Dennis Getto, 57, restaurant critic for nearly 25 years at the Journal Sentinel and The Milwaukee Journal
Hoodude
Dining incognito, Getto was known by all
By AMY RABIDEAU SILVERS
Posted: July 24, 2007
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=637711
Now his face can be shown.
Dennis Getto - restaurant critic for nearly 25 years at the Journal
Sentinel and The Milwaukee Journal - died Tuesday of pulmonary
fibrosis. He was 57.
Like the newspaper's own Clark Kent, Getto went to great lengths to
keep his identity secret, wanting to have the same experience that any
other diner would have. He often disguised his appearance, growing
assorted beards, wearing awful wigs and even a cowboy hat.
He always made reservations under assumed names and paid in cash.
Friends dining with Getto soon realized that he kept a small tape
recorder in his shirt pocket, the better to discreetly dictate notes.
And Getto's face never appeared on the newspaper page. But he did pose
with a grocery bag over his head in promotional ads. Yet another
classic showed only Getto's green eyes peering through two Krispy
Kreme doughnuts when the franchise hit the Milwaukee area.
Restaurateurs and readers might not have known the face, but they knew
the name.
"I think that being anonymous made him really blend in with the people
who live here," Editor in Chief Martin Kaiser said. "It was like
anyone else going out. He understood Wisconsin and Milwaukee and the
dining experience. He was part of the fabric of the community.
"I'm not sure there was another reporter as beloved by his readers.
People knew his name. People asked what he was like. People felt
connected even though they didn't know what he looked like."
Getto called readers back, happy to make recommendations when they
asked where to dine.
"Saturday afternoon, he was giving a list of restaurants to someone
from his hospital bed," said his wife, Marcia Getto. "He was
passionate about what he did."
Getto also earned a reputation as someone who tried to be fair. As
word of Getto's death spread Tuesday, many of those in the restaurant
business weighed in with their own reviews of Milwaukee's most famous
critic.
Mike Killey, owner of Great Northern BBQ in Waukesha, credited a Getto
review with saving his restaurant in May.
"The week before the review came out, I used the last of my personal
funds to keep the place going," Killey said. "The week after Dennis'
review, my business increased 500 percent. He had enough sway that a
lot of people would just look for the number of stars he gave a place
and then go there. He had the power to keep a place open."
Killey knew of Getto from the Kansas City Barbecue Society circuit,
which they both traveled as judges, and secretly snapped a photo of
Getto at a competition. He had the photo blown up, copying it for all
of his employees after he opened his barbecue restaurant in November.
"I told them if a guy who looks like this comes in, treat him like
he's God," he said. "Do not screw up the order."
Rose and Art Maniaci were co-owners of Maniaci's Cafe Siciliano in Fox
Point, which was on Getto's top 30 list for 14 years.
"We were a little destination place in a strip mall," Rose Maniaci
said. "Our business developed through word of mouth, and so much of a
part of it was his reviews. That's how people became aware of us. His
reviews were tremendous for our business."
Marc Bianchini, chef-owner of Osteria Del Mondo, agreed.
"Either he put you on the fast track of success or the fast track of
failure," Bianchini said. "His reviews didn't make or break your
restaurant. But you definitely got a jolt when his review came out.
Critics are loved or hated, and a lot of people would run to a
restaurant just to see if Dennis Getto was right or wrong.
"I think the most profound effect Dennis had on restaurateurs is to
keep them on their toes. That is the foremost role of a critic.
Restaurants can slip when they fall in a comfort zone. He didn't let
us ride on past reviews."
Osteria Del Mondo has been on Getto's top 30 list for several years,
and so has Cubanitas, owned by Bianchini's wife, Marta.
Restaurateur Joe Bartolotta told the story of learning - after the
fact - that he had met Getto, even shaking his hand. Bartolotta had
stopped by Getto's table at Lake Park Bistro, one of the Bartolotta
Group restaurants.
"I later was talking with him on the phone, and I said, 'One of these
days, I'm going to have to meet you,' " he said. Getto just laughed
and said, " 'You already did.' He got a big kick out of the fact I
didn't recognize him."
It was another reason to respect the man with the secret identity,
Bartolotta said.
"It would be unfair if people knew what he looked like," Bartolotta
said. "But I have a vision of him, based on his voice: a bearded,
balding-down-the-center, sort of round guy, a bit on the short side.
I'd like to see his picture now - see the face behind the name."
Truth be told, there was one time that Getto was tempted to lift the
paper bag.
He learned that Aldo Cella, star of the Cella Lambrusco TV
commercials, would visit Milwaukee. Friends knew, and Getto did, too,
that he was Cella's spitting image, right down to the natty fedora.
Getto considered showing up in person at a Cella interview just to see
how he would react. Once again, the need to remain incognito prevailed.
Of course, not every restaurant owner was pleased with Getto's work.
"He told me that once, after a mediocre review, the former owner of
the restaurant told the staff that she was going to kill him herself
the next time he stepped foot inside," said George Stanley, Journal
Sentinel managing editor.
"He was proud to have eaten there three more times, right under her
nose, while she ran the place," Stanley said.
Getto was named restaurant critic with The Milwaukee Journal in 1982,
continuing in that job at the new Journal Sentinel in 1995. A native
of Chicago, Getto worked other journalism and public relations jobs,
including earlier with the Milwaukee Sentinel.
Steve Byers, journalism instructor at Marquette University, remembers
when he worked as Getto's editor at The Milwaukee Journal. Byers
talked him into applying for the restaurant critic job.
"He was a terrific cook," Byers said. "But the love of cooking didn't
do enough for him. He went to cooking school in Europe and Mexico, and
he was the consummate professional critic. That's what he loved to do."
Getto's teachers included the great Julia Child at a class in France.
He donated one of his barbecue feasts for a newsroom charity auction.
The winning bidder arranged for the dinner to go to Art and Rose
Maniaci, who had recently retired from their Maniaci's Cafe Siciliano.
When he turned up at their home and introduced himself, the couple was
astounded. He and the Maniacis spent the evening trading restaurant
and food stories.
The highest praise
By chance, in an online chat in May, a reader asked Getto what he
would choose as his last meal from a local restaurant if he were on
death row.
"I would have the cell guard call Marc Bianchini at the Osteria Del
Mondo and ask him to make saltimbocca for me," Getto replied.
Marc Bianchini later heard Getto was ill and tried to find out what
hospital he was at, wanting to serve him the veal saltimbocca, said
Marta Bianchini.
"That's the highest praise, when someone wants you to cook for them,"
Marc Bianchini said. "At the time, I knew he wasn't well, and I got
real emotional about it."
In yet other chapters of his life, Getto taught journalism at the
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, swearing any students who worked in
restaurants to secrecy. They couldn't tell their bosses when Getto was
on the job.
"Students loved him and flocked to his courses," said David Pritchard,
a journalism and mass communication professor. "I can't tell you how
much we're going to miss him. He was very warm and witty and very good
at telling politically incorrect jokes."
Getto also liked trout fishing on the Brule River, not that he caught
much. He liked rabbit hunting and bird watching. He was a World War I
history buff, excited to help acquire artifacts for a new museum in
Kansas City, Mo.
He had an interest in astrology - he was a Scorpio himself - and liked
making astrological predictions for friends.
"He told me I'd be rich," said Journal Sentinel food editor Nancy
Stohs. That hasn't happened yet, she said.
Both gregarious and private, Getto will be remembered for his laugh
and the wonderful, wild tangents his conversations took.
"He was spiritual, creative, witty, loyal to his friends," his wife
said. "He had an edge but a gentle edge. He just loved what he did,
and he loved to eat good food - part of his Italian heritage."
In addition to his wife, survivors include son Paul and brother Carl.
Services are pending.
Jackie Loohauis and Karen Herzog of the Journal Sentinel staff
contributed to this report.
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Dennis Getto
1949-2007
http://graphics.jsonline.com/graphics/news/img/jul07/getto_main_072507_big.jpg
Dennis Getto died Tuesday of pulmonary fibrosis.
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Staying Undercover
http://graphics.jsonline.com/graphics/news/img/jul07/getto_kitchen_072507_big.jpg
For a story about throwing a dinner party, this photo was inspired by
the faceless neighbor on the television series "Home Improvement."
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http://graphics.jsonline.com/graphics/news/img/jul07/getto_donuts_072507_big.jpg
Doughnuts mask Getto for his review of a Krispy Kreme Doughnuts store
that opened in 2001.
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http://graphics.jsonline.com/graphics/news/img/jul07/getto_bag_072507_big.jpg
A column logo
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Share Your Memory
Dennis Getto, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's well-known restaurant
critic, influenced many diners' decisions with his widely read reviews
and his online chats and podcasts. Do you have a favorite Dennis Getto
memory?
SHARE IT HERE
http://www.jsonline.com/content/forum/dennis_getto.asp
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Archived Podcasts
Getto offered his opinions, suggestions and recommendations about
dining in Milwaukee and Wisconsin in a monthly podcast.
LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD
http://www.jsonline.com/app/rssredir/?/columnists/audio-getto.xml
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Getto Favorites
2007 Top 30 Restaurants
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=616586
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Getto's Greater Milwaukee Food Challenge
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=557224
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Archived Reviews
Past stories and reviews by Dennis Getto can be found in our DINING
SECTION.
http://www.jsonline.com/index/index.aspx?id=126
--
A Las Vegas "8" is a Cincinnati "11"
~~ Artie Lange