Pizza-A-Go-Go has been a spot you want to go-go to-to since 1967. Here’s why:
1. This place ain’t pretentious, buddy. Getting a meal from Pizza-A-Go-Go is a no-nonsense affair. You have a choice of pizza, pizza or pizza. There are no appetizers, no salads, no calzones and no desserts. The restaurant takes cash or check only; your Visa is powerless here. It’s only open for dinner and it closes a half-hour before the sign says it does, because that’s when the kitchen crew shuts off the ovens. You don’t like it? Tough. The cozy brick building has about 10 tables, and there’s a cooler in the corner for your beers, as this spot is BYOB. If you can’t relax in an atmosphere this informal, you might need a tranquilizer.
2. Let’s talk about the pizza. At Pizza-A-Go-Go, pie comes in two sizes, and at 12 inches, the small is big enough for three people (or one or two, with leftovers highly probable). The crust is house-made and hand-tossed and its thickness is somewhere between a St. Louis-style thin and a traditional medium. It doesn’t overwhelm you like some kind of gluten bomb and instead complements the other ingredients perfectly. The brown bubbles that form near the crust’s edge let the cooks know it’s done – and let you know it’s the real thing. The mozzarella is melted to a seductive golden color, and it fills the craters between the other ingredients in a luscious pizza landscape. The red sauce is tangy and mild, but whoa Nelly, the …
3. sausage they make in-house at Pizza-A-Go-Go gets its own paragraph. A dish is only as good as its ingredients, and if you’re not a vegetarian, we urge you to make the sausage one of the ingredients on your pizza here. This spiced, fresh sausage explodes with juiciness when you bite into it, and each bite – with the fats released from the hot cheese, the savory red sauce, and the chewy crust – comes with an amazing texture and taste. This is the pizza your mother warned you about – plan on eating too much.
Bonus fourth reason: Pizza-A-Go-Go is about 60 seconds away from the Ted Drewes on Chippewa Street – just sayin’.
This article appears in March 2011.