Let’s Look Back To When Michigan’s Little Caesar’s Sold Seafood
As someone who has always lived in Michigan I’ve always had a hard time talking about what my favorite pizza is. I feel like once I moved to Kalamazoo that decision became even more difficult because it seemed a brand new world of homegrown pizza places was finally exposed to me. Bilbo's, Curly's and Pizza Katerina are just some of the awesome Southwest Michigan pizza companies that are locally owned. There are so many more the list would be overwhelming.
But there are also some major chains that began in Michigan like Jets Pizza, Little Caesars, Hungry Howie‘s and it’s always been a tough call between the three of those. Each of them good in their own right, but there is one thing about one of these places that really makes them apart from the rest. At least it used to…
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I’m too young for this which is why it caught me completely off-guard but Little Caesars once had an entire menu, even featuring spaghetti, shrimp, fish and chicken. Can you imagine if they had this now? They would be giving a lot of places a run for their money. Check out this old photo here of a window display with a description of what was available:
In 1959, Mike and Marian Ilitch opened the first Little Caesars – which also featured spaghetti, shrimp, chicken, and fish - in a strip mall at 32594 Cherry Hill Road, in Garden City, Michigan (a suburb of Detroit). Mike wanted to call it “Pizza Cheap”, but “Little Caesars Pizza Treat” suggestion won out as the first name. The company is famous for its advertising catchphrase "Pizza! Pizza!", which was introduced in 1979. The phrase refers to two pizzas being offered for the comparable price of a single pizza from competitors.
I think a major thing to take away from this is that there has been a big focus on the hot and ready pizzas that they serve. I think that’s where the majority of the focus lies now, so I highly doubt they would bring anything like this back. Either way, it’s interesting to know that at some point and the menu looked more like an Italian restaurant. But after getting an arena named after them, I think they’re doing pretty good as they are now.
10 Southwest Michigan Small Town Restaurants You NEED To Visit
The nice thing about all these locations is that they'll take no more than an hour to get to and it's also a good chance to explore Southwest Michigan and do something off the beaten path. Here are 10 small town restaurants near us that you seriously need to check out: