Papa John's Comes to Parsippany

That's right. The one thing we need is yet another pizzeria in Parsippany, along North Beverwyck Road... because the half-dozen or so we have.... aren't enough. Luis had seen signs or read somewhere that there was a Papa John's coming to Parsippany some time ago and was looking forward to this and already drooling, much like Pavlov's dog, in anticipation. It was a little weird, to be honest.

After months of listening to him go on about it, I reached the, "Whatever," stage and tuned it out.

A couple of days ago we were coming home from visiting local friends and instead of making the right turn onto Claudine Terrace, he attempted (slowly) to make a left into the strip mall literally right a cross the street from Wing Zone (may that place blow up soon - just the smell of it makes my stomach start churning), one a zillion Dunkin' Donuts (a lot of people pass out in there... I wonder why...) and among other things, the Town Tavern, a restaurant that replaced the evil and heinous dance bar that has opened there a month or so after we bought the house (talk about missed in full-disclosure.... thankfully so many surrounding houses besides us called the police to get them to turn the music down that they bailed in a few months).

And there at the tail end of the strip mall is, looking not yet open, is the the new Papa John's. It looks like any other strip mall store in the world so I completely missed it. Luis, with that preternatural instinct of all over eaters to find new food sources, found it months before they were in there! I don't know if he drove by them every night on the way home to see if they were open... or if he kept track of it online. He did find out that they were opening this Friday (the 3rd) and had a menu and an order for me to put in. I guess he got a menu and didn't hang around to find someone ask questions. (Sounds a little stalker-like, doesn't it?)

Friday night Luis comes home from working with someone to go live (which is either very challenging or they're on Pacific time, because he git in around 2115). That's really, really late for him, surprisingly so. But he wanted to hurry up and put in an order for Papa John's grand opening Day. He put together a list and I called the brand-spankin'-new pizza place.

(In Luis' defense, he used to have to fly to the customer's site to go live. This is a testament to how far he has come in making the technology fit the needs of clients and them so that no more - well, a lot less - flights are needed. I'm really quite proud of him!)

I got a canned message saying they're sorry, they are experiencing a delay and here's some music while you wait." Oh my achin' ovaries! I know people's cell phones who do that and then I am stuck for the duration listening to country western or the horrors of pop music. (Brittney Speares is NOT music) And this is business! What was on? More mindless pop music!AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Just as Luis walks out the door to run across the street to grab some more soda, the guy at Papa John's picks up. (I wasn't on hold long at all but listening to the bee-bop junk just sets my teeth on edge!) I told him I'd like to place an order for delivery and very politely he tells me that they are closed - today was just a trial day but not to worry! Starting tomorrow, they'd be open 1100 to 2300, seven days a week. Glorious! I said I'd call back tomorrow.

Luis was very disappointed but we did all kinds of stuff during the day and then, when he got home from the movies, we ordered from Papa Johns: one medium size ham, bacon, pineapple (no onion) pizza ($9 with a coupon); one order of Parmigiana cheese sticks with two different dipping sauces and garlic bread sticks with two different dipping sauces. I had no interest in Parmigiana sticks or the dipping sauces. I love breads - good breads can be dipped but don't require it.

The pizza was delicious! It was just yummy! I was delighted with it. The garlic sticks get high praise. Delivery time if you order online comes in the e-mail with a standard time of 20 - 40 minutes, but it came in ten, maybe fifteen. This makes sense - we could throw a rock halfway there from our house!

Now, with every good thing there seems to be a bad thing and Papa John's charges what Luis refers to as a "f**k you" charge (it is listed as a delivery fee of $1.99). When I asked Luis about it the first time, he said that was them making sure the driver is getting something. When I "over-tipped" on the first order (I opted to give the delivery person $5 - I find I get preferential treatment from people and restaurants that way); Luis felt that when a charge like that is appended, the tip should be less. I argued that he doesn't know that and screwing the delivery person isn't right. So he did some research and it turns out that when Papa John wanted to raise the price of pizza by a couple of bucks, they appended this delivery charge instead of adding it pizza. That is of no use to the delivery person. I win!

So I don't care for that sort of behaviour. So far, that seems to be the only downside.

Well, what can I say? Welcome to Parsippany, Papa John's!