According to Madison.com, "Madison's love affair with pizza began much earlier than it did in most of America."
"Sicilian immigrants began moving into the Greenbush neighborhood in the 1890s. Among them were the grandparents and parents of Joe Brusca, now 85, who grew up on Sicilian pizza and went on to a successful career selling pizza supplies and ingredients (including his homemade sausage) to the growing number of pizzerias in the city and elsewhere in Wisconsin. He sold the first case of cheese to two men who planned to open a pizza parlor they'd call Rocky Rococo's, now a statewide chain best known for its thick-crust, pan-style pizza. Although pizza was familiar in Madison's "Spaghetti Corners" (bounded by Park and Regent streets and West Washington Avenue) since the turn of the century, it didn't enter the mainstream until soldiers stationed in Italy during World War II came home, bringing their new cravings for pizza with them."