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.