Smoky. Floury. Fun.
These are the words Alessandro Monachello, owner and cook at “It’s Good For You” said when asked to describe his pizzeria, a cozy brick building on the corner of N Sherman and Commercial Avenue. And by my personal experience, he is not wrong.
One could pass by the pizzeria on a winter’s day and think it unassuming and plain, but once you step inside you are met with a chorus of ecstatic people and a cheerful staff, with tables full of families and college kids, all happily chowing down on hot, fresh, and flavorful pizza. Monachello is in the middle of it all, using a long metal peel, a flat scraper-type tool, to move pizzas in, around and out of the wood-fired oven, charring crusts and producing steaming and bubbly pizzas.
“It’s not a restaurant,” the cook told me as he gestured to the room. “It’s much more easygoing, we like having fun.”
Ultimately, Monachello believes that “any place that serves food” should be a place where people come together; the cook remarked that “sometimes people or restaurants are a little too… too up there, too serious…” They take food too seriously for him, and the same goes for his title.
Monachello identifies himself as a cook. “I do not like the title of Chef, because then people think I am one, but I am not, I do not want to be, I like to cook.” This is where Monachello and his pizzeria truly succeed as an oncoming staple of Madison: he cooks because he loves to, and that is the central mission to him and “It’s Good For You.”
It’s more than just the atmosphere and the staff that makes this place special. It is the pizza, with fresh, locally sourced ingredients and a flavorful menu, featuring Italian classics such as the Salsiccia, Mushroom Trifolati, and Calabrese.
All the mainstays on the menu are fantastic, but the most exceptional part of the menu is the weekly specials. They find unique ingredients and combine them with the restaurant’s freshly made dough to make delights distinctive to each week. Some examples include their “Brisketto e Patate” (smoked brisket, smoky roasted potatoes, a mix of cheeses and a chimichurri sauce), to their Chorizo e Shishito (chorizo sausage, blistered shishito peppers and goat cheese). “It’s Good For You” is at it’s heart traditionally Italian, but it is not afraid of, and actually encourages new ideas and recipes, which is where it catches the hearts, and stomachs, of so many people, satisfying their hunger for conventional Italian fare but with unique ingredients.
The pizzeria has had a mobile business open since 2016, so it is no wonder people rushed to this spot as soon as it opened. Equipped with an authentic wood-fired oven and a passionate kitchen, you can be sure to have a nice time out dining at “It’s Good For You.”
