Restaurants in Appleton

Muncheez Pizzeria, an intimate space brightened by a loud green, serves pizzas adorned with molten cheese and fresh veggies. Their classic pie sports a variety of toppings, such as pepperoni, sausage, mushrooms, green peppers, and onion. More unusual pizza creations include the mexican pizza, which swaps out tomato sauce for refried beans and salsa. Guests can customize their pies by choosing from 19 different toppings, such as mandarin oranges, grilled chicken, and green olives. Wings and salads compliment the cheesy feasts, which are washed down with more than 50 styles of beer or buckets of free water.

Situated inside the CopperLeaf Boutique Hotel & Spa, Bella Vita Ristorante's warm, copper-toned interior warms diners to a menu of "elevated Italian" dishes. A consecutive winner of Gold Fork Awards from Fox Cities Magazine, Bella Vita uses locally sourced ingredients to make many items in-house, including fresh mozzarella. Locally baked artisan bread provides a crisp platform for bruschetta made with ripe, juicy tomatoes and 12-year aged balsamic glaze, while wine racks display more than 80 different labels.

House-made tortillas form La Michoacana Mexican Bar & Grill’s fleet of tacos, burritos, and enchiladas. The chefs also sprinkle chicken strips atop taco salads and serve sizzling steak and shrimp fajitas.

Topper's Pizza has more than 390 Facebook fans.

The Wooden Nickel Sports Bar & Grill could easily throw out the tables and chairs, burn the menus, and close down the bar—even then, people would have plenty to do and see. While diners feast on burgers, they bask in the glow of televisions broadcasting sports from ESPN GamePlan, NFL Sunday Ticket, and Fox Sports Network. Trivia competitions bring friendly rivalries into the eatery on weeknights, where players can match minds to win free drinks and bragging rights at the next Mensa track meet. The kitchen's pub grub mixes well with draft and bottled beers, which wait in the wings to swoop in and extinguish thirst pangs or rinse burger residue from hands.

Owners Brian Glassel and Tim Nicholson eventually teamed up to bring Glass Nickel Pizza Co. to fruition in 1997 after spending their teenage years working around the nostalgic aromas of baking pizzas in Wisconsin eateries. They met while working in the same pizzeria and shared a passion for gourmet pies, so they spent a year planning and dreaming. Then they gathered a small but dedicated team to flip the saucy dough and accommodate patrons with first-class customer service, including the provision of tall glasses brimming with cold beer. Their dedication to this modus operandi helped the restaurant to bloom into a statewide fixture with several locations throughout Wisconsin.

While keeping pizza the star of the menu, Brian and Tim augmented it by adding battered-fish baskets, meaty lasagnas, stacked sandwiches, and crispy chicken. Committed to quality, the duo uses house-made sauce and dough, as well as Boar’s Head deli meats. With an equal commitment to their community, they help to support various nonprofit organizations and keep all their restaurants green through the use of ovens that shut off when not in use, energy-efficient appliances, LED lighting, and cars that run on used vegetable oil and time-travel only when absolutely necessary.