Aaron Landry

Pepperoni Pizza at Paradise Pizza, originally uploaded by Aaron Landry.

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)

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.