Friendship Ended With Papa Johns Pizza
Trigger warning: Pizza opinions.
I am happy Papa Johns is no longer a sponsor. Those commercials sucked. Buzz off Papa John. It’s been hilarious to watch you stumble and fall since the Kaepernick comment. Your pizza sucks. Your ad campaigns were the worst. I am very excited to never see your face on my TV screen again. I won’t see it anymore, because I don’t watch regular TV anymore, so if you aren’t on during football well then adios muchacho. Especially since you’re an extremely wealthy d-bag who owns like a billion cars but won’t pay your employees basic benefits. Better ingredients apparently don’t make better people.
However, and this may bother some people, I like Papa Johns pizza more than Pizza Hut. If Papa Johns is a dumpster, Pizza hut pizza is a dumpster that doesn’t have a lid and sat out in the rain. Pizza hut is beyond garbage. Papa Johns is bleh but gets the job done.
I grew up a Dominoes kid. That was pizza to me, because I lived in the burbs and didn’t know the world was more than chain restaurants. Dominoes was my jam. At least one day until they took over an hour to deliver our pizza and my dad refused to order from them again. But Dominoes remains my trash pizza joint of choice. It feels like warm, disgusting happiness. When I need cheap, crappy pizza, I go Dominoes. It’s kind of like how my piss beer of choice is Coors light. I know it’s not good. I know it is in fact quite bad. But when the time is right and I need piss beer for a party or something, that is where my arm reaches. If I had a coors light in one hand and a dominoes pizza slice in the other right now, I’d be a happy man who probably also has heartburn.
Papa Johns was like my backup choice for trash pizza. It was like Dominoes but not quite as good. I used to love the garlic butter that came with it until I got a bad outdated package once and suddenly realized what I was eating. Haven’t been able to touch it since. But the little peppers that come in the box are good and the pizza gets the job done when you need trash party pizza. I will happily eat PJs if it is on the table without complaint.
Pizza hut is a fucking trash fire. Even as a kid I knew they weren’t as good. I got those personal pan pizzas for “BOOK IT” in school and I’d happily eat the pizza because it was free, but I knew I was being shortchanged on quality. The crust was spongy and gross like a crust pillow. The cheese tasted weird. The sauce was wrong. Everything was wrong. It never got better for me either. Watching Pizza Hut commercials made me hate them even more because it seemed like they knew their pizza tasted like shit so they went full on with the gimmicks. HERE’S PIZZA BUT THE CRUST IS TWISTY BREADSTICKS! HERE’S PIZZA BUT IT’S A BOWL! HERE’S PIZZA BUT THE CRUST IS STUFFED WITH OTHER PIZZAS! HERE’S A PIZZA WITH CINNAMON TWIST CRUST, STUFFED WITH CHEESE, AS THE TOP PART OF A SANDWICH PIZZA. Fuck pizza hut.
When I got my acceptance letter to college my parents decided on an impromptu night out to celebrate. The place we ended up was Pizza Hut (Don’t live in the suburbs, man). It was one of the first real moments in time when I realized real life would be a disappointment and that it doesn’t get better. One of my proudest achievements was celebrated at fucking Pizza Hut. I haven’t had pizza hut since. Wow…that must have been in early 2006, so I haven’t eaten Pizza Hut in 12 years. Haven’t missed it.
I never ate any of the other chain pizzas more than once or twice so I can’t comment on them.
The NFL picking pizza hut as the pizza sponsor of the future just really goes to show you how much football is truly in decline.
“Pizza hut is beyond garbage”
Alright, I disagree, but Dave’s allowed to have his opinion on thi-
“I grew up a Dominoes kid.”
We can no longer be friends, Dave.
My cheap pizza choice is Little Caesar’s. I haven’t had Dominos since shortly after high school. Haven’t had Pizza Hut since I was a kid (that or I forgot the more recent ones). And haven’t had Papa John’s at all.
Same, deep dish is really good but I normally go for the bread sticks
All about that Little Caesars. 5 bucks!
*shrugs* I mean, of the chain places, I guess it’s not the worst. But man, even growing up in upstate NY, there were routinely better pizza options for decent prices. Now that I live in Jersey, I have a fantastic place literally a two minute walk from my doorstep.
I guess it depends on geography. And what do I know…I enjoy pineapple on pizza
Hawaiian pizza is great #teampineapple
Dominos is the GOAT
(Shoutout to people from Stark County if they like Romeos)
Which state is stark in
Ohio, it’s where Canton is. And up here in Cleveland there’s so many choices. For me, East Side is Tasty Pizza and West Side is Edison’s.
Living overseas, there’s only three major chains of pizza to choose from, Pizza Hut, Papa Johns, and Domino’s. Everything else is a local brand, or Costco’s.
My choice for Pizza for the past decade has been Papa Johns, and I’m sticking to that. Just happen to live right next door to one so I can just pick it up on the way home(or, if I happen to be super lazy that day, super-fast delivery). and it tastes pretty decent.
Pizza Hut is darn expensive where I live. In US money, I’d probably have to shell out 6 or 7 more dollars to get a pizza compared to what I pay for Papa Johns. It loses solely for that; Pizza Hut has its own charm and its own nice flavor, would eat more if I had the chance and/or could afford it. Unfortunately the local Pizza Hut closed around two years ago, so I can’t eat at one even if I get the urge for it. Still miss that Pizza Hut, my grandmother loved to eat there before she passed away.
Like Dave, I grew up a Domino’s kid. In my elementary school days it was the only place to get pizza, and when a Pizza Hut opened up soon afterwards we’d alternate between them. However… you couldn’t pay me to eat at Domino’s nowadays. They’ve changed. Or, to put it more accurately, they’ve gone crazy. Every week I see Domino’s ads that are a sacrilegious horror to my taste buds. The first time I saw Hawaiian pizza I thought that was really weird, but this?
It’s a complete betrayal of what I expect from pizza. Since the insanity started to take root, I abandoned Domino’s and haven’t gone back for the past 16 years, unless I’m a guest somewhere and the host happens to order it. Even then, I wouldn’t touch it if it happens to have one of the really weird toppings. With the tendency still remaining strong as guessed from the ads, guess that’s how it will remain forever, even though they happen to be the cheapest of the three so far.
As for the local brands? Screw them. They were the first to betray pizza, and they’re most likely the inspiration for Domino’s’s ‘corruption’. Not eating from them ever, either, unless I somehow get them for free. That time I’ve been in NYC I’ve seen pretty great local pizza places, it would be so nice if we had places like that over here, but alas.
At least Costco’s is a good alternative when I get the munchies for pizza and only have 7 bucks in my pocket. It’s a mite too salty and pretty sparse for toppings, but that’s what you get for a quarter the price of an actual pizza place. Their pizzas are huge at least, and even with the lack of toppings, they still got pepperoni and sausages.
I really don’t like Dominoes Pizza. Just has always seemed bland and mediocre to me. Little Caesars was my main choice for chain pizza while they were still in town. It was cheap as heck, and, provided you ate it in the 5 min after it came out of the oven, not bad. The best pizza in town is actually Papa Murphy’s, though Hunt Brother’s Pizza from the gas station is pretty good too.
1. Pizza hut has the bbq beef pizza.
Just eat at a local pizzeria. Quality is so much better.
Question for the Americans: Do those pizzerias deliver to your home?
About 25% of the time, and even then it’s through something like ubereats or grubhub.
Chicagoan here: probably 80% of the local places deliver, but it’s cheaper & faster to do pickup.
How much do you pay for a pizza at a local place in the US?
Depends on the size of the pizza, number of toppings, which restaurant, and where in the US. It’s usually around $5-7 for a small, $8-12 for medium, $13-16 for a large, and $17-20 for an extra-large.
Usually you can get a single slice from certain restaurants (never the chain restaurants, mostly local) or Costco for around $2 or $3.
If you have one in your area, try Mellow Mushroom. They’re not as widespread as Hut/Dominos/Papa Johns, but they’re so much better.
As for Dominos, Simpsons said it best: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBCNm9VJOUo
This right here. My first Mellow Mushroom experience was fantastic. It’s a nice drive away from me, but well worth it. If you love pizza and have never eaten at one, try it. I promise you won’t be disappointed. Now I have to make time to go there.
Pizza Hut gave me food poisoning on my honeymoon
I work at Papa Johns, but Domino’s is my favorite.
Take it back, Dave! Pizza Hut is mildly good, really! Honestly, I grew up with both (I was lucky I guess). I had Dominos a lot because it was fairly cheap. I honestly didn’t like it much. Except for their chessy bread. I loved that stuff. There’s not a Dominos near me now, but if there was, it would be #3 on my list. Pizza Hut is #1. Little Caesar’s is suprisingly #2 (Super Most Bestest y’all!). I NEVER LIKED PAPA JOHN’S. Just never. No. I’d rather cheap frozen pizza over that.
Oh, there are worse ad campaigns than Papa John’s old one (I say “old” because “Papa” John Schnatter was stepping back from his role in the commercials even before he stepped down as CEO in December). C’mon now, “dilly-dilly”, every pharmaceutical ad ever except for the bladder-control one where people tried to do their jobs while having to look at running water, Chevrolet’s “real people not actors”, that avocado commercial where John Lynch keeps trying to crash a party… The Papa John’s ads were at least good for a laugh when they tried to convince us that obviously green-screened Peyton Manning, JJ Watt, and PJ himself were standing next to each other.
None of the large pizza chains have green onions, so none of them really stand out above or below the others to me. None of the local places I have found do either (a couple did for a time, but they stopped). Guess I’ll have to keep bringing my own.
I’d rather go without pizza if i had to eat at any of those 3 places, any local place has better for a buck or 2 more.
Dominos used to be edible, then they had that campaign where they admitted their pizza sucks and changed it and now its somehow even worse.
seriously, life is too short to eat garbage pizza. or garbage anything, really. of course i’m fortunate enough to live in Boston, where are always options. i’ve been hard-pressed not to eat shit when i travel, but since i learned to plan ahead, no problems. garbage pizza is unsatisying AND makes me feel gross later, so why bother?
Domino Pizza seem to have gotten worse, maybe that’s just me or just the place close to where I live. I prefer Pizza Hut.
Costco pizza beats them however.
Also there’s the local pizzeria, especially since they seem to be the only place where they have anchovies, the most underrated toppings that have been overhated by kids with shit taste!
Around here, I haven’t felt the need to go to Pizza Hut and Papa John’s, since I don’t think they’re any improvement over the several local chains.
When I was in grad school, fancy pizza like Dominoes, Pizza Hut, and Papa John’s were out of the question. I exclusively ate $5 Hot-and-Ready pizzas from Little Caesar’s. I would generally polish one of them off in a single night.
I first realized that I had a problem when I finished one during MNF in 2012, looked down at the empty box, and thought to myself “I should have got two.” There is a solid chance that those pizzas took years off my life. I have rehabbed since, and look back on those years with a fair amount of shame.
So yeah, at least it isn’t Little Caesar’s.
I can’t see a sizable difference in pizza no matter where it comes from. I’ve had Pizza Hut pizza that was better than both PJ’s and Dominos, and vice versa. Same with local pizza joints (and trust me on this, I’ve lived in a LOT of places). Wanna know my personal favorite pizza?
RED BARON.
So cheap
So good
Red baron owns
We’re not that far into the offseason and this is where we are…..debating pizza. How great is that?
Not sure how you can be nostalgic about Domino’s when their recipe is totally different now than it was then, but either way it’s the most garbage of them all. The official rankings for trash pizza are as follows:
Little Caesar’s > Pizza Hut > Papa John’s > Domino’s
With the exception of Little Caesar’s, these are all bad and finding a local dive pizza joint on Yelp is the best option when headed toward one of these options.
I agree completely here. Papa John’s sucks (I hated their slogan) and Pizza Hut is even worse. I’m personally a Papa Murphy’s fan, because you can see them making the pizza, and then you bake it with your own oven. And the Pizza ends up as good pizza. Plus whenever I get their stuffed meat pizza, it’s delicious and is enough to feed the city.
Hut: Right outside work, so an easy pickup for £7. Just as well, because the fuckers don’t deliver to me.
Domino’s: Surrounded by five franchises (Durham x2, Houghton, Sunderland, Hartlepool), with one of them on the way to/from work, so again, easy pickup. 2-for-1 on Tuesdays. None of them deliver either.
Papa Alt-Wrong: half-hour walk from work (and if you’ve seen the UK’s weather right now, yeah, fuck that noise). Said they delivered online. Doesn’t.
Tony’s Parmo House: 5 minutes from home, but puts the toppings UNDER the cheese. Nope. I likes my pepperoni crispy, not soggy as all get out.
Much as it pains me to say it, Hut it is. Unless it’s a Tuesday, then Dom’s gets my footfall.
This must be a what you grew up on thing. I grew up on pizza hut, and I love it. Dominos is pretty good though. I like pizza huts deep dish crust, and now that you can have them put cheese on the crust it’s amazing.
Is pizza hut too greasy? Absolutely, and I love it. If I’m gonna punish my body with pizza, I might as well go full force and get the grossest thing I can get. Maybe it really is the worst, but maybe that’s why I love it.
Also the crust at Papa John’s is gross. It’s chewy and tastes burnt on the bottom. No thanks.
Local joints and smaller brands are usually vastly superior. Cheap pizza all seems the same to me. Papa John’s is a bit better than the other two, but not enough for me to care.
Coors Light though? For shame, Dave.
I’m just glad I don’t have to choose between papa john’s and the ghost of pizza hut for my junk food fixes, since there’s plenty of other (and better) pizza in my area
pizza hut was the best back in the day, though
All chain pizza is abominable. I am so glad there was an actual Italian restaurant in the town where I grew up. I never had to deal with sub-standard pizza unless I was at a sleepover.
If you want a good chain that started in the merry ol’ land of Toledo, Ohio, try Marco’s. It’s pretty good.
From Toledo and I can confirm Marco’s is great, Little Caesar’s out of Detroit is the best big brand pizza chain, and Papa John’s is easily the worst.
What college did you go to Dave?
RIT
HAHAHA YOU FUCKING PLEBS.
LOU MALNATI’S IS THE GOAT PIZZA JOINT
ALL HAIL DEEP DISH PIZZA
Do you mean casserole? Deep dish isnt pizza
Thin crust isn’t pizza. It’s an open-faced flatbread sandwich without the guts to admit it.
Deep dish isn’t just the best pizza, it’s the ONLY pizza.
The proof that Deep Dish pizza isn’t pizza is that when you talk about it, you have to qualify it as “deep dish”. You can’t just say “pizza”, you need the extra description because it’s a niche version of a more widely known product. Ask a kid to draw a pizza. You’ll get something that looks like what I drew above. Google pizza, you get pictures like this: https://www.cicis.com/media/1138/pizza_trad_pepperoni.png
Because that’s what pizza is. Deep dish ain’t that. It’s a casserole. A delicious casserole, but a casserole.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_pizza
“The precursor of pizza was probably the focaccia, a flat bread known to the Romans as panis focacius, to which toppings were then added.”
If you have to get chain pizza, it’s all about Round Table. Its not even just the best of the trash, it’s actually good.
I haven’t seen a decent slice of pizza in at least 20 years, ever since that one guy basically took over supplying cheese to every pizza place in the US with that rubberized crap they call cheese. They ALL suck. If you don’t have to fold a slice just right to keep melted cheese from falling off, it’s not pizza
Agree, the best pizza requires folding
Ehhh I barely eat out to begin with. Got a local pizza joint that is above decent that I can walk to. They also own local bar too. Go after 10 they bring in the leftover pizza that no one bought during the day, for free.
Dominos is my chain pizza of choice. It tastes alright, and is right down the road.
Little Caesar’s is alright in a pinch, but I’m not driving across town for it.
Papa Johns is mediocre. Not quite bad, but close.
Pizza Hut boxes come with more grease than pizza. Is it even pizza, though? It tastes more like an old tire lathered in grease and sadness. Nasty garbage, would not recommend.
Papa John looks like the type of awkward guy that would use the urinal right next to you when there’s others open no one else.
Pizza Hut superior. Dominos inferior. Papa Johns isn’t even in the discussion.
They used to serve re-heated Domino’s Pizza back at my middle school and high school, which probably scared me off of Domino’s until recently. The new recipe’s alright, though I’m personally more of a burger and fries kind of guy than pizza.
Domino’s is crushin it. The single click order option in the app is too dangerous when drunk. Always try to time it so that my Uber home and pizza arrive at the same time.
PJ was always the free pizza on the Georgia Tech campus. I now hate it most of all.
Once took a client out to lunch and his suggestion was Pizza hut. I expensed $8.67 for two meals with soft drinks for a client with work once. So sad.
Because economics matter:
If Papa Johns distributed its *revenue* (not even its profit) evenly among all employees, including benefits, they would receive less than 21k/year.
They employ 20,700 people. Papa John Schnatter received about 3.5M in total compensation last year. This works out to $169 annually from each employee– assuming part time (because most pizza jobs are), that works out to less than 20 cents per hour. Note, this includes his stock options, salary, bonuses, everything.
Yeah, he makes a lot of money– because a lot of people are employed. He’s rich, because he’s been at it a long time, and because the stock of the company he founded is huge. But he literally couldn’t afford to give his employees much more than they currently make, and not because he’s getting all of that sweet, sweet sweat labor. He can’t, because the margins of profit are tiny… he only makes money because he does *SO MUCH* business.
It should also be noted that he is paid *substantially* less than almost any other founding CEO of any Fortune 500 company; at 3.5M, sure, he’s doing super well, but he’s making no where near the average (11 million). And he voluntarily has cut down his share of the profit, because he believes “It’s an immoral arrangement. It’s wrong. And that’s why corporate America has got a bad name.” For comparison, Chipotle paid its CEOs 13.7M~. Chultz at Starbucks brought in more than 20M. And Pizza “The Garbage” Hut? Yeah, 7.5M– more than double Papa Johns.
I know it’s easy to bash rich CEOs, but perspective and context is desperately needed: they may not be the best jobs. They aren’t even good jobs, sometimes. But Papa Johns isn’t offering terrible benefits because they’re a bunch of greedy jerks trying to make Papa rich… it’s because there literally isn’t enough profit in the business to provide it, and the business is too cut throat to raise their prices any more to try to make that happen. And with that all said, 30% of the profits are set aside for bonuses to employees– and no manager can get one unless all of their underlings do, and then in proportion to what they receive (No, “You get a dollar, I get a hundred. You get a nickle, I get two hundred.” shenanigans).
Where the company got in trouble was mostly with a franchisee (someone that the company by law has no control over, and can only provide guidance), who actually went to jail.
So that’s kind of cold dollars and cents facts. My take on it? Pizza jobs should be part time, mostly for kids in high school and college. If you want a career at it, cool– buy a franchise, or be a manager, and get that 40 hours/week and get paid like an adult. Otherwise? You don’t need the benefits, you need work experience while you’re getting your education. Most non-skilled, no-education-required positions are similar. Their niche in the economy isn’t there to provide career-competitive pay; it’s there to provide bottom-tier products at a reasonable price to the consumer, while providing valuable work experience to those who aren’t in a position in their lives to embark on a full career, but want work experience. Papa Johns, Walmart, McDonalds, and pretty much every other mass, low-skill employer out there is filling that bill. Looking at a job as a fry cook as a career is impractical, and expecting that to feed your family is a gross over-estimation of your worth not only to society, but to your company.
Record profits aren’t pouring in because employees are getting gouged further and further: they’re coming in because markets are becoming larger and larger and expansion is happening more and more. It’s not enough to just look at how much profit a company is making– you have to look at how much an employee is contributing to that profit. And most of the time, at the absolute bottom end of non-skilled jobs, those employees are already making more in salary and benefits than they contribute to the company. They are employed as an expense to allow the profitable employees to do their job, not because they are profitable themselves.
With that all said… Papa Murphy’s > Dominos > Papa Johns > Godfathers > Pizza Hut > Little Caesars. If there’s another major chain I’m forgetting, they’re probably forgettable for a reason.
+1
+2
Looking at a job as a fry cook as a career is impractical
and yet, for many that inhabit the bottom rungs of the papa john’s empire (& “Walmart, McDonalds, and pretty much every other mass, low-skill employer out there is filling that bill”), there aren’t a whole lot of other options
apologies for interrupting your fabulous libertarian diatribe tho
Basic economics does matter, except to the $15.00 an hour minimum wage crowd, who clearly don’t understand economics.
We live next to the local joint, so we mostly get their stuff. Papa Johns and Dominos are both fine. They are both the only chains that deliver out to us, so if there’s some super coupon deal, we’ll go with one of them, but they’re not much different. PPJ has minor edge for butter dipping sauce, but it’s very slight.
I haven’t eaten at Pizza Hut for the longest time. The only time I ate there regularly was when I was doing the Bookit thing in grade school.
Also, are we going to make fun of Sbarros?
i mean do we even have to?
You don’t want to make fun of the Nickelback of pizza chains?
That’s actually insulting to nickelback. Sbbarros is more like the deivantArt of pizza.
Not true. I’ve gotten some enjoyment from deviantart. I’ve never gotten any enjoyment from Nickleback.
don’t they almost make fun of themselves anyway?
Still better than Cici’s
Are they still around?
To paraphrase a saying, “all pizza is local”.
It’s really impossible to compare pizza chains at the macro scale because there is so much difference between how franchises are run IMO. I’ve been places where Dominos > Pizza Hut, and other places where Pizza Hut > Dominos. I’ve actually never had Papa John’s.
I guess I am lucky, because even though I live in the burbs I can name at least 12 non-pizza hut non-dominos pizza places within 3 miles of my house. Some are regional chains like Papa Ginos or Bertucci, the rest are local. The best is an italian-style pizza place run by a bunch of cranky guys who refuse to take credit cards and are surly bordering on rude. But dang they make good pizza, and their garlic bread is to die for.
Is Shakey’s still around? That’s where my parents would take us as a special treat when I was a kid.
Jets > Domino’s > Pizza Hut > Papa John’s > Frozen Pizza > Little Sleazers
Don’t @ me
Any of you guys like Papa Gino’s?
Papa John’s is great if you like bland. Regardless of toppings every pizza tastes exactly the same.
Domino’s is cardboard.
Pizza Hut is grease.
Every town has a decent option for pizza that isn’t one of these three. It may not be a pizza place. Go find it.
Never go to the others.
Papa Murphy’s is awesome & cheap because you bake it yourself.
I love Jett’s Pizza.
Call me crazy if you want Dave, but I like Nickelback. And I am not ashamed of it.
1. Little Caesar’s 2. Dominos 3.Papa Johns 4.Pizza Hut 5.PapaMurphys 6. Cicis Pizza.Anda few more which I can’t remember are the most disgusting pizzas I’ve ever known to be associated with. This country has gone down the hill and so has the food that they serve. It’s fall disgusting not fit for a dog to eat. If these corporate people would spend more money into their product instead of wasting money on advertisement they just might make a few bucks extra. But they are so screwed up in the head they’re looking at the big buck all the time. They wouldn’t know a good pizza if it bit him in the mouth