Aaron Landry

Pizza Cellar, Osceola, Wisconsin, originally uploaded by Aaron Landry.

Some recent conversations about out-of-nowhere hole-in-the-wall but fantastic pizza joints got me thinking of one of my favorites of that genre: Pizza Cellar in Osceola, Wisconsin. I hadn’t been in years. A girl I dated for much of high school and I used to go up to Pizza Cellar over ten years ago as it wasn’t far from her parent’s place. Back then, we dubbed it “Pizza Satan” as you got to it from a back alley, the door was beat up and you went down a dark stairway down to a spooky dining area with a dropped tile ceiling where all the chairs were ripped up. The florescent lights were either burnt out or replaced with glowing red ones. Eerie and spooky but the best pizza in the area, dirt cheap.

Lesley and I ventured the 50 mile trip from Minneapolis to check it out. I was a bit surprised to find out that they’re no longer using that beat up door and have a nice newer one and inside is completely remodeled! A mild disappointment because of my expectations but they actually did a nice job. They removed the dropped ceiling, put in decent lighting and newer tables. It still has some bizarre things about it, such as this cellar window with a fake view of (presumably) the Saint Croix river.

We ordered a pizza and the woman taking our order (who had a grey hooded sweatshirt with an illustration of Tinkerbell on the back and had the word “TINK” on the front) apologized that they had absolutely nothing to offer us for drinks. She noticed that I was looking behind her and saw a fridge with some 20oz bottles of Lipton Raspberry White Tea. She said that she can’t sell me any of it because it’s all past expiration. No problem with us, although it was a bit funny that they had no problem drinking it themselves. Heh. No big deal. Before our pizza was done she did deliver two refreshing glasses of ice water though.

Our pepperoni pizza came out perfect. For rural pizza joints, this is some of the best I’ve ever had. Perfect amount of cheese, very well cut, not too greasy, stays together nicely, the pepperoni tasted fresh and the crust had a yummy, almost sweet flavor to it that Lesley and I couldn’t figure out. There was times that I was nabbing small crumbs just to keep tasting it.

The rest of the evening and even into the next day Lesley and I kept talking about how fantastic Pizza Cellar pizza was.

If you’re in the area, you’re lucky. If you’re in Minneapolis, it’s worth the 50 mile drive. If you make a trip out of it, come before sunset and visit Cascade Falls, a short walk from Pizza Cellar. Afterwards, there’s a couple local dives Osceola. Alternatively if you want to avoid the dives, take Minnesota Highway 95 down to Marine on Saint Croix on your way back and have a drink at the only bar in town, Brookside. You’ll be surprised with the juxtaposition of a good selection of taps and not having mobile phone service.

Check out the rest of the photos on Flickr.

Pizza Cellar
102 2nd Ave
Osceola, WI 54020
715-294-3663

Open Thursdays 4 PM - 8 PM, Fridays and Saturdays 4 PM - 9 PM.