A few weeks ago, I ate a bad pizza and wanted to tell someone. North Dakota’s Pizza Corner lovers caught on quickly, and Bernatello’s Foods got an unexpected earful in a matter of hours.
Pizza Corner pizza fans pillaged their local grocers to buy up the remainder of the “original” Pizza Corners. Videos emerged with taste tests and reviews and feigned anger and rage. Surely sales soared that infamous day when the news spread that something was up with OUR Pizza Corner pizzas.
In case you were not alive a few weeks ago, basically, the Midwest lost their minds when they learned that Pizza Corner didn’t taste the same under its new ownership, Bernatello’s Foods.
Bernatello’s made a hugely valiant effort to control the damage, but Pizza Corner fans weren’t having it. They called Bernatello’s out on a variety of changes, including sauce, crust, sausage, pepperoni, and cheese. I tried to follow all of Bernatello’s claims that “nothing had changed,” but fans eventually broke them down and they admitted, “OK, we made a few minor tweaks, but…”
I was able to get my hands on some “originals,” and my family happily enjoyed them a couple of times since the inciting incident. Today, I pulled out two very recently purchased pizzas not from original stock and gave them a whirl, one Pepperoni and one Deliciously Supreme.
The Pizza Corner pizzas I ate today are not the sames bad ones I had a few weeks ago. It occurred to me that the pizzas we disliked so much in the transition were the FIRST pizzas to roll off the line at Bernatello’s Foods. I’m no expert, but I mess up a lot of things the first time I try.
Am I ready to (literally?) eat my words?
The pepperoni Pizza Corner I ate today had a wonderful, cracker-y crust with excellent crunch and chew. The cheese and pepperoni were mostly consistent with previous Pizza Corner standards.
I was never a big fan of the Pizza Corner Deliciously Supreme, Canadian bacon not being my favorite pizza topping. I had misgivings that pre-cooked hamburger could taste good, too. But I enjoyed tonight’s Deliciously Supreme pizza more than ever before. The crust was right, the cheese was right, and the pre-cooked hamburger exceeded my expectations for being an admitted change. I would prefer uncooked meat on the frozen pizza, but the pre-cooked hamburger did not taste weird or cheap. (My husband did not agree with this assessment, though, so mileage may vary.)
I’d love to say my experience was all roses and rainbows, but the sauce is still not right. It needs to be thicker and the signature bite is missing.
In the meantime, congratulations, Bernatello’s! Practice is making perfect, and any future tweaks will surely bring back the Pizza Corner we know and love.
Fear not, North Dakota, happy days are near again!
Note: I was not paid in any way to write this. Actually, I do not get paid for anything I write, but if you know of anyone who wants to hire me to write, let me know. 😉
