The fact is, I'm a humble, humble man, and I always put others before myself. (A broken foot is a tragedy, why aren't any of you sending me gifts or funny cat pictures to brighten my mood?) I would never try to feed you anything other than the raw, real truth. The truth is....casts are uncomfortable, and it's beginning to make me cranky.
Because of my current predicament, and my lovely wife driving me literally everywhere I need to go, we opted to have pizza in our most comfortable environment: our apartment. Instead of taking the lazy way and ordering one of the Big Three (Pizza Hut, Papa John's, and Domino's), we stopped by Papa Murphy's on the way home yesterday.
I almost didn't have a picture to give you....I'll explain below.
As you can see, there is a picture of only one piece left. I say that because we nearly forgot to take a picture of it, for multiple reasons: (1) We were starving and pizza was the only thing that could satisfy our hunger, (2) I actually remembered to do it, but I couldn't decide if I wanted to take a photo of it before going into the oven, and (3) I'm on crutches, and getting up off the couch is a big deal for me right now.
For those of you who don't know what Papa Murphy's "Take N Bake" Pizza is, it is a chain of stores that allow you to walk in and order your pizza, only to take it home and cook it yourself. The crust is pre-made to the size of pizza you order, and a Papa Murphy's employee adds the toppings and wraps it up to go, right in front of you. (Think of how they prep your food at Subway.) Then all you have to do is take it home and do the hard part! (If you think baking is difficult, that is.)
Let me first address a concern or two that I have had with Papa Murphy's until now. I have heard some pretty divided reviews on the place, ranging from love to hate and not a whole lot in between. Secondly, we brought home a Papa Murphy's pizza one time a few years ago...but our bipolar oven in our last apartment decided 400 degrees for 10 minutes was the equivalent of the Sun's surface. Burnt doesn't begin to describe the damaged ex-food that came out of the demon oven.
We chose Papa Murphy's because Katie suggested the pizza of the week. With a lack of other options (and the fact that I undeniably owe her for driving me around while she should be sleeping), I agreed to Papa Murphy's.
The thing that stuck out to us most? Cost. We bought a large (the second-biggest size Papa Murphy's offers) "deLite" thin crust pepperoni, an order of cheese bread, and a small container of cookie dough for FOURTEEN DOLLARS. If I had known that I was paying double of the pizza's cost and profit margin just so they'd cook it for me, I'd buy a truck and haul kindling just to build a fire out front of every pizza joint in town to save that kind of cash. (So what if the truck is more expensive than the money I've spent so far, and the time I'd spend making a fire and trying to learn to cook a pizza is way longer than they could cook it for me? It's the principle of the thing.)
Once we actually got it home, we popped the cheese bread in the oven and made that first so we could chow down on it while the pizza baked. Best cheese bread I've had in a while. I think. Top three, easily. Light, a little crispy, and a very good taste without having to pile the cheese on (and having a lactose-related incident later). It comes with marinara dipping sauce too (with tomato chunks, but even Katie didn't seem to mind).
After we demolished the cheese bread, (I want more right now, and I'm not even hungry. That good.) we started on the pizza. The "large" size apparently serves 2-3 people, which just means two people eating and one person watching, I think. Otherwise, Katie and I are pigs when it comes to pizza. (Very possible.)
A part of this blog that I tend to enjoy is describing the pizza. I get to try to find new ways of explaining something, which is harder than it seems sometimes.
The crust was thin, and kind of crispy. (You can't teach that kind of command of the English language. You've either got it or you don't.) Seriously though, the "deLite" thin crust was a solid crust with a good amount of lightness and crisp, very easy to enjoy. I found it hard to like how much grease we found under it though, and it took a few minutes for the pieces to solidify some after coming out of the oven. We used forks on the first pieces, and then ate with our hands (like civilized adults) afterwards.
The sauce amount (we didn't ask for light sauce for once!) was great and it tasted fine; no strong tastes that come to mind when we were eating. We had the choice to go with the "deLite" sauce or the regular....we went with the regular.
The pepperonis tasted awesome. They tasted like the ones I enjoy from a place I'll be writing about in a few months....it's a personal/family favorite that I am trying to hold off on doing for a while. (I won't mention it for those of you who don't know about it yet) I'm struggling with how to best describe the pepperonis, but all I can think of are words like "meaty," "hardy," and "umami." (Yep. Umami. Google it. You done? Did you just learn a new word? Good for you!)
The cheese, much like the sauce, was just the right amount for us and not overpowering in any way.
Leftovers time!
Sorry folks, no leftovers. By the time we got down to the last slice, it was clear that we weren't going to have enough to do the hot/cold test. I'm not a bit disappointed by that either.
Grades:
Service: Excellent. The cute waitress in my apartment brought me drinks and served me pizza anytime I held my plate out to her. (Grade: A+....because I know better than to give her anything less)
Atmosphere: What could be better than eating at home when you want to be at home? I didn't even have to have shoes on while I ate. That's the kind of comfort I want in public. (Grade: B...my dog kept trying to eat some of it.)
Taste: So far, I think this is one of the top 3-4 places we've visited so far, hands down. Great cheese bread followed by a really solid pizza that I could see us getting on nights where we don't feel like cooking. (Grade: A)
Accessibility: I live on the second floor of an apartment building. Stairs are my sworn enemy right now. This place was not handicap accessible at all. (Grade: C)
In short, I no longer have any reservations about Papa Murphy's, and I genuinely enjoyed having it for the first time yesterday. I'd suggest it!
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