Went by Little Caesars drive thru last night. Ordered the three meat HOT-N-READY. The lady had it in her hand when I pulled up to the window. That’s faster service than McDonald’s or Wendys.
How are they making this magic happen? Are these frozen and zapped in a microwave? Made hours earlier <yuck> and microwaved as I drive up? How long could pizza be kept hot in a warmer box after cooking it? Maybe 30 minutes? I’m curious what Little Caesars is doing.
Do any other chains offer this instant order pizza?
In the past smart pizza lovers called ahead and ordered pizza because it needed 20 minutes to cook. I’m loving HOT-N-READY.
They’re doing it the same way McDonald’s does. They know about how much business they’ll do at any given time of any given day, and start making them before they’re ordered. This is also why they have such a small selection: Two or three varieties is a lot more predictable than the dozens or more that most pizza places have.
Sometimes, when you go to Little Caesar’s and order a pizza, they’ll tell you it’ll be 10 minutes. That doesn’t mean that they cook them that fast; it means that they slightly underestimated demand that day and have one they started 10 minutes ago for a 20 minute baking. Presumably, they also sometimes slightly overestimate, which probably means that their employees get to take a cold pizza home at the end of their shift.
As for other chains with the same business plan, around here there’s also Georgio’s. They’re similarly cheap, and taste a bit better.
To expand a bit on Chronos’s explanation: at the walk-in that I patronize occasionally, when the counter attendant pulls a pizza from the warmer he or she will sing out, “taking one pepperoni, leave two” (numbers adjusted to match the situation). I imagine that when the second figure reaches a certain point — which undoubtedly varies by the time of day — the people in the back room get off their duffs and start making more.
Funny thing about LC: I’m fully aware that it’s crap “pizza,” but there are times that it’s damned satisfying (and I don’t drink, so that’s not the reason). In addition, in my experience it’s easily the best cold-morning-after pizza of any chain 'round here.
I have to admit, I love the Little Caesar’s pepperoni pie.
At the place across the street, quite often while I’m waiting I’ll notice the order person calling ‘Can I get X in’ to the back kitchen staff, repeating exactly what the customer ordered - not because they’re short; presumably to return the number of each type of pizza ready and waiting to come out of the warming box to the desired status quo. As in, ‘Can I get 2 pepperoni and 1 veggie in?’
I had to put that in before the pizza snobs come in to say that the only good pizza comes from some small hole in the wall place and is only made properly by one old man on this planet and pizza will be dead to them the day he retires.
You have to try really hard to make pizza that’s actually bad. Some pizzas are certainly better than others, and a lot of pizzas are better than Little Caesar’s, but it’s still not bad pizza.
All I know is I had gotten used to Jets pizza and when I tried calling in an order only to find I had called too late and they were closed, I had no choice but to go with the LC option. It was not even comparable. The LC “pizza” just tasted like bread and cheese with a bunch of real thick ketchup in between. I sucked up my disappointment and made myself eat the pizza in it’s entirety. 'Cause I ain’t no yellabelly.
I have to agree, though I may well agree with Chronos that LC is not actively “bad,” as in inedible. But as far as pizza goes, in my opinion, it’s pretty bad, and not something I’d order unless it was the only place open at night. If that makes me a pizza “snob,” so be it. I’m just not spending money on something I personally don’t like. I’ll go to McD’s for a double cheeseburger, which I do like.
LC happens to be the closest to me other than Pizza Hut. I refuse to visit Pizza Hut ever again. They delivered two pizzas on two different trips with hamburger that tasted rancid.
There is a couple local pizza places that I prefer, but they close early. I think at 9pm? So after that LC is my only choice.
Little Caesar’s pizzas are the best restaurant pizza you can buy for $5.
Whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing is up to you.
As to “how do they do it”, as a former fast food manager I assume it’s basically a matter of staging. At the restaurant I ran (Jack in the Box, for the record), every morning the store computer produced a series of charts broken down for every 15-minute interval of the day, which showed us, based on sales projections and ordering trends, how many burger patties, chicken patties, tacos etc. we should have cooked, prepared, and ready to sell during that particular time, and as those products sold, we’d cook to replace them.
It’d be comparatively simple for Little Caesar’s, since they only offer three types of pizza as Hot-n-Ready most of the day (cheese, sausage, and pepperoni) and there are a few others that they promote as Hot-n-Ready during dinner hours only. They probably have a chart in the back that says that at 5:00, they need so many pepperoni, so many sausage, etc., and when one of those sells, they prep a new one and toss it into the oven.
Little Caesar’s pizza, on the few occaisions I’ve had it, was roughly on par with almost all pizza I’ve ever eaten.
For me, all pizza is about the same. But sometimes you get a craving for that “crap” pizza, and it’s hard to explain. For me that’s Papa John’s, which I admit is terrible pizza but for some reason I’m just in the mood for it.
little caesars is actually pretty good. It isn’t the best working class/middle class pizza chain but for $5 for a large with no waiting it is pretty decent.
Like others have said they have a warmer. But sometimes when I go there they tell me there is a 10 minute wait. Which sucks because when the pizza comes it is too hot to eat. I prefer the pizza that has been sitting in the warmer, it is cool enough to eat.
IMO even a rather cheap crappy pizza is generally pretty decent when quite fresh and hot. The less good it is the more likely it is to be any one of or all off the following.
Not so good when not fresh and piping hot.
Not good reheated or just kept heated for any length of time.
Certainly not good cold or reheated after some period of time.
Not likely to agree with one’s digestive system later when eaten in large quantities no matter what the conditions.
Now don’t get me wrong …a cheap ass LC pizza ain’t nearly as good as “good pizza” but as Chronos notes it is pretty hard to make a bad pizza. Though I have one here and there over the years that made me think WTF? did they make this out of? Rancid biscuit dough, ketchup, and velvetta cheeze?
We’ve been playing around with making our own pizzas at home. One key seems to be heat heat heat. The oven isn’t really hot enough really. The SO wants to build a wood fired pizza oven. Myself leans towards an electric “pizza kiln” of some sort.
Have you seen these? They’re so weird and gimmicky that I am tempted to get one.
As for the topic at hand- I had the rancid-tasting LC pizza several months ago and quit going. But then a week ago, I brought one with me when I was in a hurry somewhere, and thus was able to feed 5 people for 5 bucks. And it didn’t taste bad at all, really. Even the crust was edible.
I did notice a few other things on the menu there now, like chicken wings. I wondered about those. Could they be sat under a warmer? Seems like they’d be all congealed.
That’s faster service than McDonald’s or Wendys.