Papa John's

What's it like?

Kim called me on her way home from work:
Kim: I'm starving.
Me: Yeah, I'm pretty hungry.
Kim: What do you want for dinner?
Me: I need to eat something healthy—like a good salad.
Kim: Is the lettuce in the fridge still good?
Me: eh...

We hang up. Nine minutes later, she opens the front door.
Kim: So, what do you want for dinner?
Me: Well...Papa John's is open.
Kim: WHAT!?!? WHERE? I could totally do pizza.
Me: Yeah, salad's overrated.

I guess you had to be there. Nevertheless, we set out on what turned out to be a grueling quest to find a phone number for the location that just opened at Fowler & Ashlan. Google wasn't any help. 1-800-GOOG-411 gave me the number for Papa John's in Tulare, but that turned out to be someone's fax line. Even Papa John's corporate website caused confusion, as it didn't provide any results in the "location finder" and no corporate phone number could be found.

Alas, Kim called the Long's that just opened in the same shopping center, and was able to secure the number. 25 minutes later, we arrived to pick up the pie.

The background behind our excitement for this chain is its presence in my memories of college; many of my meals consisted of little more than Papa John's pepperoni pizza (and the garlic butter, of course).

Tonight we took advantage of the $12 special: a large The Works. I ravaged through mine in record time, but Kim didn't finish her second piece, noting that it wasn't quite cooked all the way through. The pizza wasn't inedible, but it's not like her to leave leftovers. Coupled with the frustrations of navigating corporate's website, we weren't left with very positive first impressions.

That said, I filled out a feedback form online that outlined this experience, and received a reply within minutes that claimed that the store owners would be in contact. I'll update this post if I hear from them.