Madison Pizza Wiki:Did you know

The Main Page's "Did you know?" box shows three of these hooks for a week at a time, picked at random by the DailyFeatures extension (administrators can reorder the queue on Special:DailyFeatures). Every bullet line below is one hook; anything else on the page is ignored. The facts must appear, with a citation, in the linked article, and hooks don't name private individuals. Add new hooks when you write new articles; the comment after each hook says where the fact comes from.

• ... that Joe’s Pizza Pie on Regent Street, which advertised "We Specialize In ... PIZZA" in February 1945, is the earliest pizza business found in the Madison papers?
• ... that when The Grotto opened on State Street in January 1949 as "the new home of Pizza Pie", the 3 Sisters Dining Room answered within five days that it was "still the home of PIZZA PIE"?
• ... that the first "pizza" in the Madison papers, in the 1940s (decade), was a 1941 Hollywood column recipe, and a 1945 food column still had to explain that it was "pronounced peet-za"?
• ... that Philadora Pizzeria, the first Madison business found with "pizzeria" in its name, opened on South Park Street in 1960 and was turned down for a beer license that year?
• ... that the Italian Village on State Street, "Recommended by Duncan Hines", introduced "Famous Italian PIZZA" in May 1951, with a pizza for two at $1.75?
• ... that Bunky’s, the Capadona family's restaurant on Madison's "Spaghetti Corner", served pizza pie just one night a week in 1952 and 1953, Fridays and then Wednesdays?
• ... that an old menu from Pino’s at Park and Regent lists a "Giant Party Pizza" of 16 by 24 inches, "5.50 and up", next to a small cheese pizza for 80 cents?
• ... that Amato’s Holiday House opened on South Park Street in 1947 as a frozen custard restaurant, sold off its custard equipment in 1951, and by 1958 claimed "Madison's Finest PIZZA"?
• ... that regular customers of The Pizza Oven in Monona included Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and other Milwaukee Bucks, and that it stayed open through the ice storm of 1976 and "every blizzard"?
• ... that Dick Domenget left a paint roller factory assembly line to help his brothers run The Pizza Oven, and that "On our first night, we made $16"?
• ... that Shakey’s Pizza Parlor opened on East Washington Avenue in 1964 with "an authentic English Pub atmosphere" and a menu that ran to Smoked Oyster and Idiot's Delight pizzas?
• ... that from 1963 into the 1970s three Madison companies ran Pizza trucks with ovens on board, baking the pizzas on the way to the customer's door?
• ... that in the first of the Daily Cardinal pizza contests, in 1971, the winning pizza from Gargano's arrived an hour after it was ordered, and was "the best of a poor lot"?
• ... that after Gargano's won the 1972 round of the Daily Cardinal pizza contests, the Capital Times "screamed payola" because the owner had thrown a party for the Cardinal staff?
• ... that Gargano’s Pizzeria advertised that its owner Biagio Gargano "FIRST introduced Pizza in the Pan to Madison" in 1973, a year before Rocky Rococo opened?
• ... that in March 1966 police used tear gas to flush burglars out of Gargano’s Pizzeria on State Street?
• ... that the State Street shop of Luigi’s Pizza & Subs sold pizza by the slice for 30¢ in 1973, months before Rocky Rococo opened, and in 1975 was "the only union pizza in town"?
• ... that Rocky Rococo opened on April 4, 1974, in a Gilman Street building that had been Brown's Restaurant for 36 years, and that one of the new owners happened to be named Brown?
• ... that about 225 Rocky Rococo pizzas were pieced together at the 1998 Wisconsin State Fair into a 1,000-pound "World's Largest Wisconsin Cheese Pizza" in the shape of the state?
• ... that Wayne Mosley, co-founder of Rocky Rococo, won bets and contests as a boy by eating pizza?
• ... that the first Rocky Rococo, at 411 West Gilman Street, closed in 1995 to make room for its founders' first non-pizza venture, a short-lived 1950s-style diner called the Blue Cow?
• ... that the founders of Rocky Rococo chose Madison for their Pan (pizza style) pizza partly because its university had many Chicago students, who would know a style "relatively unknown elsewhere"?
• ... that Pizza Pit sold more than 800,000 pizzas from its ten Madison outlets in 1984, using 395,000 pounds of cheese and 119,000 pounds of Italian sausage?
• ... that the Pizza Pit television jingle, "Yeah, it's the Pit's", was written in the snowy winter of 1978–79 with a model train set and children's voices?
• ... that 1401 Emil Street was a Pizza Pit for about 41 years, longer than any other address found, and was still answering its 1971 telephone number in 2012?
• ... that Terry Voice, president of Pizza Pit until 2000, had started in the pizza business in 1964 with the company that became Domino's?
• ... that Pizza Hut's first Madison restaurant, opened on South Park Street in January 1968, was to be the 255th in the chain, with 75 seats and parking for 40 cars?
• ... that in the 1980s (decade) the Capital Times put area pizza sales at nearly $100 per Dane County resident, and said Madison "eats more pizza per capita than just about any city in the nation"?
• ... that Domino’s Pizza was the world's largest pizza chain in 1986 but only third in Madison, with about 8 percent of the market and losses of about $35,000 a month?
• ... that all six Madison-area Little Caesar’s stores shut overnight on July 23–24, 1996, and that employees arrived the next morning to find them closed, their paychecks unpaid?
• ... that the first Madison Godfather’s Pizza was in a prefabricated metal building on University Avenue that a 1982 newspaper story called "the ugliest building in Mad Town"?
• ... that Iven Pizza on Regent Street served East Coast "Greek" pizza in the 1980s, made with white cheddar instead of mozzarella?
• ... that Chuck E. Cheese came to Madison in 1982 as ShowBiz Pizza Place, with an animatronic band, and that by 1989 its manager estimated it served about half a million people a year?
• ... that Gino’s on State Street registered the name "Stuffed Pizza®" after introducing the dish in the winter of 1978–79 with a "Stuffed Pizza Snow Party" during a January blizzard?
• ... that on the day the first Madison Pizzeria Uno opened in March 1985, a reviewer measured the deep-dish crust she had been promised would be up to two inches deep, and found one inch?
• ... that Rozino’s Pizza sold slices from a 1963 Chevy bread truck in the downtown parks, so that "a lot of people figured Rozino's didn't really have a location"?
• ... that Jim Meyer started at a Pizza Pit in 1979, co-founded Pizza Extreme in 1991, and in 2000 co-headed the investors who bought Pizza Pit's seven Madison company stores?
• ... that Supreme Pizza on East Johnson Street offered toppings "from the Twilight Zone" in 1994, sauerkraut, pastrami, tuna and tofu among them, and cactus by 2010?
• ... that 912 East Johnson Street has held one pizza place after another since 1981, and that Molten Monkey Pizza, opened there in 2024, is the first of them with a bar?
• ... that Pavlov’s Pizza opened in 1991 as Pagliai's Pizza, and that its house specialty, Beer Nuggets, was made without beer?
• ... that Gumby’s Pizza came to Madison in 1991 from a Florida chain named for a founder's green pants, and sold "probably Madison's only 20-inch pizza"?
• ... that a Falbo Bros Pizzeria advertisement reading "At Falbo's, we wash our hands after handling the sausage" was shown on the Tonight Show's "Headlines" segment?
• ... that Sal’s Pizzeria on State Street closed for two days in its second week in 1997, after a cooler ruined the dough, "but mainly it was human exhaustion" after 19-hour days?
• ... that Pizza Di Roma got its name in 2002 from a temporary banner hung on the former Sal's Pizzeria at 313 State St. to set it apart from the Casa Bianca on Bassett Street?
• ... that the founders of Glass Nickel Pizza wrote down 900 possible names before a relative suggested combining their surnames, Glassel and Nicholson?
• ... that the 1990s (decade) opened with a 1992 count of 74 places to get pizza in the Madison area, among them 11 Pizza Pits, nine Rocky Rococos and seven Pizza Huts?
• ... that Ian's Pizza gave away some 56,000 slices to the Capitol protesters of 2011, with orders from all 50 states and more than 50 countries, "including a research station in Antarctica"?
• ... that Cafe Porta Alba, Madison's first Neapolitan pizzeria, took its name from the first pizzeria in Naples and baked a pizza in 90 seconds in a 3,000-pound wood-fired oven?
• ... that Novanta is Italian for "90", the number of seconds a Neapolitan pizza bakes, and that Yelp ranked it 83rd among the top 100 pizza places in the United States and Canada in 2023?
• ... that Nattspil opened on King Street in 2004 with no sign, no telephone and no credit cards, and that its owners never settled whether its name is "Nattspil" or "Natt Spil"?
• ... that The Roman Candle Pizza was named for the fireworks in a video its founder had shot of his business partner's band?
• ... that Grampa's Pizzeria opened in 2013 in the former Grampa's Gun Shop and was named Wisconsin's most romantic restaurant by Yelp in 2023, earning a joke from Seth Meyers on Late Night?
• ... that Lucille, across the street from the Capitol, makes the crust of its Detroit-style pan pizza with Spotted Cow and has a lounge built into a former bank vault?
• ... that It’s Good for You took its name from the first English phrase its Sicilian-born owner learned, and labels its 5,000-pound oven from Naples "THE MICROWAVE"?
• ... that Rossi's Pizza & Vintage Arcade in Monona sold a 30-inch pizza, "perhaps the largest in Wisconsin", beside 55 video games at a quarter a play?
• ... that Salvatore's Tomato Pies builds its Trenton-style pizzas bottom-up, with the sauce swirled on last, from a family recipe its owner puts at about 100 years old?
• ... that Frozen pizza has been sold in Madison groceries since at least the 1950s, and that a 2023 count found close to 50 brands in more than four aisles of freezer cases at one Woodman's?
• ... that in 1979 Oscar Mayer proposed selling Rocky Rococo's pizzas as Frozen pizza in grocery stores, and the founders said no because they could not keep the quality in a frozen pie?
• ... that Fraboni’s advertised its C.P.W. pizza as "voted best frozen pizza in Wisconsin", adding that the vote was by one of the Frabonis?
• ... that the founder of Angelo’s Pizzeria kept a Dickens Village model-railroad display in the restaurant basement, gave the tours himself and gave the nearly $900 a year in donations to charity?
• ... that the owner of Maria’s Pizza & Pasta in Oregon still used the cash register he bought in 1978, because "if you change something, it's not the same anymore"?
• ... that Buck’s Pizza is carry-out only, "No delivery, no dine-in", and that customers got their first way to eat one sitting down when a tavern across the street began serving it in 2012?
• ... that in 2010 Toppers Pizza, whose stores stayed open until 3 or 4 a.m., sent little green army men along with its deliveries?
• ... that the Cottage Grove Road store of Papa Murphy’s stood at the same address as Madison's first Little Caesar's?
• ... that Marco’s Pizza opened in Madison in 2018 beside a Family Video store run by the same company, so that its drivers delivered rental videos along with the pizzas?
• ... that the most popular dish at Zafferano Ristorante, an Indian–Italian restaurant in Fitchburg, is a butter chicken pizza inspired by a TikTok trend?
• ... that the Greenbush Bar, in the basement of the Italian Workmen's Club, bakes its pizzas in the old brick oven from Amato's restaurant and keeps its Christmas lights up all year?
• ... that Paisan’s won the pizza category of Madison Magazine's Best of Madison poll seven times and the Italian category 16 times, for 53 awards by 2021?
• ... that during the COVID-19 pandemic a "Stay home! Send pizza!" fund sent Ian's Pizza to hospital workers, and Lucille became the first Madison restaurant to require proof of vaccination?
• ... that Clyde’s Pies began in 2020 when its founder, who had lost his restaurant job in the pandemic, taught himself pizza from YouTube videos, cutting his first delivery boxes from leftover U-Haul boxes?