Today we continue along our pizza journey. On our last pizza episode we battled Domino’s and Papa John’s, with Domino’s coming out on top. Today we battle Pizza Hut and Little Caesars.
Which menu items will we be trying?
Original/Hand Tossed Pepperoni and Beef Pizza
Breadsticks and Crazy Bread
Garlic Parmesan Bone In Wings
Who is brave enough to battle it out?
Nate, pizza alum.
Randi, a spooky pizza ghost.
Matt, hot and ready.
Amy, did somebody say pizza?!
And of course, thanks to our subscribers who are helping us build this small but excellent podcast! We appreciate the support!
The History of Pizza Hut
The history of Pizza Hut dates back to 1958 when two brothers, Frank and Dan Carney of Wichita Kansas, started a small pizza joint with $600 they borrowed from their mom. They named the restaurant Pizza Hut for one simple reason. Their sign only had room for eight letters. The restaurant, which was located by the Wichita State University’s campus, was pretty much an instant hit. Within a year and a half two more locations would open up. One thing that was key to their success was letting customers sample the pizza, since it was new. As soon as the people would try the pizza, they became instant customers. With the success of these first three locations, franchisees flocked to the brothers, wanting to open their own locations. And the brothers kept the fees low so people could easily start them up and rapidly grow the business. By 1966 there were 145 locations.
At this time, the brothers were beginning to worry about growing competition as they looked to keep expanding. They partnered with Richard Burke , an artist and architect, and came up with the red roof design to help set them apart from all the other pizza joints. In 1969, the familiar red roof was adopted for all the Pizza Hut restaurants. By 1971, Pizza Hut was the number one pizza restaurant chain in the world in both sales and number of restaurants. And by 1972 the 1,000th location opened.
Some other notable dates include…
1980: The Pan Pizza was introduced
1984: Book It reading incentive program was launched with 200,000 elementary students enrolled. And who can forget their book it pin and those wonderful personal pan pizza rewards?
1986: Pizza Hut celebrated the opening of its 5,000th restaurant, located in Dallas, Texas.
1988: Hand-Tossed Traditional Pizza is introduced throughout all Pizza Hut restaurants.
1989: First Lady Barbara Bush throws a pizza party for 200 Washington D.C. children during a “Reading is Fundamental” reception, ordering all the pizza from the Hut.
1994: Pizza Hut becomes the first national chain to offer pizza delivery ordering on the internet.
1995: Pizza Hut launches Original Stuffed Crust, which immediately set company sales records.
2016: Pizza Hut sets a world record by making a pizza delivery to Mt. Kilimanjaro to celebrate opening in its 100th country.
Today Pizza Hut has over 18,000 locations worldwide.
The History of Little Caesars
The story of Little Caesars doesn’t begin with pizza. It begins with true love. Mike Ilitch and Marian Bayoff were set up for a blind date by Mike’s father in 1954. Within a matter of months, the couple was married. Not having much money in the first few years, the couple decided to take a chance on opening their very own pizza restaurant in 1959. Using their entire life savings, the first Little Caesars Pizza Treat opened in Garden City, Michigan. Along with pizza, they sold other items such as fish, chicken, and shrimp. And it didn’t take long for the business to take off. In 1962 the first franchise opened in Warren, Michigan and in 1967 they opened their first location in Detroit. The 50th location opened in 1969 along with the opening of their first Canadian location.
One of the things that helped the company in the beginning is their commitment to fresh ingredients and low prices. And to make sure that happened consistently, the Ilitches purchased a mushroom farm in 1971. This would lead to the expansion of the company and Little Caesars Mushroom Farms, Inc., a full-service distribution company known today as Blue Line Foodservice Distribution.
It should also be noted that Little Caesars has never done delivery, and never will. They knew they could have the advantage of a different market by not trying to compete with what every other pizza place does. Additionally, since the locations can tend to be in economically disadvantaged areas, that would mean lower tips for the drivers, which means raising delivery fees, and they would have priced themselves out of being super affordable. So it was a better strategy to set up shop in high traffic areas, making it simple for people to pop in and get a HOT-N-READY pizza.
One thing that has been pretty consistent throughout the timeline was the Little Caesars man. He was the icon from the beginning. But he wouldn’t utter his famous catch phrase until 1979, when Little Caesars launched a new offer for two pizzas for the price of one, officially coining the famous Pizza! Pizza! phrase, which is a registered trademark.
Some other notable dates and accomplishments include…
1988: The company introduced the square deep dish pizza, called Pan! Pan! (also a registered trademark) This was also the year they started national television advertising.
1991: Little Caesars received its first President’s Volunteer Action Award from President George H.W. Bush. They received this due to their mobile Love Kitchen that was launched in 1985. They dispatch their kitchens to areas across the country to feed people in need, such as disaster areas.
1997: Shakerboards were introduced to advertise the HOT-N-READY promotion (also a registered trademark)
Another great thing Little Caesars does is invest back into their city, Detroit. The Ilitch family has invested $926 million into projects like the Little Caesars Arena and the buildings in a 50 block radius of the stadium, which is home to the Red Wings and the Pistons. The state-of-the-art stadium quickly earned the nickname Pizzarena.
Today there are approximately 4,181 Little Caesars locations in the United States. They have locations in all 50 states and 18 international markets.
The Results
**SPOILER ALERT!**
Listen to the episode first if you do not want the results revealed to you yet!
Pizza Hut Breadsticks vs. Little Caesar’s Crazy Bread
Pizza Hut Breadsticks. Remember when these used to be amazing? They would be nice and fresh, warm, lots of parmesan sprinkled on top. Warm sauce. Now Pizza Hut can’t even be bothered to cut them into sticks. It’s just one big piece of bread. Oof.
Nate: “It just tastes like I am eating pizza crust.”
Amy: “It’s not bad. It’s not great either.”
Randi: “I’m not going to finish this.”
Matt: “Why don’t they cut them!? I ordered bread sticks, not bread brick.”
Little Caesars Crazy Bread. What a surprise. A good surprise. An order more Crazy Bread for the group kind of surprise. Warm and garlicy. And despite the sauce being cold, they actually give you a ton of sauce. Way to go, Little Caesars!
Nate: “It is light and airy. I enjoyed this quite a bit.”
Amy: “I like the chewiness of the Crazy Bread.”
Randi: “I’m going back for more.”
Matt: “This is an easy decision. Little Caesars.”
WINNER: Little Caesar’s Crazy Bread.
Pizza vs. Pizza (Beef and Pepperoni)
Pizza Hut: Everyone knows what Pizza Hut is like. And they pretty much hit their pizza mark on this beef and pepperoni pizza. It is cooked all the way through. The crust has air pockets, and they didn’t overly pile on the toppings. All-in-all, Pizza Hut made a good middle-of-the-road pizza.
Nate: “Pizza Hut’s had the most rounded flavor.”
Amy: “The crust sealed the deal for me.”
Randi: “I didn’t get a lot of flavor out of the Pizza Hut pizza.”
Matt: “The pepperoni is just okay.”
Little Caesars. How can something as simple as pizza go so wrong? Little Caesars, what happened? When we order a pizza, we expect it to be cooked all the way through. We expect the toppings to be on all the pizza, not just the very center. We don’t want 6 inches of crust. This was not good.
Nate: “This is a monstrosity. Where is their quality control?!”
Amy: “The cheese is way too thick on this.”
Randi: “It’s not even cooked all the way through.”
Matt: “This is hot mess, not hot and ready.”
WINNER: Pizza Hut
Wings vs. Wings (Garlic Parm)
Pizza Hut. I remember when Pizza Hut used to have Mild or Hot wings. Those were the days. And those were damn good wings. I would order those with the breadsticks and skip the pizza. Today, not so much. While these wings aren’t horrible, they aren’t great either.
Nate: “My wing is pretty bland.”
Amy: “I miss when Pizza Hut had good wings.”
Randi: “The chicken is kinda slimy.”
Matt: “One side is completely sauced, the other is naked.”
Little Caesars. Now, everyone will be surprised if Little Caesars has the best wings out of all the pizza places we have battled so far. And it looks like that shocking discovery is coming true. Again, not great. But the best of the evils.
Nate: “I’d rather have bone out than bone in.”
Amy: “It is coming down to the texture, and Little Caesars has a more appealing texture.”
Randi: “There is more flavor with the Little Caesars.”
Matt: “It has more dimension to the flavor.”
WINNER: Little Caesars
There you have it. After trying 3 different menu items from Pizza Hut and Little Caesars, we give Little Caesars the Quest for the Best seal of approval. Check out their website to find a location near you.
https://littlecaesars.com/en-us/
Thank you for joining us on this exclusive episode of Quest for the Best. Let us know what you thought. Have you tried these menu items? Which one was your favorite? Which restaurant is your favorite?
Also, do you have any foods you would love to get the coveted seal of approval? Let us know in the comments what you want to hear next.
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Thanks again for the support. Until next time, stay sane out there.
Show Notes
https://pizzahalloffame.com/pizza-hut/
https://www.wichita.edu/museums/pizzahutmuseum/history.php
https://blog.pizzahut.com/our-story/
Pizza! Pizza! (Hut)