tesg's guide to big chain road food consumption

CHAIN -- Cici's Pizza
Owner -- Privately held
Primary Operating Region -- Southeastern and Midwestern US
Number of Locations -- 550 (July 2005)

We hadn't been down this road in some time.  It's an older drag in town, still heavily trafficked.  Definitely lower income.  Lots of pawn shops, check cashing stores, "we finance anybody with a pulse at a ridiculous rate of interest" used car dealers.  Passing a strip mall so old its main anchor was once Woolco, I noticed some new signage on the end that I think once housed a Jerry Lewis Cinema.  "Hey Look," I said to Wife #1.  "Cici's Pizza came to town."

I've certainly heard of Cici's, the low-price pizza buffet started in Plano, TX, in 1985.  Joe Croce and Mike Cole (C and C, get it?) started the first store as a bargain take-out operation.  There was extra space, and Cole persuaded Croce to add tables.  Soon a second location opened in an area saturated with pizza places.  A $1.99 lunch buffet was added to get people in the door.  Amazingly, it turned out to be profitable, and was the model going forward.  The $1.99 price has gradually increased to $3.99-$4.29 depending on the market as of this writing (Summer 2005).  Croce retired in 2002, selling his share to the management team, backed by a financial investor group.  Moore was named President.

We walk in the door that says "Dine In".  There's a door right next to it that says "Take Out".  Both take you to the same place where two registers parallel to the doors are staffed.  Either side will help you whether you're dining in or taking out.  The dine-in menu is posted on the wall.  All you can eat for $3.99.  Plus $1.39 if you want a drink.

There's quite a disorganized crowd standing around.  Frowning counter girl says "I can help who's next" and nobody moves.  They just continue chatting amongst themselves.  So she repeats, louder.  "I CAN HELP WHO'S NEXT."  So I decide I'm next, even though I'm not.  Nobody cares.  "Two buffets and two drinks, please."  "$11.41."  As I'm receiving my change, she says "Are you familiar with our buffet?"  "No".  She then goes on to explain that we get all you can eat for $3.99, plus if I want a drink it's $1.39 more.  All of which is on the sign next to me, and which I've already paid in the first place.  I thank her, and we're on our way.

The buffet features "Sixteen Kinds of Pizza" (quoting Cici's), plus pasta, salad, and desserts.  I counted twelve physical pies in the line, and they all looked great.  There were your traditional pies like pepperoni and/or sausage.  There were a couple of veggie varieties.  There were some white sauce pizzas, one topped with spinach.  There was a barbecue pizza.  There was even a proper Sicilian deep dish pizza with the sauce on top.  Don't see your particular favorite pizza?  Ask...They'll make it.  There was a salad bar with a garden and a Ceasar mix.  There were two types of noodles with two choices of sauce (Marinara and Alfredo) to top them with.  There were hot soft cinnamon rolls, an apple crisp sort of dessert pizza, and something else that I didn't quite catch in the mayhem.  The pizza ovens are on open display right behind the buffet line.  Busy staffers constantly make pizzas and maintain the buffet in front of them.  There isn't much excuse for stale product here, and there wasn't any stale product to be found.  Everything was REALLY REALLY GOOD.  (If you go in when business is slow, things CAN get stale here, I've since learned.)

The pizza reminded me of Little Caesar's.  Not heavily topped but nicely balanced with a sweet red sauce.  Dough is made fresh at each store daily, and the cheese is whole milk mozzarella.   In particular, the Sicilian Deep Dish, with its sauce on top, was wonderful.  The dessert stuff was also wonderful.  The salad was...well...it's hard to screw that up.  And they didn't.  One of their best items are soft garlic cheese sticks.  I put some of the pasta sauces on my plate for dipping them in.  GREAT idea.  The apple pizza thing had almost a candy apple taste to it, and was praised universally around the dining room.  The hot soft cinnamon rolls were...hot...soft...mmmm.

A busy Cici's means the pizzas turn over fast, which means everything stays fresh.  That was certainly the case here, where an army of customers went through the single-file line grabbing everything that looked good.  Which was...well...everything.  The staff does what they can to make everything fun, including occasional cheers similar to the order taking at Fatburger, the singalongs at Cold Stone Creamery, or the Pike Place Fish Market gang.  

We were absolutely impressed, and have a new regular place to add to our collection of regular places.

You'll be hard pressed to find a better value than Cici's.  Good food cheap and a lot of fun.  

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