About Us

Caramel Crisp & Café has been fixture in Downtown Oshkosh since 1933, bringing happiness to customers of every age group.  First called the Caramel Crisp Shop when located next door to the old Oshkosh Theatre on Main Street, the original store sold fresh popcorn to people going to see such movies as 'Duck Soup', '42nd Street,' and 'King Kong'.  Besides offering the famous recipe for caramel corn known as Caramel Crisp, they sold popcorn balls, homemade fudge and homemade potato chips.

In the 1950's the store moved across the street.  Caramel Crisp Shop continued to delight customers with the delectable caramel corn and popcorn balls, and later began serving ice cream and added a lunch counter.  Kids loved to come in and choose from an enormous selection of candy and other sweet treats.  The wonderfully distinctive aroma of the shop flooded Main Street, and made any visit downtown a memorable experience, as we are told by today's customers at the new Caramel Crisp & Café.

Now located among the shops of the City Center on Pearl Avenue, the Caramel Crisp & Café has all the best features of the older stores with some great improvements.  Improvements not just in terms of décor and products, but in the Earth-friendly packaging we use for our products whenever possible.   We still offer caramel corn using the original Caramel Crisp recipe, but now we have added many other varieties of flavored popcorn, such as Parmesan & Garlic, Spicy Cheese, Blue Raspberry and Kettle Korn.  We have 'Oshkosh Style', mixing caramel corn and cheese corn, Salsa Verde, Bacon and Cheese, Gourmet Caramel Corn with almonds, cashews and pecans, and we are trying more flavors all the time!  Our latest flavors are chewy Reese's Peanut Butter Popcorn and Grape!

In addition to a wide selection of popcorn flavors, we serve 12 flavors of super-premium Chocolate Shoppe ice cream, made in Madison, Wisconsin.  With flavors ranging from Old Fashioned Vanilla to Cake Batter Fudge, Raspberry Rhapsody and Zanzibar Chocolate, we can satisfy any urge for a cold treat on a warm day.   If you aren't in the mood for a cold treat, we also offer freshly baked scones and cookies.   Made fresh daily, we have several kinds of  cookies and muffins to choose from that make a perfect dessert for lunch or a mid-afternoon snack.  We still offer a wide variety of candies to satisfy any taste as well.  From the old fashioned candy like French-burnt peanuts and Squirrel Nut Zippers to the new, such as chocolate-covered Espresso Beans, Rainbow Whip Licorice and Gummi Clown Fish.

We changed the name to Caramel Crisp & Café because we serve lunch now.  There is a daily selection of salads to choose from that we will serve to you on spinach or mixed greens.  We offer a soup of the day as well.  Both soup and salads are served with a warm, buttered breadstick.  We like to try new things, so our offerings may vary day-to-day, but we will always have 4 to 8 salads.   One day you could try sweet, crunchy and salty Chicken Cashew, or rich and tangy Chicken Bruschetta.  The next you could try one of our vegetarian offerings like our Very Veggie Pasta salad or Black Bean and Pepper! If salads aren't your thing, we serve all-beef hot dogs and a variety of hot, old-fashioned sandwiches for lunch as well.   Served with crispy kettle-cooked potato chips and a fresh dill pickle spear, you can load up your hot dog at our condiment bar featuring neon-green Chicago relish.  We offer Chili Cheese dogs too, if you need some heartier fare to get you through the day.  We have pulled-pork sandwiches with tangy Western-style BBQ sauce, shredded Angus Beef in au jou sauce, or smoky shredded chicken, all served on a soft Ciabatta roll.  You can carry out your food, or linger over lunch and coffee in our warm, inviting dining area.  We also offer free wireless Internet access for those that like to stay connected wherever they are. If you are looking for a gift, we can help you out there as well.  The Caramel Crisp & Café has a wide selection of decorative tins and gift boxes that you can have filled with whatever would suit the occasion. If you would like to celebrate a birth, new home, retirement or birthday, one of our gift boxes or tins can be customized to fit your needs.  Please come down and see examples of what we can create. One of our guiding principals at Caramel Crisp & Café is that we want to listen to our customers and respond to their suggestions.  We like to try new recipes to go with our old favorites, and we encourage you to let us know what you think.  We are determined to make sure that every customer leaves the store happier than when they came in, and your suggestions will help us greatly in meeting this goal!   We hope to see you at the store soon!

Chanda & Pete, Owners & Operators