Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.
The Weekly Eater
SO much for the anchovy theory. One of my co-workers had this plot, you see. He wanted pizza, but he didn't want to share it with hordes of hungry co-workers. Of course it's impossible to not share a pizza, so he suggested a way to make it undesirable. Papa John’s jumps
on bandwagon"Dream on," I said.
Then he introduced me to his theory that no one will touch a pizza with anchovies.
Hmmm. He had a point there. When I was a kid, whenever people around me ordered pizzas they'd always politely ask for everyone's topping preferences. I don't know why they bothered because someone would holler, "Everything except the anchovies," and we'd inevitably order the everything-on-it-except-anchovies "deluxe" or "supreme" or "big kahuna" pizza.
The weird thing is, before my lips ever touched an anchovy, I started answering, "Everything except the anchovies," whenever the pizza question came up. Imagine my surprise to find that I actually liked the salty little fishies after all.
So now, what my co-worker was proposing made sense.
We ordered a large pizza from Papa John's. We warned those who came near, "You're not allergic to fish are you? It's got anchovies on it."
Invariably, the response was, "I love anchovies."
PAPA JOHN'S
Food 1/2
Atmosphere N/A Service Value
Locations: Kailua, Kaneohe, Kapahulu, Mapunapuna, McCully, Salt Lake/Stadium. Look for the red and green signage
The pizza disappeared in no time, no doubt due in part to the little cup of garlic-butter sauce that accompanies each Papa John's order.
"Imagine that," said the chief strategist, after the whirlwind had passed. "A roomful of people who like anchovies. I've worked in a lot of places and this has never happened before."
This incident took place last summer when we had not yet begun to see the juggernaut that is Papa John's in action. The little storefronts in Kaneohe and on Kapiolani Boulevard have spread islandwide. The chain, started in 1985 by CEO John Schnatter in Indiana, has become the No. 4 pizza restaurant nationwide, behind Pizza Hut, Domino's and Little Caesar's.
Where other pizza menus have expanded to include pastas, salads and subs, Papa John's continues its commitment to pizza, with an emphasis on freshness, from the dough to the mozzarella, mild tomato sauce and selection of toppings. Even the sausage tastes fresh, rather than as if it had been left sitting in a bucket in a fridge for a week or two.
A 10-inch pizza with three toppings costs $11.99. The 16-inch extra large "The Works" pizza, featuring sausage, pepperoni, mushrooms, bell peppers and onions costs $19.99.
In spite of the freshness of the ingredients used, I can't say this is my favorite pizza.
My plotting co-worker says he likes the pizza because of its spicy sauce and buttery crust, as well as the accompanying pepper- oncinis and "tub o' garlic sauce."
I consider the sauce sweet, so much so that the flavor carries over to the crust. The center of the crust is too feeble to stand up to those toppings, in weight and flavor.
As for the garlic sauce, my body could do without the liquid margarine stirred with garlic powder.
The pizza, like anchovies, draws its share of supporters and detractors. Choose your side.
See a listing of past restaurants reviewed in the
section online. Click the logo to go!
Nadine Kam's restaurant reviews run on Thursdays. Reviews are conducted anonymously and paid for by the Star-Bulletin. Star ratings are based on comparisons of similar restaurants:
To recommend a restaurant, write: The Weekly Eater, P.O. Box 3080, Honolulu, Hawaii 96802. Or send e-mail to features@starbulletin.com
