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Getting love for "drive thru" pizza plans.

There's a chain here that has done drive thru pizza for years.

Leisher wrote: ↑Tue Mar 30, 2021 11:02 am Getting love for "drive thru" pizza plans.

There's a chain here that has done drive thru pizza for years.

"pizza"

That was a short at the chain you reference, if it's the one I'm thinking of. But, it could go both ways.

TheCatt wrote: ↑Tue Mar 30, 2021 11:04 am That was a short at the chain you reference

I was referencing Gino's, which is still in business and has 8 or so locations around town. So not a chain. Not all have the drive thru window. Google says there are a bunch of Gino's throughout the U.S., but they're different franchises, not the one here.

Were you thinking of Fazolli's or something? I ate there once. Once.

Leisher wrote: ↑Wed Mar 31, 2021 8:32 am Were you thinking of Fazolli's or something? I ate there once. Once.

Little Caesers has some drive throughs.

TheCatt wrote: ↑Wed Mar 31, 2021 9:03 am

Leisher wrote: ↑Wed Mar 31, 2021 8:32 am Were you thinking of Fazolli's or something? I ate there once. Once.

Little Caesers has some drive throughs.

I guess Pizza Hut gets credit because they're specifically designing restaurants to be like a typical fast food joint rather than a sit down place or in a strip mall?

Pizza Huts around here started shifting away from the sit-down restaurants at least a decade ago. They started delivering about the same time.

Feels like two decades ago.

Umm, I worked at a Pizza Hut that had a drive thru window like 20 years ago..

Its the same building that the Sidelines Italian is presently, the same drive thru window still exists. Is this supposed to be something new??

Toledo USED TO BE a test-bed for restaurants, and established places that wanted to try new things. I don't know why, and I don't know if it's still the case. But now that I'm thinking about it, new Domino's Pizza buildings have had drive-throughs for a long time.

For us "out past the east side" country kids, the Pizza Hut on Secor across from the movie theater used to be THE date-night place, as teenagers.

GORDON wrote: ↑Wed Mar 31, 2021 10:28 am For us "out past the east side" country kids, the Pizza Hut on Secor across from the movie theater used to be THE date-night place, as teenagers.

Come to think of it, there were always sketchy people hanging at that theater on the weekends. This explains it, the east side was invading.

I as careful to state "out past" the east side. We weren't toledoans. We were the country boys the east side sluts liked to bang because we all had (crappy used) cars at 16.

Not complaining.

Their quality has dropped too.

I don't ever remember a complimentary salad bar. Last time I ordered a pizza, it was exactly the same as it was in 1992 when I worked there. Also, Pizza Hut (at least in Toledo) never considered Little Ceasars their competition. It was Marco's and one other (that I don't remember). I remember area/regional managers coming into the store with competing pizzas and doing taste/looks/etc comparisons. They never came in with LC.

The stores with a dine-in had the salad bars, remember when they used have the buffet during the lunch hours? I worked at one 20+ years ago and the quality has fallen off so bad. Pizza Hut was far and away the best of the chain pizza shops back then. When i first started the thin crusts were all made by hand, each pie individually rolled out and made fresh daily. Towards the end of my time they had switched over to frozen thin crusts. Ironically enough the hand tossed crusts always came in frozen, which is why they were always my least favorite. I imagine the pan crust is still done the same way, mixed up daily and put in the proofer thicken up. But i can still tell to this day when a Pizza Hut has used a frest pan crust made that day vs the ones they let sit overnight to use the next day, or even two.. yuck

I remember the salad bar, I don't recall if it was complimentary, as I didn't care for salad.

The pizza is much worse than it was 30 years, or 40 years ago. Even 25 years ago. In the late 80s, early 90s, we had: Pizza Hut, Dominos, Little Caesers, Godfathers, and a local place for delivery.

Stranger wrote: ↑Thu Jul 17, 2025 6:47 am When i first started the thin crusts were all made by hand, each pie individually rolled out and made fresh daily. Towards the end of my time they had switched over to frozen thin crusts.

This. The centralification(?) and homogenization of the ingredients, crust, etc help ruin it. Used to be fresher and tastier.

Also there used to be more cheese on the pizza.

I was just referring to the complimentary part.

I do remember the buffet.

I don't remember frozen thin crust. Ours was still hand rolled and then they would run that spiked roller on it to try to keep the crust from bubbling up. It always did anyways.

I don't remember frozen hand tossed either. That being said, it was never 'hand tossed' either. Also, I was a waiter, so don't have a solid memory of how the crust was. I just saw them making them.

And you guys are crazy saying that pan pizza has changed. It's exactly the same at is was 30 years ago. I can't speak for the others. Never cared about them.

Best thing ever at Pizza Hut: Putting sauce and toppings on the garlic cheese bread. Best pizza bread ever. They sold it that way for a minute in the last 10 years. I remember seeing that and thinking "It's about time they put it on the menu!" and then it was suddenly gone. Also, it was only pepperoni. They REALLY need to put it back on the menu and let you put whatever toppings you want on it like a regular pizza.

Pizza Hut was one of my favorite jobs. Had a blast there.

Cakedaddy wrote: ↑Thu Jul 17, 2025 8:29 am I was just referring to the complimentary part.

Yeah, i realized that after i posted.

Cakedaddy wrote: ↑Thu Jul 17, 2025 8:29 am I don't remember frozen thin crust. Ours was still hand rolled and then they would run that spiked roller on it to try to keep the crust from bubbling up. It always did anyways.

I worked there from roughly '98-'03ish. the thin crust was done exactly like you said, but towards the end i remember them coming in on the truck frozen. At least in our store/area it did.

Cakedaddy wrote: ↑Thu Jul 17, 2025 8:29 am I don't remember frozen hand tossed either.

Always frozen for our area, and never actually hand tossed. i could actually spin a pizza too, learned that at my first job, Pappa John's. LOL

Cakedaddy wrote: ↑Thu Jul 17, 2025 8:29 am Best thing ever at Pizza Hut: Putting sauce and toppings on the garlic cheese bread.

We came up with a breakfast pizza. Throw a couple of scrambled eggs on a thin crust, top it with whatever you like and cheese on top, throw it in the oven. Fucking delicious

Cakedaddy wrote: ↑Thu Jul 17, 2025 8:29 am Pizza Hut was one of my favorite jobs. Had a blast there.

Same! i was a driver and did alot of the prep work between driving. We also had a dine-in so we had an ever rotating crew of waitresses that i would bang. We never hired dude waiters, that would be dumb.

Cakedaddy wrote: ↑Thu Jul 17, 2025 8:29 am And you guys are crazy saying that pan pizza has changed

I said i imagine its still done the same way, but i can tell if its a pan crust made that day or if its sit for a day or two.

Cakedaddy wrote: ↑Thu Jul 17, 2025 8:29 am And you guys are crazy saying that pan pizza has changed. It's exactly the same at is was 30 years ago. I can't speak for the others. Never cared about them.

In 2019, Pizza Hut revamped its iconic Original Pan Pizza for the first time in 40 years, introducing a new pan, cheese blend, and sauce to enhance its flavor and crispiness.
...
shift from in-store dough preparation to using pre-made dough, potentially impacting the taste and quality

TheCatt wrote: ↑Thu Jul 17, 2025 10:41 am In 2019, Pizza Hut revamped its iconic Original Pan Pizza for the first time in 40 years, introducing a new pan, cheese blend, and sauce to enhance its flavor and crispiness.
...
shift from in-store dough preparation to using pre-made dough, potentially impacting the taste and quality

Fake news created by AI.