This made me laugh- Politico did a blind taste test of five pizzas, including Herman Cain’s brand, and the results were unsurprising:
I doubt you could serve Godfather’s pizza to drunks.
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Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.
This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.
The GOP is a fucking disgrace.
You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.
Happy indictment week to all who celebrate!
I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.
Fuck these fucking interesting times.
We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.
In short, I come down firmly on all sides of the issue.
Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.
Let there be snark.
“Squeaker” McCarthy
We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.
Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.
I really should read my own blog.
The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.
Don’t expect peaches from an apple tree.
Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.
They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.
Republicans in disarray!
It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.
Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.
Bad news for Ron DeSantis is great news for America.
Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.
Morzer
Apples and oranges! You don’t understand the 999 pizza plan!
Certified Mutant Enemy
Godfather’s pizzas are shit – I’ve said that long before I knew who Cain was….
Martin
NATO is ending operations in Libya. Marines are out of Iraq.
Huh. I thought every military action was supposed to expand into a permanent military presence including lots and lots of freedom wells and refineries. Maybe not all presidents act the same after all.
lamh34
I honestly don’t believe I’ve ever had Godfather’s pizza before. Atually, the 29 years I lived in NOLA, I don’t actually remember seeing a Godfather’s pizza restaurant ever. But that’s not surprising, since NOLA was all about the Lundy family who was a big rich family and they owned beaucoup Pizza Huts in the city
GMF
I feel obligated to step in here and defend Godfather’s pizza.
The appeal of this pizza IS its nastiness – there’s still one of these down in Gulf Shores, AL & I try to pick one up ever so often when I’m down there.
It’s like the Miller Lite of pizza – it’s awful, but that’s what makes it so good.
Martin
Which one was made by the black guy?
frapalinger
I think that this video is pretty representative of what Politico is all about, not bothering to report on policies, and bashing Cain cause they are clearly in the tank for Romney. Brought to you by Goldman Sachs.
lamh34
Marco Rubio’s been all over news auditioning for VP with his BS “the French deserve ALL credit Libya” (no mention of our soldiers btw) so now he’s got out there and the other VP hopefuls and their surrogates are out to let him know not so fast…
Rubio’s parents
Warren Terra
That damn thing is nine minutes long. There is a text version, which I braved the Politico’s web site to find for you.
Oh, and slightly off topic: Rejoice!.
Certified Mutant Enemy
@GMF:
The “So awful it’s good” approach is fine for movies, but fails when applied to food.
soyaki
I propose that:
1. Herman Cain might just be a decent guy, if likely unqualified to be President. I disagree with him on a few issues, but whatever.
2. Herman Cain is really not the problem in America, even if his pizza sucks.
3. He’s not going to get the nomination, anyway.
Just saying.
soonergrunt
Hell, I’d had Godfather’s pizza when I was a kid when my dad worked in Missouri. Hadn’t had it in almost 30 years since, and thought they were completely out of business.
I’m not terribly surprised that their product sucks, given that.
MikeBoyScout
Well, you’re looking at this all wrong.
Anybody could make a fair amount of money selling pizza people want to eat.
But to earn money from making and selling the shittiest pizza, well that my friends, is pure 9-9-9 genius!
GMF
@Certified Mutant Enemy:
The state fair just rolled through here, so this notion is fresh in my mind, I respectfully disagree with your assertion.
slag
@frapalinger: You’re right. That video is what Politico is all about. And if they stuck to doing nonsense like that rather than trying to be a real political news/analysis outlet, I would be very much obliged.
And yes, I like bad pizza as much as the next person, but Godfather’s is untouchable.
Catsy
@soyaki:
Objection: assumes facts not in evidence.
beltane
Is it worse than Little Ceasar’s? That was some of the worst sh#t I’ve ever tried to eat. Even my junk-food loving teenage sons won’t touch it.
Grumpy Code Monkey
Back when I was in high school (30 years ago now, Jesus), the tradition was to descend on the local Godfather’s after a football game, where a friend of mine and I would proceed to devour a large pizza – each (why, yes, I’m a tad overweight, why do you ask?).
Godfather’s wasn’t the best pizza around (not quite up to Pizza Hut quality), but it worked well enough. And, hell, I was 17 and would have eaten nuclear waste if it had enough tomato sauce on it.
I think there’s one Godfather’s left in TX.
Morzer
@Catsy:
Over-ruled: possibility is assumed, not fact.
soonergrunt
@beltane: Little Cesars is $5.00 pizza–you get what you pay for, and coming off a drunk, not that I do that often, is good enough.
Morzer
@Grumpy Code Monkey:
Does this mean that Herman Cain can now denounce Rick Perry for ruining an American franchise?
soyaki
@Catsy: What part of “might” “just” and “decent” seemed unequivocal to you? I admit, I don’t know. But he seems decidedly un-Hitler on TV.
Martin
Are you sure you didn’t?
Gus
My wife likes Godfather’s taco pizza. Then again my wife likes Spaghetti-Os.
Jay in Oregon
They did a taste test of pizzas with a food blogger, a Democratic strategist, and a Republican strategist.
A taste test.
Would it be wrong to start openly rooting for a meteor…?
trollhattan
@Certified Mutant Enemy:
Ain’t that the truth. When it comes to food, “guilty pleasure” becomes merely “guilty” and pleasure-free.
90% of chain pizza is crap, which indicts the other 10% based on guilt by association.
Keith
Didn’t godfathers used to make higher quality pizza? I would have sworn their supreme was real good 15 years ago but last time I went the place was like cici’s…disgusting
General Stuck
I could be warped, but am sort of enjoying Herman’s fake run for POTUS. He’s a shameless right wing asshole, but does have a sense of humor suitably warped, which is always a plus in my book.
He’s playing the MSM wankers and gooper establishment like an old banjo. And the fucker can half way sing. You Go Herman, drive the nutters crazy for supporting a guy who is both for, and against abortion, at once.
And getting the most of yer fifteen minutes. It is how grifting ought be done, with lots of subtle mockery for your average serious wingnut to latch onto, to confound with a bit of haberdash to boot. Eat your heartless out, Sarah.
I mean, you got to give kudos to a black guy leaping to numero uno for the GOP, and bringing down the house in front of a horde of tea tards who often as not, run around sporting signs of Obama dressed in native witch doctor gear, and a bone in his nose. All the Freudian goings on on Planet Wingnut is worth the price of admission.
As a side note, stopped at the snappy mart to get some chew, and bought a one dollar scratchem lotto ticket, something I rarely do. And won 64 pesos for my trouble.
Too Many Jimpersons (formerly Jimperson Zibb, Duncan Dönitz, Otto Graf von Pfmidtnöchtler-Pízsmőgy, Mumphrey, et al.)
I have to say, that was funny. Not newsworthy in a newsy way, but funny. I had never even heard of Godfather’s pizza until a few months ago. Is it even a chain everywhere in the country? I don’t know, I grew up in Philadelphia; they take pizza there fairly seriously, so maybe the chains don’t even bother that hard there. We always got our pizza from Apollo’s Pizza in Media, and it’s still the best damned pizza there is. Mushrooms, bell peppers and olives, that’s all you want on a pizza, and if it comes from Apollo’s, well, you can’t ask for anything more than that…
Morzer
You have to feel a certain admiration for a black guy who’s getting that many votes in the GOP crazy poll based on a lifetime of selling Americans pizza that tastes like Rush Limbaugh’s ass.
seanindc
FWIW Ledo’s Pizza is the fuckin shit.
opal
@GMF:
I used to feel the same way about Sbarro.
Then the heroin chic wore off.
EconWatcher
I think Godfather’s outlets are only left in small towns where there is no other option–from what I’ve seen, anyway.
joes527
@seanindc: I’ve never had Godfather’s Pizza. But if it is worse than Papa John’s, then Herman Cain has achieved the unpossible.
Ruckus
@Morzer:
LOL!! and thank you
Citizen Alan
As asinine as that video was, I’m still speechless that it followed a commercial by Goldman Fucking Sachs. Actually, two! I had to stop and restart, and they played another, different Goldman Fucking Sachs … about helping New Orleans rebuild after Katrina!!! It’s like watching “Better Off Ted” and then learning that Veridian Dynamics was an actual company that was sponsoring the show as part of a misguided effort to improve its despised image!
Hoodie
@EconWatcher: Yeah, it’s become the Chess King/Spencer Gifts of chain pizza places.
John PM
I just realized that Herman Cain is the real-life version of the Tim Meadows character P.K. Winsome from the Colbert Report. Selling crappy pizza is exactly what P.K. would do. I am behind on my Colbert Report. Has P.K. made an appearance recently? Given the fact that Cain is leading in Iowa, Florida and South Carolina (WTF?) it seems that the time is appropriate for P.K. to reappear.
This other thought just occurred to me. I am going to vote in the Republican primary and vote for Cain. Didn’t Limbaugh try to encourage people to vote for Hillary in 2008? Well, turn about is fair play, fat ass!
Brachiator
@Certified Mutant Enemy:
Most pizza anywhere is shit, or at best serviceable.
Bashing Cain about his pizza business is kinda like trashing the Twilight films. Easy to do, but largely a waste of time.
The best pizza used to be from Sally’s, Pepe’s, the Spot, all in New Haven Connecticut, and one place in New York. That’s it. Otherwise, discussions about the “best pizza,” like conversations about the best “beer” are simply not adult conversations.
That’s about the size of it. When I was in college, my roommate found a slice of pizza that had slid under the sofa and was untouched for two days. Bacon and sausage. He said it was delicious.
Ruckus
How much is godfathers just like most other big corps?
The product is not important only the profits. Would that make godfathers pizza a corp success?
Or maybe it’s not a pizza chain as much as a lab/customer survey firm trying to determine how crappy a product will the public purchase.
ETA Which is better soylent red or green?
Morzer
@joes527:
Papa John’s versus Godfather’s is pretty much vile versus repulsive. It may be possible to distinguish between them, but it would take entirely too much effort and economic investment.
lamh34
The laughter at Herman Cain should stop after seeing this video. There is nothing funny, IMHO, about a candidate for POTUS who is in some parts a representative of the American people to be so ridiculous that foreign leaders already consider then a joke.
This not about America being above ridicule, but Herman Cain is no longer just an embarrassment to AA, but now he’s should be seen as an embarrassment to all of us.
Hillary Clinton, Hamid Karzai Joke About Herman Cain (VIDEO)
Tonybrown74
@soyaki:
He may seem that way on TV. But admonishing blacks by saying we have a slave mentality for voting Democratic, decent is the furthest thing from describing that man.
I cannot tell you how pissed off my mother and some of her friends were, when they read about what he said.
Craven may be a better description …
Or maybe Asshole …
trollhattan
@John PM:
PK hasn’t been on in quite awhile, but Colbert SUPERpac just endorsed Cain, so I don’t think he’s done skewering pizza dude.
opal
@soyaki:
Doesn’t matter soyaki. Herman Cain hearts abortion.
He’s toast.
Warren Terra
@lamh34:
Especially funny given that a couple of Karzai’s siblings own a (small) chain of excellent Afghani restaurants in the US. Although it’s not like Karzai’s been a tremendous success as the President of Afghanistan …
The Moar You Know
I love Herman Cain. He has destroyed Rick Perry and is doing his damndest to torpedo the entire GOP field. He is obviously smart enough to know that GOP voters will sit home en masse rather than pull the lever for a black guy, but the getting is good right now and he is playing those fuckers like a violin.
lamh34
@Warren Terra:
I just think it’s funny how Repubs malign and mock Dems and and like to say that Dems make America a laughingstock across the world, and it’s one of their own who making us “silly Americans” look like fools
Plus let’s forget that it’s Karzai. How would we feel about ANY other world leader literally laughing at and joking about us.
Spencer
I thought godfathers pizza was a franchise for people who wanted to launder money. they make the pizza so bad since the point isn’t for humans to eat it, the point is for them to spend the minimum on ingredients which they put right in the trash, then put money in the till and say that they sold pizzas. Godfather indeed.*
I also thought everyone knew this.
*not intended to be a factual statement, although “Godfathers Pizza is bad” is a factual statement.
PurpleGirl
@Too Many Jimpersons (formerly Jimperson Zibb, Duncan Dönitz, Otto Graf von Pfmidtnöchtler-Pízsmőgy, Mumphrey, et al.):
You guys didn’t need fast food, chain store pizza. You still had access to the real thing, made by real Italian immigrants. I grew up and live in Queens (NYC). Even though a number of the non-chain pizza places around now are owned and operated by Mexicans (no, really!), they at least learned how to make pizza from the old Italians they bought the store from.
Dream On
If I should ever run out of dog food, I’m thinking Domino’s would make a quick substitute.
Except I like my dog.
El Cid
Herman Cain hasn’t run Godfather’s since 2002.
It was never very good, but it is an utter shit chain these days, one of those sad things which are failed echoes of other bland chains.
Where I grew up, Pizza Hut was about as good as you got until you found out about a tiny Italian restaurant no one ever told you about.
Andrew Abshier
Cici’s Pizza is still worse. And don’t get me started about Imo’s!
chrome agnomen
herman cain: obama plant? wouldn’t be right NOT to speculate.
Jay C
@Jay in Oregon:
So what difference does it make who “sponsored” the pizza taste-test? If it had been The Food Channel, rather than Politico, would it have made Godfather’s slices any less vile (or, apparently, Ledo’s, any less tasty) ?
El Cid
Fuckers. Now I really want pizza. And I can’t eat for hours.
gbear
They should show three people financial reports of five different companies that Bain Capital got their ‘mitts’ on and have them guess how the companies are doing now.
SectarianSofa
@Keith:
Yeah, I remember Godfather’s being decent when I was a kid. Not the best, definitely not the worst. Seems to have changed.
I can’t believe I watched the whole thing. Did not make me hungry. Maybe if Ledo Pizza was available here.
gbear
There’s a new pizza place near my house called Topper’s Pizza. I don’t know how widespread they are but I don’t want to order from them just because of their motto:
‘We Come Fast. No Apologies’
Did anyone think about that one for more than five minutes?
r€nato
@Grumpy Code Monkey: When I was in HS around 30 years ago (OMG), Godfather’s Pizza was one of the fave hangouts for the kids.
But that was in no small part due to the fact that you could order beer there without getting carded.
(yes, kids, there was a time in living memory when teens could score beer without too much trouble)
gbear
@Brachiator:
Where do you live??
piratedan
@r€nato: that was when Godfather’s only sold deepdish variety pizza, is when I remember them. Ingredients buried under cheese, was actually quite a bit different from everyone else (in retrospect, this was the late 70’s). Tried them again in the early 2000’s while on a business trip…. well some things change and others not so much. They changed, but not for the better, it happens.
r€nato
@piratedan: I agree, it’s changed a lot since then.
There used to be several of them around town here; now, I think there’s one or two left and they are in parts of town where Luby’s is considered a good place to eat out.
Mnemosyne
Since I’m 1,800 miles from home, you guys are making me want the next best thing, Casa Bianca (yes, owned and operated by fellow Chicago refugees).
Since Obama is reputed to have been a frequent customer while he was attending Occidental, I like to think the clear superiority of Chicago pizza was the deciding factor in his choosing to move to Chicago after graduating from Columbia rather than stay in New York.
Mnemosyne
@gbear:
IIRC, Brachiator lives in the LA area, like me. I can attest that Los Angeles is a vast pizza wasteland with tiny outposts of the good stuff set few and far between.
lamh34
@r€nato:
Ah Luby’s…where old people go for their last meal… (too morbid?)
Dream On
Mama’s Pizza in Milwaukee is quite good…
AA+ Bonds
@soyaki:
I propose that Herman Cain is a crazy asshole and you’d hate him if you met him in person, too
ABL
@Citizen Alan: i love a good veridian dynamics reference. well-done.
AA+ Bonds
@Brachiator:
Whoops, you’re late for anal yoga, better slurp down that deluxe latte before you fire up the Beetle
@gbear:
Clearly they did which is why you remember it
AA+ Bonds
Pizza (n): an American food made by putting stuff on top of a thing and putting it in the oven. Not to be confused with HAMBURGER or COOKIE.
melathys
hooray for Ledo Pizza! it may not be as good as true NYC pizza, but it’s definitely a tasty DC/MD step up from mass market shite.
feebog
@ Mnemosyne:
Don’t know where you are in LA but we have a pretty decent chain in the North Valley, Vincenzo’s. Only three stores, and they keep it real.
Death Panel Truck
The pre-Cain (1982-83) Godfather’s Taco Pizza was actually pretty good. I never even tried any other kind. All the Godfather’s franchises where I lived at the time (Yakima, Tri-Cities, WA) closed down many years ago. I thought I read somewhere that there were 900 stores pre-Cain, but only around 600 when he left. That doesn’t say much for his corporate leadership.
Death Panel Truck
Something else that’s never mentioned – the guy had stage IV colon cancer just five years ago. No one in the librul media ever brings it up. Obama smokes a cigarette now and then and they go into freak-out mode.
Villago Delenda Est
I remember eating some Godfather’s back in the 80’s, in Tacoma, WA, when I was stationed at Ft. Lewis. Wasn’t bad, but I prefered Pietro’s, a NW chain.
Frankly, before Cain came along, I thought Godfather’s had just collapsed in the 90s somewhere.
In Eugene there’s a store that offers authentic, certified Neapolitan style Pizza, and it’s great. There’s also Pegasus, a two store local chain, and it’s pretty good, too.
Villago Delenda Est
@Death Panel Truck:
I think Godfather’s, like so many restaurant chains, got caught up in the “growth is good!” mentality and overexpanded, so Cain was brought in to trim the dead branches by the new corporate overlords who discovered, surprise, that the thing was overvalued after the check to the previous owners cleared.
Death Panel Truck
@Villago Delenda Est:
I liked Pietro’s. There are only three left. The closest one to me is in Hood River, Oregon. I don’t think they’d make a 300-mile round trip delivery.
piratedan
@Death Panel Truck: well I can say that the Pizzacato Pizzeria in Hood River are the creators of a mighty fine pie. I ate there frequently while tending my Mom and her 2nd husband over the summer.
http://www.pizzicatopizza.com/locations/hood-river/
AA+ Bonds
Herman Cain, successful important guy from some pizza chain that everyone thought shut down in the 1990s, dazzles Republican electorate with power to “not be Rick Perry”
DFH no.6
@soyaki:
Really?
Cain’s a major Uncle Tom House Negro (with special privileges) who gives “cover” to the racist fascists (aka, Republican base) and claims that the black underclass in America have only themselves to blame for their predicament.
He’s also an insanely wealthy motherfucker who (like a good Randian) believes he got that way on his own, and he’s proposed – as his only policy proscription – a ridiculously regressive tax “plan” that would raise taxes on all non-wealthy Americans (including all the lazy, shiftless ones in the black underclass) while giving enormous tax breaks to the persecuted, put-upon “job creators”.
He’s thus a rather obvious king-sized fucking asshole who is, while he is “running” for the fascist nom, anyway, a quite visible part of the problem. There’s no “might” or “just” or “decent” about it. You “don’t know” because you ignore all that, and only see some smiling, amiable-seeming guy on the TV.
And yeah, I’m well aware his presidential “run” is phony as all hell (thus the scare quotes), is pure self-aggrandizement, in fact, and he hasn’t a chance of getting the nom, let alone being elected president (same exact thing can be said about Gingrich, of course). That alone makes him a giant fucking asshole.
Couldn’t give a shit about “his” sucky pizza.
Death Panel Truck
@piratedan: My wife and I go to Hood River two or three times a years. I’ll have to check out Pizzacato.
Mart
@Keith: Yes it used to be at least passable. Long ago had it in college and early work in central IL. I grew up in Chicago so bit of pizza snob. Godfathers was better than average. Went to one year or so ago in Decatur, IL with a guy who was eager to eat there. I thought WTF happened to the pizza, and WTF is wrong with that guy?
Death Panel Truck
I don’t know about that. In my first year of college, I ate a helluva lot of Top Ramen and hard-boiled eggs. Had to save what little money I had for the important things.
Like beer. Lots and lots and lotsa beer.
cinesimon
That[‘s about as accurate a way to predict Cain’s leadership as any other of Politico’s methods.
They used to be so-so. Now they’re as poisonous as Fox.
And as the above video shows, as brainless.
AA+ Bonds
“Godfather’s Pizza: We Swear We Still Exist”
PurpleGirl
@Villago Delenda Est: Yes, this is very true. The corporate owners had no real relationship to the food product so the quality was iffy.
Jay in Oregon
@Jay C:
I guess my question is, “what the hell relevance does the taste test have to anything?”
Is having Democratic and Republican strategists on the panel supposed to convey some political significance? Are we to glibly assume that the Republican will praise Cain’s pie while the Democrat trashes it?
Scott de B.
Godfather’s makes good pizza. Of course, I’d recommend getting it in a restaurant and not a Hess gas station.
Ruckus
@AA+ Bonds:
I like it when someone boils it down to the essence.
A small point, you did leave out the word self between successful and important.
scottinnj
Whenever I see Cain at the debates I’m reminded of the SNL Jesse Jackson skit ‘the question is moot’. jess was 25 yrs ahead of his time.
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/5999188/the_question_is_moot/
Bob Westal
@gbear: Toppers is based in Ventura County, California, I believe. I know because my sister used to work for them. Fair to middling food — at least one or two cuts above a place like Pizza Hut and the sandwiches were maybe even better. Apparently, though, they’re double-entendre challenged.
LongHairedWeirdo
Hm. Last time I had a Godfather’s Pizza, it was okay. Crust was a bit thick but it had a good, crunchy bite to the bottom, and was okay through the rest of it. Good, but not great, reheated okay.
It could be that they’ve gone downhill; that’s sort of the nature of fast food; seek higher profits by cutting costs, and its easy to think something is “just as good” as you have today, through three or four iterations, and have it turn to crap, because each iteration was imperceptibly worse, but you’re never comparing back to the original.
JGabriel
Eating pizza now, due to pizza urge induced by this post.
Damn you, John Cole! For stealing my free will!
.
r€nato
@DFH no.6: anyone who thinks you’re a loser if you’re not rich, is by definition a total asshole. I don’t care if they’re nice to animals or are people you’d like to have a beer with or help little old ladies cross the street or whatever other redeeming qualities they might have.
JGabriel
@DFH no.6:
Ding ding ding! This.
Cain, Gingrich, et. al., despite their self-serving claims to patriotism, are, at the end of the day, forcing themselves into the presidential nominating process not for the good of the country, or because they feel called to serve, but to legitimize their grifts by associating themselves with the American presidential tradition.
Giant fucking assholes is too kind a description for them.
.
DougW
@Dream On: Possibly Mamma Mia’s?
ruemara
After growing up in NYC, the best pizza is either one I make at home, or something from Famous/Original/”better damn well be an italian somewhere in this store” Rays. But my greek style squid ink, feta and vegetables is fabulous.
peej
The food blogger is very sheltered (and probably a snob) if she can’t recognize Pizza Hut or Papa John’s pizza. She probably only eats wood-fired pies nowadays.
mai naem
I had Godfathers pizza in the eighties in Tucson and it was good pizza. I even remember going to a Godfathers in El Paso sometime in the eighties. But I went to one in Phoenix in the nineties and it was like Chuckee Cheese/Little Caesars pizza. Just bad cheap ingredient pizza.
Dream On
@DougW: Indeed – the one with a signed picture from Tom Snyder saying something like “good pizza!”
I wonder if Godfather’s has such signs.
Djur
@Villago Delenda Est: Ah, Pietro’s. There used to be one in Portland built in an old fire station. It had a fire pole with fake fireman’s legs sticking out of the top, and a fire engine. Thin pizza cut into ridiculously tiny slices, sauce right up to the edge, salty and crispy. Water and pop in pebbled amber plastic glasses. And arcade games in the back.
Sigh.
Of the big national chains, Domino’s is better than Pizza Hut, because Domino’s crust is basically soaking in butter. (That ‘Pizza Turnaround’ thing was basically an excuse to shovel more fat into their crust and use half again as much cheese. With USDA support, hilariously enough.) Of the big regional NW chains, Round Table is the best — their sauce is a little spicy, the crust is nice and thin (cheap thin crust is always better than cheap thick crust). Their pizza gives mad squirts, though — every time.
My favorite pizza is probably at Bella Faccia here in Portland.
Jebediah
@Mnemosyne:
Have you traveled to lovely little Culver City? We have two places on Main Street (LaRocco’s and Rocco’s, which is a sports bar but has good, plain New York style pizza) and a new Abbot’s on Sepulveda. If you haven’t, come try them. Not to everybody’s taste, I suppose, but I like them and I like having good pizza within a ten-minute walk.
Jebediah
@Jebediah:
Can’t believe you left out Victor Jr’s, you fucking pinheaded moron. Across the street from the Sony lot. Nice pizza and chicken parm, plus an autographed Tommy Emmanuel picture on the wall – and a signed drawing of Phineas by Jeff “Swampy” Marsh.
Edited to add self abuse.
ETA : Now with even more abuse!
Tom65
@seanindc: Maryland, represent!
RobNYNY1957
I grew up in a small town in Wisconsin that had some of the best pizza I have ever had. (What I didn’t know at the time is that the family who ran the place were Greek, and they were basically making the Greek version of pizza — lots of fresh herbs, a free hand with the spices, their own sausage, etc.) I didn’t even really appreciate it until I went to school in New Haven, where local legend said pizza had been invented and the best pizza in the world was to be had. But the New Haven pizza was just horrible. Bland, scorched in to rim, raw in the center, oversalted, lifeless and limp.
greylocks
I’m not a big pizza fan, but when I was living in Omaha way back when, I used to sometimes go to the original Godfather [sic] with my bridge-playing friends for late night pizza and beer. IIRC, the pizza wasn’t bad, and it was definitely better than the crap sold in the corporate stores, even in Omaha.
Willy Thiesen bought the place in the early 1970s and started opening corporate stores and selling franchises under the Godfather’s brand. Why they used a different formula, even in Omaha, I do not know. The original store retained the original recipe and name for some time (my memory fails on how long).
twiffer
nearly any national pizza delivery chain is crap. that said, the “food blogger” was an idiot. comparing pizza hut crust to foccacia? what the holy fuck?
now, i haven’t spent too much time in italy, but it was enough to know that american pizza is rather different (frankly, better, if you ask me). italian pizza was not cut into squares (lot less cheese too), unless, like the american places that do so, it’s only the large pies that are divvied up that way. nor are rome or florence noted for their za; that would be NAPLES. naples. that’s what you are looking for when you want to drop italian city names in regards to pizza. naples.
Brachiator
@gbear: RE: Most pizza anywhere is shit, or at best serviceable.
Again, the only pizza worth eating was sold by Sally’s, Pepe’s, and The Spot, in New Haven, and a very few places in New York. Petrillo’s, in the San Gabriel Valley, is currently pretty good.
Nonetheless, conversations about “best” pizza, or bashing chain pizza, are staggeringly stupid. And this goes double for any claims about Chicago pizza.
And to answer your question, I’ve lived all over the US, and a few places in Mexico and India. Currently live in California. But I have had the pleasure to have eaten food, good, bad, and “it’ll kill you” all over the world.
@AA+ Bonds:
Never been into yoga or the Beetle
Not much for lattes, either. On the other hand, the cafe con leche served at the Hotel Colonial in Manzanillo can be quite good.
Ryan
Grimaldi’s in Brooklyn makes a mighty fine pie.
JR in WV
The Godfathrr’s Pizza outlet in my neighborhood is part of a filling station. They also do Sam’s Hotdogs. The only competition is Gino’s which is like Pizza Hut only not as good.
There are good Pizza joints in CRW, but the only good chains are local guys with 3 or 4 outlets up and down the valley.
Godfather’s is only good when you are starving, but too tired to put tomato sauce on a Boboli from Krogers. Then it’s edible, and actually almost OK with good beer.