Papa John’s is known for its famous tagline, “Better Ingredients, Better Pizza.” And while that might be the case across the U.S., a former manager took to Reddit to share the tagline is actually partly true and that there is one pizza customers should never order.
Back in June, a Reddit user named “sikkerhet,” who worked as a manager at both Papa John’s and Dominos, ran an AMA session fielding questions from people who wanted to know how the chains worked. One person asked what is the absolute worst special pizza Papa John’s offers.
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“Johns Favorite is awful. It’s just grease on top of grease,” the Reddit user replied.
John’s Favorite is a special based on Papa John’s founder John Schnatter’s favorite, but it won’t do your stomach any favors. It’s “loaded with pepperoni, sausage, and a six-cheese blend of mozzarella, parmesan, romano, asiago, provolone and fontina,” and “sprinkled with our special blend of Italian herb seasoning.”
One person asked what menu item shouldn’t be on the menu because it’s never ordered.
Sikkerhet said it’s Papa John’s Spinach Alfredo sauce. It’s ordered so rarely that you should never order it because it expires so quickly and employees aren’t likely to notice that.
“Papa John’s has a Spinach Alfredo sauce that’s delicious but only gets ordered maybe once a week, and it hits its sell by date 3 days after you open the bag but no one actually throws it out until it’s either gone or nasty looking,” Sikkerhet said.
Many people asked him repeatedly how to make Papa John’s garlic butter sauce, so he posted directions right at the top of the thread.
“To make a decent garlic butter sauce sautรฉ a few cloves of peeled/minced garlic until it starts to get soft, cut the heat to a really low simmer, add two entire sticks of butter, some basil, some parsley, and some salt,” sikkerhet explained. “The heat should be just enough to melt the butter and not much more.
“If you prefer garlic powder skip the first step and mix in a lot of garlic powder with the spices. You’ll have to f— with the amounts of everything to get it how you want it, I can just eyeball it so I have no idea how much of everything exactly. Put in a bit and taste, adjust, taste, adjust, taste, etc. until it’s right. If you’re using it on a crust/bread you’ll want to add Parmesan to it.”
Schnatter recently came under fire for suggesting that the NFL National Anthem protests were the reason for his chain’s declining sales. That made Papa John’s a favorite of the alt-right, and Schnatter had to issue a statement condemning it.
“We condemn racism in all forms and any and all hate groups that support it. We do not want these individuals or groups to buy our pizza,” a Papa John’s spokesperson told HuffPost.
