Saz’s State House: Local Favorite
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By Chris Petersen   
Tuesday, 26 February 2008
smc Friendly ambiance coupled with much-loved ribs have put Saz’s State House at the forefront of Milwaukee’s restaurant scene for decades.
Friendly ambiance coupled with much-loved ribs have put Saz’s State House at the forefront of Milwaukee’s restaurant scene for decades.
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Not too many restaurants can claim to be an integral part of their city. But with close ties to the Miller Brewing Co., Summerfest, the Wisconsin State Fair and practically all of the city’s sports teams, Saz’s State House in Milwaukee makes a pretty convincing case.
    
Founder and CEO Steve Sazama says the restaurant – best known for its barbecued ribs – is proof that focusing on what you do well can be a better strategy than trying to do everything at once.
    
“One of the things that I think a lot of restaurants don’t do, is that you should be known for something,” he says. “You should be known for something, and too many restaurants, you go in and ask them what’s good and they say, ‘Everything.’ You ask them what they’re known for, and they look at you kind of dumbfounded.”
    
With a combination of award-winning barbecue and an iconic status in the Milwaukee area, Saz’s is known for being one of the city’s most popular gathering spots.
    
The restaurant’s reputation doesn’t end at its doors, either; its robust catering business and retail operations have spread its name to a broader audience.

Friendly Identity
Sazama opened Saz’s State House on Milwaukee’s State Street in 1976. The restaurant and sports bar quickly became a local favorite, something Sazama attributes to the restaurant’s friendly ambiance.
    
“We have a circular bar, and that’s pretty unique because it creates a relaxing atmosphere,” Sazama says. “Architects say that you can’t have a circular bar because it takes up too much room, but I think it’s more important that people come in and be comfortable.”
    
The restaurant’s identity was cemented a few years later, when Sazama switched from a commercially bought barbecue sauce to a homemade recipe.
    
“A chef friend of mine gave me the recipe and it’s worked for us since,” Sazama says. “One of the things that makes our sauce [unique] is that we’re a sweeter sauce.”
    
The recipe still calls for real sugar in a time when most mass-produced sauces have switched to high-fructose corn syrup. Using corn syrup to sweeten sauces may be more cost-effective, but Sazama says it works against barbecuing. “I won’t go to corn syrup because when you’re on the grill you won’t get that caramelization [you get with sugar].”
    
Duane Coan, general manager of Saz’s State House, says the company is also dedicated to sourcing products locally. What’s good for one small business is good for Saz’s, he says. “We like doing business with smaller vendors, especially with us being an independent,” Coan says. Being in Wisconsin means having access to some of the finest dairy products in the nation, he adds. “[We] support the local businesses, and hopefully, they’ll support us.”
    
Because Saz’s State House is focused on its barbecued ribs, it has perfected them to the point where they’ve received numerous accolades, including awards for best ribs from the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, The Onion, Milwaukee Magazine and Shepherd Express.
    
Both Sazama and Coan agree that there’s no need to mess with anything that’s already a success, so any work done to the Saz’s State House menu is just tweaking.
    
“[Sazama] and I go through the menu a couple times a year, and when we make changes, they’re very minor,” Coan says. “Ribs are what we do and ribs are what we’re known for, so there’s not a lot of major changes.”

Building Relationships
For those who can’t make it to Saz’s State House, the restaurant is more than happy to bring the experience to them. The company began offering full catering services in 1990, and business has taken off since then. “We do almost 1,500 events a year and we’ve served somewhere this year between a quarter-million and 270,000 people,” Sazama says.

“Our summer season is the high season for us, from the beginning of May until the beginning of October,” Coan says. “We probably do in those months 65 to 70 percent of our volume.”
    
Large company picnics are the main users of Saz’s catering services, with typical picnic fare such as ribs, bratwursts, barbecue pork sandwiches, mozzarella marinara sauce and sour cream and chive fries. However, Saz’s can also be counted on to be the main course at a lot of Wisconsin weddings, Coan says. “We do as many as five weddings on a Saturday,” he says.
    
Good performance breeds good business, and Saz’s catering has succeeded thanks to referrals, Coan says. “It’s a matter of building relationships,” he says. “We’ve proven over the years that we’ve been real serious about this.”
    
The restaurant’s reputation is so strong that its food has become a favorite among professional athletes visiting Milwaukee. Sazama says the restaurant’s proximity to some of Milwaukee’s sports venues not only make it a popular watering hole for sports fans, but also a caterer to some of their heroes. The restaurant also provides bus service to and from Miller Park.

“We’re only two miles away from Miller Park, and of course we’re involved in all the Brewers games, and we’re only a few miles away from the Bradley Center,” he says. “A lot of them, we cater to them, so we cater to the Milwaukee Bucks [and] the Brewers. Some of the visiting NBA teams, we will do corporate catering in their locker rooms. A couple of years ago when [the Miami Heat] was in town, Shaq wanted sweet potato pie, and I guess he thought ours was pretty good,” Sazama adds.
    
“During the baseball season, we supply a lot of catering to the visitor’s clubhouse, as well as the Brewers’ clubhouse,” Coan says.
    
The restaurant’s connections to pro sports also help it serve the community with numerous charity events.
    
“One of the neat things we’re doing is we’re involved in doing a brunch for Bruce Froemming, a major league umpire who is retiring,” Sazama says.
    
The November event will be attended by baseball luminaries, including announcer Joe Buck and former coach Don Zimmer, and will benefit the local Boys and Girls Club and Variety Children’s Charity.

Extracurricular Activities
In addition to private events, Saz’s State House food can be found as the main course at a number of festivals all around Milwaukee.
    
“We are and have been, for many years, the No. 1 food vendor at Summerfest, and the No. 1 food vendor at the Wisconsin State Fair,” Coan says.
    
Summerfest – held along the shore of Lake Michigan over 11 days – is the world’s largest music festival, drawing hundreds of musical acts and nearly a million people to the city each year. The company’s barbecue sandwich was created specifically for festivals, and is now a staple of the restaurant’s menu and catering.
    
Sazama says the restaurant’s strong association with Miller helped get its foot in the door to many of the city’s festivals, including Irish Fest and Italian Fest. Saz’s State House sits just six blocks from the Miller brewery, and draws a lot of foot traffic from visitors taking the brewery tour.
    
“It used to be when Miller was owned by Phillip Morris, that a lot of their corporate people would come here for lunch or stop in for cocktails after work, and it just kind of snowballed from there, and a lot of the decision-makers there frequented us,” Coan says.         

The relationship forged between Saz’s State House and Miller remains strong to this day. Coan counts the festivals as excellent marketing opportunities for the restaurant.
    
 “It keeps our name out there in front of the people,” he says.
    
Also keeping the Saz’s name in front of the public are the company’s retail products, which include its barbecued ribs, barbecued pork, mozzarella sticks and, of course, barbecue sauce. The company has three types of sauces as well as shredded barbecue pork and chicken. Even though it is concentrated in Milwaukee, the brand has penetrated other markets, Coan says.
    
“It’s mostly local, but we did have some placement in Illinois and some placement in Minnesota,” he says. “We do radio advertising on Marquette [University] and the Milwaukee Bucks and Milwaukee Brewers and that goes statewide, so we have some pretty good name recognition throughout the state of Wisconsin.”

Breaking the Chains
Even as waves of chain restaurants crash against the shores of the industry, Sazama says a steady hand will keep Saz’s State House afloat. “We’ve really been hit with onslaughts of the chains; it’s been tough on the independents,” he says.

“We’ll need to just continue doing what we’ve done over the years, which is a lot of media advertising with all of the sports teams,” Coan says. Sazama adds that the company’s size allows it to remain more connected to the community than a corporate competitor.
 
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