Peyton Manning, Inside Trader

BigSoxFan

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Does Little Caesar’s even exist anymore? I haven’t eaten one of their pizzas since like 1989. No idea how Papa John’s got so big.
 

Reverend

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They are disgusting in different ways that matter.

Pizza Hut, for example, is this nasty sugar based dough. It is disgusting, but you can get used to it and accept it as a food substitute product.

Papa John’s is like the cardboard the Jews made while fleeing from Egypt and they didn’t have time to make proper cardboard to pack their belongings in. It doesn’t taste better with time and eventually whatever shit you find on the ground in the morning tastes like a gift from God but comparison.
 

kenneycb

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Does Little Caesar’s even exist anymore? I haven’t eaten one of their pizzas since like 1989. No idea how Papa John’s got so big.
They're bigger in the Midwest. There are two in the Boston area but probably three or so within 15 minutes of where I grew up in Illinois. The Crazy Bread is usually good, the pizza, not so much.

Of the chains, Domino's is the best. Not great shakes but certainly average and there are worse options than a large pizza and the cheesy bread for $12.

If you really want to rile up a University of Michigan fan, ask them about what they think of Domino's and Dave Brandon.
 

Bunt4aTriple

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Does anyone know what Papa Gino's story is? When I was in college circa 2000, they had like 4 stores in the Bangor area. Now the only one in Maine is in the nearly-dead Auburn Mall (it's older than me). I always thought they were decent. Did they expand too quickly and have to cut way back?
 

Cesar Crespo

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Does anyone know what Papa Gino's story is? When I was in college circa 2000, they had like 4 stores in the Bangor area. Now the only one in Maine is in the nearly-dead Auburn Mall (it's older than me). I always thought they were decent. Did they expand too quickly and have to cut way back?
The ones in Maine are gross and only sell pizza's that are ready to serve when you go in. They are all $6.
 

Marceline

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Every kid birthday party I go to has Papa Gino's pizza. They are still really common here in MA.

What's interesting about Papa Gino's pizza is being in a room with 20 or so 4 year olds actually makes it seem palatable to me. But I can't imagine ever eating it outside of a kid's party. It's really bad. If we are ranking the shitty chains, Domino's is definitely better.
 

Al Zarilla

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Agree with others that Dominoes is the best of the national chains
This might be in the realm of best East German car. I did hear that Domino's made an effort to improve a few years ago, like Reggie said. For me, it's either go out to a good place or buy a frozen pizza, although the latter is barely passable food.
 

grimshaw

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I'd rather scarf buffalo chicken Paul Newman pizza than Dominos or Pizza Hut. Papa Johns and Little Caesars are absolutely terrible. Papa Ginos is way above the other chains.
 

EL Jeffe

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I moved away from New England about 23 years ago and I can't even tell you how much I miss Papa Ginos pizza. In my nostalgic memory, that stuff was five-star pizza.

On topic, Peyton Manning is the Papa Johns of football. I don't know precisely what that means, but it seems & sounds fitting.
 

BunnzMcGinty

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Jul 17, 2011
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This might be in the realm of best East German car. I did hear that Domino's made an effort to improve a few years ago, like Reggie said. For me, it's either go out to a good place or buy a frozen pizza, although the latter is barely passable food.
The Wartburg was way better than the Trabant.

But Domino's is actually not horrible. The others (PJ, PizzaHut, Little Caesars) are largely inedible.
 

Papelbon's Poutine

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I'd rather scarf buffalo chicken Paul Newman pizza than Dominos or Pizza Hut.
Sure, but Paul Newman doesn't deliver. If I'm going out to buy frozen pizza, I like Mystic, which oddly enough I could find everywhere when I lived in DC, but now that I'm back in NE, I can't find anywhere. My default frozen is Newman's pepperoni thin crust or CPK.
 

NortheasternPJ

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Little known fact. Dominoes redid all there Pizza, new recipes, etc, because it was so bad in 2010. Dominoes Canada stayed with the same crappy pizza and is still selling the cardboard crust specials.

But, when in the US Dominoes is passable.
Dominoes put together a full marketing campaign around their pizza used to suck in 2010 and was talked about endlessly in marketing.
 

SumnerH

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Dominoes put together a full marketing campaign around their pizza used to suck in 2010 and was talked about endlessly in marketing.
The amazing thing is that it worked. The pizza still sucks, only now it's got a ton of fake garlic flavor in the shitty crust and half the world goes around repeating the commercials, saying it used to suck but insisting it's actually really good now.

Genius marketing.
 

Papelbon's Poutine

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The amazing thing is that it worked. The pizza still sucks, only now it's got a ton of fake garlic flavor in the shitty crust and half the world goes around repeating the commercials, saying it used to suck but insisting it's actually really good now.

Genius marketing.
It does still suck but the garlic on the crust is nice. One thing Papa Johns has going for them were the dipping sauces. I think Dominoes offers them now too.
 

Fred not Lynn

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One thing is certain. Canadians will tolerate some pretty shitty pizza.
Western Canadians, especially.

The worst part is that the update of the Dominos recipe was accompanied by a “mea culpa” style ad campaign where they freely admitted that the formula they were using was sub par, which ran on TV in the US on all the networks Canadians watch.
 

NickEsasky

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One thing is certain. Canadians will tolerate some pretty shitty pizza.
This is true. I remember a trip to Vancouver about 8 years ago where I had to explain to the kid on the phone at Boston Pizza what a pepper and onion pizza was. You have peppers right? "Yes" And you have onions right? "Yes" Ok put those two things together on a cheese pizza.
 

Reverend

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This is true. I remember a trip to Vancouver about 8 years ago where I had to explain to the kid on the phone at Boston Pizza what a pepper and onion pizza was. You have peppers right? "Yes" And you have onions right? "Yes" Ok put those two things together on a cheese pizza.
 

Reverend

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Burn that shit with fire!
I once ordered it by accident by delivery not realizing the ramifications of where I was.

Like, think... cross country driving, pushing the envelope to get as far as you can go, finally being wiped, famished, just having it together enough to check in the shitty motel and order a pizza and counting the minutes for it to get there...
 

Van Everyman

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Papa Gino’s was really good when I was growing up in the 80s. It was the closest thing New England had to New York-style pizza. Thinnish crust, somewhat sweet sauce. Somewhere along the line they changed their recipe and now I can’t really tell the different between them and Domino’s.
 

Stevie1der

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I once ordered it by accident by delivery not realizing the ramifications of where I was.

Like, think... cross country driving, pushing the envelope to get as far as you can go, finally being wiped, famished, just having it together enough to check in the shitty motel and order a pizza and counting the minutes for it to get there...
Did the salty tears from finally reaching your breaking point improve that taste profile at all?
 

Papelbon's Poutine

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Papa Gino’s was really good when I was growing up in the 80s. It was the closest thing New England had to New York-style pizza. Thinnish crust, somewhat sweet sauce. Somewhere along the line they changed their recipe and now I can’t really tell the different between them and Domino’s.
Wow, really? I don't think it's changed very much at all, maybe a little I guess, but certainly not enough that I'd ever confuse it with Domino's. I get Domino's I think of Digiorno's. And people are sleeping on PH, where else are you getting a deep dish that's worth a shit? And those breadsticks? I might have to go find a lunch buffet and just eat an entire sheet pan of them.
 

BigSoxFan

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We need a ruling on the home made pizza. The Boboli pizza sauce was my guilty pleasure 15-20 years ago. I never like DiGiornio pizza.
 

InstaFace

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Papa Gino’s was really good when I was growing up in the 80s. It was the closest thing New England had to New York-style pizza. Thinnish crust, somewhat sweet sauce. Somewhere along the line they changed their recipe and now I can’t really tell the different between them and Domino’s.
Spare a thought for Pizzeria Regina, while not true fast-food they also weren't a dine-in white-tablecloth type place. And they're fully legit, would-remain-open-in-brooklyn quality.
 

moondog80

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There was a place that had at least two spots around Boston -- I recall one in Kenmore and another on Huntington Ave -- that had New York style thin crust that was pretty good, but they went away about 15 years ago. Baldini's, I think?
 

RIFan

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Papa Gino’s was really good when I was growing up in the 80s. It was the closest thing New England had to New York-style pizza. Thinnish crust, somewhat sweet sauce. Somewhere along the line they changed their recipe and now I can’t really tell the different between them and Domino’s.
Definitely not my experience. I don't think it's changed much at least at the one's I occasionally visit. They're not my go to, but every once in a while it's a decent change of pace.
 

changer591

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There was a place that had at least two spots around Boston -- I recall one in Kenmore and another on Huntington Ave -- that had New York style thin crust that was pretty good, but they went away about 15 years ago. Baldini's, I think?
The saddest year at Boston University is when they switched from being able to use dining points on Dominoes to Baldini's.
 

Montana Fan

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You northeasterners who order PJ, Dominos or PH deserve to have the Peyton Manning Nationwide jingle running through your heads for the rest of the day. There are a few halfway decent pizza places in Montana but where I live the best option is to pick up a Papa Murphy's take and bake. It's a lot better than the chain pizza places that have been mentioned in this thread.
 

SMU_Sox

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It's as simple as demand spaces and value. Pizza Hut, Dominoes, all the big chains know that they are not going to be able to beat most mom and pop places or even small regional chains on quality and authenticity. Little Caesar's is as processed as most private label frozen pizza, and to me, tastes equally bad. It's the value and convenience that gets people to buy and, like fast food burgers, some people just like that stuff.
Look, I sympathize with the sentiment here. I am a food snob - I would rather go to the store, buy my own groceries, and make my own burgers. Going from 350 pounds to 190 you learn that, in general, fast food and pizza = bad but when you want to indulge either make it yourself or go upscale and eat the best ingredients with the fewest calories as possible (so go to a good pizza place and get thin crust). When I get pizza for my kids when they have sleepovers it costs me about $50 to order from a good local place through doordash or their own guy. With dominoes I can feed the kids for under $30. They don't care - pizza is pizza to them. I'm going to save those extra dollars whenever I get the chance to.

Pizza Hut used to be and still tries to be the most upscale of the three big chains but Dominoes has taken their lunch since the redo. They already had a close relationship with the NFL - I would expect them to make a heavy investment with the NFL to roll out more digital and ordering capabilities as they need to play catch-up to, again, Dominoes. It's not just about quality of the pizza and different pizza forms. Consumers want new solutions to other problems like a pizza delivery car with ovens in it. That's some cool shit. Curious to see what innovations Pizza hut releases in 2018 and those that are done in conjunction with advertising and media NFL spend.
 

BunnzMcGinty

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Papa Gino’s was really good when I was growing up in the 80s. It was the closest thing New England had to New York-style pizza. Thinnish crust, somewhat sweet sauce. Somewhere along the line they changed their recipe and now I can’t really tell the different between them and Domino’s.
I remember Papa Gino's in the 80s being very good, but maybe that's just because I was a kid and less discerning.

Living in NYC, there are definitely amazing pizza options, but one style I really miss is the "bar pizza" in eastern Mass, like Cape Cod Cafe in Brockton or Town Spa in Stoughton. There's nothing like it in New York. Every time I go to visit my parents I load up on a dozen frozen pizzas from Cape Cod to take back with me.
 

SumnerH

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Pizza Hut used to be and still tries to be the most upscale of the three big chains
Pizza Hut made their bones as the diviest of orange-heat-lamp and arcade machine restaurants. Their one attempt at trying to go upscale with the Pizza Hut Bistros failed miserably.

Papa John's is the one that I think of as trying to pretend they're the most upscale; they used to tweak Domino's mercilessly about using quality fresh ingredients and played up the whole “Better Ingredients, Better Pizza” thing as though they were a gourmet alternative. It was a big kerfuffle when it came out Papa John’s used canned mushrooms after mocking others for using canned/frozen ingredients.

I still have a hard time mentally lumping Pizza Hut with Domino's/Papa John's/etc; my assumption if you said you ate Pizza Hut yesterday would be that you went to a Pizza Hut, sat down, and ordered a meal, which would never be the case with Domino's/Papa John's. I know PHD has made them more delivery focused, but old mental patterns die hard.
 

SMU_Sox

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They might have started that way but attitudes have changed over time. High quality value is a bit of an oxymoron anyway.

I think all chains went “fresh” recently. Fresh was a huge buzzword in fast and fast casual recently.
 

reggiecleveland

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In class one day.

Refugee student from Croatia: Remember you said it was okay to say if there was something I don't like about Canada?
Me : Yes (thinking he would talk about the weather)
RS: Pizza Hut is shit.
 

Leather

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The ones in Maine are gross and only sell pizza's that are ready to serve when you go in. They are all $6.
Papa Gino’s we’re actually solid pizza places until the mid 90s when they redid their pizza recipe and started making them smaller, to boot. We used to go to the one in Andover four or five times a year until 1994 or so when it became clear things were different. Not sure if it was worse ingredients or pre-made dough or something.

Then Sals Pizza opened up their first shop around the same time in North Andover and it blew the other options away, and was like $9 for a huge pie.
 

changer591

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What was that 3am pizza place on Comm. Ave? Siciliano’s? That place was great.
I have idea, I was so poor during my college years that I was relegated to getting pizza from either Dominos or Baldini's using dining points on the dining plan. And when I had extra cash, it was usually getting pizza from T Anthony's (or their steak tips).
 

Papelbon's Poutine

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Papa Gino’s we’re actually solid pizza places until the mid 90s when they redid their pizza recipe and started making them smaller, to boot. We used to go to the one in Andover four or five times a year until 1994 or so when it became clear things were different. Not sure if it was worse ingredients or pre-made dough or something.

Then Sals Pizza opened up their first shop around the same time in North Andover and it blew the other options away, and was like $9 for a huge pie.
They’re still good and haven’t changed barely at all. As noted up thread the post you’re quoting was confusing them with Little Caesar’s.
 

Leather

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They’re still good and haven’t changed barely at all. As noted up thread the post you’re quoting was confusing them with Little Caesar’s.
No I’m not. They underwent a change in the early to mid 90s. I think it’s still better than the other chains mentioned, but it used to be legit good, not just for a chain. This rando agrees with me.

Now it could very well be isolated to the one that I frequented and not a chain-wide thing. Looking online it appears PGs vary from location to location.
 

Papelbon's Poutine

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No I’m not. They underwent a change in the early to mid 90s. I think it’s still better than the other chains mentioned, but it used to be legit good, not just for a chain. This rando agrees with me.

Now it could very well be isolated to the one that I frequented and not a chain-wide thing. Looking online it appears PGs vary from location to location.
Wasn't saying you were mixing them up, I was saying the guy originally criticizing them - who's post you quoted - was mixing the two up. It could very well be a store to store thing, I just don't find it noticeably different from when I was a kid. I also didn't know what legit good pizza was when i was in my teens, so yeah, I thought it was the best.

Some one else commented they made them smaller, they just renamed the sizes to small, large and xl, they aren't any smaller.
 

RIFan

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Papa Gino's did get into some concession stands and mall food courts for a while. What was branded as Papa Gino's at those places was definitely not the same as the normal store pizza.