Our Reactions to Hot Takes and Unpopular Opinions About Pizza!

We’ve been in the pizza business for over 15 years, and you better believe we’ve heard plenty of hot takes and unpopular opinions about pizza over that span!

Previously, we’ve kept silent about the many lukewarm hot takes and inexplicably unpopular opinions, but that ends today. Today the time has come for us to put to record our real reactions to hot takes and unpopular opinions about pizza!

Before we start, we’d like to take a moment up front to say everyone’s tastes and preferences are different, and if we take a minute to think about it, we can usually figure out what the appeal is. However, there is a difference between personal flavor preferences and lies that border on slander, which is what we’re here to talk about today.

Even Bad Pizza Is Pretty Good

We’ve heard it; you’ve heard it; everyone has heard it: even bad pizza is still pretty good. This hot take presupposes that pizza, being good, is impossible to make bad because it’s pizza… which is good.

Unfortunately, that’s a logical loop that just doesn’t stand up to scrutiny, and the only real explanation is that the person who said it (and probably also the people repeating it) have never had a truly bad pizza. We envy these people!

Once you’ve had a bad enough pizza to call “bad pizza,” your world is forever changed, and our most heartfelt wish is for no one to have to ever experience that realization.

The Sauce Is More Important Than the Cheese

While a pizza with better-than-average cheese will be a good pizza, a pizza with better-than-average sauce will be considered average. Yes, cheese is important—especially when it comes to types of pizza that have strict cheese requirements—but consider how often your pizza delivery decisions are made based on which chain has “the best sauce” or “the worst sauce.”

No one has these arguments about cheese, or toppings, or crust. (To be fair, sometimes “the best crust” is a tiebreaker, but it won’t win anyone over to the side of “the worst sauce.”)

Less Cheese Is Better Than Extra Cheese

(Don’t look at us like that, we said these are unpopular opinions!) If you love extra cheese—like really, really love it and will not eat pizza unless there’s extra cheese—just skip to the next section because you won’t want to read this. When you have a pizza where the toppings are the star of the dough, you don’t want to overshadow them with piles and piles of melty, stringy cheesy goodness—wait, what were we talking about?

Stuffed Crust Is Overrated

In 1995, when stuffed-crust pizza first debuted, it was super popular—and why wouldn’t it be?! 

It’s pizza… but with extra cheese in the crust!

It’s been nearly 30 years since someone first glanced at the pristine edge of a pizza crust and thought What if… and now look upon the horrors that have ensued: there are pizzas with cheese in the crust, pizzas with pepperoni and cheese in the crust, and the countless local variations across the country.

It’s not that all the extra toppings are unwelcome (we would never turn down extra toppings!), it’s just that we’d rather look forward to what comes next instead of watching everyone try to keep this tired trend going decades after the novelty’s worn off.

Put Ketchup On Pizza

Ranch has been a popular dipping sauce (bordering on side dish) for pizza since time immemorial (or at least since the 2010s), but how often do you deviate from the perfect pizza dipping sauce and try something a little… stranger?

Dipping pizza in marinara sauce goes back further than dipping pizza in ranch dressing, so it was only a matter of time before someone tried dipping their pizza into the best dip for French fries and fish sticks alike: ketchup! While we admit this option was much, much more popular with the kids table taste testers than the adults, it can’t hurt to try it at least once! Or can it…?

St. Louis-Style Pizza Is the Worst

Nope, this one is wrong! St. Louis-style pizza is the best pizza if you want the thinnest, crispiest, cracker-thin crust and the perfect cheese-pull. When it comes to Dogtown Pizza’s St. Louis-style pizza, you can also expect to find a perfectly seasoned secret sauce, meats sourced from local farmers and family-owned businesses, all-natural veggies bursting with flavor, and a little extra spice ’cuz we never skimp on flavor.

Pineapple On Pizza Is Fine, Actually

This is one unpopular opinion about pizza that we cannot—we will not—let stand. The truth is that pineapple on pizza is more than just fine, actually. Pineapple on pizza is good! And we will not be swayed to believe otherwise.

The trick (if you can even call it a trick) is in the pineapple: if you use overly tart, underripe, or otherwise low-quality pineapple, it would be bonkers to think putting it on pizza would make it better; but if you use sweet, perfectly ripened, preferably fresh sliced pineapple, you’ll know for sure whether this is a flavor you should explore further.

Whether you think these hot takes are too spicy or need more heat, the first step to heating up your favorite pizza is having your favorite pizza ready and waiting for you to put it in the oven. Take that first step by picking up your favorite Dogtown Pizza in the freezer aisle of your local grocery store—we’ll see you there!