Tuesday, September 30, 2008

pizza! pizza!

I'm fully aware that with my decision to leave New York I have also forsaken the best pizza in the world. From what I understand it's futile to try and find great pizza in Knoxville, but on the other hand I've never met a pizza I didn't like.

My earliest pizza memory is sitting in the back seat of my mom's minivan after picking up two lovely cheese pizzas conveniently packaged together with paper and cardboard from the Little Caesar's across from Dobbin Center. It was my favorite, and damn was that ride home a long one.

For years I've been under the impression that Little Caesar's all but went under, existing only at the checkout of select K-Mart locations. Upon arrival in Knoxville, I found out that I was wrong. Little Caesar's still thrives in the American South! They've got a new gimmick now, you don't have to buy two pizzas at a time any more, but you also don't have to call ahead. They just constantly make pizzas, and they do enough business to have them "hot-n-ready" for pizza lovers with no foresight.


We got a pepperoni pizza, crazy bread, and even crazy sauce for $8.18. What a crazy meal it was. For the most part the actual pizza was just how I remembered it from childhood. There's sort of this thick shelf of cheese above the sauce, and it's prone to big burnt bubbles on top. So to all those I've discussed the extinction of Little Caesar's with, rejoice in the fact that I was wrong.

2 comments:

Emily said...

I agree there is a time and place for "Pizza! pizza!" When I was on Maui during the summer we had some car trouble...and the nearest place to eat and the only place open was the BIG K. A greasy slice of cheese with a sprinkling of red pepper did the trick.

Have fun searching for all those southern pizza spots!

Kristen P - "Praz" said...

Little Ceaser's is thriving here in LA as well! When we first moved I was so excited I called up to "place my order." I said "Can I please have 2 large cheese pizzas and 1 order of crazy bread?" They sounded confused but said "sure, come on in." Then John decided we might need more crazy bread (we were bringing it to a friend's house), so I called back "Hello, I just called a few minutes ago and ordered 2 cheese pizzas and 1 order of crazy bread. May I please add another order of the crazy bread?"

Then we get to the store and there's just a stack of pizzas and crazy bread there... That's all they make so they're just constantly making it and that's why it's HOT N READY. I felt so stupid because I walk in like "HELLO, I ordered 2 pizzas and 2 crazy breads" all official and crap and they just point me in the direction of the line of people grabbing pizzas/bread from the heat lamps.