At PJ's, pizza is personal

This time, it’s personal. 

Cole Jacquin is bathed in pink neon light, sitting against a backdrop of stylish burnt wood, talking about his grandmother’s spaghetti sauce recipe. He’s also chatting about Jolly Good soda, his departed brother, who he misses very much, and his two young daughters, Piper and Poppy, after whom he named his new pizzeria in Mount Horeb. 

Most of all, he is talking about how lucky he is to be here. 

The business just opened, he worked about 20 hours on the first day, and he nearly ran out of dough. But he is doing what he loves for the first time in his life, and he can’t stop saying how thankful he is to get to do it. 

“Not a lot of people get to follow their actual dream,” he says. “How many people actually get to do what they want to do?”

Now, following a bold decision to leave a career in the retail automotive world where he had been for most of his adult life, he busy in the kitchen. The pay at his old job was good, but he realized when he looked at his little girls and his wife, that no amount of money could make it worthwhile if he hardly got to see them and was weary and miserable when he did.

“It wasn’t fair,” he says. “It wasn’t fair to my wife. It wasn’t fair to my kids.”

Jacquin knows a thing or two about adversity. In addition to the tragic loss of his brother, he also has fought to overcome his own issues after his weight ballooned to more than 500 pounds. “I was basically immobile,” he recalls. “I definitely couldn’t have done this if I were still that size.” Surgery and a new lifestyle changed that, and after losing the approximate weight of a fully grown man, he isn’t even complaining about being on his feet all day in the kitchen. In fact, he’s beaming. 

There has been a pizza place at 1213 Springdale Street for many years now. Recently, it has run through owners, names and identities at a pretty fast clip. But the moment Jacquin took over, he made it his own, and he says he plans to stay. What was Great Scott’s and then Mount Horeb Pizza Co. has been transformed into a black and pink eatery featuring a bright flamingo that his daughters love as its logo. The food, too, has undergone a transformation.

“The recipes are all mine,” he says. “I make it all myself for consistency and quality.” The base red sauce is based on his grandmother’s pasta sauce, and even the names are a personal matter. 

“Every single pizza on the menu is named after a person who is important in my life,” he explains. 

The menu is still taking shape, but right now PJ’s offers a variety of pizzas. There are standard mixes of cheese, pepperoni, sausage, peppers, onions and mushrooms. There are also ample unconventional offerings, like the Bingo (a Ruben Pizza) featuring caraway seed, sliced Swiss cheese, corned beef, sauerkraut, mozzarella and thousand island dressing. There is the A.J. (Mac and Cheese) with cheddar sauce, capatavi noodles, mozzarella cheddar cheese blend, and also the Bobbe (Buffalo Chicken) with Frank’s Buffalo sauce, freshly smoked chicken, white onion, blue cheese crumble mozzarella cheddar cheese blend and ranch drizzle.

Jacquin will sometimes offer other specials, too, including a prime rib pizza he’s particularly fond of. All pizzas are available with either a standard or gluten-free crust. 

There is plenty beyond pizza, as well. There are wings, which he smokes himself out back and subs, from a Chicken Parmesan version that features smoked chicken, pizza sauce, mozzarella, parmesan cheese and Italian herb shake to a meatball variety that includes house-made meatballs, white onions, pizza sauce, mozzarella, parmesan and Italian herbs. There is even a Ruben
corned beef sub.

Jacquin grew up in Stevens Point. From an early age, he loved two things: cooking and family. 

“I’ve always had a passion for cooking, and it was something that was passed on to me by my brother,” he says. During his prior career, he often unwound after work by smoking meats and  spending time with his daughters, three-year-old Piper and six-month-old Poppy. 

“It felt like I was two people,” he explains. “Like there was this work version of me, and then the dad and husband version of me.”

With PJs, he decided to merge the two. 

“I like to think of it this way: If your life were a book, would you want it to have only one chapter?”

He wants more, and he says the next chapter, for him and PJ’s, will be the best. 

The restaurant is not affiliated with any chains, and he explains that purely by coincidence, there is another pizza place called “PJ’s” in Cross Plains, but they two are not affiliated.  To order, stop by, visit pjspizza608.com or call 608-427-9171.