Set Inside A Former Hospital, This Florida Pizza Pub Has A Rumored Haunted History

Many pizza pubs have a corporate blandness to them, a sort of generic hipster chic, as it were. Exposed ceiling fixtures, check; rustic wooden tabletops, check; chalkboard menus, check. For a more one-of-a-kind dining experience, however, you can always take a road trip to Pensacola, Florida to visit the O'Zone Pizza Pub. The restaurant, along with several other businesses, is housed in the former Sacred Heart Hospital which opened in 1915 and stayed in operation for another 50 years. (The hospital was relocated to a more modern facility.) While old hospitals themselves are mildly creepy, the spook factor here is compounded by the fact that the building looks like a castle from a black-and-white horror movie.

We don't know whether the O'Zone Pizza Pub is named for the Moldovan boy band that provided the soundtrack for YouTube's viral 2004 "Numa Numa" video, but even if it isn't meant to evoke the ghost of early '00s pop the restaurant may have a few other revenants. While the pub isn't nearly as haunted as St. Louis' Lemp Brewery, its basement location was once the site of the hospital morgue and may have been the penultimate resting place of a spook or two. The upper floors of the former hospital, which are closed to the general public, are also said to be haunted by a nurse and various unidentified adults and kids. The sounds of music and screaming have been reported from this area. Even though you can't explore the upper floors, you can check out some antique medical memorabilia on the building's lower floors.

If you're looking for a ghostly connection on O'Zone's menu, you won't find one. The restaurant doesn't lean into any kind of spooky theme at all. (Alas, there are no cocktails made with paranormal vodka.) For the most part, it's a typical craft beer bar that offers a Mediterranean-inspired menu. The appetizer menu includes homemade hummus along with a dish called Tre Polpette (three meatballs). Salads are made with trendy ingredients such as Kalamata olives and marinated beets. Of course, there are pizzas with vaguely descriptive names such as Italian Flag (pepperoni, sausage, mushrooms, red onions, red peppers, and pesto) and Ponderosa Stomp (cheddar, barbecue sauce, chicken, bacon, green peppers, red onions, and honey).

The O'Zone Pizza Pub has received generally good reviews on TripAdvisor. Many customers have praised it as a high-quality establishment that serves solid pizza. Those who visited the pizza restaurant because of its location also seemed pretty pleased with the overall experience. It seems that this eerie building doesn't disappoint.