Passover and the intermediate days of the holiday have historically posed numerous challenges for pizzerias, bakeries, and other dough establishments. The aspiration to please everyone, coupled with severely limited capabilities, often resulted in mediocre outcomes. Mediocre, and middling.
This trend remains perceptible, but savvy players have been gracefully sidestepping it in recent years. Acting as usual, they focus on necessary improvements without straying from their identity just to ride the wave of hype or tradition.
Take Papa John's, for example.
Passover Routine: Papa John's
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The excellent pizzeria chain routinely celebrates Passover with kosher adjustments and distinguished nationwide spread.
This means that each branch will offer a special menu—only at kosher branches (and at four additional locations: Yakir, Netanya, Kiryat Ata, and Yavne), it will be the sole basis of activity, while at all other branches, it will be served alongside the regular menu.
It's strange to write this in Passover 2024, but it's the most normative accumulation there is—no coercion, no necessity, no bitterness. Let each one taste in their own eyes. Refreshing.
The work has been done. Papa John's
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The menu itself, launched as part of the network's holiday preparations, is primarily based on gluten-free dough.
It will offer, among other options, classic pizza with personal customization (NIS 39.90 per personal, NIS 89.90 per family), "Greek" (tomato sauce, feta cheese, purple onion, fresh tomatoes, black olives, spicy pepperoni, and mozzarella cheese, NIS 49.90 per personal, NIS 95.90 per family), "Tulip" (corn, black olives, tomatoes, fresh mushrooms, and mozzarella cheese), "Vegetarian" (white onion, green pepper, mushrooms, tomatoes, black olives, and mozzarella cheese), as well as cheese fingers (14 cheese sticks with mozzarella and garlic sauce, NIS 32.90, with sauce of choice).
The dough itself does most of the work. It differs slightly (in the most natural way possible) from regular dough and doesn’t strive to provide the same well-known carb-rich, floury bubble, but in all other aspects, it "carries" well, both the toppings and the expectations, with enough self-respect to hold up until the end of the holiday, and with a delicate sweet finish that leaves a lingering taste of more.
Everything else, of course, is the abundant and colorful toppings, the familiar (for the better) red sauce, and the irresistibly tempting dips of the network. Many networks have fallen short of this. We really don’t need more than that.