My wife and I had spent a long weekend up in Wisconsin last summer and we were working our way back on backroads toward the Quad Cities. We stopped in Lake Geneva along the way and had a couple beers at the Topsy Turvy microbrewery. From there, we sort of just kept going west through southern Wisconsin ending up in a town that we hadn't been to for quite some time, Monroe, WI. It was getting late in the afternoon and we thought we'd better eat sooner than later as it would be after 8 p.m. by the time we got home and fixed something to eat. We did a search of Italian places in town and one place came up as highly recommended - Vince's Restaurant & Pizzeria. We drove over to Vince's on the west side of Monroe to get something to eat.
For a number of years, Fabio and Maria Grado operated Vince's out of a strip mall where their business was carry-out or delivery only. Vince's offered some Italian pasta dishes in addition to their pizzas. Their business had clearly outgrown the small storefront and more people were clamoring for the Grado's to have a sit-down establishment. In 2008, the Grado's broke ground on a brick-and-mortar establishment in a growing retail area on Monroe's near west side. The Grado's opened the expanded Vince's Restaurant & Pizza in February of 2009.
Vince's is kind of hidden off of Wisconsin State Highway 69 - the main north-south route through Monroe - near the corner of 6th Street and 4th Avenue on the west side of Monroe. (see map) There's a large parking lot in front of the earth tone-colored building with arched windows and a small outdoor patio in front.
Inside Vince's, the dining room is made up to look sort of like an outdoor seating area in a Tuscan villa. Fake vines were wrapped around wires of incandescent lights which criss-crossed the ceiling. A lighter earth-tone shade gave the room a bit of light along with the natural light coming in the window. The tables were topped in vinyl coverings. It wasn't fancy, but it wasn't a dump, either.
There is a small bar area off to the side of the dining room. It featured a small back bar with limited liquor and wine on the shelves. 4 beers were on tap and there were beer and liquor signs on the wall. Once again, it wasn't anything fancy or inviting, but it definitely served its purpose.
We took a seat at a table along the wall next to a window. The menus were place mats on the top of the table. Our waitress that day was a young lady by the name of Brielle. We talked with her later on and she was telling us about the restaurant and its history. "I married into the family," she said with a hint of a smile. She asked us if we wanted anything to drink while we looked over the menu. I got a High & Hazy IPA from the Terrapin Beer Company from Athens, GA. My wife got a glass of the house chianti.
They had a little bit of everything Italian on the menu at Vince's - pizza, panini sandwiches, pasta dishes, chicken parm, pasta bakes and sandwiches such as Italian beef and meatball hoagies. They also had gluten free selections on the menu, as well.
My wife needed some greens and she ordered a Caesar salad. It was a basic salad with romaine and iceberg lettuce tossed with bacon and parmesan cheese and topped with a cream Caesar dressing. She offered a bite to me, but I passed because I wanted to save my appetite for what we ordered for our meal.
They had an extra-thin crust/tavern-style pizza on the menu and we got our stand-by sausage, pepperoni and mushroom pizza. In addition to the extra-thin crust, they have a crispy thin crust, a thin crust and a thicker regular crust pizza. But this one was so similar to Chicago-area tavern-style pizza that we were more than happy with what we ordered.
The toppings were fresh and plentiful. Actually, my wife felt there was too much cheese on the pizza. I didn't think that way until she mentioned something about it. The cheese was perfectly caramelized and the crust was firm enough that there was minimal sag when we picked up a piece. That's the mark of a great thin crust pizza - when it can hold all the toppings, sauce and cheese when you pick it up. The pizza at Vince's more than passed that test.
We had more than enough to put into a to-go box to take with us back home. While my wife still thought there was too much mozzarella cheese on the pizza, I had no problem heating the remaining pieces up over the next couple days for lunch. And with that, I thought the pizza at Vince's Restaurant & Pizzeria was well above average for a tavern-style pizza. Lots of toppings, lots of cheese, and the crust was thin, but held up well. I hope the people in Monroe realize how good the pizza is at Vince's. It's one of those places that I wish we had in the Quad Cities.
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