Pizza by the Pond

Nearly everyone I’ve talked to recently has mentioned my recent pizza farm posts. People are so curious and it’s been fun to talk about (and also fun to know that people are reading!)

So I thought I’d update you on another recent pizza-related outing I went on. Last weekend, some friends and I went to Pizza by the Pond at LoveTree Farmstead Cheese in Grantsburg, WI. The basic concept is the same as Pizza Farm but the actual experience is quite different.

Their website describes them as rustic and that’s a fair assessment. The oven and ordering area is built into the side of a hill, surrounded by old tires and covered by a pergola-type roof. There’s a few tables under there and then a small grassy area nearby where people sit and eat. The lake is down a nearby hill.

They offer three specialty pizzas and the option to build your own. There are some unique ingredient options, like wood nettles and fiddleheads. It’s pretty loosely run, no real estimates given about when the pizza would be ready. When some friends of the owners showed up, their pizzas were bumped to the front of the line, which meant a rather lengthy delay between our pizza and the pizza of a friend who ordered right after us. Not something we were especially excited about or impressed by.

The biggest problem with our trip was that we went when it was hot, hot, hot. Sitting outside in the sun and heat for several hours while waiting for pizza made us cranky, impatient and not particularly excited to even have pizza. We were too hot to visit the animals and just hightailed it out of there as soon as the last people in our group got their pizza.

We thought that maybe in the fall, when the weather was much cooler and the leaves were pretty, a trip to Pizza by the Pond might be more fun. There’s a fire pit there and I can imagine huddling around that, wearing sweaters and eating warm pizza. But overall, I enjoyed my Pizza Farm experience much more. The drive down is prettier, the area itself is prettier and more efficiently run, despite (or probably because of) the large crowds. I’m hoping to be back there at least once more this season!