Villa Palermo Factory & Company Store

Went on a regular, non pairing, 1 PM tour today with the gf. This might have been the single largest tour I went on, but it mainly consisted of young children, similar to what another Unilocaler wrote. I wonder if it would be better if they limited the tours to 10 people or so, but the tour days and times are so limited themselves, I guess that would make it a little harder.
The tour itself was alright. You start out in the main lobby where the guide tells you a little bit about the history of Palermo’s.You then go into a room and watch a video explaining more about the history of Palermo’s as well as see interviews of people who work for them and what not. Depending when you go, the production line could be up and running (which it was for us) so we got to see how the pizza was being made, which was pretty cool. You then finish with free pizza and a beverage as well as a souvenir. For $ 7 it’s a good deal as you get the tour, the pizza (two decently sized slices) a beverage and a small souvenir. Not sure if the tour would have been enhanced at all were it not for the children as it was just OK. It probably would have been worse had the production lines not been running. The pizza itself was great and I would go back just for that.
The entire tour takes about an hr, including time to eat and what not. I would go back for the pizza, just not for the tour. Just be sure you go on a tour Mon-​Thurs to better your chances of seeing the production lines up.

Seriously this was one of the most enjoyable evenings that I have had in a long time. We signed up as a group of 7 for the pizza and wine pairing, and got there right at 6:30 to enjoy a drink before the tour began. There were a couple of red and a couple of whites to choose from and we all got a glass. We could meander through the store and see the different kinds of frozen pizza options while waiting. There were several long low/​high tables differentiated by different pizza toppings (the garlic table, the onion table etc) and each individual group had their own table. I thought it was a nice touch.
We started with a mini-​tour of the facility that was the perfect length. We got a bit of history in the main entrance, then moved up to see how to line worked, and then back into the social hall to mingle more. The host was loud enough to hear and fun/​informative. I expected small juice glasses of the different wines, and small pieces of pizza to sample — boy was I wrong!
Each spot had a placemat outlining which pizza would go with which wine, and then the «gentleman» who owned the winery began to explain his grape delicacies. They brought trays of individual cups to each table, and everyone got to drink — he even came around with the bottles throughout each course explaining more about them and offering top-​offs — awesome! The pizzas were coming out piping hot and fresh in different varieties — our five were 1. Margherita 2. Sausage tomato and olive 2. Barbeque chicken 3. Something with Artichokes 4. the wine started to get to me here 5. A dessert pizza of pears, fig and gorgonzola. The wine was flowing, the pizza was flying… and people started to get weird.
What was once a fun and informative ‘wine man’ soon became an in-​your-​face uncomfortable wine-​man… and it takes a lot to get me feeling weird. In the same sentence talking about his wife he started stroking my hair complimenting how soft it was! The next time he came by he swung down and kissed my cheek!!! I was shocked! The wine was obviously flowing his way too.
Towards the end of our fourth pizza, an out-​of-​control drunk lady came over asking us to give her some of ours. We replied that we all paid individually for the pizza at each of our tables. She said that we got more pizza and it wasn’t fair, we were being selfish by hogging it. We all were super weirded out, and gave her the couple bbq pieces we had left, thinking the matter was solved. She then had the audacity to come BACK over without asking just reach over us to try and grab the rest of our food! We told her to stay at her own table and she started hollering and having a fit, disrupting the entire room.
There was plenty of time to enjoy all the pizza, and plenty of wine to impair any driver — so be smart and plan a ride home if you plan on indulging. My four starts just goes to the creeps in the crowd — they really should watch the «staff» to be sure that their intoxication doesn’t bother or offend the paying customers, and if it’s going to be such a boozey event, really should supervise the patrons (it sucks that certain «adults» still need to be supervised), and make sure that everyone has an enjoyable time.
I look forward to coming back in a couple weeks to try the beer and pizza pairing — hoping this guy keeps his greasy fingers to himself :)

I work in the area and this is a great little place for lunch!!! They have wood fired or baked pizza, a salad of the day, panini of the day and soup. Plus lots of pre-​made salads and what not, desserts, drinks and ice cream! It’s totally affordable and there is a nice sit down section in the back or outside seating for the summer. This is the employee café as well and so many employees eat there which is telling that the food qualiy, made by them, must be good.

This is a review mainly about the tour. We took the regular tour (not the beer or wine pairing) because we had a Groupon and like exploring local places.
We were in the second of two groups scheduled at the same time, so started a little late. The guide was nice, but had some trouble filling the time as we waited for the first group to finish the video. The video itself just wasn’t very interesting. In fact, the entire tour just wasn’t very interesting nor informative nor fun. It felt rather corporate and stale. It was somewhat interesting to view the factory floor while in operation (but also kind of takes the romance out of the pizza eating experience).
Another issue I had was that the tour group consisted mostly of elementary school children. We were the only people not accompanying children in the group. The tour guide did a nice job of trying to keep the children interested, but in doing so it felt more like a tour for children. It just really missed the mark for us.
The pizza at the end of the tour was the highlight. It was quite good and a decent portion.
I think without a Groupon the tour is regularly $ 7 – 10 a person. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it at $ 5 much less $ 10. They really need to reimagine the entire experience.

We went there because Newaukee had a meetup there. It was a packed madhouse because of that. I will not rate on the awkwardness of the beer service and pizza purchase layout, because there were so damned many people here. But, it was stupid. There was a beer purchase area right next to the pizza kiln, but you couldn’t buy pizza there. You had to wade through several hundred annoying people who were clogging all paths instead of going back out to the main entrance area where there were plenty of open floor spots. I hate people… but I’ve digressed into a rant about the annoying people at this event.
We did get a free tour because of the event, so that was cool. I really learned a lot about mass production of frozen pizza. I would have never guessed how pepperoni is loaded into a hopper with 17 hole and a band saw to be sliced onto pizza. But the tour wasn’t much other than looking out of a window at the fully operational production floor. We did have to ask a lot of questions in order to make the tour more interesting, as the tour guide wasn’t really great at a canned speech.
The area where the 825° F pizza oven is a magnificent one. The roaring hot wood fired pizza oven can cook a pizza in 90 seconds. And the hand tossed, hand made pizza was one of the tastiest pizzas I have ever had. We had some sort of sausage… I don’t recall exactly what, but it was amazing. I wish the pizzas that are frozen tasted like this.
Would I go back for wood fired pizza here? Absolutely! Tour? Probably not.

Took the tour with the beer and pizza pairing, since we had a groupon for half price. The concept was excellent but the execution was terrible. First of all the tour wasn’t that interesting. There was a brief history of Palermo’s as a company and then we were escorted to a hallway where we could watch pizza made in a factory setting. I did not find that to be very appetizing.
Once we were seated to try the beer and pizza pairings. The rep for the beer company had not tried the pairings, and it showed in the pairings. Not all of the pairings actually paired well and the order they were served in didn’t make sense. They served the more exotic style of pizzas first then a standard sausage and mushroom pizza in the middle. They used the Italian words for the toppings to make it sound more upscale then it was. I think they should have served that one first and built up to the unusual pizzas. The hosts/​reps for the pizza and beer would describe the food and beer prior to serving and we were the last table to be served for every course. We often waited 20 minutes in between the description of the pairing and the actual serving. We wouldn’t get our beers first and since they were no more than a shot’s worth would often be gone by the time we got our slice of pizza. No one came around to ask us how we were doing or what we thought of the food and beer. They just served us and went back to their waitress huddle at the bar. In the end, the dessert pizza took so long to get to us that other guests were leaving and we still had not received ours and once we got it, it didn’t taste very good. Most of us couldn’t even finish it and we unfortunately scared another guest away from even trying it. The crust was a standard pizza crust with a strong tasting mozzarella covered in Nutella and cherries. The cheese and Nutella together was not a good combination.
If the food and beer had been served prior to the reps describing it and served in a quickly I think this would have been a very enjoyable experience. If the people speaking about the pairings had actually tried the pairings ahead of time, I think it would have caught the bad pairings and this would have been a 5 star experience. The only pizza that was bad was the dessert pizza, and none of the beers were bad. Like I said in the beginning the real problem was the execution. I would try it again if I had another groupon for it, but never full price and I would skip the tour.

I like the Palermos restaurant. All of the food is good, and they have a good selection, typically about five to six pizzas and a few calzones. It is a little overpriced, but it is good quality and really really close to my work so I am willing to pay for it

All in all it was just ok. My biggest complaint was that there was an overall lack of direction. We came in the main door and were politely directed to the café. Once in the café we just stood in line by the counter, no one asked us if we were there for the tour or there to buy some of the delicious fresh prepared items on display. After getting the administrative portion settled (which is quite affordable) we went to a room upstairs to watch a presentation. A video played in the background as our guide gave a spoken word narrative history of the company including interesting facts about the pizza production process. After the presentation we walked down a hallway overlooking the production floor. This is where I feel some improvements could be made. Perhaps some colored signs could be placed along the way to act as visual cues. It was up to our tour guide to yell down the long hall and try to explain to the group what they were looking at. It was a bit confusing and difficult to follow. The tour basically then reconvenes in the café for a fresh sample. A fresh slice of pizza is a great finish. I would recommend everyone give it a chance. It just seems they may be working out a few kinks here or there.

My daughter and I have taken the Villa Palermo Pizza Factory tour twice and it’s fun. We purchased our tickets through a Groupon and Palermo’s employees were very gracious and entertaining. Our tour included pizza and a bread dough ball for my daughter who made a pizza at home. At end of tour they will hand you a stack of $ 1 off coupons.

I believe that Palermo’s might make the best frozen pizza in the world, or at least it is the best I’ve tried that came from the frozen pizza aisle at the store, and I have tried a lot. You can get a factory tour, though I think you may need to call in advance to get times and stuff, and they have a factory store where they make fresh pizza, and they sell every pizza they make with the Palermos label for prices lower tyan in the grocery store.