Chain Reaction: Pizza Hut

Going to make this a rather short post because, if I'm being honest, the pizza I am going to describe was downed at least three weeks ago. I would not be able to be very elaborate with my descriptions, especially since I was eating with family members and was too coy to take notes. So let's get right to the point: A lot of pizza aficianados are quick to rag on chains, such as Domino's Pizza or Papa John's. They say that their pizza is not authentic. That it is taken out of a freezer before it is placed into the oven. This is fair. Still, I believe that even the greatest of pizza snobs would have to admit that, when compared to Pizza Hut, eating a pie from Domino's or Papa's is like devouring an offering from an artisan straight off the boat from the Old Country.

We got this $10 meal deal from Pizza Hut the other day. It's a lot of food, and that's great. But, boy, is the concept ridiculous! You get a one-topping pie of the medium variety. A bunch of breadsticks. And just in case you feel like you have not gotten your optimum carb intake for the year in the first two courses, they give you...MORE BREADSTICKS! Only this time, they are smothered with cinnamon sauce and accompanied by a sugary dipping sauce. It's a pretty good bargain, sure. I'm just saying: Couldn't they have dreamed up something better than more bread for that dessert item? The site of all that bread chilling in one box is patently absurd.

Tale of the Pie: Padrino's Pizza & Family Restaurant

Before we have to change the name of this blog to The Beer Project, we fortunately have a pizza review for you. When we first walked into Padrino's, the savory aroma gave us pretty high hopes about the quality of the pie. Since it was a Lenten Friday, meat was off limits, so we decided to get a Sicilian in order to mix things up. In hindsight, that was a dumb choice, since Sicilians take much longer to make and waiting peacefully in a restaurant is not really the nibble's thing.

It's clear that Padrino's is definitely a local favorite. Everyone (with the exception of us) who walked through the door seemed to know at least one other person there. It was a clean and cozy little shop, with some cheesy old world murals on the wall (which Saucy rather liked).

Tale of the Pie: Via Veneto Pizza

So Saucy's been doing great with the diet, and only a moderate amount of complaining (believe it or not). But we decided to take Friday night off to have a family outing and a few slices.

Our destination? Via Veneto's. Just a bit of background for you: the "disappointing pie" we refer to in our very first post, Getting to the Crust of the Matter, was actually from Via Veneto's. But the shop is about 15-20 minutes from our house on a good day and Saucy picked it up on a snowy February evening. And after the 30 minute or longer ride home, it really wasn't that hot. I mean temperature-wise and taste-wise.