It’s a stunning early evening in mid-August Branch + Daughter runs a enduring takeaway pizza business in Windsor. Branch + Daughter pizza is available for takeout only – there is no indoor seating at the artisan meat market/deli, which opened in July 2021. But there are two patios, front and back, and plenty of wooden picnic tables on the lawn adjacent to the parking lot.
Young families sit and drink beer and distract restless children while waiting for warm cakes to come out of the oven. Meanwhile, behind schedule model SUVs pull up to take the cakes home. Inside, the market sells several specialty foods and spirits, and the butcher case features meat from local farms: Lovick Family Farms, Fischer Family Farm, Whiteside Ranch and Walk-Era Farms.
Branch + Daughter’s popularity seems to extend far beyond Windsor. One online reviewer was thrilled that her family found this place while driving to Chicago (it’s a miniature jaunt off the interstate), and I overheard the woman at the takeout window tell an employee that she had read about this place online and she and her the family passed through this town on their way to Duluth.
Sometimes it’s tough to recommend pizza, because pizza is not just one thing. Some prefer cracker crust, others deep dish, and still others stick to the relative strictness of the Neapolitan approach. These styles of dough are so different that we might as well be discussing different foods, but we call them all pizza.
Branch + Daughter is a place with extras. By this I mean that the strength of pizza comes from the quality of toppings and innovative combinations of cuisines, with lots of ingredients. There are plenty of specialty pies on the menu, all 16 inches in diameter, with the option of a cauliflower crust.
Regular dough is fresh and bready, best straight from the oven. It’s the basic taste of white bread – a blank slate for toppings.
My favorite is the New Haven clam, which is not very common here (Gates & Brovi makes a version with clams and sausage). This is where mussels and pieces of bacon with onion, parmesan and mozzarella and white sauce come in. I loved the ambiance of the super creamy chowder. It’s the only white cake; all other cakes are served with crushed tomato instead of the classic cooked tomato sauce.
Simple (compared to many other pies), pepperoni contains plenty of Niman Ranch pepperoni (crispy, almost like bacon) and traces of honey, which helps balance the saltiness of the meat and cheese.
Other cakes seem to make too much. I would limit the classic B+D with piquant dill sausage, pepperoni, olives, wild mushrooms and anchovies – it’s a salt bomb. Just like G’Ma meat pie. Salted pig with bacon in the main role advertises its saltiness, but combined with pickled figs, candied onion in port wine and arugula create delightful contrasting flavors.
You can build your own pizza by starting with plain cheese and adding standard ($2 each) or premium ($3) toppings from a long list. You can also subtract ingredients from designer cakes.
From 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., the kitchen also prepares “kliwki”; they look like calzones with pizza dough folded into a crescent. The fillings here are similar to pizza combos, except for the wedgie BLT. It’s an intriguing concept, but there’s too much bacon in it (even though it’s crispy and delicious), and the effect is overdone in a way that goes against the balance of the classic bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich.
Branch + Daughter is located a few blocks from the Sunfish Pond Trailhead to Upper Yahara River Trail, a three-mile paved boardwalk, bike and pedestrian path along the tranquil Yahara River (a designated Dane County canoe trail of the same length). The trail is surrounded by lush, restored prairie, stout with goldenrod, black-eyed Susan, purple coneflowers and joe pye, occasionally winding through the woods. There are houses in sight for most of the trail, although it seems quite idyllic. This is one of my fresh favorite places in Dane County, and a walk or drive there followed by pizza (earned!) is the perfect combination.
Branch + Daughter
6601 Travel Trail, Windsor
608-842-0139; Branchanddaughter.com
11:00-19:00 Tuesday-Wednesday, 11:00-20:00 Thursday-Saturday, 11:00-19:00 Sunday.
$12-22
