Pizza Delivery, Yes, But Pasta Delivery?

skeeter1.

Posted to Etcetera on Sat Mar 29, 2008 at 08:34:12 AM EST (promoted by port1080). RSS.

We've all had pizza delivery from all of the big chains. Dominos, Papa John's, not to mention thousands of local mom-and-pop shops.

Well, now Pizza Hut has come up with a new idea -- delivery pasta.

It's supposed to be priced the same as a large pizza and large enough to feed six.

I don't see it taking off. Good pasta and sauces are available everywhere, and if you can boil water, you can make the same meal for five bucks and not have to tip a delivery person.

Feeling really lazy? How about a MRE squad pack. That's food for 18 people for $11.

Best of luck to Pizza Hut, but I won't be buying it.

So what are some of your favorite delivery foods - pizza, Chinese, deli, something else? What's the most unusual food you've ever had delivered?

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Tags: edited by Port1080, written by skeeter1, pizza, pasta, food delivery (all tags)

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5	Recipe time Shy Elf. Sat Mar 29, 2008 at 09:00:15 AM EST 4.00 (informative)

Take any pasta and after you drain it, pour a bit of olive oil on it and swish the pasta around to get a very thin film that stops the pasta from sticking together. Top with mushrooms fried in butter and freshly grated parmesan. Serve. It's very easy.

You actually want morels if you can get (or afford) them, but despite being very nearly the same mushroom, for some reason crimini mushrooms do very much better than normal champinons and even better than most other commonly available varieties.

8 5	Re: Recipe time tomc. Sat Mar 29, 2008 at 12:23:27 PM EST none

At the right time of the year, morels are free if you don't mind wandering through forests to pick them. They're one of the mushrooms where you can't really go wrong in identifying them - there's a "false morel" that looks similar - not poisonous, but not tasty, either.

12 5	Re: Recipe time jwb. Sat Mar 29, 2008 at 01:51:38 PM EST none

Take fresh home-made spaghetti, cooked until just tender, toss with olive oil and shaved bottarga and a very little bit of ground black pepper. Mmm.

The main question is: how do you make the pasta? It's tough to make a really first rate noodle.

12

Re: Recipe time

JimmyHavok.

Sun Mar 30, 2008 at 01:31:14 AM EST

4.00 (informative)

The key to good pasta is to take it off a little bit early, because it will keep cooking even as you drain it. How early is something you have to learn for every type of pasta. Test it by taste, pull a sample out and chew on it. The thicker it is, the less sensitive: angel hair has to come off the instant it seems edible, maybe even an instant before, while tube-shaped pastas should be left in a little longer. The longer the recommended cook time,the more slack you have on when to pull it.

19

Re: Recipe time

postillion.

Wed Apr 02, 2008 at 12:18:38 AM EST

none

Spaghetti Carbonara. Simple, cheap, and as likely to give you a heart attack as anything you get delivered from Pizza Hut.

33

Re: Recipe time

JimmyHavok.

Wed Apr 02, 2008 at 12:46:50 AM EST

none

Save some money and use seasoning bacon instead of the breakfast stuff. It's the odd-shaped offcuts left over from making those neat rectangles you have with your eggs, but it's just as good, especially if you're cutting it up into chunks anyway. I actually like it better...must be the Scots in me.

11	Soon it will be Steve Urkel. Sat Mar 29, 2008 at 01:45:03 PM EST 4.00 (informative)

For an extra five bucks why not pay the delivery boy to shovel the slop into your fat maw for you? That way you don't even have to put down your remote and video game controllers.

11

Or, if you're on a diet ...

MayorBob.

Sat Mar 29, 2008 at 02:59:48 PM EST

4.00 (brilliant)

... you might pay the delivery boy to eat the food for you.

Illegitimi non carborundum.

1	Re: Pizza Delivery, Yes, But Pasta Delivery? port1080. Sat Mar 29, 2008 at 08:46:12 AM EST none

I can't see the point of delivery pasta - it's so damn easy to make bad spaghetti already (just buy some cheap sauce and a box of pasta, boil and serve - how hard is that?) that I just don't see the value added. It practically takes more time to phone the order in than it does to make the pasta. I do like delivery in general, though. I tend to go for places that send you enough food that you can get two meals out of an order. Chinese generally works - usually my wife and I get two "special combination platters" that come with the egg rolls, and then some dumplings. We split everything down the middle (except the egg rolls - they don't really warm up well) and get two meals each out of an order, easily. Pizza's good for this too, especially places like Papa Johns that often have some kind of buy one get one free special going on - sure it's too much for one meal, but what's wrong with leftovers? Cold pizza the next day is a treat in and of itself...

2 1	Re: Pizza Delivery, Yes, But Pasta Delivery? Shy Elf. Sat Mar 29, 2008 at 08:48:14 AM EST 5.00 (brilliant, astute)

So, remind me how many people have gone bust by overestimating the laziness of Americans?

3 2	Re: Pizza Delivery, Yes, But Pasta Delivery? port1080. Sat Mar 29, 2008 at 08:50:58 AM EST none

So, remind me how many people have gone bust by overestimating the laziness of Americans?

Point taken.

28 1	Re: Pizza Delivery, Yes, But Pasta Delivery? thefadd. Tue Apr 01, 2008 at 01:19:06 AM EST none

What exactly is the appeal of cold pizza? I've always rewarmed it.

It is easy to buy small plaster models of what you think life is like.

28

Re: Pizza Delivery, Yes, But Pasta Delivery?

port1080.

Tue Apr 01, 2008 at 06:16:23 AM EST

none

I think eating it cold accentuates the sweetness and the saltiness of the sauce and obviously changes the texture, but why I find that appealing, I don't know. I can't really rationally explain it - I guess you either like it or you don't.

4	How much do you tip the delivery person? port1080. Sat Mar 29, 2008 at 08:57:56 AM EST none

This is a question I've struggled with a little. I usually end up tipping 20% because I feel guilty over the cost of gas, but I used to think that 10% should be okay for delivery men and bartenders, and that 15% to 20% should be reserved for restaurant waiters. Tipping by price also seems a little more problematic for delivery persons - it makes sense if we're talking bar or restaurant, since the more your order costs, generally, the more that is involved in making / serving it. With pizza, though, it's basically the same amount of work no matter what - it's one trip whether it's one box or four (I guess if you're getting a huge order maybe he or she has to make two trips back and forth from the car, and in that case you'd better tip well). Also, if there's a delivery charge involved, do you factor that in to your tip or not? Do you take the 20% from the value of the order, or from the value of the order plus the delivery charge? Do you subtract the delivery charge from the tip amount? Am I over thinking this all far too much?

14 4	Re: How much do you tip the delivery person? logan. Sat Mar 29, 2008 at 02:04:11 PM EST 5.00 (informative)

The standard pay scale for drivers is an hourly wage plus $X for every pizza delivered. Pizza places frequently add a delivery charge for houses that are further away from the restaurant based on the assumption that the delivery guy has to burn more gas and time to get there. Time is money to a delivery driver. A long drive means missing the chance at other deliveries. The downside is that sometimes the shop takes the delivery charge instead of letting the driver have it.

Moving to the specific delivery, realize that it's very likely that the first time the driver ever heard of you and your pizza was 7 and a half minutes ago when his manager gave him an 22-minute pizza and reminded him of the 30-minute guarantee. There are dozens of reasons your pizza might be late that have nothing to do with the driver. Maybe the shop is crazy-busy, maybe he got caught in traffic, maybe the person who took the phone order got the address wrong and he had to call for a correction and updated directions. The delivery guy is the public face of the shop and gets all the abuse for any mistake. He also gets to deal with people trying to scam him with bogus complaints, fake coupons, physical threats, and the classic: delay the driver at the door while your friends steal the other pizzas from his car. (I'm looking at you, Sigma Alpha Epsilon at Oregon State).

If your home is difficult to find or there's some hassle that's due to your situation, tip extra. 20 years ago when I was delivering pizza, a dollar was a pretty standard tip. A pizza runs about $20 here in San Jose, so I start with $3 as the base and adjust up or down based on time, hassle and attitude.

When calculating the tip, consider the driver's perspective. Is your home particularly difficult to find? Does your house have numbers prominently displayed? Did you put the porch light on? Did he have to ring the bell three times and wait around for five minutes while you looked for your checkbook and that coupon you're sure is around here somewhere? Finally, realize that if you're a regular you will be remembered. Being known for even adequate tips helps insure good service in the future.

-=Logan
Research, facts, a Republican needs not these things.

18 4	Re: How much do you tip the delivery person? zyxwvutsr. Sat Mar 29, 2008 at 05:08:44 PM EST 5.00 (interesting)

I tip $5-10 for pizza delivery. (Rarely $10, because I would only tip that much if I had ordered several pizzas and I rarely have a houseful of people who want pizza.) $5 is a pretty extravagant tip for a $12 pizza, but the way I see it is that I want the delivery people to recognize my address and fight over who gets to bring it to me.

6 4	Re: How much do you tip the delivery person? Shy Elf. Sat Mar 29, 2008 at 09:12:39 AM EST none

One time my sister ordered a pizza, and the delivery boy arrived 40 minutes late. This was not a particularly unusual experience for her, since the road she lived on had only a couple other houses on it, and very few people in the area knew where this road was. Finally, the delivery boy arrived and, unsure if it was the correct house, left the pizza in his running car and walked up to knock on the door. Assured that this was after all the correct delivery location, he went back to his car only to discover that he had locked the car door.

After about 20 minutes, my sister's husband successfully jimmied the car door with a coat hanger.

She tipped him 20%, "because it had been extra trouble".

How much of a tip do you think would have been appropriate?

10 6	Re: How much do you tip the delivery person? port1080. Sat Mar 29, 2008 at 12:51:08 PM EST 5.00 (brilliant)

I probably would have tipped 20% just out of pity. I think that may be the biggest problem with tipping - people often tip as much or more when the service is bad, just out of sympathy. My wife worked as a waitress for a while and has a lot of sympathy for the sort of out-of-your-control things that can go wrong (a slow kitchen, being shorthanded, etc), so if our waitress is looking flustered or whatever she's usually more than understanding and it basically never affects how much we tip in the end. About the only time we don't tip well is if we actually see the waiter/ress just standing around not doing anything when we're waiting for service. I think tipping would work a lot better if it was done in advance, through a sort of bidding system - the customer would say when he sat down what he was willing to tip, and then the waiters would get to choose customers based on that (probably by seniority, so presumably the better / more experienced waiters would end up with the better tipping tables). But, then the money would need to be held in "escrow" until the end of the meal and only be given if the service was up to par. That would, I think, encourage both good tipping and good service far better than the current system does, but it would be pretty tricky to do in a workable way.

10

Re: How much do you tip the delivery person?

ivyafire.

Sun Mar 30, 2008 at 07:52:53 PM EST

5.00 (informative)

Savvy bar patrons know to tip on the first drink, insuring that the bartender will be attentive.

Only a truly stupid or inept bartender will miss that cue. Yeah, I've met a couple, but usually you're set if you tip heavily and early.

"It was an ancient rule of Hawaiians that no one should hurt another bodily, or through theft of goods or through injury to feelings.These were the only sins."

25

Re: How much do you tip the delivery person?

skeeter1.

Sun Mar 30, 2008 at 10:47:37 PM EST

5.00 (astute)

"Savvy bar patrons know to tip on the first drink, insuring that the bartender will be attentive."

That's been my experience as well. The change from the first drink goes straight to the bartender. The service is always much better if you start off on the right foot.

Now, if only you could pick your friends the same way. I once had a party and had several imported beers. Well, there was one fellow, husband of someone I used to work with, who brought a six-pack with him. Well, he drank my expensive beers, and when he left, he took his six-pack with him. Guess who's never been invited to my house since, nor ever will be?

there's only one way to find out...

7 6	Re: How much do you tip the delivery person? MayorBob. Sat Mar 29, 2008 at 11:55:57 AM EST none

My gut feeling is that 10 percent is adequate for someone who's just delivering an order to the house. 15 to 20 percent is about the rule for table service, but then the server has to come out, take your order, get any special items just right, bring it to the table, engage in small talk, make suggestions and try not to be a constant irritant in the middle of your meal. For exceptional service, I'll raise the gratuity to 25 percent.

I always leave a tip, even when the server has been a disaster. Then I'll inform the manager or maitre'd about the problem.

Illegitimi non carborundum.

13 4	Re: How much do you tip the delivery person? jwb. Sat Mar 29, 2008 at 02:03:07 PM EST none

10% for bartenders? I never bother with the math, and there's a serious quantization problem if, for example, you order a $7 beer. Bartenders get $1 for a drink or $1 and the coins in the change if any.

For delivery people I try to tip based on whatever work they had to do, not on the amount of the bill. I live right in the center of the city so it's not a lot of driving to get to my house. Most restaurants running their own delivery have a radius of only about 20 blocks or so, so I usually make it $5-$10 depending on what bills I have laying around. For Waiters on Wheels, who will pick up and deliver from anywhere, I tip more or less based on how far the guy had to drive. I tip bicycle delivery guys extra because bicycling is awesome.

13

Re: How much do you tip the delivery person?

port1080.

Sat Mar 29, 2008 at 03:01:29 PM EST

none

I usually run a tab with a credit card, so it's not as big of a deal to worry about tipping for each drink. When I pay cash, I generally do the dollar a drink thing, although it irks me to pay that much just to see them draft a beer. I'd just as soon reach over the bar and do it myself.

17

you get the service you pre-pay for

1fastdog.

Sun Mar 30, 2008 at 10:58:37 AM EST

none

When I pay cash, I generally do the dollar a drink thing, although it irks me to pay that much just to see them draft a beer.
That's generally what I pay, too, and it doesn't bother me unless the service is terrible.
Think of it as something like an insurance payment that your next drink will be poured/opened/mixed faster than usual. 2 of our local bartenders have my Yuenglings ready for me before I even make it all the way to the bar. I don't even have to wait in the always-present line, they just grab 'em and set 'em down wherever there's free space. Good bartenders remember those who tip and are polite - at least if you tend to frequent the same places and if the staff doesn't have a massive turnover ratio....
Several of my friends tended bar for years and all of them basically reiterated the above; consistent tipping (not necessarily huge tipping, mind you) and a friendly demeanor (no bitching about establishment prices which the bartenders have no control over) from frequent patrons guaranteed them faster service and maybe a little larger portion of liquor in mixed drinks compared to the rest of the crowd....

I'd just as soon reach over the bar and do it myself.
Well, who wouldn't ? :-)

Somewhere in my soul, there's always Rock -n- Roll... Joe Strummer

24

Re: you get the service you pre-pay for

JimmyHavok.

Sun Mar 30, 2008 at 11:09:37 PM EST

5.00 (astute)

Exactly. You aren't tipping for the beer, you're tipping for the attention.

24

Re: you get the service you pre-pay for

thefadd.

Tue Apr 01, 2008 at 01:25:34 AM EST

none

I'd just as soon reach over the bar and do it myself.
Well, who wouldn't ? :-)

When I was tending bar at the elk's lodge, I caught one of my patrons doing just that once. Same guy who one night after being at the bar for 11 hours when he was the only one left asked if I'd ever tried pot in that way that I knew I was about to get a story.

It is easy to buy small plaster models of what you think life is like.

30 4	Re: How much do you tip the delivery person? thefadd. Tue Apr 01, 2008 at 01:33:18 AM EST none

It's funny because I have always tipped delivery guys and bartenders on the high side whereas food servers have to do a lot to deviate from the 15-18% norm. Bartenders $2/drink minimum, probably $5 on the first two if ordered together and $3 on pairs of drinks thereafter. Then again, I'm quick not to tip/not to go back if bartending service is particularly egregious.

For some reason, I feel like I am inconveniencing the delivery guy to bring the stuff to my house. At the same time, sometimes they'll only take cash for delivery and the reason I'm ordering in is that I don't want to go out (to the ATM for example) so there are the times that the delivery guy gets unduly so maybe it's just that I over tip when I can. It could also be that my first impulse is simply to over tip and I don't have copious amounts of time to sit around dissecting the service given by a delivery guy who's at more door all of 10 seconds.

It is easy to buy small plaster models of what you think life is like.

9	thai delivery JimmyHavok. Sat Mar 29, 2008 at 12:41:17 PM EST none

I learned to love Thai food when I lived in LA because my friend used to order it delivered regularly. I'd never even heard of Thai food...but when I finally got back home, Thai restaurants were the Big Thing.

31 9	Re: thai delivery thefadd. Tue Apr 01, 2008 at 01:37:22 AM EST none

No kidding. Thai food is freakin huge around here and it's so damn cheap--in every sense of the word. I like a good Tom Ka soup but other than that I can't stand the stuff unless it's the lamb at this place.

It is easy to buy small plaster models of what you think life is like.

31

Re: thai delivery

JimmyHavok.

Wed Apr 02, 2008 at 12:51:57 AM EST

none

We're lucky here in Honolulu, there's a whole dynasty of Thai restaurants descended from Keo's that are fabulously delicious. They make a sort of fusion food that draws from everywhere in SE Asia, filtered through Keo's own family style. Even the ones that aren't related to Keo show the influence of his style.

15	Huh? delete me. Sat Mar 29, 2008 at 02:24:19 PM EST none

new idea -- delivery pasta.

So these noodles that some of these Chinese restaurants have been delivering for the past 30 years ... Not pasta?

- derumi (del-me)
"Bobby Fischer? Man, that guy is crazy!" - Mike Tyson

15

Re: Huh?

JimmyHavok.

Sun Mar 30, 2008 at 01:32:26 AM EST

none

Nope, they're fun or mein.

21	New? Lou. Sun Mar 30, 2008 at 09:17:37 AM EST none

How is this new? The House of Pizza down the street from my place will deliver anything on the menu. I guess it's "new" in a sense that a big pizza chain is doing it. Aside from that, I don't think it's such a bad idea inasmuch as any kind of convenience food is a bad idea. Looking at the pictures in the link it seems that that the stuff PH is delivering goes beyond the boil pasta-apply sauce variety. Is it good? Hard to say...I don't like PH in general (actually, the variety of frozen pizza I like is, to me, as good as any delivery) so it's unlikely I'll ever try it.

On the other hand, I really like how discussions like this encourage folks to talk about their favorite foods and how to prepare them. I have never cooked so much since the start of this trend on TnT. However, even with that, I don't cook nearly as much as I would like to. Why? It's not the cooking that's a drag...it's the cleaning up. If I had a kitchen gnome to do the pots 'n pans, I would cook all of the time. But when my sink is already filled with dishes from the day before and I actually have to wash something to make something (and then wash it again), all of a sudden that tasty and attractively priced lasagna dinner from the HOP down the street seems like a brilliant idea.

It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine

21

Those Kitchen Gnomes.

MayorBob.

Sun Mar 30, 2008 at 09:57:39 AM EST

none

Didn't Ron Popeil used to market them? "Set it and forget it ... BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!"

Maybe I have them confused with garden weasels.

Illegitimi non carborundum.

22

Re: Those Kitchen Gnomes.

Lou.

Sun Mar 30, 2008 at 10:01:14 AM EST

5.00 (funny)

I understand Ron tried to market something called the "Kitchen Weasel". It never caught on...mostly because it was hard on pets and small children.

It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine

This story: 35 comments (1 from subqueue)

Post a Comment

skeeter1.

Posted to Etcetera on Sat Mar 29, 2008 at 08:34:12 AM EST (promoted by port1080). RSS.

Recipe time

Shy Elf.

Sat Mar 29, 2008 at 09:00:15 AM EST

4.00 (informative)

5

Re: Recipe time

tomc.

Sat Mar 29, 2008 at 12:23:27 PM EST

5

Re: Recipe time

jwb.

Sat Mar 29, 2008 at 01:51:38 PM EST

12

Re: Recipe time

JimmyHavok.

Sun Mar 30, 2008 at 01:31:14 AM EST

4.00 (informative)

19

Re: Recipe time

postillion.

Wed Apr 02, 2008 at 12:18:38 AM EST

33

Re: Recipe time

JimmyHavok.

Wed Apr 02, 2008 at 12:46:50 AM EST

Soon it will be

Steve Urkel.

Sat Mar 29, 2008 at 01:45:03 PM EST

4.00 (informative)

11

Or, if you're on a diet ...

MayorBob.

Sat Mar 29, 2008 at 02:59:48 PM EST

4.00 (brilliant)

Re: Pizza Delivery, Yes, But Pasta Delivery?

port1080.

Sat Mar 29, 2008 at 08:46:12 AM EST

1

Re: Pizza Delivery, Yes, But Pasta Delivery?

Shy Elf.

Sat Mar 29, 2008 at 08:48:14 AM EST

5.00 (brilliant, astute)

2

Re: Pizza Delivery, Yes, But Pasta Delivery?

port1080.

Sat Mar 29, 2008 at 08:50:58 AM EST

1

Re: Pizza Delivery, Yes, But Pasta Delivery?

thefadd.

Tue Apr 01, 2008 at 01:19:06 AM EST

28

Re: Pizza Delivery, Yes, But Pasta Delivery?

port1080.

Tue Apr 01, 2008 at 06:16:23 AM EST

How much do you tip the delivery person?

port1080.

Sat Mar 29, 2008 at 08:57:56 AM EST

4

Re: How much do you tip the delivery person?

logan.

Sat Mar 29, 2008 at 02:04:11 PM EST

5.00 (informative)

4

Re: How much do you tip the delivery person?

zyxwvutsr.

Sat Mar 29, 2008 at 05:08:44 PM EST

5.00 (interesting)

4

Re: How much do you tip the delivery person?

Shy Elf.

Sat Mar 29, 2008 at 09:12:39 AM EST

6

Re: How much do you tip the delivery person?

port1080.

Sat Mar 29, 2008 at 12:51:08 PM EST

5.00 (brilliant)

10

Re: How much do you tip the delivery person?