Raising his family in the Brady Street neighborhood, Salvatore Vella would stop into the Peter Sciortino's Bakery to buy the shop's famous Italian bread. As his children grew up, Maria, Joe and Luigi found jobs at the store.
"We all started at a young age. Summer, weekends, whenever we were off school, we were always here," Joe Vella recalled last week.
"We grew up in here. It didn't seem like work."
I was sitting at a table in the shop with Joe and Luigi. Maria was behind the counter.
Peter Sciortino had founded his bakery on the corner of Humboldt and Brady in 1948, and when he decided to retire 15 years ago, he offered to sell the business to the Vella siblings. Although they were in their 20s, they jumped at the opportunity.
The company has flourished, and now the two brothers have added a new venture. Salvatore's Pizzeria opened May 17 at 2213 E. Capitol Dr. in Shorewood.
The restaurant, which seats 30 and also serves a few pasta dishes, is a long-time dream of Joe's. "I have always wanted to have a small pizzeria," he explained.
Asked why he would want to take on the time consuming responsibilities of owning a restaurant when he is also heavily involved in a busy bakery, Joe said, "I don't fish, I don't hunt, these are my hobbies."
The Vellas have tripled Sciortino's wholesale bakery business since buying the company. Their bread and desserts are on sale at Sendik's, Grasch Foods, Glorioso's and some Sentry and Piggly Wiggly stores. Sciortino's also supplies restaurants, including the Italian Community Center and the Bartolotta Restaurant Group.
Inside their own store, the siblings have greatly broadened the variety of the bakery's traditional offerings, adding more Italian cookies, Italian fruit tarts, cassatini, specialty cakes, a Vienna torte, tiramisu, Napoleon squares, seasonal and holiday specialties, and gelato. Everything, including the gelato, is made on the premises.
Unbaked pizza dough, sold in a one-pound ball, is among Sciortino's most popular wholesale items, and that increased Joe Vella's itch to open a pizzeria.
Named after their father, Salvatore's makes 8-, 12- and 16-inch pizzas, starting at $8.95, $10.95 and $12.95. Each topping adds $1, $1.25 and $1.50 to the bill, and they are all traditional. "I'm not into putting pineapple on pizza," Joe said, speaking as a true son of a Sicilian immigrant.
Pasta dishes include spaghetti and meatballs ($9.95), lasagna ($12.95) and pasta primavera ($12.95). The sauces are from family recipes.
Imported and domestic bottled beer is available, and Salvatore's offers four red and four white wines by the glass and bottle.
The restaurant is open for lunch Tuesday through Saturday, and it is closed Mondays. Delivery service is available by calling (414) 964-5560. A website is coming.
Salvatore's is in a space formerly occupied by Gianelli's Pizza. "We renovated it from A to Z," Joe said. "It is a whole new build out."
He likes the location because it is across the street from St. Robert's, where his children go to school. Noting that Sciortino's is across the street from the old St. Hedwig's Church, now called Three Holy Women parish, Joe added, "being across from a church has been good for this business."
Damien has been around so long, he was at Summerfest the night George Carlin was arrested for speaking the seven dirty words you can't say on TV. He was also at the Uptown Theatre the night Bruce Springsteen's first Milwaukee concert was interrupted for three hours by a bomb scare. Damien was reviewing the concert for the Milwaukee Journal. He wrote for the Journal and Journal Sentinel for 37 years, the last 29 as theater critic.
During those years, Damien served two terms on the board of the American Theatre Critics Association, a term on the board of the association's foundation, and he studied the Latinization of American culture in a University of Southern California fellowship program. Damien also hosted his own arts radio program, "Milwaukee Presents with Damien Jaques," on WHAD for eight years.
Travel, books and, not surprisingly, theater top the list of Damien's interests. A news junkie, he is particularly plugged into politics and international affairs, but he also closely follows the Brewers, Packers and Marquette baskeball. Damien lives downtown, within easy walking distance of most of the theaters he attends.
