"pizza" news and stories

If Papa John's has its way, you won't go ordering your pizzas willy-nilly from Joe's down the street or from that competing chain place. You know, the one that has the name of a fun game you play by matching up the numbers on the tiles. Now, if you join up online with the big daddy of pizzas, you can rack up rewards points (spend $5, get a point; collect 25 points and grab a free pie with three toppings). They've also worked on their online ordering system. But please, Papa, don't ever take away the delivery guys and gals. There are some things that should never go cyber.

Happy National Sausage Pizza Day!

Much like National Pizza With Everything (Except Anchovies) Day, this one's another of those head-scratcher holidays -- was a group of people really fanatical enough about the necessity of sausage on pizza to get together and create a holiday in its honor? We're not arguing with them on the merits of those salty, chewy mounds of meat atop our pizza, but are merely curious about the incentive behind this very specific holiday's creation.

But the enthusiasm of sausage pizza lovers probably wouldn't hold a candle to that of notorious Roman epicurean and culinary expert Marcus Gavius Apicius, who, when facing financial ruin, chose to poison himself rather than risk hunger. Much of today's knowledge on Roman cuisine was garnered from his book, "De Re Coquinaria," and Apicius is credited with providing one of the first written references to pizza's predecessor, a sort of hollowed-out bread loaf filled with meat, cheese, garlic, pepper and oil, dating back to the 1st century. Apparently an appreciation for sausage-topped pizza is practically an age-old tradition.

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For many a college student, pizza for breakfast isn't exactly a new thing: grab a cold slice of last night's leftover pepperoni from the pizza box that's still on the coffee table and you've got breakfast on the run.

But the new Domino's in Dayton, Ohio, is going where no other Domino's has gone before -- it's introduced a breakfast pizza that actually looks like breakfast.

According to Nation's Restaurant News, the Dayton Domino's takes an ordinary pizza crust and tops it with eggs and cheese. The morning pie costs $7.99, which includes three toppings. The store suggests such crossover combinations as ham and bacon; sausage, onions and jalapeños; or onion, green pepper and mushroom.

Pizza Hut, along with countless other fast-food outlets, has marketed its product not just with images of oozing mozzarella and sizzling chicken wings but with a promise of value. Now Nation's Restaurant News reports that, in a move that may seem counter-intuitive given the current economic climate, the company is switching gears. Rather than focusing on price points or new offerings, Pizza Hut is spotlighting actual employees, putting the emphasis on the diner's in-house experience. Looked at from a larger perspective, the move is a rebranding.

The new tagline, "Your Favorites. Your Pizza Hut," which replaces "America's Favorite Pizza," debuted last Sunday during NFL programming, and it's a potent phrase, Ted Marzilli, senior vice president of New York-based YouGov BrandIndex, told Restaurant News. "By saying 'your favorites, your Pizza Hut,' it's a way for them to hold on to saying that they serve America's favorite pizza and that now you can get it your way. Trying to combine the mass appeal across the country with the individualization that person can have is a potentially powerful message."

With pizza in a cone trying to elbow a good old pie out of the way, it's nice to see someone is still heating up the stone and slipping a sausage, broccoli, and cheese pizza into the oven. It's not that I'm anti-cone. It's more that I'm pro-pie.

That said, you can still take the pizza to plenty of places that don't include pepperoni. When you've got a salt jones, try a Canadian bacon and sauerkraut pie, and if you're craving big meat and big cheese try this superquick roast-beef-and-blue-cheese number.

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