Great Italian Food to "Die" For - Alioto's

Updated 4/30/2022: The title of this article is written in jest as Alioto's Restaurant on Hwy 100 and Burleigh is an excellent restaurant that we visited for the first, ever, time last week in Wauwatosa. This will be a regular stop for us in the Milwaukee area in the future. We had superb breaded veal cutlet, spaghetti, lasagna and fantastic Italian and garlic bread. There is a lot of interesting "connected" history with the Aliotos. The restaurant has been in the same family for three generations at three successive locations. The original place was founded in 1923 by Giovanni “Papa John” Alioto in the old Milwaukee 3rd Ward. Most Italian immigrants settled that area in the early 1900’s. A bit of fascinating history follows:

“Papa John” emigrated from Santa Flavia, Palermo, Sicily in 1904. Born in 1888, he opened Alioto’s Garden restaurant in Milwaukee at the age of 35. He relocated the business to downtown Milwaukee during World War II and, from there, he and his sons Joseph and Angelo moved to Wauwatosa when the property was needed as part of the First Wisconsin project around 1950. A massive fire destroyed the current place in 1981 but they rebuilt and are still in business today. The restaurant is huge with a classic 1970’s style supper club ambiance. There is a separate full service bar room where you can relax before ordering or have an after dinner cocktail or two.

First, another food review: We’ve been back a second time in the past couple weeks. After seeing great reviews of their Friday night fish fry's, we discovered that they were available any time. I ordered the Sicilian Steak and LuAnn the fish fry. I tasted her fish and the Cod was some of the best I’ve ever eaten, delicious! The breaded steak was grilled and sauteed with green pepper, onions and mushrooms. It was fantastic, although I used a steak knife, my medium cooked steak could have been cut with a fork. A side dish of pasta with amazing sauce made an outstanding meal. Everything we’ve had so far has been great, with reasonable prices and very attentive service. We had a couple glasses of the house red wine which was also excellent. With real tablecloth and linen napkins, the atmosphere is great and we can’t wait to get back there.

Now, as Paul Harvey used to say, is “The Rest of the Story”: You have to dig pretty deep for information as “Papa John” Alioto kept a very low profile, and was careful, shunning publicity for good reason. He was deeply connected to the Milwaukee Mafia and actually was the Milwaukee godfather from 1952 until 1961, when he handed over the reins to his son-in-law Frank Balistrieri. Frank married one of Papa John’s daughters (Nina) in the late 1950’s.

In 1952, the then current Milwaukee mob boss was Sam Ferrara. He and Frank Balistrieri got into a “beef” which had to be settled by the Chicago Outfit. The “Outfit” sided with Balistrieri, ordering Ferrara to step down and installing “Papa John” Alioto as the new Milwaukee leader. Ferrara was a “short timer” boss who was only in charge for about four years (1948 to 1952). The FBI and other law enforcement were never able to arrest or convict Alioto, but there is no doubt that he ran the mob through the rest of the 1950's into the 60's. The mafia's relationship with organized labor grew quickly under the leadership of "Papa John".

The early Santa Flavia Alioto family had a quite fascinating history. There were seven boys and one girl that emigrated in the early 1900’s. The girl never made it and I can’t find any info on why. Several siblings went west to California. "Papa John’s" brother Mariano “Mario” ended up in San Francisco and was shot and killed by the Black Hand in 1917. He had gotten married a few months before to Angelina Ingrassia, whose father had been assassinated by the same Mafia forerunner gang the year before in 1916. Mariano and "Papa John" had a nephew, Joseph Alioto, who eventually became the mayor of San Francisco from 1968 to 1975. The San Francisco Alioto Family History website claims that after the brutal Black Hand slayings the west coast Aliotos permanently severed all ties to the mafia going forward, but, who knows? I have not researched Mafia history in that part of the country.

Restaurant Chain of Succession: Papa John died in 1972 at the age of 84. After Papa John’s two sons (Angelo and Joe) came back from the war in the 1940's, they got involved with running the business along with a sister Frances. Son Joe died of a sudden heart attack in 1963 at the age of 41, leaving Angelo in charge until his death in 2011. Afterwards Angelo’s daughter Catherine (Kiki) and her husband Tom Warren took the reins until Kiki unfortunately passed away in 2016, leaving Tom managing the restaurant today.

Frank Balistrieri Tried to Muscle In?: Thanks to Gavin Schmitt’s research and his FBI file documents, an informant reported in 1964 that Frank Balistrieri and father-in-law Papa John Alioto were at odds over Frank’s treatment of Alioto's daughter. It was also reported that Frank wanted in on the restaurant after the sudden death of Joe the preceding year.

Interesting note: Papa John's son (who had the fatal heart attack) Joe, had a son John. He became a lawyer after college. He was a former Assistant State's Attorney for Cook County, Illinois, who then went on to private law practice. According to Tim Shanahan in his book, (Running With The Champ), at one point in the late 1970’s John had  only one client. That client just happened to be the godfather of the New Orleans mafia, Carlos Marcello. It was around that time (1978), there was an ongoing investigation of Marcello who was suspected in the possible mob planning of John F. Kennedy’s assassination! Marcello went to prison in the early 1980’s, convicted of other unrelated charges. After more than six years behind bars, his conviction was overturned and he was released in 1989, and died in 1993. Lawyer John Alioto had a notable, extensive career as an attorney until he passed away in 2006 at the age of 56, living in Illinois.

 

Whatever the past history of Alioto’s Restaurant, this incredible nearly 100 year old family business survives and has extremely good food. We look forward to trying some of the other great looking entrees in the future!