Mediterranean pizza.
Sugar River Pizza is a family affair. Sarah Thomas and her mom, Deb Watterson, opened the first location in Belleville in 2009. Since they planned to keep operations small, the storefront offered only delivery and carryout. But the two women quickly realized how much they enjoyed the restaurant business. In 2013, Watterson’s husband, Daryl, retired so they could open up a New Glarus location. And in March, Thomas left her full-time position at Epic so that she and her husband, Ross, could open up a Verona location.
The family’s focus is on quality local ingredients and scratch cooking; their pizza dough and sauce are made daily. They source meat from Usinger’s in Milwaukee, cheese from Silver Lewis Cheese Factory in Monticello and flour from Lonesome Stone Milling in Lone Rock, just to name a few. The menus are nearly identical at all three locations, though Belleville serves grinders — essentially melts served on French bread — rather than sandwiches.
The appetizer menu is extensive, though heavy on fried food. A sampler platter at New Glarus allowed us to try several of the choices in one shot, including “Green County’s finest” cheese curds — I have yet to try other cheese curds within the county lines, but I’ll take their word for it. They were crispy on the outside and gooey on the inside, as they should be, and delivered with a side of ranch for dipping. Also on the platter were Sriracha Bites, a tasty twist on popcorn chicken, although I couldn’t really identify a Sriracha flavor, which was my main impetus for ordering.
The Grissini breadsticks, sprinkled with herbs and drizzled with olive oil, were dense comfort food, and could easily work as a meal for younger diners or those with a smaller appetite.
There are a variety of salads on the menus, and many come in small and large sizes, giving you the option to squeeze one in before your main course or make it your main course. The Greek salad at the Verona location featured an assortment of greens, thinly sliced green peppers, grape tomatoes, Kalamata olives and crumbled feta cheese. The house-made balsamic vinaigrette, which comes on the side, is excellent.
The taco salad there made for a good entrée, coming with a huge serving of seasoned ground beef, black beans, diced tomatoes, bacon, onions and shredded cheddar. This is a hearty salad, and not meant for light appetites.
Among the sandwich offerings, I tried the Reuben on flatbread at the New Glarus location and was underwhelmed. Maybe I’m too much of a purist, but I need my Reuben on rye bread. Plus, the sandwich was made with pastrami instead of corned beef.
Sugar River’s strongest showing, perhaps not surprisingly, is the pizza. Diners can choose to build their own from an array of ingredients, sauces and three crust styles — thin, thick or hand-tossed, which is the one I would recommend.
The real winners are the specialty pizzas. You can find some expected options like the Mac ’n’ Cheese, Kickapoo Taco and Meat Lovers pizzas. A real dazzler is the Steak pizza, generously loaded with chunks of T-bone and Porterhouse steak, sautéed green peppers and mushrooms, caramelized onions and mozzarella cheese. There is a “special” steak sauce lying underneath it all; bring your appetite for this one.
Also delicious is the Bacon Cheeseburger pizza, which is as close to a burger as a pizza could get — even accompanied by a side of pickles. If I had it my way, the pickles would have been chopped and added to the pizza just before serving.
The Baked Potato pizza was another unique pie, with a homemade ranch sauce as the base, topped with crispy waffle fries, diced red onions, bacon and cheddar cheese. You could make it vegetarian by eliminating the bacon. There are also four dedicated vegetarian options, including the Mediterranean, with a pesto sauce and Kalamata olives, spinach, artichoke hearts, tomatoes and feta cheese.
The space in Verona is large, with two dining rooms and a long bar. It’s located in a new warehouse building on the outskirts of town, where development is just starting to spring up. The New Glarus restaurant, in contrast, is right off the Sugar River bike path, and has a steady flow of customers. If the Verona location can maintain a stable customer base while other development moves in, I think it could easily be the town’s hometown pizza spot for many years to come.
Sugar River Pizza
sugarriverpizza.com, $4-$27
957 Liberty Drive, Verona
608-497-1800, 11 am-10 pm Mon.-Thurs.; 11 am-11 pm Fri.-Sat.; 11 am-9 pm Sun.
700 Railroad St., New Glarus
608-527-5000, 11 am-9 pm Mon.-Wed; 11 am-10 pm Thurs.-Sat.; noon-9 pm Sun.
1019 River St., #5, Belleville (mainly carryout/delivery)
608-424-6777, 4-9 pm Tue.-Thurs.; 11 am-10 pm Fri.-Sat.; noon-9 pm Sun.
