8 ms·

Wait, wait, wait... DC is awash in local pizza chains that are quite good. Manny and Olga's will deliver until dawn. Bestolli's greek pizza was inspired by Ath

Wait, wait, wait... DC is awash in local pizza chains that are quite good. Manny and Olga's will deliver until dawn. Bestolli's greek pizza was inspired by Athena herself to be the Platonic ideal of crisis comfort food. The pentagon has more nearby pizzerias than tanks, and that's not including the recent surge of fancy artisan pizza. Why on earth would you order Domino's?

kuroguro 4y ago
They had an emergency pizza analyst on site and Domino's had the best price/performance and quantity/delivery time ratios at the time.
- coffeefirst 4y ago
  And once again, everything broken in government starts with procurement.
cityzen 4y ago
- tbalsam 4y ago
  Let's please be respectful on HN. See #Comments at https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html Thanks.
notatoad 4y ago
the office catering equivalent of "nobody ever got fired for buying IBM"?
zasdffaa 4y ago
Never had a domino's - heard people say they're expensive but good but you disagree? Ur views welcome (am in the UK if that makes any difference).
- traverseda 4y ago
  They're the McDonald's of pizza restaurants.
  - zasdffaa 4y ago
    Pretty sure I've never had a maccy D's either, but I get what you're saying, thanks.
    - Gunnerhead 4y ago
      For me, it’s cheap, consistent, guilty pleasure!
- MichaelCollins 4y ago
  Dominos is very cheap if you order one of the items they have on perpetual sale, but very expensive for the quality otherwise.
- therealcamino 4y ago
  In the US, they're known for having lots of coupons and specials, and being cheap. The cheese has a weird consistency, to me at least.
- zdragnar 4y ago
  The cost is on par (and sometimes under) frozen pizzas from the grocery store. The quality is okay, if you have a fairly low standard for what you want out of your pizza. The thin crust is utterly terrible. Honestly, I'd rather get a frozen pizza and cook it myself given the option, or going literally anywhere else for pizza (except maybe Little Caesar's).
xg15 4y ago
Sounded like they order everywhere, local artisan pizza places as well as national chains. I imagine Domino's was just an easier target to interview. Or maybe the effect is easier to notice if you can aggregate the sales from a large number of restaurants - so large chains have an advantage here compared to individual restaurants or small chains. ... or maybe the article was sponsored by Domino's, who knows :)
- KennyBlanken 4y ago
  Yeah. The article quotes the guy who owns sixty dominoes stores in DC. He's going to have much more data at hand than a mom and pop store. He probably also has accounts set up for various departments, whereas a small shop would probably just tell an office to use a corporate card, and have more difficulty tracking the order volume.
MichaelCollins 4y ago
Dominos is dirt cheap. Around me a large pizza from an independent pizzeria can be $30 or more, while dominos will sell a large pizza for under $10. Of course, the quality is as low as the price, but some people aren't sensitive to pizza quality.
jfengel 4y ago
Now there are, but not at the time the article was written. DC has had an amazing culinary renaissance, with Jose Andres leading the way, but at the time it was mostly noted for steak houses for lobbyists. Even today, the immediate vicinity of the Capitol and office buildings is kinda weak on food. There's a nice set of restaurants on Pennsylvania Avenue, but the food trucks are all over at L'Enfant, and the real mass of restaurants require a trip to Penn Quarter/the-area-formerly-Chinatown-but-now-all-chains. I do, however, highly recommend We The Pizza a few blocks away. Silly name, but really fantastic fancy-artisan-pizza by noted local chef Spike Mendelsohn.
- barry-cotter 4y ago
  > DC has had an amazing culinary renaissance, with Jose Andres leading the way, but at the time it was mostly noted for steak houses for lobbyists It’s not a renaissance if there was nothing there of any quality before. For a rebirth there men’ needs to have been a birth.
therealcamino 4y ago
Manny and Olga's is so bad as to not qualify as food. I've heard that We The Pizza is where they get it on the Hill, now. Andy's is great.
rl3 4y ago
>Why on earth would you order Domino's? Bravo, someone's finally asking the right questions around here. To play devil's advocate, perhaps GP's rationale had to do with the fact that when you freeze cardboard, it still tastes like cardboard when thawed. There's very little loss there.
jnwatson 4y ago
Don’t shade on Domino’s. They have worked hard on getting from least-common-denominator pizza to halfway-Ok pizza.
andrewmg 4y ago
Manny and Olga's is gross. Those in the know hit up Wiseguy.
clutchdude 4y ago
Because you need 30 pizzas with cheese, pepperoni and mushroom delivered in 55 minutes after the lunch plans got shifted to deal with a crisis. Yes, there are better. But quantity and JIT delivery are virtues of their own.

kuroguro 4y ago

They had an emergency pizza analyst on site and Domino's had the best price/performance and quantity/delivery time ratios at the time.

coffeefirst 4y ago
And once again, everything broken in government starts with procurement.

cityzen 4y ago

tbalsam 4y ago
Let's please be respectful on HN. See #Comments at https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html Thanks.

notatoad 4y ago

the office catering equivalent of "nobody ever got fired for buying IBM"?

zasdffaa 4y ago

Never had a domino's - heard people say they're expensive but good but you disagree? Ur views welcome (am in the UK if that makes any difference).

traverseda 4y ago
They're the McDonald's of pizza restaurants.
- zasdffaa 4y ago
  Pretty sure I've never had a maccy D's either, but I get what you're saying, thanks.
  - Gunnerhead 4y ago
    For me, it’s cheap, consistent, guilty pleasure!
MichaelCollins 4y ago
Dominos is very cheap if you order one of the items they have on perpetual sale, but very expensive for the quality otherwise.
therealcamino 4y ago
In the US, they're known for having lots of coupons and specials, and being cheap. The cheese has a weird consistency, to me at least.
zdragnar 4y ago
The cost is on par (and sometimes under) frozen pizzas from the grocery store. The quality is okay, if you have a fairly low standard for what you want out of your pizza. The thin crust is utterly terrible. Honestly, I'd rather get a frozen pizza and cook it myself given the option, or going literally anywhere else for pizza (except maybe Little Caesar's).

xg15 4y ago

Sounded like they order everywhere, local artisan pizza places as well as national chains. I imagine Domino's was just an easier target to interview. Or maybe the effect is easier to notice if you can aggregate the sales from a large number of restaurants - so large chains have an advantage here compared to individual restaurants or small chains. ... or maybe the article was sponsored by Domino's, who knows :)

KennyBlanken 4y ago
Yeah. The article quotes the guy who owns sixty dominoes stores in DC. He's going to have much more data at hand than a mom and pop store. He probably also has accounts set up for various departments, whereas a small shop would probably just tell an office to use a corporate card, and have more difficulty tracking the order volume.

MichaelCollins 4y ago

Dominos is dirt cheap. Around me a large pizza from an independent pizzeria can be $30 or more, while dominos will sell a large pizza for under $10. Of course, the quality is as low as the price, but some people aren't sensitive to pizza quality.

jfengel 4y ago

Now there are, but not at the time the article was written. DC has had an amazing culinary renaissance, with Jose Andres leading the way, but at the time it was mostly noted for steak houses for lobbyists. Even today, the immediate vicinity of the Capitol and office buildings is kinda weak on food. There's a nice set of restaurants on Pennsylvania Avenue, but the food trucks are all over at L'Enfant, and the real mass of restaurants require a trip to Penn Quarter/the-area-formerly-Chinatown-but-now-all-chains. I do, however, highly recommend We The Pizza a few blocks away. Silly name, but really fantastic fancy-artisan-pizza by noted local chef Spike Mendelsohn.

barry-cotter 4y ago
> DC has had an amazing culinary renaissance, with Jose Andres leading the way, but at the time it was mostly noted for steak houses for lobbyists It’s not a renaissance if there was nothing there of any quality before. For a rebirth there men’ needs to have been a birth.

therealcamino 4y ago

Manny and Olga's is so bad as to not qualify as food. I've heard that We The Pizza is where they get it on the Hill, now. Andy's is great.

rl3 4y ago

>Why on earth would you order Domino's? Bravo, someone's finally asking the right questions around here. To play devil's advocate, perhaps GP's rationale had to do with the fact that when you freeze cardboard, it still tastes like cardboard when thawed. There's very little loss there.

jnwatson 4y ago

Don’t shade on Domino’s. They have worked hard on getting from least-common-denominator pizza to halfway-Ok pizza.

andrewmg 4y ago

Manny and Olga's is gross. Those in the know hit up Wiseguy.

clutchdude 4y ago

Because you need 30 pizzas with cheese, pepperoni and mushroom delivered in 55 minutes after the lunch plans got shifted to deal with a crisis. Yes, there are better. But quantity and JIT delivery are virtues of their own.