The Problem with Average Pizza

“Chicago Style Pizza”

That’s what the sign said, and it’s local and was busy so we gave it a try.

Of course, the kids wolfed down the pepperoni and the cheese pizzas. I tried a slice of Hawaiian and pepperoni which looked just like the cheese. I prefer the pepperoni be placed on top so they get crispy around the edges, but whatever.

The pizza wasn’t bad. But it wasn’t great either. In fact, it’s a been a couple of weeks now and I’ve forgotten what it tasted like. So it wasn’t memorable by any means.

And that’s the problem.

If I want fast pizza I’ll call Papa Johns. If I want cheap pizza I’ll drive to Little Caesars. I don’t go out of my way to do either, but my kids aren’t picky when it comes to pizza. In fact, the pizza Kim makes from scratch is far better than either of those options.

But I never say, “I want a good average pizza tonight.”

The best pizza I’ve had in Utah is Piccolo Brothers Pizza off Washington Blvd in Ogden. Their website is just terrible, but that’s OK because their pizza is excellent. I have a rule for eating out in Ogden and it goes like this: the worse the location, the better the food.

In Seattle, Kim and I loved this tiny pizza joint at University Village called Delfinos that specialized in Chicago style. I have no idea how close it comes to authentic Chicago pizza, but we waited nearly an hour for our pizza to arrive. In fact, the server took our order and then suggested we browse the Barnes and Noble next door.

But it was well worth the wait, and the pizza is unlike any I’ve had before. I now understand why it takes an hour to prepare. Delfinos is the best and most expensive pizza I’ve eaten, and I’ve told dozens of people about it over the years. They also aren’t diverting any pizza profits to their website.

I feel bad for our little local pizza shop. I want to see them succeed. But it’s hard to recommend them when better options exist. I wish they would go one way or the other. Either offer OK cheap pizza or create the best pizza in the area. Joining the crowded “good pizza” market only gets you lost among the other dozen pizza shops, some of which have much larger marketing budgets.

Of course, they aren’t alone. Many companies fall victim to providing a service or product that’s good enough but not great or noteworthy. We don’t tell our friends about a product that just works. We tell others about products we LOVE.

Does your business or company sell a product your customers LOVE? If not, they probably aren’t telling anyone about it.

The Big Fundamental

Mysterious, Wise and at Peace: Duncan is just Duncan from Joe Posnanski at NBC Sports:

Layup lines don’t end. They dissolve, like rock-and-roll bands. One guy decides to go solo and get his own basketball, another takes a long three-pointer instead of a layup, another refuses to chase the bouncing ball, and without any obvious transition the layup drill becomes a shoot-around with everyone doing their own thing.

Everyone, that is, except Tim Duncan.

He goes to the ball rack and gets three basketballs, which he promptly dishes out to three teammates. He then stands underneath the basket and rebounds his teammates’ shots. They are all shooting, all the Spurs, except Duncan. He grabs a rebound, looks for a teammate without a ball, and passes it to him. Again. Again. You keep waiting for him to take his own shot, but he doesn’t. Duncan is joined in the lane by a ballboy and a Spurs attendant of some sort. Basketballs ricochet and carom and bounce around them like popping kernels of popcorn, and they chase. Of the three, Duncan is the most enthusiastic. He acts like it is his life’s dream to retrieve balls for his teammates.

Top 100 Songs of the ‘90s

I watched the last two hours of this VH1 program which I’d seen portions of before today, but had never caught the top 20 songs they cover in the last hour.

Although it’s hard to take a list like this seriously which includes Britney Spears in the top 10, the tunes bring back a lot of memories, especially the four years I was in college at the University of Utah. I still collected CDs and traded them with friends who turned me on to new music. One afternoon after after finishing up a final in a marketing course, a friend gave me a CD from a band I’d never heard of, but he told me to check out track number five.

Sounds as good today as it did over 20 years ago.

A few songs like Loser and Sabotage are ones I’ve listened to many times. But nothing compares to the number of times I listened to the song below from “What’s the Story Morning Glory?”

Since Moving to Utah

A few things that have been on my mind the past month since moving from Washington to Utah.

  • One of the best side benefits of moving is not being able to bring everything that’s accumulated in your home over the years. Sure, I’ve had to replace a few items, but starting with a clean slate is good for the mind.
  • I wasn’t looking forward to the 20+ hour drive in the moving van, but being able to spend those hours with two of my sons was fantastic. We stopped along the way to look at rivers and bridges, and take in a few sunsets setting over this gorgeous country of ours.
  • Travel tip: don’t stay at smoke-filled hotels just to save a few bucks. Part of the fun was staying a nice hotel that’s nicer than our home.
  • Four of my last five bike rides have ended with a flat tire. I’m certain I’ve walked my bike more miles than I’ve peddled around town. In Auburn, I couldn’t go out for a ride more than a few miles without someone yelling or throwing a water bottle at me. Nothing like that has happened here.

Splash Pad in April? You bet!

  • The elementary school my kids attend has four large bike racks out front and all four are filled with bikes each morning. The city of Ivins has built bike lanes that feed each of the schools in the area which is a wonderful idea and makes it much safer for the children to ride to school. And ride they do!
  • Facebook, Twitter, texting, and email don’t begin to replace seeing my friends in person. I knew leaving friends would be difficult for my kids, but had no idea how much I’d miss my friends in Auburn.
  • Everyone should have a chance to live a few years in a small town. People tend to treat you differently when they know they will see you again at the school, church or grocery store. There are a goodness and honesty that rubs off on you. Life slows down. What you give up in big city excitement you gain in a peaceful calming of the soul.
  • A bigger home sounds wonderful on paper, and most of the time, I’m thankful for the additional square footage compared to our home in Auburn. But it also means you see and hear less of your children which means you know less about how they are doing.
  • I don’t want to know how many hours I’ve spent shooting hoops in our backyard. The two spotlights off the back of the house allow me to play at night when the temps subside from the upper 90’s.
  • I don’t know if we made the right choice to move to Utah. But I stopped second guessing my decision the first time I saw my kids playing hide-and-go-seek with their cousins outside while their baby brother was asleep in grandma’s arms inside.