Papa Johns Pizza

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===Pulling Papa John apart===


Papa John's was founded by John Schnatter. Schnatters desire to create the ultimate pizza started at Rocky's Sub Pub in Jeffersonville, Indiana, where he had a job as a dishwasher, whilst he was in High School.


After being promoted to Pizza maker, he started appreciating the work put into a fantastic pizza. Whilst at High School and College he worked at a ...
...pizzas to peoples' doorsteps. The Papa John's logo was created by a friend of his in college.


When Schattner graduated from university in 1983 he returned to Jeffersonville and went to work for his father. His father owned a tavern that was quickly running into debt -so he challenged Schnatter to turn the business around. He did this by dropping the price of beer and increasing the price of using the pool tables.

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Love Thy Pizza

Do you know your pizza?

Pizza - This is the name given to a flat, oven-baked bread (normally round in shape) that is normally covered in a tomato based sauce and Mozzarella cheese, Toppings are added depending on personal preference, region and cultural flavourings.

It originated from Neapolitan Cuisine, which emerged predominately in the 18th Century, and strong tasting toppings were favoured. Naples is said to be the home of the pizza.

Since then, it has become a world-wide favourite and Pizzas have sprung up in supermarkets, Pizza delivery shops have opened, and pizza ovens have been designed to fit into your kitchen so you can make your very own home-made pizza,

Pulling Papa John apart

Papa John's was founded by John Schnatter. Schnatters desire to create the ultimate pizza started at Rocky's Sub Pub in Jeffersonville, Indiana, where he had a job as a dishwasher, whilst he was in High School.

After being promoted to Pizza maker, he started appreciating the work put into a fantastic pizza. Whilst at High School and College he worked at a number of different pizzerias, and each one he took notes of how each pizzeria made pizzas in certain ways to obtain certain tastes.

John's belief was that there a gap in the Pizza market. He wanted to create a Pizza restaurant that also delivered traditional, high quality pizzas to peoples' doorsteps. The Papa John's logo was created by a friend of his in college.

When Schattner graduated from university in 1983 he returned to Jeffersonville and went to work for his father. His father owned a tavern that was quickly running into debt -so he challenged Schnatter to turn the business around. He did this by dropping the price of beer and increasing the price of using the pool tables.

This turned into a huge success, and once the business started doing well Schnatter focused on his love of pizzas again. In a converted broom cupboard in the back of the tavern he started putting pizzas on the menu. The customers loved them so much, that by 1984 he was able move into adjoining space to the tavern, and come 1985 open his first Papa John restaurant.

In the USA Papa John's has over 2500 restaurants in North America alone, and is the third largest pizza company in the United States of America.

Me, myself and Papa John

I feel like I need a chair to sit down in a group discussion, and it's my turn to speak.

"Hi, my name is Kerry, and I am a pizza addict"

Ever since I was a child I have adored Pizza, and I let my parents know at every opportunity, especially when we did the weekly shop. I like pizza's that are the real deal - the ones that have that authentic Italian taste and don't taste like they are a mass produced money maker, where focus is on sales volume, not quality.

I have tried many different pizzas - Goodfellas, Pizza Express, Pizza Hut, Supermarket brands and Oetker pizzas to name but a few. Some are what I call a hit, and some are definitely a miss. Also I find that pizzas that are cooked at home in a conventional oven just don't have that fantastic taste you get from pizzas that are cooked fresh in a pizza oven. We wanted a pizza that would be delivered to us that was fresh, and had a great authentic taste.

My fiancé and I went down to visit friends in Essex once, and one night the two of us offered to babysit whilst our friends went out. We decided to get a pizza delivered, which we intended to eat in front of the television. Our friends had a drawer of menus and we stumbled across the Papa John one. As we have not got one of these stores I our area we decided to take a chance and see how it was.

Papa John's seemed to offer a great variety of pizzas and accompaniments at reasonable prices.

The choice of pizzas we were given were:

- Create your own pizza

- Bolognese Pizza - ground beef, tomatoes, onions,
mushrooms and mozzarella

- Cheese and Tomato Pizza - simple cheese and tomato

- The Hawaiian - ham and pineapple

- Farmhouse - ham and mushrooms

- Garden Special - mushrooms, green peppers, onion, black olives

- The Mexican - spicy beef, onion, jalapeno peppers, red peppers, chilli powder

- Hot Pepper Passion - red pepper, green pepper, sweetcorn, green chilli pepper, jalapeno pepper.

- Oriental Chicken - Chinese chicken, green peppers, mushrooms, sweetcorn

- Papa's Pepperoni Plus - heaps of pepperoni, mushrooms, onions

- Kentucky BBQ - char grill chicken, sausage, onions, sweetcorn and BBQ sauce.

- The Works - pepperoni, Italian sausage, ham, mushrooms, green peppers, onion, black olives

- All the meats - ground beef, ham, pepperoni, sausage, bacon.

- The Godfather - salami, chorizo, pepperoni, Italian style sausage

- Smokehouse Pizza - double bacon and ham, mozzarella, green peppers, onions.

- Half and half - half and half pizza - with choice of pizza style you want on each side!

Each pizza comes in four different options of base, which is great for people who have different preferences, and also depending on hunger.

- Thin Base - Medium size

- Deep Pan - Small size

- Deep Pan - Medium Size

- Deep Pan -Extra Large size

We decided to order half and half pizza - we had an extra large pizza with The Works on one half and The Mexican on the other.

Pass over the extras

Papa John's do a number of side orders that you can have with your pizza, and you can choose from:

- Garlic Pizza Bread

- Cheesy Jalapeno Bites

- Veggie Combo

- Garlic Cheesesticks

- Potato Wedges

- Chicken Dippers

- BBQ Chicken Wings

- BBQ Wings Combo

- Chicken Dippers Combo

I love the fact that there were so many options for us to have. Also, Papa John's offer a large variety of dips to accompany your order.

With regards to desserts I was quite impressed with the variety -there were different cake slices, muffins and ice cream. Of course all are high-calorie and will plague your hips for days to come, but I simply can't resist a good sweet dish. So desserts went on our order.

Papa John's also have a large selection of bottles of soft drinks, including Fruit Shoots for the children, in a variety of flavours.

Delivery

We placed our order with the Chelmsford store in Essex. The person who answered the phone was polite, and took our order efficiently, reading back our order at the end to ensure no mistakes were made.

They told us our delivery would be with us within 30-45 minutes, and it promptly arrived 35 minutes, hot and fresh smelling, We paid by cash, and the delivery driver had the correct change. He was also polite and re-checked we had all that we had ordered.

The Taste Test

First battle advice of sharing a pizza with a man - get in there first - somehow all men have the ability of territorially laying claim to nearly every pizza slice within seconds of the pizza box lid being lifted. I have now perfected this skill with a look that says "I will lock you in the shed if I don't get my share!"

I have a step by step tick list with the search for the perfect delivery pizza

- Heat test - The pizza was lovely and hot as if it had just come out of the oven.

- Toppability - This is seeing that the pizza topping are spread evening - Each half of the pizza had a good share of topping
and you could clearly see which half was which.

- The slice is right - Each slice had a clean cut, and could be pulled from the pizza easily. Also, each slice was about the same size, so was easier to divide amongst us.

- Fallability factor - the cheese on the pizza was a good amount, and it held the toppings together well, and barely anything fell off my pizza slice

- Last but not least - The Taste. Mmmmmmmmm mmmmmmm!!! That was my expert way of expressing the reaction my taste buds had. During this tingling mmmmm mmmm moment, I was also contemplating how to distract my fiancé so I could grab more slices than him! Yay to women for multi-tasking.

The Mexican slices were really delicious - there was a good portion of spicy beef, and the jalapenos were deliciously hot on the tongue. The chilli powder was also very spicy, and as a spice enthusiast I found it an absolute perfect combination.

On the other half we had The Works. This had a great amount of meat, and the Italian sausage was especially tasty. There wasn't enough onion for my personal preference, but the combination of the toppings was a joy to the palate.

Also it had that fantastic taste so you could really tell that it has been made in a pizza oven with the finest ingredients. It's a taste that you can't authenticate with a combination oven, however much you try.

So I would definitely say this pizza passed the taste check - it certainly got the thumbs up from my fiancée too. It was a great size, and was really tasty, with no skimping on the toppings.

We had both ordered a Banoffee Pie slice from Papa John's. We each had a good sized slice as we would expect to pay for £2.19 (each). They DID taste good BUT we have been spoilt by homemade Banoffee pie, so it stands some tough competition. It was good, but I have a recipe that tastes much nicer, and costs an awful lot less per slice.

Price

For an Extra Large half and half pizza, with two Banoffee Pie slices and a bottle of Pepsi we paid in total £20.76. We found this extremely reasonable, especially for the quality of the food we received. The Pizza was more than enough to fill us, with leftovers for the following day, Also the dessert slices were a good size and were packaged well.

===Allergy Information===

Papa John clearly state on their products what is contained within their foods. They have a code to identify different ingredients/states, such as: Gluten, Soya, Mustard, Wheat, Celery, Egg Products, Milk Products, Fish and Nuts.

===Conclusion===

More and more Papa John shops are appearing over the UK, and most shops deliver within a five mile radius. You can also go to the stores and collect your food. They are rapidly growing in popularity, and it is clear to see why. The pizzas have a fantastic authentic Italian taste that stands head and shoulders above other pizza delivery companies. They are also competitively priced, so you are not paying more money for better quality, which is a refreshing change.

Anyone ordering from Papa John's has a large selection of pizzas to choose from, in a different variety of sizes, depending on how many people you are catering for. So every taste is catered for, as if you don't like the set pizzas you can create your own pizza from a large range of toppings.

I am definitely a Papa John's fan now, and I can't wait until we have one in our area. It beats all other delivered pizzas hands down. I will be checking the website waiting in anticipation for it the grace the pizza delivery market of my area.

To check out if a store is within your area then you can visit www.papajohns.co.uk

5/5 from our house!! 

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