Paul Wise talks family philosophy, Christianos Pizza’s birthday club and its pizza

Paul Wise (right) and his siblings took over Christianos Pizza, from their father Larry (left), who opened the pizzeria in 1996. The company has three Italian brick oven-style pizzerias in Wautoma, Green Lake and Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

We embody the ‘family’ atmosphere of our business by ensuring that our business philosophy is what truly motivates us to be in business. Our primary purpose is to be a blessing to all that come in contact with Christianos Pizza. If we all have that goal in mind, we will serve our customers at a very high level, treat our employees with great respect, and have meaningful relationships with the many who in some way interact with our business.

We manage the three restaurants together. We work very hard to withhold a high standard of service, quality of food and cleanliness at all three of our locations. Daily conversations between restaurants help us to work together, keeping our goals and standards at the top of the priority list. We have a great team of leadership that really sees the importance of our business philosophy and uses that as our motivation everyday. We greatly understand the importance of all three of our locations having a high level of consistency.

Our birthday club allows our customers to sign up through our Web site to receive a free personal pizza on their birthday. It’s a great opportunity for individuals that have never had our pizza to try it or just another reason to come celebrate with friends and family on their birthday. Not only is there an opportunity for a birthday individual to bring in other paying patrons, but we also understand the great emotional value for our customers of celebrating important moments in their lives at our establishments. We want them to create memories with Christianos Pizza.

Our double crust pizza is simply two dough balls together to create more of a hand tossed crust rather than our traditional thin crust. Our double crust is mostly popular with the younger generations or those who enjoy a couple of specific specialty pizzas that we have. Our Mediterranean and BBQ pizzas are both made on the double crust and are very popular. Our Mediterranean is made with a creamy red pepper sauce, spinach, shrimp, and mozzarella.

Our partially baked pizza is our pizza just partially baked in our brick ovens. We cook the pizza about half way. This allows our customers to finish baking their pie at their convenience. Many will pick up a “par” bake while they are out and cook it later that evening. Cooking instructions are simple. Preheat oven to 425 F, bake for 5 to 10 minutes or until crust is golden brown.

We can honestly say we have some of the best gelato in the country. Our gelato is real artisan gelato made by an artisan gelato maker who studied in Italy. There are no mixes, powders or flavor bases. Our gelato is created using nothing artificial. Every flavor you taste is the real deal. We have our gelato displayed in nice glass cases when you walk into our restaurant. For us, it is our lobster tank. Once it catches your eye its hard to resist.