Tony’s BBQ Unlimited (3510 W. Villard Ave.) is a take-out establishment without dining accommodations where orders are placed in front of a glass partition. Buffet service from behind a screen is another culinary peculiarity unknown in Milwaukee outside the inner city.
Tony’s is one of the city’s longest-running buffets of this kind in business since around the turn of the century. Included in the buffet is Tony’s specialty, barbecued pork ribs thoroughly bathed (not drowning) in a sauce complex in its combination of sweet, sour and bitter accents. Swedish meatballs are large and piquant in a brown sauce. Tony’s gives distinct spins on sides germane to African American soul food as well. Collard greens were chopped finer and served a bit drier than possibly anywhere else in the city, but no less tasty for the differences. Equally delicious sweet potatoes come in the consistency of a soft pudding, but the star of my three sides may be the sautéed cabbage. Sautéed with chunks of smoked pork for a mellow sweetness.
Buffet meals come with a can of Faygo soda and a diminutive corn muffin that could nearly pass for dessert. Chicken, ribs, fish and gyros dinners are among other offerings, but buffet could be the best way to experience Tony’s for the first time.
