Little Caesars Pizza-Pizza

[Toliver]

I performed an eGullet search and was surprised this pizza chain hadn't been discussed before.

Here's a current article on a new menu item:

"Little Caesars to Offer Pizza Wrapped in 3.5 Feet of Bacon"

 "With the new Bacon Wrapped Crust DEEP!DEEP! Dish we're pushing pizza to its bacon limits with more than 3.5 feet of bacon wrapped around the crust alone," said Edward Gleich, Senior Vice President of Global marketing, in a release. 

There's a picture accompanying the article.

It's a limited time offer and I believe it costs more than their usual pizza-pizzas. The "deep dish" isn't really deep dish pizza, either. It's square-ish/rectangular (not round) so that there are crunchy "corners" which Little Caesars likes to think their customers appreciate. And now those corners can come wrapped in bacon.

Anyone eager to take one for the team?   

[Shelby]

When I first moved out to a studio apartment and was going to college and working I would get a Little Caesar's pizza (they were big and cheap) and eat on them for days.  I don't think I could stand to look at another lol.  I haven't tried one for years and years but back then they were not very good.  Rubbery cheese, sweet sweet sauce (and not very much of it) and the pepperonis were few and far between.  Guess that's why it was so cheap lol.

[Greekness]

I have not eaten one of their pizzas other than when I was a very poor grad school student. I would be curious to know what you think if you try one because it has been many years since I have sampled their pizza.

[lindag]

Little Caesar's is awful stuff.  I wouldn't take one if it were free.

[Toliver]

I'm not feeling any bacon-love around here.  

[Tri2Cook]

I too ate a lot of it during my college years and early working years. I don't know if it's changed like everything else (there was a time when Pizza Hut pizza, while not great, was much better than what they serve today) but I didn't mind it at the time. I accepted it for what it was... cheaper than Pizza Hut and Domino's. I can't say that there's been a time when I've thought "Hey, I haven't had Little Caesar's in years! I wish I had one!" but if there was one close to where I live, I might try it again just for fun. I might even be willing to try that bacon wrapped beast just to say I did. However, it's a non-option since it doesn't exist here.

[Alex]

Business Insider (?!) checks out the bacon crust pizza/

 

 

The main attraction — the bacon — was well-done and crispy, with a smokey flavor. 

 

"The bacon around the crust added more flavor than I thought it would and really made the crust worth eating," one reviewer said. "I loved it and it would make the perfect hangover cure."

 

Others said eating the indulgent product was thrilling. 

 

" You feel bad eating this pizza. But not bad bad," a tester wrote. "The exhilarating kind of bad."

 

It's important that you don't treat the "Bacon Wrapped Crust Deep! Deep! Dish" pizza like a normal pie and eat several slices.

 

Most people said they could not manage more than one slice. Our reviewer who had three slices said he was "deeply upset" with himself.

[IndyRob]

 The "deep dish" isn't really deep dish pizza, either. It's square-ish/rectangular (not round) so that there are crunchy "corners" which Little Caesars likes to think their customers appreciate

 

It *is* deep dish.  Just not Chicago deep dish.  It's a Detroit thing (although also called a pan pizza back in the day).  It's derived from a Sicilian style.  If you go over to pizzamaking.com and click on their Sicilian Style forum, you'll see that most posts are about Detroit style pizza - if not specific Detroit pizza joints.  And many of the threads focus on how to get that crispy - almost fried - crust.  In fact, they used to feature something called a Baby Pan Pizza.  These were baked four slices at a time in a square pan with a special cross-shaped separator that deliver that crispiness to all four sides of the slice. (I actually own a couple authentic examples of these)

 

I actually like their deep dish pizza (others disagree), but they do seem to have a continuing consistency problem.  Their $5 large (American style) pizzas, while a convenient bargain, are a disaster.  And they've also taken to really weird concepts like pretzel pizzas, and now this bacon thing (after the bacon fad had pretty much jumped the shark).

 

Detroit style pizza actually started making waves in the news a couple of years ago and are even featured in this year's SXSW (see VIA 313 - Detroit's area code).  This might've been helped long by another chain called Jet's which offers a eight-corner pizza - actually, two four-slice rectangular pizzas put in a box side-by-side.  Little Caesar's current deep dish offering seems to be a response to this.

 

Please don't be dissin' regional pizza styles based on a franchise chain.  It's a Detroit thing.  Go there.  Or if not there, the Sicilian Style forum on pizzamaking.com.

Edited February 24, 2015 by IndyRob (log)

[Toliver]

It *is* deep dish.  Just not Chicago deep dish....

A more accurate description of LIttle Caesar's deep dish pizza would be "deep crust" pizza. I'm not knocking it...I'm just sayin'...

 

Regarding your comment:

 And they've also taken to really weird concepts like pretzel pizzas, and now this bacon thing (after the bacon fad had pretty much jumped the shark).

Thanks to this, I'm now jonesing for some bacon-wrapped shark.

"Mmm...bacon-wrapped shark"[/Homer Simpson] 

[Alex]

From the link in Toliver's original post:

 

 

"With the new Bacon Wrapped Crust DEEP!DEEP! Dish we're pushing pizza to its bacon limits with more than 3.5 feet of bacon wrapped around the crust alone," said Edward Gleich, Senior Vice President of Global marketing, in a release.

 

LC's TV ads also stress "More than three and a half feet!"

 

My first thought was, "Wow! Mega-bacon!" My second thought was, "Wait. How much is that, actually?" So I did some mental math.

 

3.5' = 42", so "more than 3.5 feet" probably is somewhere between 42.5 and 47.5" -- otherwise they would have said "four feet." There are eight pieces of pizza to an order, and it looks like two sides of each piece are bacon-wrapped, so that's 16 sides, meaning there'd be less than 3" of bacon per side. That doesn't sound right. Maybe the "3.5 feet" refers to each of the two four-slice pies. But that wouldn't make sense, either, as the ads would then tout "more than 7 feet of bacon!" Or would they? "Seven feet" does sound like an obscene amount of bacon, at least in this context, which might turn off the average consumer -- although it's actually only 10-11 regular slices (assuming 8" per slice, which is what the bacon we have at home measures).

 

Yeah, I'm overthinking this.

[Fernet-Bronco]

I wanna say my dad and I used to go when I was in middle school when one opened up a couple miles from us. My mom said it tasted like cardboard and refused to eat it. I remember liking it okay, as well as being intrigued by the one-way mirror they had on the door to their kitchen. Place went out of business eventually and I think all or most of them in my hometown shuttered. Haven't had Little Caesar's in years and likely wouldn't eat it today given that there are usually better, local options available. Though this thread kinda makes me want to try a slice.

Edited March 5, 2015 by Fernet-Bronco (log)