World's Greatest Pizza Twirler

At a Little Caesars promo, acrobats from all over the country competed for the title of best pizza twirler. More than 1000 people came together to show off their skills. The event was held in Lansing, Michigan, home of Little Caesars owners, Mike and Marian Ilitch. Winners received a lifetime supply of Little Caesars pizza and $10,000. I think it's fair to say this guys got dough.

BGSU Dining Services offers a Mix of Good and Bad Pizza

On the search for quality pizza, Jason and I decided to take the mission internally. We will be narrowing down the best pizza offered on the BGSU campus. For those of you who are unfamiliar with BGSU's Dining Services, the campus is divided up into four main resident halls with a cafeteria in each facility. Amongst them are; Founders Keepers Food Court, The Sun Dial, The Falcon's Nest and Macateria. While all them offer a variety of food options, one item is always on the menu, pizza.

Each individual dining hall carries a head chef responsible for the recipe of their pizza. During my freshman year, I was lucky enough to have over $1,200 of meal plan money. This means I could eat anywhere on campus and try everything each dining facility had to offer.

At "The Sun Dial" I was able to enjoy a delicious slice of pie that was thin and crispy. Their sauce was of a sweet but peppery blend of herbs and spices. For me, this by far is the best and freshest pizza on campus.

"We serve over 2,000 people a day so we definitely have to keep up on the pizza supply," said Chad Carper, classified manager at The Sun Dial. "Unlike several other dining facilities on campus, our pizza is made from homemade sauce and cooked in a cast iron oven. It gives the crust a lighter but flakier taste many students enjoy."

And students do favor the Sun Dials pizzas. Their pie has become so popular that in 2005 The Sun Dial started taking delivery orders. You may have seen the small electric cars zooming around campus and delivering pizza to all BGSU dorms.

Other dining services such as The Falcon's Nest do not use homemade crust and sauce. Hence Jason and I have crowned The Falcon's nest the worst pizza on campus. The sauce is from a can and taste similar to cafeteria frozen pizza. They also sell their leftover pizza for half price the next day. The Falcon's Nest is over priced and overrated. Try going to other dining facilities for a real piece of pie. It will serve you good.

Papa John's specialty pizza presents tasty alternative

In a town populated with local pizza parlors, Papa John's offers reasonable prices and unique specialties.

Papa John's, founded in 1984 by John Schnatter and originally operated out of a broom closet in Schnatter's fathers tavern, owns franchises in more than 3,100 restaurants in 50 states and 29 countries, according to its website, www.papajohns.com.

According to the site, Schnatter created the business because he felt that "a superior-quality traditional pizza delivered right to the customer's door" was missing from most national chains.
Bowling Green's franchise maintains this mission by offering pizza with seemingly high quality that is competitively priced compared to most of the local pizza slingers.

BG's Papa John's also offers unique deals, such as the free dessert with purchase of any large or extra large pizza. It also often has $10 large pizzas specials.

My current addiction is to the Hawaiian Barbeque Chicken specialty pizza at Papa John's. This delightful pineapple, barbeque sauce and chicken pizza is a tasty alternative to the typical pizza sauce drenched pies.

If you are looking to step outside your normal pizza, the Hawaiian Barbeque Chicken from Papa Johns is highly recommended. Though the Hawaiian Barbeque Chicken is a bit pricier than the regular larges, it is certainly worth the money. With the dessert combo, you can pick up a large and a cinnapie, icing covered cinnamon breadsticks, for around 15 bucks, a substantial amount of food for the price.

When I'm not in the mood for a saucy slice of Myles, Papa Johns is often my go to choice.

Marco's pizza delivers inexpensive pizzas

One of the things I've learned as a college student is that I and most of the people I know can be pretty lazy. If I am in the mood for pizza, I will order it for delivery even if it would save me money to pick it up. Little Caesars offers a cheap pizza, but the downside is that you have to actually go get it. That is where Marco's Pizza comes in. It offers a similarly priced (and quality) pizza as Little Caesars but with the option for delivery.

So when I want to save money on pizza, but I also don't want to drive anywhere, I turn to Marco's. It is slightly more expensive than Little Caesar's but still significantly cheaper than a large pizza at any other place in town. A large one topping pizza at Marco's only costs $5.99.

Marco's also gets my appreciation because an employee there was very helpful when we were taking photos for the slideshow. All of the other pizza places were very hesitant about letting us take photos inside their stores. The manager at Little Caesar's actually told me that I couldn't take any photos because they didn't want their trade secrets leaking to their competition.

When I went to Marco's, not only did the employee want to help, she actually invited me behind the counter to take photos while she made a pizza. Here are some extra photos from Marco's, which did not make it in to the slideshow.

Pizza delivery woes

Have you ever ordered a pizza and when you opened the box, you found that the cheese had slid off the pizza to one side of the box? This happens a lot when I order from Myles. I always think that perhaps the driver was engaged in some sort of action movie chase scene with an attack helicopter firing rapidly at the driver, but after seeing this video, I am going to be a bit more skeptical when my pizza arrives mangled.

The video is labeled "pizza delivery fail," but in the eyes of the delivery guy, this is more like a "pizza delivery win." The speed at which the guy picks up the pizza from the ground and puts it back in the box is uncanny. I also love that he puts it back in the hot bag and acts all cool while waiting for the resident to come to the door. He doesn't just pick it up and leave the box out, he actually puts it back in the hot bag. That is just perfect to me, clearly he couldn't have dropped it on the ground, he hasn't even taken it out of the bag.

The ground there doesn't look all that clean, I'm curious how much dirt and gravel was left on that pizza when he scooped it up. He didn't have time to pick anything off, so likely the resident would have had some visible gunk.

The whole thing leaves me wondering how often this has happened to this delivery guy, because his recovery was nearly flawless. Do they teach that skill during delivery driving training?

I would like to see a followup to this showing the reaction of the resident as he or she watches what happened to the pizza. Someone get on that please.

New Domino's pizza as bad as old Domino's pizza

If you have been out of the pizza loop, you may not have realized that Domino's pizza reinvented their pizza by changing the ingredients. This move, which happened in December of 2009, changed the crust, the cheese and the sauce. In an article on USAToday.com, Domino's marketing chief Russell Weiner stated that the change was made because "[Domino's wasn't] winning against everyone on taste."

I have to agree with that statement. Old Domino's was the bottom of the pizza barrel, but how do the new ingredients fare?

For the sake of honest it is important to point out that of the major chains, Domino's has been my least favorite for as long as I can remember. I hadn't even had the urge to try their new pizza in the year that is has been out. Motivated by this blog, I decided it was time to give the company another chance.

I picked up a medium, hand-tossed pepperoni pizza with the hope of being amazed, but I ended up just being disappointed. The new ingredients might be different, but different doesn't mean good. The crust was less like cardboard, but the sauce and the cheese were a new kind of bland. The new garlic crust felt slimy, giving the whole pizza a very cheap feel.

All in all, Domino's new pizza just doesn't work. It might be improvement, but the scale is only moving from god-awful to just awful. I'd much rather drop $5 at Little Caesar's than the $8.99 I spent on Domino's.

Dunk! Dip! Douse! What's your favorite dipping sauce?

In 1991, a Papa John's executive chef wanted to come up with a new and tasty side-kick for pizza. He started with garlic, threw in some parmesan cheese and what he got was Papa John's garlic dipping sauce. A lot of people are unsure if Papa John's was the inventor of garlic butter, but there's no doubt it's a tasty complement. Other pizza franchises are jumping on the bandwagon coming up with new and unique dipping sauce flavors. I went to Little Caesars on North Main St. to check out their sauce selections. What I found, is an incredible display of 15 different flavors. From buffalo ranch to sweet-honey BBQ, Little Caesars had their sauce selection up to par. I also noticed small bags of seasoning that could be purchased for .59 and came with a free coupon for a sauce. Pizza by itself is tasty, however there is nothing wrong with trying to take it up a notch. After all, what would vanilla ice cream be without chocolate syrup? Milk without cereal? You never know until you try something new!

Bowling Green's Pizza Parlors

We decided to take some photos of pizza places around Bowling Green. Below you will find shots from all of the major pizza place's exteriors and a few shots from the places which actually allowed us to take pictures inside. You would be surprised how many restaurants were uncomfortable with allowing photos. Anyway, enjoy a look at the world of pizza in Bowling Green, Ohio.

Best bang for your buck in BG? Little Caesars Pizza!

Here ye here ye all my fellow broke college students! Looking for a tasty piece of pie that won't milk you dry? Then you need to hit up Little Caesars Pizza located at 1068 N Main St.

Though a nationwide pizza franchise, Little Caesars Pizza was the brainchild of brothers Mike and Marian Ilitch. First opened in 1959, Little Caesars started in Garden City Michigan as a small local pizzeria. To this day, it's still a family-owned and operated business.

"The Little Caesars in Bowling Green opened last year and since then, profits have been through the roof," said BG Little Caesars manager, Ken Richman. "I knew it (Little Caesars) was going to be big here. With the college kids and the number of families, how couldn't it be?"

Take notice of the caption title, "Best bang for your buck." While the product quality (corn meal and canned sauce) is of very low-grade, the pizza is average. But what does set Little Caesars apart from the competition, is their fantastic Crazy Bread. Soft, warm and covered in garlic butter, nothing says cheap and good like Little Caesars Crazy Bread. For only $7, you can get a large one item pizza and an order of Crazy Bread with dipping sauce.

"The Hot n' Ready combo deal is genius," said BGSU student Kim Irvin. "I don't know how I would have survived of couple of nights. You can feed yourself for at least two days."

Broke, hungry or just looking for some Crazy Bread, Little Caesars will give you a quality product for a fair price. In these hard times, budgeting is important, but if you still want to eat good and have save money doing it, The Little Caesar’s is the joint for you.

Pizza in the News Roundup

There have been a couple silly news item this week revolving around pizza, so I figured it was a good opportunity for story time.

First up, we have a police officer from Gowanda, NY whose hunger nearly landed him in jail. According to WIVB.com, a broadcast channel out of Buffalo, the police officer accepted free pizza as payment for dropping a traffic ticket.

The former officer, Jason Miller, was charged with official misconduct and ended up with 3 years probation following a sentencing on Thurs., Oct. 14. WIVB states that "Miller has also admitted in the past to staging his own shooting by shooting himself in his bullet-proof vest."

In North Liberty, Iowa, an intoxicated man was arrested after assaulting a peace officer with a pizza box on Thurs., Oct. 14.

According to KCRG-TV9, Michael J. Koski, 40, threw a pizza box and glasses at a responding officer before attempting to make a run for it. Koski was taken down by a taser and handcuffed, but he still continued his assault by attempting to bite an officer's knee.

Koski faces charges of assault on peace officers, public intoxication and interference with official acts.

Bowling Green isn't without its own pizza related crime. According to a Bowling Green Police Divison report, a pizza delivery man was attempting to make two deliveries within the 900 block of Klotz Road. After receiving no answer at either residence, he returned to his vehicle to find three pizzas and a hot bag missing. One of the residents who allegedly ordered the pizza denied making the call. The other could not be reached.

I find all of these acts of pizza related crimes to be on the ridiculous side. First of all, if you are police officer and you take a bribe of free pizza, you are some kind of stupid. You aren't good at being a cop and worse, you aren't even good at being a crooked cop on top of that.

Second, why would anyone think a pizza box was a good weapon? Was it Mr. Koski's goal to knock the officer unconscious with a cardboard box? Did he think the 0.5 seconds it would take the officer to knock the box aside would give him time to run away? I am sort of surprised that the man didn't explode when he was tazed, because the amount of alcohol he had to being drinking sounds like it should made him combustible.

Finally, the Bowling Green Pizza Caper of September 2010 was clearly the work of a crack team of vault busters. I just picture the cast of Ocean's Eleven sitting in a bush, waiting for unsuspecting delivery driver to attempt his delivery. I actually hoped we would see more premeditated pizza burglaries following this one, but unfortunately the pizza bandits never went serial.

System of A Down! "Chic n' Stu" An awesome song about pizza!

Pizza on the Barbee

You may think you need an oven to make pizza, but that is not always the case. The BBQ Pit Boys, seeking the unique flavor of a brick oven pizza, found an alternative.

Now, I'm not sure if that is the guy's real voice or what, but man, it is like having a wild west sheriff get drunk and grill you up a pizza.