St. Francis-based Tazinos opened its fourth location today in the City Center 735 building at 735 N. Water St., and by 11:30 a.m., the place was hopping, with a line of customers snaking out the door and into the City Center lobby.
I suspect the owners better get used to it. The restaurant, which doesn't have sidewalk frontage, but does offer tables with a view out over the river, serves all you can eat pizza, pasta, breadsticks, salads, desserts and beverage for $7.99 per person ($3.99 for kids).
That's the kind of deal Downtown workers are likely to latch onto.
Tazinos has a range of more than 15 pizzas on offer – and it will customize pizza at your request, too – as well as mac and cheese and a couple other pastas – herb garlic and lemon garlic were available today – as well as a fully stocked salad bar with greens, toppings, dressings and deli-style salads like potato salad, macaroni salad and broccoli salad, too.
There are brownies, "cinna-pillows" and an apple "piezino" on the dessert table.
There were a few hiccups today – the pastas were cold, for example – but on the first day that's to be expected as the staff finds its feet.
I tried a bit of everything – well, not EVERYTHING, but small tastes of a lot of things – and found the results to be reliable. I doubt you'll leave raving about any particular dish, but you certainly won't leave hungry, that's for sure.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
