With weather this hot sweeping over the South, it’s a good idea to stay out of the heat as much as possible. Although most restaurants are adequately air-conditioned, why not skip the whole “going out” to eat affair and stay home? While you’re at it, you might as well not prepare a meal either. A stop into Papa Murphy’s will prepare your dinner almost all the way, and let you finish it within the comfort of your own home.
The concept of the Papa Murphy’s’ locations are quite interesting. The idea is that at Papa Murphy’s you make your pizza exactly the way you want it, and then take your uncooked prepared dough creation home to cook in your own oven. It’s the happy medium of going out to eat versus preparing a meal at home. The Papa Murphy’s franchise has now come to our area. They have set up in Hixson, right off of Hwy 153, across from the Hixson Wal-Mart. Inside, the location is set up very similarly to what a Subway restaurant looks like. There’s a long glass shielded counter space where all sorts of ingredients are lined waiting for their pizza. At one end, there are bags of pizza dough flour, and at the other end there are racks of pre-made dough. There are refrigerators that hold pre-made cheesy bread, and containers of Papa Murphy’s chocolate chip cookie dough, both items ready for your oven. The only thing you can take and eat right away would be their salads and soft drinks.
Papa Murphy’s offers a lot of options once you are ready to build your own dinner. First, guests pick their crust. They can choose Thin Crust deLITE, Stuffed pizza, or traditional. Then they can pile on or in their pizza all the toppings they see fit. They’ve got all the meats on hand and veggies sliced fresh by the works like zucchini, green peppers, and marinated artichoke hearts. What I especially appreciated were the importance that Papa Murphy’s places on their cheeses. Besides offering a slew of different kinds of cheeses, they make sure to top and stuff your pizza with plenty of that cheesy goodness. While there are also set combinations customers can choose from like “The Cowboy” pizza, that features pepperoni, Italian sausage, mushrooms, black olives, and herb and cheese blend, I chose to experience my first pizza with Papa Murphy’s by creating my own pizza.
I decided to go with the stuffed pizza. Sticking close to their 5-Meat Stuffed suggestion pizza I went with sausage, salami and pepperoni for my meats and asked for extra cheese and mushrooms as well. After quickly flattening out a dough ball to make my pizza, the staff placed toppings and mounds of cheese on the first layer of dough. They braided a second top layer of dough into the bottom layer and topped this top layer with more cheese, sauce, and mushrooms. They also offered me the combo package which included the pizza, cheesy bread or chocolate chip cookie dough and a 2-liter soda.
Before heading home to bake the bread and pizza, I considered also trying one of Papa Murphy’s desert options. The chocolate chip cookie dough made in-store offers ready to bake batch cookies with real Hershey’s chocolate chips. Their Cinnamon wheel desert is similar looking to the cheesy bread in that it is handmade dough, but instead of being topped with cheese, it is topped with cinnamon butter blend, crumbled streusel topping and cream cheese frosting. As it was, after baking my stuffed pizza and cheesy bread, I had more food on my hands than I knew what to do with. A large stuffed pizza is supposed to feed from two to three people, but I’m pretty sure a family of four could have tackled the pizza and still had some to spare.
Papa Murphy’s offers a good variety for any pizza lover. Their gourmet vegetarian pizza with spinach, zucchini, mushrooms, marinated artichoke hearts, Roma tomatoes, onions and herb and cheese blend is one of these customer conscious options. But then again, if you don’t like their menu suggestions, you are encouraged to build your own creation.
The pizza tasted great, and has a fresh edge over frozen or delivery. You can even cook the pizza and cheesy bread on the trays they provide with the items. Their sauce, meat, cheese and toppings all have distinct flavor that pizza fans will enjoy. Also, with the lack of ovens in Papa Murphy’s, their location is pleasantly cool, and a good place to get out of this heat.
Email Erica Tuggle at reporter@hamiltoncountyherald.com.