A local legacy: Saz’s Hospitality Group celebrates its 50th anniversary

Fifty years ago this month, Steve “Saz” Sazama opened Saz’s State House, specializing in pork and ribs slathered with his own BBQ-sauce recipe, by taking a gamble on a neighborhood tavern at 55^th and State streets. He’d tended bar at the since-shuttered Morry’s on Prospect as well as Major Goolsby’s – but his grade-school buddy Thomas “Pep” Palmer, who ran the Filling Station and Pep’s Place (two popular bars during the 1970s), gave Sazama the nudge to dream bigger.“Pep said, ‘It’s time you go into business for yourself.’ Financially I didn’t have any means. I couldn’t rub two nickels together. I looked at this place and just fell in love with it, especially the round bar,” says Sazama, adding that Palmer gave him a loan to start out.The rest, as they say, is history.

Today, Saz’s State House operates from that same tavern, which Sazama added onto in 1981, including an outdoor patio. BBQ and pulled pork have been on the menu from the very beginning. A few years later, mozzarella marinara (mozzarella hand-rolled in an egg-roll wrapper and fried) was added.

Sourcing locally is a mantra, and the restaurant gets its BBQ sauce from East Troy, its mozzarella marinara and cheese curds from Two Rivers, and pork from Iowa.  “There’s nothing like it on the market,” says Sazama.

The pulled pork, for one, has been a bestseller from the start. “People would take it to the Brewers game for tailgates,” says Sazama. “Then they wanted us to deliver it. That started our catering (in 1990).” Once the Brewers’ new stadium opened in 2001, however, this put an end to the tailgate delivery hack, but Saz’s now shuttles Brewers fans to home games.

Saz’s is also the official caterer at Summerfest and the Wisconsin State Fair, and catered the 2024 Republican National Convention in Downtown Milwaukee as well as the 2025 NFL Draft in Green Bay.

“That helped us get into the wedding business,” says Sazama about the pivot into catering. “We realized we had to open the door and be more than brat-and-pulled-pork tailgate.” (Though of course, there’s still a Tailgate & Picnic menu.)

In addition to tapping Saz’s for catering on their special day, couples can host their reception at South Second in Walker’s Point, which recently added an outdoor area and upper deck. Across the street is their catering facility.

Later this month, from March 26 to 29, Festa Sazama will host four days of food-infused fun at Saz’s, to celebrate this half-century milestone, under a massive heated tent. Each day features something different: Thursday, the season’s first corn roast; Friday, Milwaukee’s largest fish fry; Saturday, classic BBQ and ribs; and of course, on Sunday, a classic Wisconsin Bloody Mary bar and brunch to round out the weekend.

Sazama credits two reasons that Saz’s has been in business for 50 years: long-time employees (including a dishwasher for 40 years) and a community that loves good food.

“The restaurant business is tougher than ever,” he says. “The main thing is [that] we have a loyal customer base. We pride ourselves on being very active in the community.”