FoieGrasIsEvil has more or less summed up my feelings on the topic.
I would add only that, having sampled the pizzerias of both Manhattan and Chicago for the first time last year, I can absolutely see what people are talking about when they say that chain pizza isn’t “real” pizza. Real pizza kicks ass, but it’s not at my door at 2 in the morning with chicken wings and a Mountain Dew.
There’s macaroni and cheese, and then there’s the shit that Kraft sells in a blue box for fifty cents. Both have their time and place. So it is with chain pizza, and may your deity of choice bless each of them for it.
That’s the thing though. Are they really? It certainly hasn’t been my experience, although I realise most other posters here disagree and a lot of it is about personal preference.
I guess it depends on how your local pizza is. When I lived in Budapest, Pizza Hut was actually better than 90-95% of local pizzas. Eventually, we found some good joints, but my god were some of the local interpretations of pizza horrendous (some literally tasted like mushrooms, flavorless cheese, and ketchup on a disc of bread-like substance.) So, whilst living there, if we were in the mood for pizza, about 50% of the time we ended up with Pizza Hut. Here, in Chicago, the last time I had a slice was about four or five years ago from a Target (department store)'s food area. Haven’t been in an actual Pizza Hut restaurant since the early 90s.
There is no more Pizzaria Uno – it is now called Uno Chicago Grill, and they have repositioned themselves into a mid-level chain restaurant that no longer really emphasizes their pizza. This (note: the link is to a 4meg pdf file) is their menu, and you don’t see a pizza until you get to page 9 (of 11 total pages).
When we visit my family in the States, we usually end up getting take-out from Papa John’s at least once. It’s fine. I’ve never cared for Domino’s (nor have I had it since they started this “new recipe” promotion), but they seem to be the default option for “let’s call out for pizza” for a lot of people, so they must have something going for them. Pizza Hut is too greasy and too salty for my taste, and that sound you hear in the background is the husband and kids crying out in chorus that EVERYTHING is too salty for you!, but again, it seems to have become the default go-out-for-pizza choice for a lot of people.
Pizza Hut tried to break into the Norwegian market but now seems to be confined to airports, of all places. When we head to the States the kids usually ask to have lunch at the airport 'Hut before we get on the plane. To them, I guess, it tastes like America. To me, it’s a reminder to top up on fluids before getting on the plane
If you’re ever in Troll Country and discover a need for pizza, know this: A fresh, hot Dolly Dimple’s pizza is sublime (except once in a while when it’s inexplicably awful, but it’s usually sublime), but after about ten minutes out of the oven something bad happens to it that can’t be repaired by reheating - so don’t get it delivered, or try it as take-out. On the other hand, Peppe’s is mediocre but acceptable no matter if it’s fresh or three days old. Actually it tastes the same whether it’s mediocre or three days old.
One of the main problems with american chain pizzas is actually the sauce - american sauce tends to be very sweet [candy an italian born friend of mine refers to it as] and bland. Lowest common denominator food appeal.
The ingredients are also some of the problem - the fewer ingredients, the better. I am not of the opinion that powdered this and stabilized that is worth eating. I make an absolutely killer red sauce that is nothing more than tomatoes, fresh basil and garlic, with freshly cracked black pepper and a pinch of salt. That is all you need for a pizza sauce. Slap on fresh buffalo mozzarella, and it is the classic pizza margarita and absolutely sublime.
Most pizzas are absolutely ruined by slapping every leftover in the fridge on top. Do you really need 5 kinds of meat and every veggie known to man?
One of the best pizzas I have had in a long time was down in New Haven - red sauce, fresh cow mozzarella and good quality pepperoni, not the bottom of the bin garbage that most pizza places buy. Phenomenal. [Cant remember the name of the place, it is around the block from the New Haven Hotel. I stay there a lot when I have operations performed at Yale New Haven and the hotel is nice and close to the hospital]
I agree with this completely. I grew up in Western Canada, and so I think pizza should have a fairly thick crust (but not Chicago “loaf of bread” thick) with a fairly thick layer of toppings and grease doesn’t bother me; non-greasy pizzas with thin crust and flat toppings aren’t “real” pizza to me, although I’m sure there are legions of people in New York and Italy who would think I’m crazy.
I think the problem is that northerners, (especially folks in Chicago and New York.) tend to be waaayyy too proud of their pizza.
Kind of like us Texans are of; well… just about everything Texan.
Anyway, if the Northerners don’t want to call Domino’s or Pizza Hut pizza; OK fine! But what ever you call that stuff on a crispy thin crust dough; it’s good stuff.
Is it the culinary mark of genius? No, but it’s good.
California Pizza Kitchen is a chain, and so is Ledo’s, and they are wonderful. Try CPK’s Pizza Margherethe sometime. Ledo’s has a rectangular pie that is to die for. Even Papa John’s is occasionally excellent (like their thin crust Spinach Alfredo, which kept me going during my one year of vegetarianism). Good pizza is where you find it.
Meh. Some are certainly better than others, but overall, almost all pizza tastes basically the same to me. Domino’s is the only place that delivers to my house and I admit preferring others in the past, but the new stuff is actually good and I get it fairly often. Pizza is only a handful of ingredients; it’s pretty hard to fuck up horrendously. Even the bad ones are still not that bad.
I’ve driven all over the country and I agree. Anywhere on the Eastern Seaboard from the Carolinas upwards as well as in large swaths of the upper Midwest, you’re probably pretty safe ordering from a local place.
Everywhere else though, going to a mom and pop is a crap shoot. You could end with a heavenly pie, but you could also well be getting a grease saturated doormat made with cheap, prefabricated components from a restaurant supply store. I’ve been in more than one mom-and-pop pizzeria where they had stacks of pre-made crusts sitting behind the counter.
So while the chains pale in comparison to the Lombardis and Totonnos of the world, they’re still easily better than half the mom-and-pops in America.
Well, I did post in the Elitism thread that I was a pizza snob. I grew up in the east and we ate at local pizzerias. I honestly can’t remember if there were any major chains in the area at the time. Then, we moved to Michigan, home of Little Caeser’s and Domino’s. The first time I had one, I was like “what’s this pizza looking stuff?” It didn’t take long to find some local pizza places that made a decent pie. It wasn’t great, but life was back to normal.
With anything like this, it’s just a matter of taste. It’s like comparing a restaurant or bar burger to McDonald’s. They’re different creatures, each serving its own purpose.
Little Domino’s Hut is the Budweiser of pizza. Not my thing, I’ll drink one if there’s nothing else, but I’m not going to try to change the minds of the millions of people who enjoy it.
Are they bad? Not really. Are they good? In my opinion, no, they’re just there. Cheap, available, consistent, and at your door in 30 minutes!
I say this in every pizza thread, that if you must do a chain, tryJet’s.
Only in about 10-12 states for now though.
Consider the phrase “utility pizza” in New York; supposedly it’s generic New York-style pizza. Not great, not awful, just decent but not mind-blowing foodie sublime. That’s how I think of most of the big delivery chains; it’s Midwestern-style utility pizza. I call it “Detroit style” because so many national chains have their home in the area; Domino’s, Little Caesar’s, Jet’s, Hungry Howie’s. (I know there’s a unique Detroit Style pizza, which the Detroit-based chains don’t represent.)
What major US cities have little or no presence by the chains? The Buffalo metro is almost entirely indie; only a couple of Domino’s stores, a few Pizza Huts, no Papa John’s, no Donato’s, maybe a Sbarro or two in a mall food court, and that’s it. Uno Chicago Grill closed shop a month ago. Nearby Rochester, though, has no shortage of national chains.
Chain pizza is fine; pizza, in my opinion anyway, is not a gourmet food, so I don’t expect a religious experience or anything.
One chain that just opened here is Papa Murphy’s, which differs in that it’s a “take-and-bake” pizza place. You can phone in or order at the counter, and they’ll make whatever you want, right in front of you, on an oven-safe paper baking tray, sealing it in plastic wrap along with baking instructions. You take it home and bake it in your own oven. Their pizza is frankly much better than any of the “delivery” chains, but it is a bit more work, and you don’t have the immediate gratification. Still, if I have the time, they’re my local favorite.
I’m from the Chicago area, and I think there’s pizza and Pizza.
Pizza-with-an-upper-case-P is the kind of thing you get from the national chains. It’s perfectly fine, if you know how to order it (for me–easy on the sauce, thin crust or stuffed crust only, no pepperoni or sausage). It’s greasy and cheesy and comforting. . .but it’s a little artificial. It gets the upper-case because, really, it should be Pizza ™.
Pizza-with-a-lower-case-p is what I get when I go out to a local place. It doesn’t have to be deep-dish; it can be thin crust, too. It’s cheese and sausage, period. No need to alter the sauce, since they don’t kill the dish with it. If it’s thin crust, it’s cut into squares.
Both are appropriate. If it’s 8:30, and I’m settling in for a night of watching movies or WoWing or web-surfing, then I probably want Pizza, not pizza.
