So, this Papa John guy, lately seems to be

[Hayduke Bomgarte]

All over TV, jabbering about "better ingredients, better pizza."

Seems counterproductive, to me, that he'd say that. What I mean by that is, the few times that commercial has made me consider ordering a pizza, Papa Johns is nowhere near to being on the list of the handful of places I order from. I've been talking to people about this, the past few days. Guys I work with or around. Both my daughters and the son in law. The other daughters boyfriend, and sunday at a cookout, their friends that were there. To a person, not one would admit to Papa Johns being on their "go to list."

Most, including myself, have tried it. Usually, definitely in my case, it was part of the fare at a company picnic or open house type function. In one case it was offered at a wedding reception. No one actually said it's bad. Just nothing special. It really is almost impossible to make a bad pizza, though there is a place, here locally, that manages to do it by making a pizza that leaves a dish soapy after taste. But Papa Johns is simply nothing special. And I have to wonder why I, or anyone, would order from there when, for pretty much the same money, you can order from a handful of pizzerias that really are something special. I'm just in a small, roughly 100K population city, and we have a pretty good choice of local joints to choose from. I can't imagine that anyone in, say, Chicago or NYC or any "big city" would even give a Papa Johns type place the time of day.

To further support my opinion, I have a friend who drives a truck for an "institutional foods" company, delivering produce, food stuffs and frozen goods to restaurants. He tells me the "better ingredients" claim is BS. That Papa Johns, at least the ones he services, get the exact same stuff as Lil Caesars and a smattering of local bars that actually make their own pizzas, all of which are definitively nothing special. He doesn't service the three family owned local parlors I order from, or the one national chain I very occasionally frequent.

So now I'm curious what some of the "loungers" opinions are.

[CurtEastPoint]

1. He was the one blathering on about Obamacare. He's an ass and makes shitty pizza.

"Our best estimate is that the Obamacare will cost 11 to 14 cents per pizza, or 15 to 20 cents per order from a corporate basis.

"We're not supportive of Obamacare, like most businesses in our industry. But our business model and unit economics are about as ideal as you can get for a food company to absorb Obamacare.

"If Obamacare is in fact not repealed, we will find tactics to shallow out any Obamacare costs and core strategies to pass that cost onto consumers in order to protect our shareholders best interest."

[Hayduke Bomgarte]

2. Yeah I remember that and

Because of it I wouldn't spend a dime there even if he made great pizza.

[TexasBushwhacker]

11. Me neither, especially when I found out how he lives

A 60 acre estate with a 40,000 sf house and a 7K sf guest house. And he would be "forced" to raise the price of his pizzas 14 fucking cents.

[Iggo]

5. Yep. I remember that.

I also remember saying, "Fourteen cents? You have a deal, sir."

(I may have used rougher language than that.)

[Hayduke Bomgarte]

7. He also said

He'd need to cut all his employees hours back to 29 or less per week, so he wouldn't be burdened by the 30 hour cut-off the ACA mandates.

Pathetic POS.

[Initech]

19. And he lives in a giant castle with a private golf course.

Only thing missing is a moat to keep the peasants out.

[OriginalGeek]

3. I hated Papa John's pizza long before I knew he was a wingnut

in fact, the discovery
of his wing-nuttery
was no surprise to me
because only a soulless hack republican could make pizza that dull.

I worked in a handful of pizza places when I was younger and I thank them for the paychecks and the experience but they were all either national chains or regional chains and none of them make pizza I would buy today except for one that lets me direct them how to do it. I always made the crew pies and could make a good pizza (a fact which only serves to prove your point about it being nearly impossible to do it badly) even with the corporate ingredients but even my best doesn't compare to the local NY guy that I get whenever I can. He owns 3 or 4 places around here and I think he is a pizza wizard. And he makes the best eggplant parm I ever had too.

But I've gone hungry rather than eat Papa John's. Thankfully I've gotten work to quit calling them for team-building lunches and other occasions since there's a really decent local place that delivers here for the same money.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

13. Yeah, I live in Chicago. I have no idea how Papa Johns can survive here.

Though I will admit, my boyfriend and his friend from home downstate Illinois waited until I was out of town and ordered that Papa Johns shit.

I figure they were going back to their small-town-crappy-pizza roots out of nostalgia.

This was before the Obamacare statements. Now we drive by the empty store and the boyfriend almost always mutters "douche bag republican" - it's not too far from Loyola up noth so maybe they get poor college students.

Maybe that's the reason they survive. Crappy pizza can be really cheap. I was in Michigan last year building a kitchen for a friend. The floor crew asked if I could pick up pizza. I said sure where, what's good? Oh we like Litlle Ceazsars. I picked like five large pizzas for like 5 bucks a piece.


I remember college freshman year ordering my first Domino's before I knew anything about it and thinking "what the fuck is this shit?"

[OriginalGeek]

14. Yep cheap.

Taco bell thrives in Texas. Drives me mad. And I don't even live there anymore. What irks me is they drove a lot of smaller local fast food Mexican places out of business. It's hard to compete with a sack of tacos for not much more than pocket lint.

What irks me even more is I still go there a couple times a year. The Del Taco is far away. Taco bell is a mile. :/ I hate myself.

[Hayduke Bomgarte]

16. "Crappy pizza can be really cheap"

True enough. Lil Caesars proves it, but Papa Johns, which is no better, charges just about the same a a good pizza maker. Doesn't make sense to me why anyone would pay for that crap, when for about the same money they can have a real pizza.

[oasis]

4. Papa John's is last on our list of pizza available to us.

[aidbo]

6. But their pizzas come with "garlic" dipping "sauce".

[Hayduke Bomgarte]

8. Heh

A guy I know calls it "creme of sum yung guy."

[ohnoyoudidnt]

9. I have had it, but I do not order from them.

I was unimpressed.

People order from there because advertising works. The small independent places with good pizza can't afford to plaster ads all over the place. So people become familiar with the places that do and just buy from them without really thinking about their other options.

[Hayduke Bomgarte]

10. Unimpressed

Nothing special. It's ok but I wouldn't buy it.

Those are the prevailing sentiments I'm getting.

[frogmarch]

12. Well, I live in Chadron, Nebraska and

over 100 miles from the nearest Papa John's, in Rapid City, SD, but I had it once a year or so ago, and it was noticeably inferior in taste to the pizza made and sold at our then-pizza place here, New York Pizza, which went out of business a few months after opening.

[Neema]

15. Even if his pizza was delicious I wouldn't order it because

of who he is. But it's terrible pizza. I was just driving past one last night, in the middle of the very large city where I live, and thinking why the hell it's even there. There is soooooooo much good pizza in this city, there's no excuse to order from Papa Johns.

[oberliner]

17. He is a very far right-wing conservative

Just FYI.

[Aristus]

18. Screw Papa John's, and its right-wing owner.

I get my pizza from a small local business. It's a Greek restaurant, but the owner (who is a wonderful guy I know personally) offers pizza and some traditional Italian dishes, as well.

Keep it local.

[Jamaal510]

20. As a pizza lover,

I don't like Papa John's. The crust was too gummy at least on the pizza that I had. I always liked Round Table, Papa Murphy's, and Dominos, but PJ's...not so much. Even Little Caesar's tastes better. No matter how much Peyton Manning or J.J. Watt appear on his commercials, that won't make me eat another slice from there.

[cleveramerican]

21. DEEP FRIED PIZZA !!

papa johns doesnt matter but this does

theres a place near me who deep fries the dough
like at a fair
and then makes the pizza on the fried dough
it is so good i drive by two dozen pizza joints on my way there

such a simple idea and so damn good
every pizza joint should swipe this idea

[lastlib]

22. Dressed-up cardboard, IMHO

A local convenience store makes WAY better pizza. AND, when I buy that, I'm not lining some right-wing loony's pockets with my money.

[Mosby]

23. Papa Johns puts sugar in their pizza sauce

Last edited Sun Oct 16, 2016, 05:23 PM - Edit history (1)

[womanofthehills]

25. And corn syrup in their meat - Ingredients in Papa John's pizza

How these pizza restaurants stack up

Papa John’s – They add a lot to their “Better Ingredients”. For instance, their “100% Beef” topping is a lot more than just beef! It contains corn syrup, maltodextrin, natural flavor, natural smoke grill flavor, beef flavor and seasonings. Also, so much for believing that there is 100% real cheese topping their pizzas, as they add modified food starch (hidden MSG), preservatives and powdered wood pulp (cellulose) to their cheese blend. They also add natural flavors to their thin crust, pepperoni, and chicken topping, as well as hidden MSG (autolyzed yeast extract) to their garlic ranch and spinach alfredo pizza sauces. Those little dipping sauces that come with your pizza are loaded with partially hydrogenated oil, GMOs and (you guessed it) more hidden MSG.

Update: In June 2015 Papa Johns announced they’re removing 14 ingredients by the end of 2016, including artificial colors, caramel color, the preservative sodium benzoate, and hidden MSG ingredients like autolyzed yeast extract and hydrolyzed proteins. They have also listed ingredients on their website (however this list is not entirely complete as they don’t publish the ingredients in some of their seasonings, such as in their beef topping).

http://foodbabe.com/2014/03/23/if-youve-ever-eaten-pizza-before-this-will-blow-your-mind/

[intrepidity]

24. Maybe ask Gus Fring or Saul Goodman? n/t

[blueknight]

26. He is a

Rightwing Prick. along with his business Peyton Manning, another right winger. I'm from Ky and in Louisville where papajohns headquarters are, there are all kind of stories of what an ass he is