Ian's Pizza

Ian's Pizza was cofounded by Ian Gurfield. It opened on October 31, 2001, and is known for selling pizza by the slice, especially its mac 'n cheese pizza.

History

The first decade

Ian Gurfield, a philosophy and economics graduate from Massachusetts, looked at 50 college towns before choosing Madison — Bloomington, Indiana, was his second choice — and opened Ian's Pizza By the Slice at 319 N. Frances St. on October 31, 2001, at 24, after sleeping on friends' couches and working 100-hour weeks. He left space for a wood-fired oven that never came. (The Daily Cardinal in 2002 put the count at 60 towns and had Gurfield, a UMass-Amherst philosophy graduate of January 2000, modelling the shop on a slice place he had loved in Amherst.)

The shop opened next to The Living Room with dark orange walls — "just like a blood orange in there" — selling "Casa Bianca-sized slices" for $2.50 whatever the toppings: pesto with fresh mozzarella and basil, artichoke heart, macaroni and cheese with crème fraîche, steak and fries on barbecue sauce, chicken burrito with black beans, chicken parmesan and buffalo wing, with talk of truffle oil and a ceviche pizza to come. There were no breadsticks or sandwiches: "You focus on one thing and you do it well," Gurfield told the Badger Herald, which listed a High School Cafeteria Memories slice of ham and cheddar and a customer's suggestion of a cookie dough pizza. A month in, Samara Kalk reported the most popular slice was the Buffalo Wing, followed by Tomato Pesto; UW football players lived upstairs, and a fight outside the shop that put the quarterback on ESPN had made the place known. Daily Cardinal readers voted it their favourite pizza in April 2002; it came second to Urban Pizza in the paper's delivery poll of 2003, joined the Madison Originals group of independent restaurants that year, and got Dotty Dumpling's Dowry as its neighbour that September, in the former Black Bear Lounge. By 2004 the line was out the door for the last three hours before closing on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, and the State Journal's year-end feature on gourmet pizza was photographed at the Frances Street counter and oven. By 2005 the store sold about 300,000 slices a year, 20 to 40 kinds at a time, and had tried more than 500 varieties, among them cookie dough; the mac and cheese was the most popular, at $2.75.

The second store opened in July 2005 at 115 State St., in the former Peacemeal Vegetarian Restaurant, for lunch and weekend late nights, when "there really aren't many pizza options" at the top of State Street. In February 2007 it expanded into 113 State St. next door, a pornography arcade for 32 years, adding 2,000 square feet, and the delivery service moved there from Frances Street. The general manager of 2006–2007, Clayton Scherer, said the business "would not be what it is without staying open late for the bar time crowd"; in 2008 the Frances Street store was "open till the line stops coming in", sometimes until 4 or 5 a.m., and took 19 of 66 votes in a late-night survey. A UW seniors' poster of things to do before graduating included "one more late-night snack at Ian's".

In June 2008 a third store opened near Wrigley Field in Chicago, run by two Madison employees as managing partners — "We're not franchising" — and by 2011 there were also stores in Milwaukee and Chicago. In 2009 Ian's took over the closed Pavlov's Pizza at 1511 Williamson St. for a bakery and commissary supplying the Madison and Milwaukee stores. In the Capital Times' "Top 5" lists of 2010 to 2013 the Mac n' Cheese slice came first every time.

When the protests against the budget-repair bill began in February 2011, the State Street store gave away 60 slices on February 15. Donors then began paying for pizzas for the protesters, and within a week the store had handed out over 3,000 20-inch pizzas, with orders from all 50 states and more than 50 countries, "including a research station in Antarctica"; staff came from the other stores to help. By April the total was close to 56,000 slices; the store sold "This is what democracy tastes like" T-shirts for charity. Gurfield refused to take sides: "We have always said, we're pro pizza".

In January 2012 the store announced it would move across the street to 100 State St., the former Madison Children's Museum, 25 percent larger; Nick Martin was then "one of five owners of the State Street location". Because the building belonged to Frank's Liquor of La Crosse, the tied-house law meant the new store could sell no alcohol. The move came in about May 2012, with a larger salad bar, an open kitchen and a wall for large-scale art. That autumn Gurfield opened his wood-fired S2 Pizzabar on State Street; it lasted four months. In September 2013 Ian's hosted the National Pizza Eating Championship on Library Mall.

2015 to 2019

In 2015 Ian's teamed up with its ostensible competitor Salvatore's Tomato Pies to make its own sausage — about 400 pounds a week, of Uphoff kurobota pork — and was planning its sixth store, in Seattle. Ian's signed a lease for the Garver Feed Mill by December 2017, two years before the renovated building opened; the Garver store's first week in July 2019 was so busy the ovens failed — "It broke us" — and it closed briefly, reopening July 30.

On State Street, owner Nick Martin spoke up in the debates of 2017 and 2018 about conditions at the top of State Street, and the store's Tuesday night open mics were held up as programming "inclusive to the homeless".

In January 2026 Ian's had three stores in Madison, among them State Street and the Garver Feed Mill (opened 2019), three in Milwaukee, and one in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, opened in July 2025, with a commercial kitchen at 802 Walsh Rd. Each store has its own group of owners drawn from its employees, friends and family; Nick Martin is managing partner of the Madison stores.

During the COVID-19 pandemic all three Madison stores of 2020, on State Street, on North Frances Street and at Garver, kept up carryout and delivery. A fund called "Stay home! Send pizza!" sent Ian's pizzas to hospital workers in the spring of 2020, and Ian's gave pizza to the protesters of 2020, as it had to the Act 10 protesters of 2011, when it delivered up to 1,200 pizzas a day to the Capitol with orders from all 50 states and 72 countries. Only three of its seven restaurants got federal Restaurant Revitalization Fund grants in 2021. To keep staff, it guaranteed tipped workers $15 an hour and paid $2 more after 10 p.m.

The largest store yet, 8,000 square feet at 303 W. Verona Ave. in Verona's Mill District, broke ground in early January 2026 and was due to open by midsummer. It is the first Ian's to sell liquor, and has its own Calliope Ice Cream counter.

Pizza

• At the opening in 2001 the regular cheese and pepperoni slices were $1.75 and everything else $2.50; the crust was "moderately dense and very crispy, but also surprisingly dry" to one student reviewer, used to Casa Bianca's "grease-stuffed crust". Kalk's November 2001 list ran from Goat Cheese with Truffle Oil and Parsley to Sweet Potato Ravioli with Cream and Sage Sauce, Lasagna and Westphalia Ham with Gruyère; the specials were named after Rousseau essays.
• The mac 'n' cheese slice was already the best seller in 2005, when the regular slices included steak and fries, guacamole burrito, lasagna, Philly cheese steak and chicken cordon bleu. The Capital Times' top five sellers in December 2009: Mac & Cheese, Chili Cheese Fritos, Smokey the Bandit, Tri-Veggie, Philly Cheesesteak.
• Seasonal specials include a Thanksgiving pizza: mozzarella, mushroom cream, mushrooms, green beans, stuffing, cranberry sauce and fried onions. The "seasonal stunt pie" has been on the November menu in some form since at least 2007, when it was paired with a dessert pie of sweet potato, caramelized pecans and mini marshmallows; Jeff Bach overhauled the modern turkey-and-stuffing slice at the commissary around 2010, replacing a version held together by mashed potatoes and gravy.
• "As far as the pizza world is concerned, tavern-style pizza is definitely having a moment," Gurfield said in 2026.

Locations

• 100 State St. (from about May 2012)
• 319 N. Frances St. (October 31, 2001; open in 2020).
• Garver Feed Mill, 3241 Garver Green (2019 to present).
• 303 W. Verona Ave., Verona (due to open in summer 2026).

Former Locations

• 115 State St. (July 2005 to about May 2012), from February 2007 also 113 State St..

See also

• COVID-19 pandemic
• Ian's Pizza in the Madison Pizza Wiki database