Ann's Italian Restaurant, 5969 S. 108 St., Hales Corners, is a converted house that serves up classic Italian fare and pizzas, and has been since 1969. The atmosphere here is ultimately romantic and homey, with touches that make you feel as though you are having dinner in someone's cozy little home.
Two visits to Ann's left us very disappointed in the Hales Corners staple, which was busy with locals on both the weeknights we visited. Our appetizers were excellent, but terrible service and weak salads and entrees left us leaving dissatisfied on both occasions.
Appetizers at Ann's combine breaded basics with some unique takes on calamari and antipasto platters. Calamari ($7.99) arrived lightly sautéed in a lovely tomato and garlic olive oil medley served with toasted and seasoned parmesan pizza crust points. Antipasto platter ($9.99) paired an impressive compilation of fresh Italian cheeses with olives and delightful Italian meats (prosciutto, dry-cured salami, sopressata) and was served with more of the seasoned pizza crusts for great presentation and flavors.
We sampled one of Ann's pizzas on our first visit and while the crust was light and flaky and toppings generous on the medium special (14-inch cheese, sausage, mushrooms, onions, $17.50), the pizza did not compare to those at some of Milwaukee's better Italian eateries. Pizza sausage can make or break a pizza, and in really good pizzerias, even if they do not grind their own sausage, chefs will often season the purchased sausage themselves with fennel and other Italian spices. At Ann's the sausage lacked that extra flavor and the sauce, character, so while the mushrooms and onions were fresh, the pizza was only at an average mark.
Dinners at Ann's come with your choice of regular or garlic bread and a house salad with choice of dressings. The garlic bread was crusty but dry and had little garlic flavor, and salads were average beds of mixed greens. Meat Ravioli ($13.99) was also pedestrian, and while the filling had been made with a combination of pork and ground beef, the flavors were lost in the pasta, and the sauce did little to complement the dish. Veal Parmigiana ($18.99) came with a side of mostaccioli noodles in marinara sauce, and while it was beautifully presented, one of the veal cutlets was absolutely inedible and so tough I could barely get my steak knife through it. The other cutlet was decidedly better, but still had tough sections, which turned me off to the rest of the dish.
In addition, service at our first visit to Ann's was just ever slightly below average, with poor timing and empty water glasses, but a second visit was absolutely the worst service I have received in a restaurant in several years. We had to ask multiple people in order to get simple refills on water and drinks, the waits were excruciating between courses, and our server left us sitting with dirty plates for more than three quarters of our dining experience.
At the end of our meal, we were left waiting for our plates to be cleared while five staff people walked past and our own server chatted with a table of friends behind us. It wasn't until we put on our coats to leave and laid a credit card on the table that she came over five minutes later to remove our plates and take our payment for dinner.
Looking around, we realized we were not the only diners to be treated so poorly; I overheard a woman at a nearby table complaining to her husband about their server forgetting his drink. "They're busy," he replied, but looking around at the four empty tables in our dining room and the servers and the host mingling with each other in the entryway, being busy was no excuse for hungry, thirsty diners in the dining room.
Amy L. Schubert is a 15-year veteran of the hospitality industry and has worked in every aspect of bar and restaurant operations. A graduate of Marquette University (B.A.-Writing Intensive English, 1997) and UW-Milwaukee (M.A.-Rhetoric, Composition, and Professional Writing, 2001), Amy still occasionally moonlights as a guest bartender and she mixes a mean martini.
The restaurant business seems to be in Amy’s blood, and she prides herself in researching and experimenting with culinary combinations and cooking techniques in her own kitchen as well as in friends’ restaurants. Both she and her husband, Scott, are avid cooks and “wine heads,” and love to entertain friends, family and neighbors as frequently as possible.
Amy and Scott live with their boys, Alex and Nick, in Bay View, where they are all very active in the community. Amy finds great pleasure in sharing her knowledge and passions for food and writing in her contributions to OnMilwaukee.com.
