Papa John's Takes a Hit

Better ingredients, better pizza, missing owners...

Yesterday was a bad day for pizza delivery drivers because yesterday was the day that a whole bunch of them rolled out of bed, pulled on their snappy Papa John's hats, and showed up at work only to find the doors locked and the lights out.

Twelve locations in Spokane, Coeur d'Alene, Pullman, Moscow, Yakima, Kennewick, Richland, and Wenatchee went dark yesterday--which, I believe, is all the PJ's locations in those areas. And in any event, it does represent all the locations owned by North Country Pizza--a franchisee which, itself, seems to have gone silent as Papa John's International Inc. is reporting that North Country has been unresponsive to their attempts at contact. Not a good sign. And while normally, I'd be cheering the slow demise of any chain operation in the area, I don't actually hate Papa John's. If it'd been 12 Domino's locations, I'd be dancing right now. But in this case, I just feel bad for all the out-of-work drivers and dough-slingers.

Still, losing a few pizza delivery places in Washington isn't quite as earth-shattering as today's other closure news. And as of now, no one seems sure what's going to be happening to these twelve locations. So my suggestion? Ferran Adria comes to Washington and opens 12 new pie joints styled after his El Bulli model. Squid ink, parmesan powder and Alsatian grape caviar pizza, anyone?