Wells Brothers Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Mount Pleasant

We weren’t supposed to be there. No, the plan was a different pie, a different joint, a different corner of southeast Wisconsin. But fate is a filthy trickster with grease-stained fingers and a twisted sense of humor. The other spot, some hotshot pizza shack with misleading Google hours and a busted sense of time, was closed. Dead. Lights out. So we pivoted — a sharp left turn into the ghost of old Racine and straight into Wells Bros.

The place sits humble — no neon lies, no reclaimed barnwood, no damn Edison bulbs. Just a brick box on a working-class artery, parked proudly in a part of town where men still call lunch “dinner” and a handshake means something. You step inside and it’s like stepping back into a version of America that hasn’t quite died yet: clatter of plates, the low hum of human labor and laughter.

A waitress — weathered, wiry, kind — eyes me up and asks what I’ll have. “I’ll eat,” I say. Gruff but kind, like a tired dockworker with a taste for the poetic. She smirks. She’s seen worse. The booth is classic pizza parlor relic — Formica top, vinyl chairs with that telltale crackle of decades of ass. A white paper placemat, a single artificial rose in a bud vase. This ain’t kitsch. It’s religion.

I order like a man possessed: • 14-inch sausage pizza, thin crust — Milwaukee style, I presume. • Mostaccioli with two meatballs. • Antipasto salad that smelled like it was built by Sicilian saints.

Now let’s get one thing straight — I’m a child of St. Louis. I cut my teeth on cracker crust, Provel lies, and the fast-twitch reflex needed to fend off midwestern heart disease. But I’ve run the gauntlet: • I’ve had foldable Bronx slices at 3 a.m. • Wood-fired Neapolitans in L.A. • Deep dish in downtown Chicago that eat like lasagna. • Detroit oil pan masterpieces like blackened love letters from hell.

This, though… This was something else.

First came the salad and pasta — a curtain-raiser in this operatic performance. The antipasto? Sharp. Briny. Alive. The kind of salad that makes you realize most other salads are passive-aggressive lies. The mostaccioli? Forget about it. Meatballs the size of bruises, tender like secrets passed between lovers. Sauce that could make a mafioso weep. The Pepsi was perfect. Carbonated clarity. The water was cleaner than it had any right to be, considering we were a mile from a sewage plant and the ghosts of Racine industry.

And then — The Pizza.

It landed on the table like a UFO. No warning. No fanfare. Just there. Thin crust, cut in tavern squares — a geometry lesson in ecstasy. One bite. That’s all. That was it. My vision blurred. My knees went soft. I saw the Virgin Mary doing shots with Frank Sinatra in a red vinyl booth.

The crust: crisp, whisper-thin but powerful. Held its own under the weight of cheese and sauce without a single soggy surrender. The sauce: sweet, robust, unpretentious. Like it had been simmering since Roncali was Pope. The cheese? Mozzarella — maybe more — melted into some perfect symphony. And the sausage… Damn, the sausage. Fennel, grease, crackling edges. It screamed into my soul like a V12 Ferrari launching down Wisconsin Avenue with no brakes and a bottle of cheap champagne in the glove box.

The bottom? A cornmeal kiss from the gods. Blackened bits from pizzas that came before, a generational memory of flavor burned into the stone of the oven like primitive cave art.

It was so good I almost wept. Maybe they were showing off because the mayor was sitting across the room — or maybe this is just how Wells Bros. does it. Every day. For everyone.

It wasn’t just a meal. It was a baptism. A return to the primal fire. A pizza so good it made me question every life choice I’ve made, every frozen mistake I’ve eaten in silence.

Wells Bros. didn’t ask to be special. They just...

I have been to Wells Brothers a fair number of times over the years BUT I cannot speak as an authority. I can only speak as someone that has some experience there. More specifically, I will talk about their Pizza. While they execute the crust very well I think their sausage is truly unremarkable. While it's fair in size (and the portion they apply generous) it lacks punch, flavor, fennel seed, and anything else that would distinguish it as anything besides ordinary. It IS a letdown. My son and I tried a specialty pizza of theirs during the month of February (2022), I believe... a Nashville Hot Chicken pizza. Now when you're doing a Nashville hot chicken pizza I would really think you'd want to execute the chicken at a high level but this chicken was done very poorly. There was no sweet and hot component they certainly did not use cayenne pepper to season it & quite frankly, it was not appetizing. (closer to Buffalo but THAT was not well done either) Some of the other elements of the pizza were done well enough but overall? Disappointing. I think I'm done with Wells Brothers for a while which isn't to say you might not find something good and of value there but they are not for me anymore. There is too much competition nearby. And that said though I will give them credit for having their dining area staffed and operating; near post covid pandemic/now endemic. Yeah, I want to support them I want to like them but if they can't make those small extra efforts that would render them excellent I don't want...

I came from Milwaukee for a pizza. I've been going there for years and never had a problem but ........NOW I came to get a pizza(extra sauce) and chicken enchilada soup. When I got there to get my pizza I was told that "2 slices fell off" (I didn't personally pick up the pizza) it got to late to call last night so today I called and spoke to "Liz" the manager and she was quick to let me know she was in charge. When I told her my disappointment in my order and that missing 2 slices was not exceptable she proceeded to tell me she gave me $2.00 back and that was far better then nothing at all. Um.... I paid for a whole pizza, u would think she would offer some kind of comparison since she was "In charge" but instead all I got condescending attitude. Next let's talk about the cold, non spicy chicken enchilada soup, she proceeded to tell me that jalapenos were not always spicy, I understand that there is different levels of spice but there was zero spice and bland!! And even still never once did she offer me ANYTHING! not even a discount on my next order, basically too bad better luck next time! At this point there will not b a next time! If you can't deal with customer service maybe you shoulnt have that...