Do You Remember Pizza at McDonald's? McPizza?

 

A Very Short Ode

Pizza, oh pizza,
I'm always glad to eats ya;
Pizza, oh pizza,
There ain't no food that beats ya!

– OpenHeart, All Poetry

Do you remember buying pizza at McDonald's? I don't, but that's not saying much because my memory these days is fallible to say the least. Here is the history of McDonald's pizza. It's rise and fall are well-documented blips in the ever-changing McDonald's menu.

In the 1980s, McDonald’s was a dominant fast food chain – it was double the size of its closest competitor, owning nearly 40% of the $48 billion burger market. Yet, why not expand into the popular pizza business?

First, Calzone.

One of the precursors to the McPizza was actually more like a calzone or a Hot Pocket. The handheld pizzas came in individual little sleeves, and were sold at only a small number of test locations.

Enter "McPizza."

Expanded testing of the pizza began in 1989. Roughly 24 restaurants in or near Evansville, Indiana and Owensboro, Kentucky were selected to participate.

Within a few years, the company had expanded testing to hundreds of McDonald's locations in multiple states. By some reports, there were up to 2,000 stores selling pizzas in the '90s.

Problems To Overcome

The Oven

The company spent years developing a quick-cook oven that used superheated air to take dough from frozen to crispy in under six minutes. Early commercials promised consumers had never had pizza "so good, so fast,” so diners wouldn't be tempted to stick with established chains or local pizzerias. Cooking the crust to the right level of crispness in such a short time was also a problem that the specially designed oven was intended to solve. Franchisees were going to have to remodel their restaurants to make room for the new equipment, including a warming bin.

The Drive-thru

Next came the problem of drive-thru orders. A large box could not fit through many older drive-thru windows, which had to be expanded in order to accommodate the new menu selection. Executives also wanted a window that could show people near the cashier how their pies were being prepared. This, too, required more renovation, with stores stretching and contorting to handle the corporate strategy.

Competition

"Don’t make a McStake," urged an advertisement for an Illinois-area Pizza Hut. As the world’s largest pizza chain, the idea that McDonald’s could use their sizeable footprint to muscle in on their business was unthinkable. Pizza Hut referred to the dough as “McFrozen” and offered two-for-one pizza deals.

''Every place you see a McDonald's pizza, you're going to see a war,'' ad man Jack Levy told the New York Times in 1989.

Preparation

Pizza insiders speculated their vaunted 5-minute prep time could wind up being 10 minutes or more once restaurants got busy. And, true, employees had to tell customers to park their car and wait for pizzas; patrons inside watched their hamburgers grow cold while politely waiting for a friend’s pie to finish baking.

Cost

When they first rolled out, a standard 14-inch pizza started at $5.80. The larger, deluxe pizza was more than $9. At those prices, consumers were being asked to spend far more than they had come to expect. Two pies for a family, plus drinks, could easily top $15.

That may sound like a pretty decent price today, but it was significantly more expensive than most of the other items on McDonald's menu at the time. McDonald's rolled out a Value Campaign in 1991 that included 59 cent hamburgers and 69 cents cheeseburgers, among other extra value meals. A few years after that Campaign 55 was introduced, which offered breakfast sandwich combos for just 55 cents.

(Alexandra Cass. “The Untold Truth Of McDonald's Pizza.” mashed.com. September 28, 2020.)

Results

None of these McPizzas evolved beyond regional testing, making it clear that the pizza itself could not be easily re-imagined to conform to the McDonald’s template. Still, the company refused to believe McDonald's-endorsed pizza could miss. By some estimates, pies expanded to nearly 40 percent of their restaurants in the early 1990s but disappeared just as quickly.

But, by the end of the '90s, nearly every McDonald's in America had removed pizza from the menu. They survived a little longer in Canada. Of course, the main bugaboo – the pizzas simply took too long to cook. Fast service is a top priority for McDonald's business, and even with new ovens and other equipment, the pizza-making process was still just too long.

McDonald's confirmed that the pizza's actual preparation time was closer to 11 minutes (like years in fast food time), which was "way too long" and "slowed down our game." Rather than risk its reputation for fast service, McDonald's thought it was best to give up on pizza once and for all.

(Jake Rossen. “The Short, Strange Life of McDonald's Pizza.” Mental Floss. June 26, 2015.)

Slices and Remnants

In early 2015, a story went viral when it reported that two restaurants – one in Pomeroy, Ohio and one in Spencer, West Virginia – were still offering pizza to customers.

Both locations are owned by the same franchisee, Greg Mills. In order for McDonald’s pizza to still be served (even if it's not exactly the same recipe as before), the company must be offering approval on some level, possibly with an eye on revitalizing pizza. (In 2000, the company flirted with the idea of putting personal-sized pies into Happy Meals.)

When word got out that the pizzas were still being sold with personal pies going for as little as $2.75 or $3.25 and family size pizzas at $6, these small town McDonald’s became internationally viral. People were traveling very long distances to try the pizza.

Unfortunately, when word got to corporate, the fun was put to bed. It was reported that the restaurant posted the following sign on their doors in summer 2017:

“Effective August 31st we will no longer be allowed to sell McPizza. This decision was made by McDonald’s Corporate office, Not your local staff. It was our Pleasure and Honor to be one of only two McDonalds in The USA to carry this Great product for the past 15 years. We apologize to you our valued Guest and thank you for your support of McPizza over the past 15 years.”

(“What happened to McDonald’s pizza? Our journey to the last location still selling it.” brostocks.com. February 09, 2020.)

As of 2021, only one McDonald's continues to serve pizza: a mega-location in Orlando, Florida. The Orlando location is the largest McDonald's in the U.S. and features a special menu, serving up pasta and Belgian waffles in addition to pizza. Located in the heart of Orlando tourism, this location boasts a McCafe that more closely resembles a Starbucks, packed with delicious looking desserts. Open 24 hours a day, the location boasts a 22 foot play place and 51 arcade games.

The World’s Largest Entertainment McDonald’s and PlayPlace
6875 Sand Lake Road, Orlando, Florida 32819
(407) 351-2185

Return to Za?

If they do ever bring back the dish, it will still require some patience. Billy Wolfe, a reporter from the Charleston Daily Mail, wanted to try the now-mythological food and waited 10 minutes at the West Virginia location for his order to arrive. He brought the pies back to his office for a consensus, and while everyone fancied themselves a food critic (some said it was "bland" and the sauce was "a little too sweet," while Wolfe's take was that it "wasn’t offensive, but it wasn’t great"), all of the pieces were devoured, and one co-worker offered some apt perspective: "It's as good as McDonald's pizza could be."

(Kate Taylor. “The rise and fall of McDonald's pizza, a doomed fast-food icon.” Business Insider. November 28, 2020,)

Just in case you want to help bring back McPizza, you should sign the online petition to “show McDonald's that the McPizza deserves another chance!” (At this writing, only 65 supporters have joined the cause.)

By doing so, you can profess your belief “that if McDonald's uses similar methods to places like Little Caesars and Pizza Hut Express, “it can find success by reintroducing the McPizza to hungry, nostalgic customers.”

Several long-time fans have suggested that McDonald's stick to the slow-cook method to maintain quality, but create a separate section in the restaurant for strictly pizza making. Other fans have suggested McPizza bites, burgers or stombolis.

Sign up here: Petition · McDonald's: Bring back the McPizza · Change.org