Bringing rodizio-style dining to Milwaukee
Pizza de Brazil offers unique toppings, service
Brazil. Pizza. Buffet.
The three dining concepts might not seem to have any connection to each other, but they’re actually a growing trend in South America. Now a restaurant in Milwaukee is serving the same way.
Pizza de Brazil is serving unique pizzas rodizio style at 130 W. Layton Ave., near Mitchell International Airport.
Milwaukeean Mahmoud Kadadha and his family opened the restaurant.
“We have relatives that we visit in Brazil, and three years ago we saw this concept,” Kadadha said. “We were in awe with the way they make pizza and the toppings.”
The main feature of Brazilian pizza is unique toppings. At Pizza de Brazil, things like hard-boiled egg, tuna and shrimp are on pizzas. Other pizza combinations include broccoli and cream cheese, and salmon and garlic.
Serving food rodizio style, where customers pay an all-you-can-eat rate and indicate they are ready for more food by putting a green card on the table, is also a nod to the restaurant’s Brazilian connections.
In the age of the coronavirus pandemic, customers might shy away from the “buffet” concept, but the rodiziostyle food limits the amount of times customers would have to get up and limits contact between customers.
A salad bar is set up for customers to help themselves, but servers can also serve salads for those uncomfortable using the salad bar.
Pizzas are made only after they are ordered, not automatically made once one flavor runs out.
“People think we might be like pizza buffet places like CiCi’s Pizza, but we’re trying to explain that we’re not,” Kadadha said. “We do it from scratch, and we get it fresh from the oven.”
Opening a restaurant during a pandemic, the Kadadha family had to deal with many setbacks.
They purchased the former Perkins restaurant building in April 2019 and had to gut it. After a year of work, they were nearly ready to open when the pandemic hit, and they struggled to get their licenses in place.
They eventually were able to open on July 30.
The placement of the restaurant near the airport was strategic with the Democratic National Convention planned in Milwaukee this year, along with other summertime events.
But with air travel deemed risky and fewer events to travel to, airport traffic in the United States has hovered between one-third and one-fifth of what it usually would be this summer, according to TSA numbers.
The Kadadhas had to start with a smaller menu than planned since they anticipate fewer customers. Takeout is also an option that was not part of the original plan.
“It works well when you have full capacity. Our initial plan was to have 40, 50 types of pizza,” Kadadha said. “It can’t work if you only have two or three tables in over lunch.”
They have about 10 pizzas on the menu for lunch, and about 25 for dinner.
“That really affected the whole concept,” he said. “What we wanted was kind of traditional, open gourmet restaurant, and now it is mostly pickup and delivery.”
The menu also includes appetizers, burgers, wings and pasta. Dessert pizzas are available to order, and some are included in the rodizio buffet.
Menu items and pizza can be ordered a la carte.
The lunch buffet costs $11.95 and dinner buffet costs $19.95.
For more information visit www. facebook.com/Pizza-De-Brazil -106439101112514/ or call (414) 610-5000.