That's a lotta dough: Papa John's passes $1 billion mark in online sales. Kind of amazing, really, especially considering that PJ's has the worst online ordering system of the big three. That's a seven-year total, and the chain announced the news yesterday. "In 2001, the chain's online sales totaled $20.4 million. Last year, its online sales approached $400 million."
Posted by Prairie, May 6, 2008 at 2:30 PM
Editor's note: And our roving pizza correspondent, Philip G., checks in from the Old Line State, good ol' Maryland. Buon appetito, ladies and gents! —Kuban
Ask any Baltimorean about what makes the Baltimore food scene special, and there is sure to be one answer: Crabs.
Crap. This is a pizza site.
When I thought about doing a series on Baltimore pizza, I knew exactly where I had to start: Pizza John's. I have been reading about Pizza John's for a few years now. It always seems to break into the top 5 of AOL Cityguide's Best Pizza in Baltimore, and it comes up from time to time on Chowhound, but up until recently I had never made the trip to visit.
Pizza John's has been a Baltimore area staple since 1966. It was a carryout-only operation up until 1981, when it added a seating area. The space was renovated and expanded in 2004. It is now a giant, mustard-colored building with a highly stylized exterior—almost reminiscent of a full-service chain restaurant. Oh, and it has a 12-foot-tall pizza guy statue standing out front. Confused? Me too. But he's been standing on that street since 1977, so leave him alone.
Continue reading »
Posted by Adam Kuban, May 6, 2008 at 1:30 PM
The Onion nails it this week with its story "Potential Employee Uprising Quelled by Free Pizza."
"Everyone's been fed up and ready to explode at management for weeks," production designer Carolyn Wurster said. "But then all those pizzas showed up, and it just didn't seem like the right time to start demanding a legitimate healthcare plan or salary raises that reflect the amount of work we do." Added Wurster, "They ordered like 10 huge pies."
Heh. This is so dead on.
Continue reading »
Posted by Adam Kuban, May 5, 2008 at 11:45 PM
I love it when a plan comes together. For years, I've been wanting to get a clip of the opening scene of Saturday Night Fever, the bit where John Travolta's Tony Manero orders two slices of pizza from Lenny's, double-decks them and struts down 86th Street in Bensonhurst. After mentioning the film earlier tonight, I dug around on YouTube, found the opener, and trimmed the vid down to just the relevant pizza-related footage. Enjoy ...
Continue reading »
Posted by Adam Kuban, May 5, 2008 at 11:00 PM
I've had a lot on Slice lately about Scott's Pizza Tours, but you know, there's another pizza tour out there, one that's been around for a bit longer and that takes folks through perhaps the best pizza borough* in the city. And that tour, my friends, is Tony Muia's A Slice of Brooklyn Pizza Tour.
Muia started his tour in 2005 and has been taking pizza-hungry folks around Kings County ever since, mixing stops at Grimaldi's and L & B Spumoni Gardens with spin around neighborhoods such as Bay Ridge and Bensonhurst. It's thanks to Muia that I can point out the house where Joe Pesci's Tommy DeVito character gets whacked in Goodfellas (it's in Bay Ridge) and that I know which pizzeria John Travolta's Tony Manero buys two slices from, eating them as a double-decker, in Saturday Night Fever (Lenny's in Bensonhurst).
Continue reading »
Posted by L.A. Pizza Maven, May 5, 2008 at 2:30 PM
Editor's note: Today, Chuck K., a New York expatriate living on the West Coast, drops by with some news about a little slice of heaven in Sedona, Arizona. Buon appetito, friends! —Adam
Attention, pizza lovers: There is a pizza paradise that has been under the radar for far too long. I first discovered this oasis in the pizza desert (some say that's everywhere west of the Hudson River) four years ago when I was returning from a road trip through the Southwest.
I came to the proverbial fork in the road, where I could either head west on Interstate 40 out of Flagstaff, Arizona, or continue south on 89A, where the mystical village of Sedona, land of the energy vortex, lay ahead. A little voice told me to head south. I did, and I discovered thousands of shops hawking every possible New Age product known to man. There were energy crystals, nature sounds, tantric massages, and enlightenment, all available for a price.
But as I was driving down the road, I noticed a sign that caught my attention like a Mike Tyson left hook. It read: Apizza Heaven.
Continue reading »
Posted by Adam Kuban, May 5, 2008 at 10:00 AM
The news: Some Cleveland Cavaliers fans are boycotting Papa John's because of a T-shirt circulated at the Cavs-Washington Wizards game on Friday night.
Behind the news: The shirt had the word "crybaby" emblazoned above James's number, 23, and was distributed by a local Papa John's as a way to help fans distract James during Friday's game. "Crybaby" was a reference to James's waterworks and whining over being fouled excessively hard in a previous game.
The shirt nonsense didn't get much play until John Eick from the blog So Good posted about it and had Cleveland fans rallying against the chain. Papa John's issued an apology, will donate $10k to the Cavaliers Youth Fund, and is offering Clevelanders large one-topping pizzas for 23¢ (one per order, pick-up only) on May 8. After the jump, a news report on the debacle.
Continue reading »
Posted by Adam Kuban, May 2, 2008 at 12:00 AM
Scott's New York Pizza Tours makes it onto Fox 5 News on Thursday night. I never realized how over the top Tony Senecal is. And Rosanna Scotto and Ernie Anastos are almost as hammy. Video of the segment, after the jump.
Continue reading »
