🍕 Stay up-to-date with the latest headlines and hottest conversations from the pizza world on Pizza Roundtable, part of the I Need Pizza Club Network!
Anna Crucitt, Will Dumas and Jim Mumford welcome Chicago's John Carruthers to Pizza Roundtable for Ohio Valley pizza crimes, a flour fight over Tokyo-style Neapolitan, and Domino's million-dollar giveaway.
This week's top stories include:
🚨 Ohio Valley Pizza: Crime or Comfort Food?In the recurring Pizza Crimes segment, the panel looks at a Reddit r/PizzaCrimes photo of Ohio Valley style from a Fayetteville, NC food truck; guest John Carruthers, author of a book on Midwest pizza, says the cold-cheese, room-temperature style is Ohio spreading into West Virginia and Tennessee, citing chain DeCarlo's, which has more locations there than in Ohio (Reddit (r/PizzaCrimes)).
🍶 Anna: Swap the Flour, Drop 'Neapolitan'Covering PMQ's look at Tokyo-style Neapolitan pizza, Will says he's excited to see more of it open in New York and John says Chicago eaters haven't caught on yet, but Anna argues that if the dough isn't made with flour milled in Naples, it isn't Neapolitan, and shops should just call it Tokyo style. John agrees, dubbing any flour-swapped version 'sparkling pizza.' (PMQ Pizza).
🗽 NYC's First-Ever Pizza Week Debuts Sept 20Time Out New York previewed the city's first-ever Pizza Week, running September 20 through October 4 with more than 20 shops including Paulie Gee's, Stretch and Slicehaus each running a one-off slice (Time Out New York).
📸 Was This 1976 Photo Chicago's First Slice Shop?PMQ's Pizza Hall of Fame piece asks whether a 1976 photo shows Chicago's first pizza-by-the-slice shop; John loves the yellow-t-shirt, mustache and wallpaper aesthetic in the photo but says it depends on what counts as a 'slice.' Anna counters with her own family stake in the debate, her cousin's Frank's Pizza in Ambridge, PA, which has sold New York-style slices for 67 years and where the founder's wife still makes pizza there in her nineties (PMQ Pizza).
🤖 Papa John's Is 85% Digital Orders NowRestaurant Dive detailed Papa John's turnaround, a new POS system, AI demand forecasting and an AI ordering assistant, with 85% of orders already coming through app, website or third-party delivery. John calls the AI-assistant coverage obvious PR-firm copy but says he's glad to have a machine to blame when an order goes wrong, while Will says he'd welcome a suggestion for a pizza he has never tried, based on his past orders (Restaurant Dive).
💥 Domino's $1M Giveaway Crashed in a DayPMQ Pizza reported on Domino's promo sending customers to buy a Big Mac, Whopper or Crunchwrap Supreme first, then upload the receipt at IsTheDominoWorthIt.com for a free single-serve Domino pizza; the site burned through its $1 million budget and crashed in 24 hours instead of running the planned month (PMQ Pizza).
From whether Ohio Valley pizza deserves the crimes label to whether swapped flour disqualifies a pie from being Neapolitan, this one has sides.
--
Episode Timestamps:00:00 - Intro / Catch-Up08:41 - Ohio Valley Pizza: Crime or Comfort Food?14:46 - Anna: Swap the Flour, Drop 'Neapolitan'20:40 - NYC's First-Ever Pizza Week Debuts Sept 2029:23 - Was This 1976 Photo Chicago's First Slice Shop?33:45 - Papa John's Is 85% Digital Orders Now39:29 - Domino's $1M Giveaway Crashed in a Day
--
Connect with the I Need Pizza Club Network► Subscribe for weekly pizza news updates!► Follow I Need Pizza Club on Instagram and YouTube: @Ineedpizzaclub► Follow Anna Crucitt: @Anna.Crucitt► Follow Mercurio's: @MercuriosPGH► Follow Will Dumas: @FunnieWill► Follow Jim Mumford: @JimCooksFoodGood
","author_name":"Pizza Club"}