Sarah and I had a small road trip to pick up some honey, beer and to have some pizza at Pizza Cellar in Osceola. I told her it’d be worth the trip from Minneapolis. Unfortunately, for some reason Pizza Cellar was closed at 8:00 P.M. on a Saturday so we went to the other pizza joint in town, Paradise Pizza.
Immediately we were greeted by bright lights, fake plants and bright pink and blue walls. It was empty and we went to the counter to order our pizza. I inquired about their competitor, Pizza Cellar and the two men behind the counter thought it was strange they’d be closed at such a prime time for pizza. One of them joked, “our pizza is better anyway.”
I don’t think so. While our pizza looked nice, I had a hard time finding anything nice to say about it. The pepperoni was average but the cheese almost had no taste to it. The sauce was a bit sweet and worst off, the crust tasted like foam. Squishy foam. With grease on top. Sarah argued that the crust wasn’t cooked well enough. She might be right. Overall, it was very plain, unsatisfying and tasted unusually synthetic. It was a notch away from Domino’s Pizza in my opinion. Being there aren’t any of the pizza mega-chains in Osceola perhaps this is the market they are satisfying.
There are a couple enjoyable things about Paradise Pizza though. Although the interior feels like a 1980’s Floridan retirement community designed by a heavily inebriated Jimmy Buffett mixed with the aesthetic of the Subway Restaurant next door (which are owned by the same couple), you can buy beer. They have a few cheap beers and four varieties of Leinenkugel’s. The other enjoyable aspect was the price: for a 14 inch pepperoni pizza and two bottles of Leinenkugel’s the total came to $15.79. If you can tune out the static coming out of speaker overhead playing the Bee Gees, it’s not a bad deal at all.
Honestly if they turned off half of their fluorescent lights, cooked the pizza a bit better and used tastier cheese it might be pizza in paradise… for those times you need to get something in your stomach before a night of hitting up the bars of Osceola.
Paradise Pizza
444 N Cascade St
Osceola, WI 54020
715-294-3996
More photos on Flickr. (you have to see this place)
Comments 3
At least you had a Leinie with it.
I’ve noticed under cooking pizzas is a common theme in these parts. Particularly at Green Mill.
Posted 13 Apr 2008 at 11:56 ¶Well, it looks tasty in the picture.
Posted 13 Apr 2008 at 15:59 ¶-C.
OMG, how can you not love this pizza! the Pizza Cellar tastes like ordinary boring old pizza loaded with disgusting greese. i live in this town and Paridise is the best place you can go for pizza. We dont have much in this town, but this is one of our best[ed.: Comment striked out because of the fake email address / astroturfing.]
Posted 30 Apr 2008 at 16:19 ¶Post a Comment