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TPRJones wrote:Lower than Marcos? Jesus. I thought only Gumby's could be listed as lower than Marcos.

That must be some really shitty pizza.

Interesting. Marco's is a Toledo creation, and the Marco's around here deliver passable pizza. Maybe that makes us biased or maybe the free pizza for a year we won through them does (expired three months ago and we haven't had it since) or maybe they're on point locally because their national HQ is here?

In Chi Town at Pizzeria Uno, alleged birthplace of deep dish. Orders take an hour to make properly. Good sign.

Any deep dish takes time, except for Little Caesar's apparently.

Personally, I've become a fan of thin crust lately. So many delivery places fuck up the crust that I find it's better to focus on the toppings, cheese, and sauce.

Marcos is new to this area. It may be that they just haven't got up to whatever standards they are supposed to meet yet. I've only been there once shortly after they opened and it was almost the worst excuse for pizza I'd ever experienced. Far worse than Domino's, Pizza Hut, Popa John's, and even worse than Cici's and Little Ceaser. I just filed them away in my mind as a Gumby's knock-off and never went back.

But if that chain is supposed to be better than that I'll give them a second shot. Do you have any recommendation of what they are supposed to be good at if they are up to the chain standards you've experienced?

For what it's worth, I always get the thick crust with double sauce. I find it to be ok.

TPRJones wrote:Marcos is new to this area. It may be that they just haven't got up to whatever standards they are supposed to meet yet. I've only been there once shortly after they opened and it was almost the worst excuse for pizza I'd ever experienced. Far worse than Domino's, Pizza Hut, Popa John's, and even worse than Cici's and Little Ceaser. I just filed them away in my mind as a Gumby's knock-off and never went back.

But if that chain is supposed to be better than that I'll give them a second shot. Do you have any recommendation of what they are supposed to be good at if they are up to the chain standards you've experienced?

Wow. You definitely had a bad experience because Marco's should rank higher than Domino's, Little Caesar's, Hungry Howie's, and Cici's.

Personally, I've had problems with Marco's too, but I've also gotten excellent pizzas from them. They might be the equivalent of the girl Seinfeld dated (on the show) who was hot or ugly depending on the lighting.

I'd put them in line with Papa John's. Both of them have that dry crust, but Marco's doesn't have that flour on it that Papa John's does.

Marco's biggest problem, imho, is that they're not adapting quickly enough. Both their menu and their website show a lack of creativity, innovation, and attention to detail. For example, you can't surf their menu because a pop up appears asking how you'd like to get your order. I'm not placing a fucking order, I just want to see your menu!

When I order from Marco's I get a large thin crust with pep and Italian sausage with extra sauce.

Do you guys have Vito's down there?

1. Love Vito's taco pizza on a thin crust, also their foldover subs. Delish.

2. Agree about Marcos having a shitty online presence. My local Marcos also never has good deals, and they are more expensive than any other place by 50%..... they are also the only place that delivers to me.

3. I find Papa Johns to be the McDonald's of the pizza biz. Their product is bland and unoffensive, designed to appeal to the greatest possible number of people. It's the last pizza I order when given a choice. As an aside I find Subway to be the McDonald's of the sammitch biz.

Leisher wrote:Do you guys have Vito's down there?

There's a Vito's Famous on the north side (60 miles away). No idea if it's what you mean, though.

GORDON wrote:As an aside I find Subway to be the McDonald's of the sammitch biz.

I can't argue against that, but I gotta so that if you get a Spicy Italian with pepper jack on toasted bread with a little marinara sauce in there and some sweet onion dressing - veggies to taste - that's going to be one of the most delicious sandwiches you will ever put in your facehole.

TPRJones wrote:

GORDON wrote:As an aside I find Subway to be the McDonald's of the sammitch biz.

I can't argue against that, but I gotta so that if you get a Spicy Italian with pepper jack on toasted bread with a little marinara sauce in there and some sweet onion dressing - veggies to taste - that's going to be one of the most delicious sandwiches you will ever put in your facehole.

Noted.

You definitely had a bad experience because Marco's should rank higher than Domino's, Little Caesar's, Hungry Howie's, and Cici's.

Domino's ... has gotten noticeably better since they revamped their shit a couple years back.

Pizza Hut ... has also gotten better. They tend to be locked in an arms race with Domino's.

Papa John's ... becoming the weakest and shittiest of the big 3. They are what Domino's was ten years ago.

Cici's ... fuck buffet pizza. May as well be eating mozzarella sticks on Civil War-era biscuit rations.

Little Seizure's ... I'll slum it here maybe once a year. Only because there's one less than a mile away and there's hardly any waiting. Maybe a hint of nostalgia. The quality is worse than Papa's.

pizza on a thin crust

Should be a crime punishable by death. Thin crust pizza is like non-alcoholic beer.

I like a thin crust pizza, but it's not really a pizza. It's an Italian tostada. Any pizza place that is not very good can still have food worth eating if you go with the thin crust, unless the problem is that their sauce is inedible in which case you're just screwed.

But when I have somewhere I can get actual good pizza then I don't want thin crust. That would be a waste of their talent.

There was a place in NC that I loved that was staffed by a fucking off-the-boat Italian family and they hand tossed all their shit and when it came out of the oven it was thin and chewy and had those big air bubbles. Might be the second fave pizza I've ever had regularly.

TPRJones wrote:I like a thin crust pizza, but it's not really a pizza.

You just said that the ORIGINAL pizza FROM ITALY, ISN'T PIZZA. What. the. fuck?

There was a place in NC that I loved that was staffed by a fucking off-the-boat Italian family and they hand tossed all their shit and when it came out of the oven it was thin and chewy and had those big air bubbles. Might be the second fave pizza I've ever had regularly

Still open? What was it?

TheCatt wrote:

TPRJones wrote:I like a thin crust pizza, but it's not really a pizza.

You just said that the ORIGINAL pizza FROM ITALY, ISN'T PIZZA. What. the. fuck?

Depending who you believe, it's either Etruscan, Greek, Persian, Chinese, or Indian in origin. Additionally, if you want to wheel in tradition and other bullshit, there are plenty of dudes from Italy who swear by the pizza gods that there are only two types: marinara and margherita. That means anything with toppings except that isn't pizza. Can we now chuck tradition out the window?

TheCatt wrote:

TPRJones wrote:I like a thin crust pizza, but it's not really a pizza.

You just said that the ORIGINAL pizza FROM ITALY, ISN'T PIZZA. What. the. fuck?

There was a place in NC that I loved that was staffed by a fucking off-the-boat Italian family and they hand tossed all their shit and when it came out of the oven it was thin and chewy and had those big air bubbles. Might be the second fave pizza I've ever had regularly

I should have been more specific. When I think of thin crust pizza I'm thinking of the sort where the crust is so thin that it is crunchy, almost like a cracker. If it's chewy and has big air bubbles that wouldn't be what I was referring to, that's still pizza with a crust in the normal range.

I'm not trying to rewrite definitions, I'm just saying that whenever I'm stuck with a crappy pizza place I find that it can still be enjoyably good as long as they have the crispy-cracker sort of thin crust "pizza". Which I don't think any respectable Italian would call pizza.

TPRJones wrote: I'm not trying to rewrite definitions, I'm just saying that whenever I'm stuck with a crappy pizza place I find that it can still be enjoyably good as long as they have the crispy-cracker sort of thin crust "pizza". Which I don't think any respectable Italian would call pizza.

That's exactly what Italian pizza is! (Although that varies by region) But the crackery thin pizza is definitely Italian.

I've not been to Italy, but every time I've had supposedly "real" pizza it has not been so thin it crunched. If that's what it's supposed to do then I need to reevaluate my entire understanding of pizza.

In case you couldn't guess, the pizza game in Texas is not strong.

TheCatt wrote:

There was a place in NC that I loved that was staffed by a fucking off-the-boat Italian family and they hand tossed all their shit and when it came out of the oven it was thin and chewy and had those big air bubbles. Might be the second fave pizza I've ever had regularly

Still open? What was it?

As far as I know they are... there are actually two places, Tony's, and Michelangelo's, and they are both the same family, but I guess there was an argument and there was a split in the bidness. I could never tell them apart.

This was eastern NC, in Jacksonville. I have no idea how widespread they were, but they had a few locations there in town.

I remember going to two places in Sicily and both times your one pizza option was Margarita pizza.

I've only had northern Italian pizza (Venice, Milan, etc) and this was about 24 years ago, but the pizza was cracker thin, or nearly so. So yes, I think you would like it.

Gordon, that Michelangelo's place is also in Emerald Isle and Atlantic Beach, same apparent owner as the one in Jacksonville. I thought the pizza was decent, NY style, but generic. But, they served it by the slice was it wasn't fresh. Maybe it's better as a whole pie.

I will say that I do prefer a thicker crust when it's done right. It's just so rarely done right around here and a thinner crust makes it easier to hide the sins of incompetent pizza. So while I bet I would like it I suspect I'll be disappointed int he long run by that being the definitive nature of pizza.