Toppers Pizza, a Review

Last Thursday we had eight inches of rain in ten hours and four of those inches came in less than two hours. My neighborhood on the Northwest Side of Milwaukee was devastated. Not only were most of the basements flooded but several of the homes actually had water on the first floors.

The streets flooded so fast that the storm sewers could not handle the water. Water rushed into yards and in some instances right through first floor windows. Garages were flooded, leaving the family cars ruined. Electric power and gas had to be cut to many of these homes.

The day after, people were seen carrying their wet and ruined possessions out to the curb for the city to haul away. The neighborhood now resembles one continuous yard sale except that none of the items are useable. In the middle of all this came Toppers Pizza.

My wife and I were commiserating with a neighbor who had lost everything in the basement and the first floor of her home. She also lost her three cars and a garage full of items. She had just taken us around back to show us the high water mark on her house above her first floor windows when a young woman with a big smile and a large pizza showed up.

The young woman explained that Toppers Pizza understood that many of the neighbors were undergoing a hard time today and thought they would like a complimentary pizza. She gave the pizza to the lady we were talking to and then offered one to my wife and me. We declined the offer since we had escaped any damage. The delivery person then went next door and across the street passing out her pizzas and her smile.

The story about the flood and the rains will be on the news. We will read about the millions of dollars of damage the storm did to our city for several days. What you will not read is about the generosity and thoughtful gesture of Toppers Pizza at 12132 Capital Dr. Milwaukee, WI 53222, 414-466-7777. There will be no mention on the news of that wonderful cheerful smile the delivery person had as she passed out her pizzas.

I decided to order a pizza from Toppers for lunch today and write a smashingly good review about their pizza. This is my first Toppers pizza. I hardly ever eat pizza from a franchise. I grew up in Chicago where good pizza is a religion. Here in Milwaukee there are a few pizza joints which come close to my standards but not quite close enough for me to be happy each time.

My first rule, when ordering pizza outside of Chicago is to stick with a thin crust. My second rule is to keep it simple, cheese and sausage, that is all. By coincidence I had Papa John's Pizza for the first time yesterday. This was served to the volunteers helping to clean out our church basement which was also flooded from the storm. So now I have a nice comparison between the Toppers Pizza and the Papa John's Pizza.

The Papa John's crust was chewy and undercooked where the Toppers crust was crispy and held the slice together nicely. The Toppers dough had plenty of flavor and I could see myself eating just the baked crust.

Both pizzas were considered large at 14 inches. The Toppers pizza had cheese and toppings all the way to the edges. The Papa John's pizza left a good inch to an inch and half of crust with no toppings in from the edge. Both pizzas had generous helpings of cheese and enough sausage to satisfy me.

The tomato sauce on the Toppers pizza was sweeter than the sauce on the Papa John's pizza. There was also more sauce which might account for the sweetness. I did not distinguish either of the sausages to be better tasting than the other. The Toppers pizza had more cheese, which I prefer.

The clear winner is the Toppers pizza. This is not only since I said I was going to give them a smashingly good review but it is true. I was turned off by the gooey, chewy, tasteless crust on the Papa John's pizza and the lack of toppings. Toppers will be added to my lists of favorite pizza joints.