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Eau Claire Leader Telegram: Diners' Notebook
By Audrey Fessler and Jeff Vahlbusch

Without reader Frank Reith, who called to question our pizza sense, we might never have found Martino's. That would have been a shame. Martino's makes some of the best Wisconsin-style pizza we've tasted. The night we visited, the restaurant and restrooms were spotless. Service was welcoming, attentive, and witty.

Our first pizza was classically simple: pepperoni and cheese on Martino's "original" pizza crust— half inch of breadstick-crisp, house-made dough with a sturdy rim. Martino's cheese is a tasty all-Wisconsin mix of mozzarella, young provolone, and cheddar and come properly baked into lovely reddish-brown peaks and deep-golden valleys. The house blended sauce is a study in fresh and mild: bright tomato flavor and color with pleasant acidity and understated Italian herbs. The pepperoni is spicy and a little unctuous, just as it should be. This was a well-crafted, satisfying pie with each good ingredient prominent and none dominant.

Our second pizza was more complex: Martino's House Special on thin crust. Like many "specialty" pizzas, this one comes overloaded with pepperoni, sausage, ground beef, Canadian bacon, tomatoes, green peppers, onions, black olives, and mushrooms. But Martino's manages to keep this pizza astonishingly light by using less meat and cheese than most other makers. The happy result is a fine fresh-vegetable casserole sparked by the spice and salt of the meats and sauce. The bland Italian sausage bits were our only disappointment.

And Martino's thin crust? A quarter-inch masterpiece. The bottom surface is crisp-tender. Under the sauce, the top stays soft and moist, breadlike enough to balance the pie's generous inch of rich ingredients. This is a crust the even thin-crust foes can love.

Thanks, Frank!