Palermo's Villa

Palermo's Villa Pizzeria
2315 N. Murray St.
Milwaukee W !.
532**


OK... well we ended up going to Palermo's instead of the California Pizza Kitchen ( Which is in that new "concept" shopping mall that they say looks like a "small-town downtown" except that it is populated with things like Baby Gap and has all of the car traffic and absolutely none of the ambience. When I say 'ended up' that means Palermo's was really our second choice. See, The California Pizza Kitchen was full of people, but when we got to the door, there hung a sign that said "Employees Only - Training Night".
So at this point half of our party bailed and called it a night. The rest of us were determined to get pizza, and, like Fridtjof Nansen's crew of the FRAM, the sensible half called it a night and went home, while we marched on to our bleak doom.
We scuttled away from the Bayshore concept mall and motree'd back to the friendly confines of the 'Eastside' where on any given night you can see packs of frat boyz doing all kinds of damage to the residents trash bins. We managed to find a parking spot three blocks away and soldiered on. "THAT would never happen at Bayshore Concept Mall " , I cought myself muttering under my breath...
All this walking reminded me that my only other experience eating a slice of Palermo's was at Summerfest. After walking around for hours, dodging overhead loogies from the cable car ride, I sidled up to the feed counter and slapped down 12 food tickets (six bucks) and got a sort of soggy thin crust triangle completely covered in tomatoes and garlic. It was very salty too, but after five pints of Sprecher Amber, it tasted purty damn good.
Another side note if I may... I must contextualize Palermo's. Recently they built a large pizza factory in the "Revitalized Menomonee Valley". Basically, Milwaukee has this big vision that if they plow over the old polluted valley, then suddenly all these businesses will flock to the shores of the old Menomonee River. Kind of like their pathetic "If we build a big Art Museum they will flock to our shore of Lake Michigan". If you move your business to the valley you are a "Partner". And it carries the connotation that you are concerned about the health and welfare of the valley.
So far, Palermo's is the only taker, having built an ominous white structure in the middle of the barren valley where they crank out their grocery store frozen pizzas (YES, that's right. Remind me to tell you about how I can't get my favorite Jewel brand frozen pizza anymore .) and, ostensibly, their restaurant fare is made here too.
Still with me? Phew!! We walk into the old storefront on Murray Street. I vaguely remember two or three other failed restaurants in this location. The place was absolutely packed. It had a bar up front and the hostess station near the back of the room past the bar. If you can make it back there, you will then see that they connected through to the next storefront for their dining area. I didn't notice this from the outside. I was too busy staring at the concrete and mumbling. Well the dining room was packed too, but there was one booth all the way at the back (front?) at the window. We all squuezed thru (sp?) and sat down. We had a commanding view of the USA BANCORP (I'm gonna spend all night tossing and turning thinking about that word) ATM across the street.
I really wanted a beer. I ordered a Riverwest Stein, which is a hearty, locally produced favorite, but alas, Palermo's, Partner of Milwaukee, doesn't sell Riverwest Stein. So I settled for a Heineken. At this point I took in the decor. They had a wainscotted look with black on the bottom and a wine red on top. It was the typical "Coming back to Mamma's" and "You are part of the family" Italian stereotype. There were all these phony family portraits on the wall that look like the throw - away insert you get when you buy a picture frame at Walgreens. They splurged on two oversized Lithograph reproduction posters. One shows an espresso bistro who is simultaneously driving a steam engine and making espresso. The other was one of those stock bicycle images. There were all kinds of ridiculous potpourri type knick knacks strewn about &c. &c. &c.
I started off with the "Italian Salad", which to my dismay contained (I'm not exaggerating here) 1/2 cup of black olives strewn about a blighted sliver of romaine. There was one slice of tomato on top and the whole thing was soaked in what tasted suspiciously like corn oil. Well after the near death march any caloric intake was welcome, so I did my best and picked away at it for a minute as I waited for my appetizer, Calamari. These were of the tough chewy variety and they only serve the ringed section of the squid instead of the more delicate tasting (yet frightening looking?) squiggly top half. These were served with a portion cup of leftover pizza sauce and my request for a wedge of lemon was never fulfilled.
At this point I ordered another Heineken to soften the blow of the main course. Spinach & Tomato Pizza (with Grilled Chicken) . This pizza was of the semi - thin - crust, triangular-cut variety. The slightly raised crust was, in retrospect, the best part of the meal. The chicken on top was so dried out it was almost unchewable. The pizza sauce, to my horror, tasted nothing like the sauce that arrived with my calamari, leaving me to dwell upon the vintage of that side sauce. But the thing that really stood out was the SALT. This by far was the saltiest tasting pizza I've ever eaten. I mean it was wierd how salty it was. It paled in comparison to a Tombstone pizza. It was that real fine crystal type stuff, perhaps mixed with a little Monosodium Glutamate for good measure. Nobody managed to eat a complete slice, however I did peel the crust off three more slices and wolf that down.
We all declined on dessert of Tiramisu or Flourless Chocolate Cake. We beat it as fast as we could to our Riverwest neighborhood tavern - Polish Falcon and knocked back enough Riverwest Steins to rival the monks in a Bremen Monastery.