# Pizza Double Toppings **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 11, 2004, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pizza-double-toppings/279244 "2004-12-11T02:13:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2004, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pizza-double-toppings/279244/21 "2004-12-11T05:01:14Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > I’ve never seen a “no double topping” restriction in Canada. If it exists and is enforced, perhaps it is meant to boost profits by making it so you can’t order triple of the most expensive toppings – I would guess anchovies and cheese would cost more than onion or mushroom. Yeah, but that wouldn’t make sense either, because they could add on an extra charge-maybe even charge a little more for extras of certain toppings? ---
**Author:** ![rfgdxm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c0e974/32.png) [@rfgdxm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rfgdxm)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2004, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pizza-double-toppings/279244/22 "2004-12-11T05:02:06Z")
> [@Steve-o-B](#): > > I tried that long ago. They denied it was true and made me give them the name of my local store. The manager of that store called and said he had no such policy. When I asked him why the coupons said it was the policy, he just said he didn’t know and I could have whatever I wanted on my pizza. And would I please write back to Nat’l HQ and tell them I had no problem with his store. > > Not exactly an answer, is it? And lots of non-chain places have the same retriction in their ads. There’s got to be a reason, and they just don’t want us to know what it is. My guess is that Pizza Hut has some small number of franchise owners who object to allowing double toppings. These franchise owners would get mad if the coupons didn’t say double toppings weren’t allowed. However, the vast majority of other franchise owners just ignore what the coupon says, and allow double toppings. That person I know who works for Pizza Hut is a manager. The prices at Pizza Hut tend to be higher than almost other pizza place. What this means is that the typical customer is more interested in service and quality, and not having to get into arguments about not being allowed to order double pepperoni and mushrooms with the coupon. When the customer is paying a premium price, they want things _their_ way, without hassle. It’s just bad business sense to piss off customers, and they go to the competition. A pizza place with cut rate prices might be able to get away with not allowing double toppings, because the customer doesn’t want to pay Pizza Hut a lot more for a pizza. ---
**Author:** ![Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2004, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pizza-double-toppings/279244/23 "2004-12-11T13:00:10Z")
When I used to work at Pizza Hut, if you ordered a single topping, you automatically received a double topping. That is, a medium pepperoni would have 24 slices on it (IIRC), but if you ordered a pepperoni-mushroom, you’d get 12 pieces of meat with a clear cup of mushrooms (small cups were blue, large were red, or maybe vice versa. It’s been a long time). Therefore, if you ordered a double topping of the same thing, you were just confusing the issue because there was no standard for what a double topping was. Generous assemblers would give you three scoops, tightwads would give you just two. Along the same lines, when you ordered any of the multi-topping pizzas (all dressed, supreme, etc…) you’d actually get a hodge podge amount of toppings. Supreme is… pepperoni, mushrooms, green pepper, onion, sausage, and beef, right? Well on a medium you’d get 12 slices of pepperoni, 1/3 medium cup each of onions, mushrooms and green pepper, and 1/2 medium cup each of the other meats: the equivalent of 3 toppings. I think you actually pay for more, though. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2004, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pizza-double-toppings/279244/24 "2004-12-11T13:55:44Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Actually, if they made the pizza from the ad, it would be inedible. Most food in ads is fake-plastic, paint, rubber, or else it’s all pinned and glued together. Otherwise, it would never survive hours under those hot lights to photograph it-it would wilt and spoil. Not quite true. Much of the “supporting” food in ads is [fake](http://http://saucecafe.com/article/1/1/1), but the item being advertised must, by law, be comprised of the actual food stuff being advertised, made by the same recipe and of the same amount of each ingredient. So if the ad shows 20 pieces of pepperoni, then the actual pizza should have 20 pieces of pepperoni. Of course, there’s not an art director putting together your pizza at Pizza Hut and carefully placing the pepperoni just so before melting the cheese and browning it in artful spots with an acetylene torch. But is it actual cheese and toppings and probably undercooked crust also browned with a torch. Those breadsticks and salad on the side? Probably fake. That ice cream in the apple pie commercial? Probably plastic. That ice cream those people are eating in the pie commercial? Probably vegetable shortening! ---
**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2004, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pizza-double-toppings/279244/25 "2004-12-11T14:11:04Z")
Tsk. This is why I always got to know the guys who take my pizza orders by name and by face and made sure they knew mine – by picking it up in person for the first ten orders or so and nitpick how I want it – especiially when it comes to double cheese, double pepperoni, double sauce and double mushrooms (my favorite). When I finally start calling my orders in, I say, “double that, and hook me up”… they generally treat me right. Of course I always tip the drivers generously. ---
**Author:** ![lawoot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/35a633/32.png) [@lawoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lawoot)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2004, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pizza-double-toppings/279244/26 "2004-12-11T14:41:35Z")
Former Domino’s Pizza manager chiming in here (mind, it’s been 11 years) - but when we put in the “no double toppings” rule, it was SPECIFICALLY for the ‘unlimited toppings’ pizzas. The reason for the rule (as I remember) was that some people were ordering monster pizzas, and thanks to all the ‘double toppings’, they weren’t cooking correctly. We also had a standard for ‘initial topping’ amounts, and ‘additional toppings’ - for example - a mushroom only pizza would have 4 ounces of 'shrooms, while mushrooms on a multi-topping would only have 2.5 ounces (once again, I’m pulling the numbers out of my head - in no way are these the actual numbers). This, again was to ensure that the pizza cooked correctly. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2004, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pizza-double-toppings/279244/27 "2004-12-11T16:41:11Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > Not quite true. Much of the “supporting” food in ads is [fake](http://http://saucecafe.com/article/1/1/1), [Corrected link.](http://www.saucemagazine.com/article/1/1) I still say that the “no double toppings” restriction is for coupons only. I poked around that Pizza Hut link with the coupons to see about building my own, non-coupon, pizza. Without registering, the only thing I could find was a demo at [http://phcolumbus.quikorder.com](http://phcolumbus.quikorder.com). That shows a Build Your Own Pizza chart with a list of toppings with a pull-down menu for Location. For each topping the Location choices were Whole Pizza; Side 1; Side 2; and Whole - Double. As far as I’m concerned that settles it. You can order double toppings any time you want to pay for them. But the store restricts double toppings when you aren’t paying full freight. ---
**Author:** ![phaishazamkhan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f05b48/32.png) [@phaishazamkhan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phaishazamkhan)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2004, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pizza-double-toppings/279244/28 "2004-12-11T16:47:16Z")
From reading this thread it appears that “no double toppings” is only relevant to chain pizza places. Now if one would disdain things like Dominos or Pizza Hut then they would get a better pizza. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2004, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pizza-double-toppings/279244/29 "2004-12-11T21:01:30Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Yeah, but that wouldn’t make sense either, because they could add on an extra charge-maybe even charge a little more for extras of certain toppings? Some of my local pizza places do this. Pisses me off royally that brocolli is considered a double topping. How expensive can brocolli be that they have to charge double for it? ---
**Author:** ![Excalibre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@Excalibre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Excalibre)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2004, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pizza-double-toppings/279244/30 "2004-12-12T04:04:40Z")
> [@Otto](#): > > Some of my local pizza places do this. Pisses me off royally that brocolli is considered a double topping. How expensive can brocolli be that they have to charge double for it? It’s hard enough to find pizza places that offer broccoli as it is; I always have to order from the expensive places to get it. If they were charging as much as they do for a pizza, and then charging that much more for broccoli, I’d be pissed. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2004, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pizza-double-toppings/279244/31 "2004-12-12T05:46:39Z")
Well, see, I live in a crunchy granola sort of town, so we have a much wider selection of vegetable toppings even at the chains. ---
**Author:** ![theLaughingMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/90db22/32.png) [@theLaughingMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/theLaughingMan)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2004, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pizza-double-toppings/279244/32 "2004-12-12T09:05:10Z")
Ahem, first posting. I used to work at Pizza Hut and once chatting to my manager I found out two interesting things: 1) Cheese is the most expensive part of a pizza 2) At my Pizza Hut we only made a (very small) profit on pizzas when a certain number per hour were going out. Otherwise it was up to everything else, soda(huge profit generator), breadsticks, wings, etc, to make PH their $. ---
**Author:** ![scm1001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c4cdca/32.png) [@scm1001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scm1001)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2004, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pizza-double-toppings/279244/33 "2004-12-12T10:48:50Z")
> [@Otto](#): > > Some of my local pizza places do this. Pisses me off royally that brocolli is considered a double topping. How expensive can brocolli be that they have to charge double for it? You pay to have brocolli on your pizza? I would pay extra to have it removed ☹ ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2004, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pizza-double-toppings/279244/34 "2004-12-12T15:09:09Z")
I was thinking of it may become difficult for the highly trained staff to distinguish between a single vs. a double topping for the purpose of ringing up the pizza. But after this I think that it is more that there is no extra ‘mass’ when you order a double topping, you just get 1/2 of each. It’s great profit for the place as they get an extra $1 or 2 for basically nothing. But if you ordered double of a single topping, they will have to pile it on to make it evident that it is double. THat as also ponted out may effect cooking. ---
**Author:** ![lawoot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/35a633/32.png) [@lawoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lawoot)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2004, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pizza-double-toppings/279244/35 "2004-12-12T16:22:39Z")
It may be that brocolli, like many of the other fruit and veggie toppings, have a large amount of water in them, and can thus affect the quality of the pizza. (soggy toppings/dough, watered down sauce and so on.) ---
**Author:** ![aerodave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f08c70/32.png) [@aerodave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aerodave)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2004, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pizza-double-toppings/279244/36 "2004-12-12T17:27:29Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > then they put the extra dough back into the crust…the part that sticks out around the edges that _nobody eats anyway…_ Pardon? The edge crust is great!! Unless the pizza is bad in general (which may be the case if poor crust is a symptom). It pains me to see people leave that part uneaten. And I don’t htink you can get away with saying “nobody.” Of the pizza eaters I’ve observed, the cretans that waste the crust are in the minority. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2004, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pizza-double-toppings/279244/37 "2004-12-12T17:29:48Z")
> [@phaishazamkhan](#): > > From reading this thread it appears that “no double toppings” is only relevant to chain pizza places. > Now if one would disdain things like Dominos or Pizza Hut then they would get a better pizza. I’m with you, **phaishazamkhan**. One of the big benefits to dealing with locally-owned independent places is that they are free to focus on making their customers happy rather than following rules set by corporate higher-ups located somewhere else in the country. Our local pizza place will do pretty much whatever you ask for. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2004, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pizza-double-toppings/279244/38 "2004-12-12T20:23:34Z")
> [@lawoot](#): > > Former Domino’s Pizza manager chiming in here (mind, it’s been 11 years) - but when we put in the “no double toppings” rule, it was SPECIFICALLY for the ‘unlimited toppings’ pizzas. The reason for the rule (as I remember) was that some people were ordering monster pizzas, and thanks to all the ‘double toppings’, they weren’t cooking correctly. > > We also had a standard for ‘initial topping’ amounts, and ‘additional toppings’ - for example - a mushroom only pizza would have 4 ounces of 'shrooms, while mushrooms on a multi-topping would only have 2.5 ounces (once again, I’m pulling the numbers out of my head - in no way are these the actual numbers). This, again was to ensure that the pizza cooked correctly. Ah, that makes sense. So basically, you’d have the toppings almost burned, but the dough would still be raw underneath? Yuck. That happened once when my dad was making pizza-the cheese was almost completely burned to a leather-like substance, and the dough beneath was almost raw. But that was because there was something raw with the dough. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pizza-double-toppings/279244/39 "2004-12-13T02:38:48Z")
> [@aerodave](#): > > Pardon? The edge crust is great!! Unless the pizza is bad in general (which may be the case if poor crust is a symptom). It pains me to see people leave that part uneaten. Not me. If it’s left, I ask them for it myself. The crust on a deep dish pizza is sometimes the best part. ---
**Author:** ![Cyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a88e4f/32.png) [@Cyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cyn)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pizza-double-toppings/279244/40 "2004-12-13T03:34:57Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > Not quite true. Much of the “supporting” food in ads is [fake](http://http://saucecafe.com/article/1/1/1), but the item being advertised must, by law, be comprised of the actual food stuff being advertised, made by the same recipe and of the same amount of each ingredient. So if the ad shows 20 pieces of pepperoni, then the actual pizza should have 20 pieces of pepperoni. You assume that all pieces of pepperoni are equal. You will run into differents sizes and thicknesses of many materials and at least in my experience (4 years Round Table) everything was made by weight. So if our food supplier sent us a box of 12 slice to the ounce pepperoni instead of 15/oz by accident and we used it, you would still have 4 ounces of pepperoni on your pizza even though it was now 48 slices not 60. Legally we would still be making the same pizza because we are using the same qty of ingredient. Independents would have even more flexibility to try different styles of items making it less likely to “look like the picture”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pizza-double-toppings/279244.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pizza-double-toppings/279244.md?page=3)