V73

I think might go bike to the local pizza place.

After running the numbers on a few local shops, it seems like for anyone in a suburban or urban area, it would be faster and in many cases cheaper to bicycle to the nearest pizza place and bring your order home yourself. The nearby place wants at least 40 minutes for a delivery and prices for pizza are rather high- not to mention that it costs another $3 for delivery plus a tip for the delivery guy. In this weather, you're going to want to tip the delivery guy, or you're a complete jerk. However, there's a Little Ceasar's just as close to my house. They don't deliver, but they do have $5 pizzas, hot and ready all the time. I could probably make it there, buy a pizza, and come back in less than the amount of time it would take other places to bring me a pizza.

Anyone else done something similar? What do you think about this?

-V

Machka 

Many of us cycle to a lot of different places. Some of us have even spent a period of time "car free".

I was "car free" for 5-6 years when I lived in Winnipeg, and I cycled and walked just about everywhere. More recently, Rowan and I lived in a small town in rural Victoria ... there we walked and cycled for most of our errands. And sure ... we brought home pizza.

Machka 

We have a Living Car Free forum here ...

Living Car Free
Do you live car free or car light? Do you prefer to use alternative transportation (bicycles, walking, other human-powered or public transportation) for everyday activities whenever possible? Discuss your lifestyle here.


But a warning ... you've got to have a rather thick skin if you venture in there.

V73

Yeah, I'd read a bit from that forum. Inspiring. I'd love to do that in the future.
I was just slightly surprised to see how much better an option it is to go bike out to the pizza place. Here goes nothing.

-V

Machka 

In Winnipeg, and in that little town in Victoria, I lived within 1 km of shopping, restaurants, pizza places, etc. etc. ... it wasn't worth to drive most places. We had a car in Victoria, but about the only time we drove to go shopping or pick up pizzas or something was if we were coming back from a trip somewhere. For example, in the summer, we would drive to a less touristy area on a Saturday to cycle, and on the way back we might stop in at the pizza place ... but if we were cycling from home, we'd swing by there on our bicycles.

Robert C

I do so frequently. In fact that may be part of the reason that cycling has had no impact on my weight (but then, neither has frequent pizzas). I am not going to pretend Little Caesars is great pizza; but, when I cycle there they always throw in some free bread sticks.

Just carry some short bungee cords and strap the pizza to the rack (you do have a rack . . . right?); it will stay fine. I normally run two front to back, parallel, and then one cord side to side.

cvskates

I do as Robert C does; bungee the box to my rear rack. My closest pizza place is a Panago - a medium pepperoni is $12, but once they charge you $3 for the delivery, and I tip the delivery guy $2 or $3, my pizza has gone up 50% in price.

I like the quizzical looks I get when I walk out to my bike with as pizza box, as though I were moving a piano with a Red Flyer wagon.

I didn't think Little Ceasars could be legally called pizza. Isn't it "Pizza type food" Even calling it food is a stretch.

unterhausen

I'm usually surprised when I get Little Ceasars pizza, it's never as bad as I remember it. Then again, I only get it when it's an emergency. We don't really have a place close enough to bike to though -- especially right now when it's over a mile of bike path that is only passable on a fat bike

dynaryder

Never actually carried a pizza on a bike,but I've done it on my motorcycles before. If the pizza just came out of the oven,you gotta be real careful to carry it upright,or you'll have all the cheese on one side.

I actually haven't ordered pizza in forever. I just buy frozen at the store for half of what delivery costs. The new DiGiorno's Pizzeria style is actually quite good. Also a fan of the square Freschetta(Brick Oven I think?) and the Red Baron Rising Crust.

chaadster

What do I think about you carping about the "high cost" of delivery pizza?! I think you don't get out much, and given that, should be more ready to pop an extra $6 for a cheap pizza to be delivered when it's 10ºF out.

Here's an idea: pop the $15 + tip + delivery fee for a Jets XL one topping 15pc delivered, eat 2 or 3 pieces, freeze the rest and reheat as needed for the subsequent 4 pizza meals. That way, you distribute the "high cost" of delivery and tip, $6, over 5 or 6 meals, making the adjusted cost a mere $1 per meal. Could you swing that?

Jesus.

V73

Success! All in all it took me about... 40 minutes. However, 10-15 was spent in the garage beforehand putting my new light on my bicycle, and slapping another red blinkie on the back for added visibility. In good weather I could do this in 25 minutes or less. On the way there I trudged several hundred yards through a field of 2' of snow, but on the way back I found a slightly longer but completely cleared route.

Photo:




On the 'Little Ceasar's sells Pizza Shaped Objects" topic, Our local LC is actually pretty good. It's right next to a middle school, so I suppose with all the hungry tweens they make enough money to please their customers.

You get free food?!?! Lucky. The girl behind the counter just sort of stood there in shock and confusion for a second, and then sold me a pizza.

I don't have a rack, and that was the only thing that took me a while other than figuring out how to mount my new bike light. I figured out a sketchy way to get it home in a duffel bag, but it survived pretty well. I packed it in with towels to make it less awkwardly shaped, and keep it from getting too cold. It was still eating temperature when I got it home! If I had put it on a rack it would probably be stone cold, as it's xx degrees below 0 outside.



DiGiorno's is great.


-V

V73

Don't be rude to someone you don't know well. I get out plenty, thanks. $25 bucks for one pizza is a lot for a high schooler with no job, especially when the alternative is $5.30.

-V

chaadster

Ah! I'm not so sympathetic, man. When I was in high school, I worked at Pizza Hut. Can you imagine? I rode my bike to work, ate free pizza and got paid for it! Hot damn! I used to make these Personal Pan pizza's piled high with stuff...but that's another thread.

V73

Well sorry, not everyone has time for work. Between cycling, marching band, indoor drumline, chess club, boy scouts, concert percussion, and piles of honors and advanced placement courses, I'm lucky to have time for enough sleep. I have the rare chance to sell a computer or video game system I've fixed to make a few bucks, but most of that money goes to the bike, paying for all those activities, or into the bank account for college. I can get a summer job but during the school year? Not a frickin chance.

So I hope you'll understand that for me it's important to save money wherever possible. I am not saying no one should ever order pizza, or that for the average person it is a bad idea, I simply mean that for myself the savings of biking to a pizza shop outweigh the convenience of getting it delivered.

-V

fietsbob

Very good Pizza, a Block away** from My favorite watering hole but it aint chain franchise factory $5 stuff either ..
There's another on my way home not even a Mile . and a take and bake not far off either
Grab the Porteur Rack bike for that trip.


OP aint had a job that they had to live Off Tips , I gather . People who Do, Tip each Other Better.

** The people Making the Pies sit next to me having a drink, after they're done working.

V73

I haven't had a job where my income was largely based upon tips. However, I tip very well whenever possible. My aim is not to shortcut the kind waiter, waitress, or delivery person who did me a service, it is to remove the need for that service because I can't afford paying for it. I would feel like scum to order a pizza and only be able to tip the person a few dollars because it's all the money I have.

Little Ceasar's is a chain store, but they have pretty good pizza for the price and are fine when you don't have a lot of money to go around. I don't exactly eat pizza very often. I'm an athletic person and I try to eat healthy.

Machka 

Have you tried making your own? When I was a teenager, I did that quite often.

Back in those days, you could pick up a box of Chef Boyardee Pizza Mix which included the dough (just add water), the sauce, some grated cheese and a few pieces of salami ... very basic ... but then I'd go crazy adding this, that, and the other.

chaadster

It's all about making choices and taking your chances. Well, that and where you start out in life.

Anyway, my grandmother used to work in an Italian bakery in Detroit, back when the neighborhood was Italian immigrants and it was real Italian, and she used to bring home and freeze those thick, pan style pizza slices for her grandkids to eat when we visited. My memory goes back before microwaves, and she used to wrap them in aluminum foil and reheat them in the oven. Came out pretty good, better than any Little Caesar's leftovers, that's for sure, which basically become plastic and cardboard within an hour or so. Only problem with nonna's pizza was that the foil would often stick in little bits to the cheese, so I probably ingested more aluminum than was healthy.

V73

Done that with the pizza kits a couple times too. I probably would have just cooked for myself except that would make it the third or fourth day in a row, and we don't really have the ingredients around for anything big now as we do our shopping on Saturdays. Needed hot food that I didn't have to expound a lot of energy and time on cooking.

Many times my older brother and I made pizzas from scratch, though we usually had to make more basic yeastless dough. You could really go nuts with the sauces and the toppings and the doughs on those though. It didn't always work great or taste like it was intended to, but it was fun and worth it. Those were happy nights.

-V

V73

Yeah.

Those are good memories. Our family is our tie to the past and our foundation for the future.

I appreciate that we were able to not have a flame war. That's not constructive, and the forums should be more about bringing people together than pushing them apart.

As far as where you start out in life... it's best to begin maneuvering to where you'd like to go as soon as possible. I feel I'll find many more things if I try to change my life for the better each day than I will if I just follow the typical beaten boring path.

chaadster

Sirrus Rider

National Geo aired a program called "Hacking the system" that discussed Restaurant tricks including pizzerias. The recommendation is to pick up the pizza yourself as it is cheaper and the Pizza will be hotter than room temperature when it hits your table.. Delivery usually has three or four pies at a go to delivery. Lucky you if you're residence is the first stop and the pimply faced kid can find you quickly. Not so much if you lower in the stack and the first customers are paying by check or the loose change out of their couch and said kid doesn't have a map or a GPS.

Lanovran

I do this pretty often! I live just a mile down the road from Ramundo's Pizzeria (some of the very best in Cincinnati!). I'll typically call in an order for carry-out, because by the time I get my bike ready, ride up to the restaurant, and pay the cashier, it'll usually just be coming out of the oven. I have one of those cheap insulated "freezer bags" that you can get at grocery stores, with the handle removed, to keep the pizza hot on the way home. I can fit a couple of medium pizzas into it easily, using a cargo net to secure the boxes-in-the-bag to my rack. Taking delivery fees and such into account, not to mention even a small amount of reduction in the environmental impact of the delivery car driving around, plus the extra calories burned (less pizza-induced guilt that way ), I'd say it's well worth it to ride for your pie!

erig007

+1
Do my own in 15 minutes top prep + cooking (just did one took me 13 min from nothing out to something in my plate)
All you need is pita, onion and pepper, what's missing is usually already in the fridge: tomato sauce and cheese.

SparkyBeacon 

I haven't retrieved a pizza by bicycle yet, but if I were, I would...

... get a refrigerated pizza from the grocery store. You bake it yourself. I would turn on the oven before heading out. The quality would be better than Little Caesar's and fresh form the oven would be better than cooled down by bike.