Pizza Inn sucks

[Randy]

I had a thin crust from pizza Inn tonight because I was pressed for time.  It was awful. My dogs didn’t even like it. It was like a big can biscuit flattened out.
That was probably my last purchase from them since my homemade pizzas are much better.

Randy

[Wayne]

I can relate.  It's easy to spoil yourself with homade and lose tast for inferior pizzas hehe.  I've personally never tried pizza inn although there's one a couple miles away.  Sounds bad though.  Like those cheap frozen one sin the yellow box.  Tonys I think.  Almost un-edible.  yuck.

[DKM]

Heck, I could have told you that!!!  The crust we used by the time I left was no near as good as the one when I started and they have made it even more 'fast food' since then (8 years ago).

Have you tried the posted here on the sight?  I'm making the dough in a little bit to make tomorrow for lunch.

DKM

[Steve]

I haven't had a Pizza Inn pizza since the late 1970's (gads! that's over 23 years!) One of my friends worked there during high school and the pizza was really quite good. I know that soon after he left, the company folded. I think Pizza Inn is back, but their logo is completely different and I'm sure their recipe is totally different as well. The recipe that DKM posted here is excellent... making two for tonight. One with bread flour, the other with high-gluten flour. I'm using 2/3 cup water with 1 pound flour... makes a really dry dough.

[Steve]

Heck, I could have told you that!!!  The crust we used by the time I left was no near as good as the one when I started and they have made it even more 'fast food' since then (8 years ago).

I did a little digging on Lexis-Nexis and learned that Pizza Inn was acquired by Pantera's Corp. in 1987. Then, in 1990, Pantera's filed for Chapter 11.

In 1987, "Pantera's borrowed $35 million to buy Pizza Inn, a Dallas-based pizza franchise that had more than 700 units when Pantera's bought it. The heavy debt load forced the company into bankruptcy [in 1990] when Pantera's lenders froze the company's accounts."

[Randy]

Pantera's management should have obviously tasted the pizza before they bought.
 

Randy

[DKM]

Pizza Inn was a much bigger Pizza Company than Pantera's and as such couldn’t afford to pay for it.  They tried to run too many corporate stores and didn't have the staff to support it.  When they first filed chapter 11 they hope to maintain control, but the creditors forced new leadership and brought Jeff Rodgers into to brake up the company and sell it off.  Rodgers felt he could turn it around and brought them out of chapter 11.  The place went down hill from there.  It was under Rodgers that all the crust where changed and the "New York Pan" was introduced and they became more ‘fast food’.  All company stores were sold and they became strictly franchise.  That gave the franchisees a lot of power and they were divided into two camps Mid-Atlantic and Southwest, a power struggle that continues to this day.  Rodgers was fired about a year ago, for taking a loan from the company that was illegal under new SEC rules and it didn’t look like he would ever pay back.  (He took the loan prior to the change in rules and did pay it back a year later).  However the new management doesn't seem any better.

DKM

[DKM]

BTW at the time I was working at Pizza Inn we were one of the top 25 stores in the world.

DKM