody Mary Bunch Tour and loved both experiences. Although I’ve lived in Milwaukee for 6 years, there are so many restaurants I still want to venture to. Milwaukee Food Tours is a perfect way to sample a variety of foods fairly inexpensively without taking a bunch of time. We hit up 5 different places on the Pizza Tour (only one of which I had been to before).

Brenton took all the photos in this post. He has taken professional food photography shots for local businesses and many of the articles I write for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Even though I was stuffed to the brim on Friday night when we took the tour, looking at these shots gets me hungry all over again!

First Stop: Caradaro Club

Caradaro Club on Vliet Street in Milwaukee has been making pizza since 1945. We sampled the Caradaro Classic Pizza, which had sausage mushrooms and onions on a cracker-thin crust. This was mine and Brenton’s favorite. Although I typically like a thick, Chicago-style crust, the freshness of the toppings and the overall flavor was dynamite.

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Second Stop: Classic Slice

However, my perfect pizza would have been Caradaro Club’s toppings on Classic Slice’s crust. On the East Side of Milwaukee, Classic Slice serves New York-style pizza that is more on the indulgent side.

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For our group of 18, Classic Slice made us a 30-inch pizza. It was gooey, greasy and just a little spicy — which is a good thing when you’re talking about pizza. I told Brenton that this would be the pizza I’d choose in college after being out all night at the bars. It makes sense that they’re on the East Side because that’s where all the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee students are. Unfortunately, Classic Slice wasn’t here when I was an undergrad at UWM, so we stuck to Pizza Shuttle.

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Third Stop: Dicks Pizza & Pleasure

I work just blocks away from Dicks Pizza & Pleasure in Downtown Milwaukee, but I had no idea they were even here. Big mistake!

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Dicks is like a pizza bar meets anime nightclub. Inside you don’t feel like you’re in Milwaukee because it’s so hip. I felt like we could have been in Chicago or LA by the modern, funky atmosphere inside.

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At Dicks, they served us a chocolate milkshake with their Black and White Pizza. Their pizzas are the only ones in the city that are baked in a coal-fire oven. That means it’s cooked at 700-800 degrees, which takes about 2-3 minutes to cook an entire pizza.

Their Black and White Pizza is made with white sauce, imported Italian fontina, Grande mozzarella, Parmesan, burrata and black truffle. It is unlike any pizza you’ve ever had, and it was delicious.

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Forth Stop: Pizzeria Piccola

We first visited Pizzeria Piccola on the Wauwatosa Food Tour. Although their pizza is good, it was probably by least favorite of the bunch. We tried their Margarita and Sausage pizzas. I typically like my pizza with more toppings and just all-around heftier. I feel like their pizzas are much lighter, which was a good way to end the pizza portion of the food tour. It’s all about experiencing different kids of pizzas and everyone has their preference.

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Fifth (and final) Stop: Cold Spoons Gelato

Everyone was pretty stuffed when we walked in Cold Spoons Gelato. But isn’t it funny how when you taste something sweet you automatically have room in your stomach?

This was the first time I really tried gelato (not just a spoonful), and I am officially hooked. Steve, our tour guide, explained that gelato has less milk fat and sugar than ice cream (it’s made with whole milk instead of cream). Because it’s served at a lower temperature than ice cream, our taste buds don’t freeze and, therefore, it tastes more flavorful.

I mixed panna cotta with Snickers bar and Brenton mixed caramel sea salt with white chocolate raspberry. The panna cotta was just sweet enough and completely smooth and irresistible. I would definitely head back there just for that flavor.

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Disclaimer: I was given these tickets by Milwaukee Food Tours. I was not given them in exchange for a positive review. All opinions are my own.

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