It must be a franchise thing. I had a delivery on Sunday that was $15 after tip.
ETA: And yes, it was delivery.
For me it’s Dommy’s Pizza (one location, owned by my buddy Bob Domiano) or Premier Pizza (two locations, owned by my drinking buddy Sean Lilja). I don’t think I’d buy a chain pizza if they were celebrating dollar day.
Re: Papa Murphy’s
I went looking online to see if there were any near me. Their own website asks for a zip code, and then says there aren’t any that serve my area. Google Maps shows me nearby businesses with “Papa” or “Murphy’s” in the name. And Wikipedia just says they have 1,500+ locations.
So I know there aren’t any near me, but I don’t know what parts of the country they do serve.
I suppose this would be an example of when the web tries to be too helpful. Yes, lots of times I like to search for things that are close to me. But not every time. Answer the question that I ask, not the one you think I meant to ask.
I can report Papa Murphy’s is in Texas, if that helps.
Domino’s has been running a nation-wide promotion for forever: $5.99 medium two topping pizzas, sandwiches, pastas, or chicken items, you just have to order at least 2 items total. What’s strange is they also have other “local” coupon deals for the same items, but at a higher price. Why in the world would anyone ever order anything besides the $5.99 stuff?!
I’m not entirely sure I understand your question or comment, but here’s a map of Papa Murphy’s locations by state. They seem to be concentrated in Texas, California, Oregon, Wisconsin, and Washington it seems. I’ve never had one myself, here in Illinois. The only place I remember ever seeing them is in Iowa City.
Yeah, the information is out there, but the first few places I looked were helpful to the point of unhelpfulness.
Thanks for the link. The list of locations by county is like a weird flashback to my childhood.
I delivered back in college.
Do you really want to send out a driver on an order of $3 breadsticks which will end up making a $50 order late? Especially during a dinner rush?
Someone did the math and found $17 to be their dividing line.
Story time:
Once someone wanted a 2 liter of coke. Delivered. Just the 2 liter. My manager said no.
A. Just go to the store. It’s cheaper.
B. There’s a delivery fee for that order on top of price.
C. The driver expects a tip to cover gas.
Just go to the store.
I understand the need for a minimum delivery order
My issue is advertising pizzas on sale that can’t come close to meeting that minimum. It’s a waste of advertising costs and it frustrates their customers.
I would have ordered a soda with the pizza to meet the minimum. But, the three topping pizza on sale was $7 under the minimum. Not even close enough for me to even try.
Pappa J does have a delivery fee. I don’t have a problem with that.
little Caesar’s were good back in their 2 for one days in the 80s now they barely give the school cafeteria pizza a run for its money
I wish the red brick franchise owner hadn’t lost two his in his divorce ………
Little Caesars has a stuffed crust out right now for nine bucks with a deliciously seasoned crust. You can get a little tub of the garlic butter 2 for a dollar.
Worth the drive.
It doesn’t waste advertising costs. It got you to go and try to order didn’t it. And it only frustrates customers who refuse to meet the delivery minimum.
You said you would have gotten a soda but that would have still been under the minimum.
Their website says they have breadsticks for $7.55 or double chocolate chip brownies for $6.55. With tax that would have met the minimum.
It got him to try to order, but it didn’t get him to seal the deal. They don’t make any money on attempted orders. And someone who did meet the minimum wouldn’t be taking advantage of that same sale anyway.
And who the heck is going to buy breadsticks for seven fifty?
The iron rule of pizza still applies: the quality of the pizza is inversely proportional to the size of the chain.
As a second rule: the longer a pizza place has been in business, the better the pizza.
This, a single store that’s been in the neighborhood for years is always going to have better pizza than any chain.
Not to pee on anyone else’s parade, but I’ve never quite understood the point of the take-and-bake pizza places like Papa Murphy’s. It’s all the inconvenience of a frozen pizza combined with none of the convenience of frozen pizzas or fully cooked ones.
And it’s not really better than a frozen or fully cooked pizza either.
I tend to get my pizzas at the local joint up the street- it’s been there at least 20 years if not more, and it’s not part of a chain. They have solid but unspectacular NY style pizza at reasonable, if not particularly cheap prices.
The biggest difficulty with bake-at-home pizza (whether frozen, carry-out, or homemade) is that most home ovens can’t get as hot as professional ovens do, and that’s important for most pizza recipes.
I would hope that a place like Papa Murphys has engineered their crust to work at normal home pizza recipes.
I haven’t figured out where the “sweet spot” for the bake-at-home pizzas is- they don’t have the shelf-life of a frozen pizza, they’re not as good as a delivery pizza, and they’re not noticeably better than either. What itch do they scratch that delivery pizzas and frozen pizzas don’t? That’s what I can’t figure out, no matter how long I think about it. Maybe I’m missing something, and people really do prefer them to frozen pizzas, although to me they seemed very similar in crust texture and flavor- maybe that comes from being baked at 350-400.
You can make a quite good homemade pizza at a normal oven high temp of 550 degrees, if you cook it a little bit longer, make the dough a tad wetter to compensate for the longer time, and use a well preheated pizza steel.
Does Murphy’s come with a tin underneath the pizza? I’ve been meaning to try them but I don’t think I have a pizza pan that big.
I can’t get any pizza delivery where I live, and most of this county can’t, either (too rural). Heck, even Jimmy Johns won’t travel farther than a 2 mile radius from their store, even for a large catering order.
Obviously this is a personal thing, but frozen pizzas from the supermarket are 90% junk. Cheap, but junk. Even the gourmet versions are junk, just more expensive.
Papa Murphys fills a need for me, albeit at a higher price than supermarket frozen. First, when fresh, bringing one home and cooking it later that day allows you to do it anytime, and not be dependent upon delivery schedule. Second, I find that freezing an uncooked pizza, then thawing and cooking a few weeks later is almost as good as fresh, and far better than store-bought. I typically buy 4 or more pizzas on the discount day at PM, freeze all but one, then I can choose one from my freezer stash and cook it anytime I feel like it. I can also add more toppings from whatever is in my fridge.
If I buy a $5 “fave” cheese-only pizza, I can add toppings myself, and be saved the dough-mixing, kneading, rolling and waiting part of the process. That alone is worth $5, especially when I haven’t been able to duplicate professional crusts. Yes, I know it’s only flour, water, sugar and salt, but mine don’t taste as good.
My home oven goes to 500F, and Papa Murphy’s slogan is “love at 425”.
They use a paper “tin”, oven-safe, but they also offer a deep-dish (shallow deep-dish to my way of thinking) version with an aluminum foil carrier. You need the pan if your particular choice is heavy on the oil, or else it will get all over your car.
I’ve yet to try a frozen pizza that wasn’t terrible so comparing them to Papa Murphy’s seems insane to me. I’d put Papa Murphy’s in the upper echelon of pizza places certainly above Dominos and pizza. The quality of ingredients alone makes them great and cooking them on a pizza stone makes their texture at least as good as a delivery pizza that has been in a hot box for 30 min waiting to get to me.