Day 16, 2005: Papa John's (Astoria, Queens)

DAY 16: October 16th LOCATION: Papa John's (Cresent St and Hoyt Ave in Astoria, QUEENS) GUEST(S): Andy Butterworth ORDER: 6 slices of pepperoni, 1 slice of cheese PIZZA REPORT: Is it possible to sleep in, order two large pizzas in the early afternoon, then eat nothing but pizza the entire day? The answer is "yes". Over the course of 7 hours, I had 7 slices of Papa John's pizza and don't regret a thing. My favorite part of Papa John's pizza is the sauce. Even as the condition of the pizza approached STP (standard temperature and pressure) the sauce retained it's D (deliciousness). I used to work at Papa John's and I have always been a fan of their sauce blend. It's sweeter than the typical pizza sauce. I was also amazed at the consistency of the crust. It was spongy when it was hot and it was spongy 7 hours later. "Spongy" in a good way. Papa John's is a ubiquitous chain so it comes as no surprise that the cheese was rather bland in that 'mass-produced' sort of way. That said, the sauce, crust, and pepperoni more than made up for it. The pizza was also very aesthetically appealing. It really looked like the posters of the pizza in the store. There were no red edges, no center-loading, nor any pinches in the crust. This lends credence to the old Papa John's motto, "the perfect pizza at the Perfect Price." That was the motto when I worked at Papa John's (in Valrico, FL). Of course, they have changed it in the last decade. The current motto is "Better Pizza, Better Price" which still involves the words "pizza" and "price" and I must say that it was better than nothing, which is the only thing else I had to eat today. MISC.: Andy Butterworth and I watched baseball all day. Postseason baseball is amazing despite the fact that both of our favorite teams (Red Sox for Andy, Mets for me) are no longer playing. Andy introduced me to Paul Newman's Green Mountain coffee. It was tasty and really got me up and going to be nice and alert to do nothing all day. I shouldn't say I did "nothing". After all, I called my mom. Oh, and also I played Unreal Tournament 2004 with my brother. He is a doctor with a wife and two kids so the only time I spend with him is playing first person shooter computer games. Fortunately, we do this 3-4 times a week. We aren't bad either. He tends to defend the base while I am tasked with capturing the flag. We were not so successful tonight. 12 year olds kept calling me a "noob" (derogatory term for a "newbie"). I have a thick skin though. Yes, that is a life size pikachu pillow behind me on the couch. Also, if you look closely, you can see the framed embroidered pizza slice Erika Kern made me at the end of Pizza Month '04 last year. Isn't that cool?