Posted on 01/05/2026 6:44:58 PM PST by logi_cal869
The restaurant industry is trying to figure out whether America has hit peak pizza.
Once the second-most common U.S. restaurant type, pizzerias are now outnumbered by coffee shops and Mexican food eateries, according to industry data. Sales growth at pizza restaurants has lagged behind the broader fast-food market for years, and the outlook ahead isn’t much brighter.
“Pizza is disrupted right now,” Ravi Thanawala, chief financial officer and North America president at Papa John’s International, said in an interview. “That’s what the consumer tells us.”
The parent of the Pieology Pizzeria chain filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in December. Others, including the parent of Anthony’s Coal Fired Pizza & Wings and Bertucci’s Brick Oven Pizza & Pasta, earlier filed for bankruptcy.
Pizza once was a novelty outside big U.S. cities, providing room for growth for independent shops and then chains such as Pizza Hut with its red roof dine-in restaurants. Purpose-made cardboard boxes and fleets of delivery drivers helped make pizza a takeout staple for those seeking low-stress meals.
Today, pizza shops are engaged in price wars with one another and other kinds of fast food. Food-delivery apps have put a wider range of cuisines and options at Americans’ fingertips. And $20 a pie for a family can feel expensive compared with $5 fast-food deals, frozen pizzas or eating a home-cooked meal.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
“Costco still sells a slice and a Coke for $3. Works for me.”
Sam’s Club does the same.
LOL!
(I doubt you can give up your ‘day job’, but you show promise!)
I gave up my day job already…which is awesome!
Norm!
Hahaha
$20 pies? Where.? Every pub sell pies now. The size of a small dinner plate are $25. Neighborhood “mom and pop” owned pizza joints are $50 easy. And they aren’t good. All the supplies come off the same SysCo truck. I don’t think any of them even make their own dough.
The last few places I lived the Pizza Hut (and Taco Bell since they are the same) closed sit down seating and only allow take out. Meanwhile, dozens of Mexican taco trucks have shown up on every street corner. I predict the food trucks are little more than drug money laundering or dealing sites. No one is ever at them and they are everywhere always open.
We get fabulous pizza at a nearby family owned restaurant. We order a large veggie pizza with meatballs for $36 and get two meals out of it.
When I first became a breakfast cook, it took me a dozen and a half to learn to flip eggs over easy.
Lots of lubrication, and a good nonstick pan. Make sure the eggs are broken loose from the pan - over easy OR omelettes.
After you do anything with the dough, you have to let it rest.
Otherwise, the elasticity kicks in. At the pizza kitchen, we would make the dough blanks, then stick them in the reach-in.
They were best when they sat overnight. Plenty of time to relax then.
Great story! 😁
Many people don’t have the patience to let the dough relax - they’re eager to get it over with, once they’ve started.
That’s why it’s best to let it sit overnight - it takes at least a half hour.
“They were best when they sat overnight.”
In the fridge / walk-in, or out on a counter — “resting”?
With your advice, now I’m stoked to give it a try with better results than in the past.
Thank you so much!
Tell me how it comes out. I also have a spaghetti sauce recipe that would be restaurant quality.
That woman has been gone going on 20 years now, but people still talk about her to this day! The most common point of reference for her is the movie “The Devil Wears Prada“!
I guess some people just achieve some form of immortality… 😁
OK Thanks!
I’m with you. I like making my own in a wood-fired oven I got. And something is wrong with the old standards... I also suspect ingredients.
Pizza Hut today isn’t the Pizza Hut of 1974. Same for KFC... something just isn’t right.
There is just too many great wood ,coal or gas fired pizza places that hand make Neapolitan, Chicago ,or D-Town pies for the same or nearly the same price as corporate slop pizza. Yes you have to go eat in their restaurant as those pizzas don’t travel well with Uber eats but it’s totally worth it for a high end pie.
I can think of at least a dozen high end shops just in East and Central Dallas alone,not even including its rich Northern suburbs also loaded with real hand made coal or wood fired pies. The pizza huts of the world are dead to my clan and all my homies too I can remember the last time I had pizza hut,Dominos,papa johns or slop like that. Course I also go to NYC on the regular for weeks at a time and it has ruined me for pizza, New Haven too.
If you only eat one pizza in the USA it should be De Fara’s in Brooklyn make it a life’s goal trust me on this.
The second bucket list is Bonci in Rome Italy again make it a life’s goal.
These two pizza’s are what the world should be judged by.
I’ll grant Sally’s Apizza in New Haven the third bucket list spot specifically for the clam Apizza
They still do over 20 billion in sales combined
I use a mozzarella and provolone blend. It’s mostly 100% skim mozzarella.
Melts great.
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