Pizza
Pasta
Pina coladas
Midnight munchers rate take-out pizza
Jt was a dark and stormy night. A late night, slowly turn
ing into an early morning. Suddenly, the urge for pizza
strikes. But.. .
Ah, yes — but. But it's dark outside. But it's raining.
Maybe the car's broken down. But you want pizza. What to
do? Have it delivered, of course. So grab the phone book,
set your stopwatch and start dialing.
Story by Brenda Thornton
and Frank Shaw
Photo by Mark Pynes
There are five pizza places in town that deliver to the
University area: Sy's, Mama Mia's, Tracktown, Domino's
and Pizza Pete's. In a very unscientific test, the Emerald
ordered a pepperoni and mushroom pizza from each
pizzeria and rated them on a scale from one to 10, one
meaning throw it out the door and give the dogs food
poisoning, and 10 meaning send some home to Mom.
Let's just say that Mom went hungry.
We called all five pizza places at the same time and
prepared for the barrage. After exactly 20 minutes, Mama
Mia's made the first delivery, one point in their favor. Un
fortunately, that was also the last point in their favor.
“What is this stuff?” one editor asked.
“Some kinda microwave pizza," another replied.
"I don't want to try it. You try it."
"/ don't want to try it. Let's get Mikey."
“Yeah, he'll eat anything."
Wrong. Even Mikey has standards.
Each taste-tester entered their score for Mamma Mia's
pizza into the Emerald computer. After almost choking on
the responses, it spit out an average score of 3.2.
Looks like a lean year for Mom.
Domino's delivery came in on the heels of Mama Mia's.
We waited the standard 30 minutes. Ten more seconds and
we would have had a free pizza. Rats.
What can be said about Domino's that hasn't already
been said? Most of our tasters were very familiar with the
Domino's experience. It just doesn't change. The same
spongy crust and the same free drinks are delivered every
time. Like good friends and rain in Eugene, you can always
count on Domino's.
Actually, Domino's placed a solid third in our ratings,
with an average score of 4.66. Some people just like the
status quo better than others.
Three minutes and two pizzas later, Sy's delivered. In
order to keep things as fair as possible, we ordered a
Neapolitan instead of Sy's famous Sicilian style pizza.
Overall, Sy's rated a 5.2, but the staff had definite pro
blems with the mushrooms.
"Canned ’shrooms," grumbled one taster after
another. Only one photographer, who is known for his
strange taste, liked them.
The slices were gargantuan. "Too much crust. Not
enough toppings," snorted one sports writer, stuffing a
piece into his mouth as he reached for another.
Tracktown sprinted in at 38 minutes. Although they
weren't quick, their pizza made up for the wait.
"Good crust," commented one discriminating editor.
"An unpretentious blend of cheese and pepperoni. A full
bodied pizza to go with any wine."
The computer ate up the scores, and burped out the
high score of the evening: eight.
What else can we say? Not a piece was left.
Pizza Pete's brought up the rear with a tortoise-like
time of 54 minutes. Don't call Pete for those emergency
munchies.
This is one pizza that actually stuck to the top of the
box. The sauce almost drowned the doughy crust. "Thick
enough for a fork, but use a spoon — you'll want every
drop," wrote one tester.
The computer attempted to digest the scores on this
one and ended up with indigestion and a score of 3.2.
Draw your own conclusions.
Better yet, make pizza at home.