Recently, a friend of mine and his fiancee (from elsewhere in the country) had a pizza at a local (Western Massachusetts) pizza joint. She found it highly unusual that the pizza, rather than being cut into triangular slices, was cut into squares (well, at least the middle pieces are square; the edges are rounded squares since the pizza is round). Since I always have my pizza this way, I’ve never really thought about it. She said she’s been to quite a few places in the country and this is the first she’s seen of it. So, is it just in Western Mass that pizza is cut this way, or was she nuts?
I live in Milwaukee, and we’ve gotten pizza from several local joints that was cut into squares. I have no idea why some places cut into squares, and others into wedges. I find squares harder to pick up from the pie. Wedges also are easier & neater to eat. But I’ll take pizza any way you cut it. (as long as it’s not from Chuckie Cheeses;))
Columbus Ohio checkin in.
We have squares and wedges here.
Chicago and Indiana - squares and wedges
It looks like we’ve got the midwest covered.
Texas, where the round pizza’s are cut in wedges and the square pizza’s are cut in squares.
There is a well-known chain of restaurants in the Potomac region called Ledo’s that make a damned fine square pizza. They bring it to the table on those rectangular plastic trays (like you used to eat lunch on in high school). I don’t know why those trays don’t melt in the oven.
Anyway, the selling point is that a square pizza offers more square footage of pizza compared to a circular pizza.
Regard:
12" circular pizza = 113in² of pizza
12" square pizza = 144in² of pizza
A real bargain, if they are the same price 
IMHO they are very tasty but not necessarily better than round pies. Ledo’s uses a flaky crust (like that of an apple pie) rather than a doughy one, so it is different in that respect.
But the answer to your question is no, it is not just western Mass.
OK, thanks, all. It looks like she comes from a rare place: one that does not know the joy of “the middle piece” with no bothersome crust.
There was a pizza joint In Charlottetown, PEI (can’t remember if it was a chain or not) who had square pizzas (with square slices) with the slogan “Who’s eating your corners?”. I guess no one cared as they changed to the traditional round pizza w/wedges. I cared dammit! I liked the corners… 
Oops, this looks potentially confusing. I meant that I’ve eaten both squarely-cut and wedged pizzas in both Chicago and Indiana.
There’s a pizza chain that’s big in Ohio, with locations in a few other states, that does the square/rectangular cut-Donato’s.
In most places I’ve been, the major national chains–Pizza Hut, Domino’s, Papa John’s, Little Caesars, typically cut in wedges.
One advantage of the wedge cut is that if the pieces are cut to roughly the same size, you can keep track of how much you have eaten by the number of pieces. With the square cut, sometimes you get rectangles of various sizes, and little tiny corner pieces, etc.
Buffalo, New York (pizza capital of the United States)
Round pizza - either wedges or strips, where the pizza is cut in half, and then sliced perpendicular to the half-cut.
Rectangular pizza - “Party pizza” is very common, and is cut always cut in squares
I also had never had pizza that was cut into squares, until I moved to Minnesota.
The first time I came across this, was at a place called Sammy’s in St Cloud, I said WTF is this?
Why is this pizza cut up into these dainty little girly size pieces?
Is there somebody new back there making the pizza’s?
Is this a Minnesota thing?
Also, I was used to seeing the toppings I ordered, on top of the cheese. This place put the toppings on the sauce, and then piled the cheese on top.
I found that, with kids, having the toppings on top of the cheese, the kids could pick off the toppings that they did not like (and give them to me) and enjoy the pizza with the toppings they liked. However, with the hidden topping thing, this became next to impossible.
I like my pizza in wedges thank you, I think that’s the way the pizza Gods had intended it.
Uh, that should be Squares?! Pizza? WTF!
:o
[sub] imthjckaz will go to bed now, becuase he’s becoming more incoherent than usual[/sub]
Ok, so it’s not, but we do have a lit of pizza here.
Most chains, ie Pizza hut, Dominos, etc all have round pizza with wedges. The one exception was when Pizza Hut had their “Edge” pizza with no crust. That was a round pizza but cut into squares. There are a few places here and there that make square pizzas with square “slices” but the majority are round/wedge.
When I went to Italy, the Pizza there was also round/wedge.
Square pizza doesn’t make me think I’m in the twilight zone, but it is uncommon, and I prefer round/wedge.
Houston reporting in. Here I’ve noticed that almost all evening round pizzas are cut in wedges, but often enough if a (round) pizza is delivered during the day to an office, it will be cut in square, or rectangular, pieces that are usually individually smaller pieces than the wedges. I’ve guessed that somewhere in the pizza chain of command they’ve decided that perhaps enough of their daytime office pizzas end up at finger food lunch meetings, and this may somehow be a better format for such.
This would fit better in IMHO than in General Questions.
bibliophage
moderator GQ
Whatever. bib, pal, I have always enjoyed your input. But I think possibly you’re working too hard. Of course, being now in IMHO, I can offer that as just my opinion.
In the near term, with regard to this particular thread, it doesn’t really matter.
Squares, wedges. Doesn’t make any difference, if you eat with a fork and on a plate like the real pizza gods intended.
I, like Natural-J-Bankie, am in CA. And I concur.
One advantage of squares; Yummy edges for the kids, yucky ol’ middles for the grown-ups. It work’s for a while.
Peace,
mangeorge
When I was 16 (1986) and got my first job it was for the pizza place in my local mall. They served square slices, and a whole pizza was a rectangle (that we cut into twelve square slices). The name of this place? Square Pan Pizza of course.
This was in Santa Monica, California. They were a chain and also had places in Palos Verde, and in San Diego (where HQ was). I haven’t seen square pizza since working there though.
If you’ve had a very thin, round pizza cut into squares (at sizes larger than small), you’ve just had St. Louis style pizza. Congratulations!