With our “Business To Business” series, we’re offering business owners in and around Milwaukee a platform to acknowledge other local establishments and area entrepreneurs they appreciate. This week: Cache Cider owner/Cidermaker Ethan Keller extends some words of love to Transfer Pizzeria Café. Here’s what Ethan has to say…
A Milwaukee media outlet had a bracket style competition to discover their readers’ favorite pizzas. The two culinary venues voted into the final bracket were Transfer Pizzeria Café on the South Side, and one of the city’s oldest pizza places on the East Side.
The Rossetto Brothers, John and Russell, the twin brothers who own Transfer, are more than just restaurateurs. They are a hub that helps hold together a community.
I was first introduced to Russell Rossetto by the late local musical legend Neal Chandek. Russell hired me right away for a weekly solo musical residency at one of the brothers’ previous establishments, VIA on Downer Avenue, which we all had great fun at for over two years. Ever since VIA’s closing, I’ve frequented Transfer Pizzeria Cafe for excellent food and great music. I consider Russell to be one of my best and closest friends. But even though he personally helped me to open the first cidery in the city of Milwaukee—and became Cache Cider’s first official reseller—that’s just a fraction of what he and his family do for the city as a whole.
Transfer supports so many organizations, media outlets, radio stations, and musicians. As a musician, when I tour around the country, I try to bring a small piece of Milwaukee with me wherever I go to share with others like some kind of ambassador. It has been my pleasure to bring countless friends and business acquaintances visiting my lakeside city to dine at Transfer. Each and every time I do, the visitors are not only impressed by the absolute quality food, service, and live entertainment, but that they get an experience truly unique to Milwaukee.
Maybe it’s the fact that the Transfer building itself is a beautiful and welcoming space, with stained glass, vaulted ceilings, and a row of low diner-style seats (it was once an old pharmacy and a George Webb). Maybe it’s the fact you can get a bacon and pickle pizza, a gluten-free pizza, or a breakfast pizza and look out the big windows at two lovely murals right on a busy intersection in the city. Maybe it’s the warmth and familial vibe of the people who work there. Maybe it’s all of that and more.
If you’ve never been to Transfer yet, put it on your to-do list. You know that bacon and pickle pizza? It’s called “The Dill.” It was a monthly special that a mass of people rallied to have put on the main menu. Yeah, it’s that good. Personally, I’ve been hooked on Thai Chicken pizza lately. And as far as live music goes, there are local, regional, national, and international artists gracing their stage. Give some love to Transfer; a Milwaukee institution, that’s run by a family always supporting fine arts and feeding everyone fine food.
Are you Milwaukee-area business owner who wants to shout out another local establishment you love in the “Business To Business” series? Get in touch with us at [email protected]. You can check out more “Business To Business” entries HERE.