13 Little Caesars Menu Items From The 1990s You Probably Forgot About
From spaghetti buckets to weird pizza crusts, Little Caesars spent the 1990s experimenting with its menu and testing out new flavors and combinations. This was also the era of the "giant pizza war," when three major pizza chains (Little Caesars, Domino's, and Pizza Hut) tried to give consumers the biggest pizza on the market. Little Caesars initiated this battle: The now-discontinued 24-slice Big! Big! Cheese Pizza became one of the chain's most successful items, and prompted changes in competitor's menus. Then, in 1997, the pizza chain introduced the Hot-N-Ready Pizza, a long-running hit that is still a staple.
That's all well and good -- but this tumultuous time also saw many failures. The enigmatic and short-lived chocolate ravioli, for example, came and went like a shooting star. And, as any patron knows, that once-successful Big! Big! Cheese Pizza can no longer be purchased. We're here to take a look at 13 discontinued items from Little Caesars' '90s menu that might be gone, but shouldn't be forgotten.
Read more: The 101 Best Pizzas In America
Pepperoni Crazy Bread
Little Caesars' 1990s menu combos were something else. A mere $7.98 could get you two pizzas, extra pepperoni, and the iconic and sadly discontinued Pepperoni Crazy Bread. Yes, that's a lot of pepperoni, but people didn't mind. "Little Caesars should have never stopped selling this," lamented one YouTube commenter under the vintage ad. But the chain was merciless. Pepperoni Crazy Bread disappeared from the menu and its taste remains solely in the memories of those who grew up in the '90s. To be fair, the pepperoni-filled treat wasn't made to last: Little Caesars introduced it as a limited deal from the very start.
What were these breadsticks exactly? They were crispy bread combined with gooey mozzarella cheese and Hormel pepperoni inside. In other words, they were pure side dish perfection. Though they're gone, their spirit lives on: Crazy Bread is still on Little Caesars menu. Moreover, in 2020 the chain added Stuffed Crazy Bread (with cheese filling) to its menu for a limited run. Neither item has pepperoni in it, though, much to the chagrin of fans of the OG snack. The story of Pepperoni Crazy Bread is destined to live on in Reddit subs and vintage YouTube videos.
Big! Big! Bucket
Everyone likes pasta Bolognese, right? Right. But just because you can add pasta with meat sauce to your menu doesn't mean you should. Little Caesars learned this the hard way in 1993. Things started well: The chain produced a bonkers commercial featuring two elderly ladies and a dog watching a monster truck smash another vehicle to illustrate how huge its offerings were. After boasting about its deep dish pan pizzas (a popular menu item from 1988 that was still around in the '90s), the narrator reveals that a family-size spaghetti bucket with meat sauce is included in the pizza combo.
Subsequently, spaghetti became quite a headache for the brand. It wasn't popular sales-wise, and franchisees turned against the item as the pasta-making pan was pricey. Also, let's be real: The bucket design was terrible and looked like a can of paint. Spaghetti had to go.
It wasn't without hardcore fans, though. One of them started a petition on Change.org, declaring, "The people need more than pizza. We need buckets of food." Registered in 2020, it presently has 262 signatures out of 500. We guess people are fine with pizza for now.
Big! Big! Cheese
Go big and go home. That phrase perfectly describes the Little Caesars position among the pizza chains of the '90s. In contrast to main rivals Pizza Hut and Domino's, the Michigan-headquartered company neither had a dine-in option, nor offered delivery. Customers ordered food, grabbed, and left, an approach that made the chain's notoriously cheap pricing possible. But the competitors were stepping on its toes and Little Caesars had ambitions of conquering more of the pizza market. Thus, the Big! Big! Cheese was born.
The new menu item was, in fact, two gargantuan pizzas (11 1/4 inches by 22 1/2 inches) boasting 24 slices. They were packed side-to-side and came at an attractive $8.88 cost. Banking on size paid off -- the chain saw a major rise in sales. Little Caesars also flexed its marketing muscles by delivering a hilarious commercial starring Academy Award-winning actor George Burns and a pizza copter.
Pizza By The Foot
Pizza by the Foot was a great menu item that came at the wrong time. In 1996, Little Caesars attempted to deliver a fresh reincarnation of the "giant pizza" concept the industry was so obsessed with in the '90s. It took the form of what is, arguably, still its most creative menu option. Served in a footlong box with measurements and a handle, Pizza by the Foot was fully customizable and featured rectangular slices. It looked awesome and tasted even better. As one Redditor put it, "When Little Caesars came back with round pizzas I was so sad lol." Now that's an impact.
But the clouds were getting darker above Little Caesars' financial prospects at the end of the '90s. In 1999, the chain closed almost 400 stores in one day. Sales were plummeting, and the competition was too fierce. Then, in 2002, 250 franchisees filed a lawsuit against Little Caesars addressing inferior supply quality and advertising contributions. Pizza by the Foot became a victim of unfortunate circumstance. But hey, at least the item's vintage commercial currently has more than 280,000 views on YouTube and a plethora of teary-eyed comments full of people's fond memories.
Extra-Big Pizza
A big part of Little Caesars' 1990s marketing strategy was to cement itself as the supplier of the biggest and best-priced pizzas on the market. 1997 saw the company turn its menu on its head by increasing the standard sizes of its pizzas to 14 (small), 16 (medium) and 18 (large) inches. The idea was to make the small pizza equal in size to the large pizzas of competitors like Pizza Hut and Domino's. To announce the change, Little Caesars released a slightly unsettling commercial in which a giant naked newborn punches a doctor after being delivered.
Altering pizza sizes was a bold move -- too bold for a brand that mostly relied on franchisees. They didn't like the changed sizes, as customers were confused by new measurements. Said changes didn't last long. In 1998, Little Caesars brought back the classic sizes, making the whole thing seem like a big marketing hiccup. It was ambitious, and even arguably generous, but ultimately unsuccessful. But while the larger pizzas disappeared, it's impossible to unsee that disturbing newborn commercial.
Big Veal Deal
Not much is known about the Big Veal Deal. Anyone curious must do some serious digging to find proof of its existence -- and we did just that. In 2015, Little Caesars' X account posted a photo of a vintage menu. Among the well-documented '90s items, like huge pizzas and the short-lived spaghetti, it features a rare beast: The Big Veal Deal sandwich, selling for $1.68. Was this Little Caesars' step into Subway territory? Why do we know so little about this sandwich?
It turns out that the sandwich came with a sizable veal patty, provolone cheese, and pizza sauce. Those who got a chance to taste it really loved this sub. Their devotion was so big that one forum-goer emailed Little Caesars about the sandwich (proving that nothing stops diehard food fans), and, surprisingly, got a response. Sharon Arend, Director of Archives and Historical Documents at Ilitch Holdings, Inc., told this netizen, "The Big Veal Deal was sold at Little Caesars Pizza Stations and at Little Caesars Pizza Stations in K Marts. They stopped being a menu item in K Mart around 1995 and in company Pizza Stations around 1997." Now that's customer support.
If you crave Little Caesars subs, you're not totally out of luck: You can still find them on the menu in the company's Saudi Arabian stores. Sadly, the Big Veal Deal isn't there.
Sports Pizza! Pizza!
Around 1996, Little Caesars aimed at the hearts of sports fans and introduced the Sports Pizza! Pizza!, two football-shaped pizzas with cheese, pepperoni, and a stitch down the middle. This was the only time in the '90s that Little Caesars actually altered the shape of its pizza. The deal came packed with memorabilia, too: Each promotion featured a life-size poster of a football superstar of the era, including Barry Sanders, Thurman Thomas, John Elway, and Herschel Walker. The combo cost $10.99.
Sports Pizza! Pizza! was introduced with a heartwarmingly silly commercial in which a sweaty family man comes home with a Little Caesars box and goes face-to-face with a tiny, angry dog. "I remember this was the best pizza as a kid," commented one YouTuber under the vintage ad. It's similarly well remembered on places like Reddit. Believe it or not, there's a way to get yourself a piece of the Sports Pizza! Pizza! deal today. You can find the promotional posters for sale on eBay, with prices as low as $4.99 for signed copies.
Chocolate Ravioli
Not much is known about Little Caesars' chocolate ravioli. In 2014, the brand posted a vintage photo of an item labeled Chocolate! Chocolate! Ravioli! Ravioli! without providing much info on what it actually was. The dessert also appears at the end of a commercial announcing the Pepperoni Crazy Bread; Chocolate! Chocolate!, as it's referred to there, is presented as a free addition to the $7.98 combo. In 2020, TikToker kelitarosita, who specializes in discontinued foods, revealed that the chocolate ravioli was an enigma, citing an almost total lack of information about it on the web.
Questions swirled for years. Finally, in 2022, the Discontinued Foods! X account brought some clarity to the mysterious dessert. It wasn't made of pasta, as the name suggests, but white chocolate wrapped around a creamy milk chocolate center. This description coincides with forum testimonials from people who got to try it in the '90s. According to one Redditor, the ravioli used to be stapled to the top of the pizza bag.
Free Toy With Pizza! Pizza!
If you grew up in the '90s and regularly ate at Little Caesars, you might remember when the chain gave out free toys with its pizza. Kids had to say a special phrase to get the treat. According to Redditors, the magic combination was "pizza pizza pleasa pleasa," though some remember it as "please please." The promotion was introduced by a chaotic commercial in which a band of plush toys sings a nonsensical song that includes words like "bananafana," "feetza," and "meatza." It bizarrely ends with a talking uvula announcing the free toy deal. Advertising in the '90s was wild.
The free toy with Pizza! Pizza! was Little Caesars' Happy Meal moment. Considering that the brand discontinued the promotion sometime in the mid-1990s, however, the initiative didn't take off. Apparently, toga-wearing Romans with hairy chests weren't on top of '90s kids' must-have lists, even if the commercial did entice them. If you really want to take the nostalgia plunge, some Little Caesars toys can be found on eBay. There are even unopened ones for sale.
Cheeser! Cheeser!
There wasn't anything revolutionary about the Cheeser! Cheeser! Little Caesars added as a limited-time deal in 1991. It was a combination of two pepperoni pizzas with extra cheese, three added toppings, and Crazy Bread, offered at $8.98. But the deal became a fan favorite, and the commercials promoting it were among the best Little Caesars marketing efforts of the 1990s. One ad features a baby traveling around the house as it holds onto stretching cheese. Another sees a hospital patient refuse to let a cheesy pizza slice go as he rolls through a ward. These ads are silly, feature a lot of cheese, and stay in your memory forever. The deal, however, eventually met its end.
Cheeser! Cheeser! hasn't been completely forgotten, though. Popular demand led Little Caesars to reintroduce the cheese-heavy pepperoni pie that made the deal so memorable for a limited time in 2020. Pepperoni Cheeser! Cheeser! pizza came with a mozzarella and asiago parmesan crust, and was seasoned with sweet basil. While it was only a slightly upgraded version of the pizza item from the '90s lacking the deal's other elements, fans loved it nevertheless. When its end came (again), people took to places like Reddit to lament its passing. Limited-time offers do break hearts.
Supreme! Supreme!
Who doesn't like a good feud between brands? Little Caesars decided to show its teeth in 1994 when it made a commercial that takes a direct shot at Pizza Hut, even featuring the chain's logo. The video shows an orangutan who must push a button to make a choice. When the narrator asks the primate to choose between one $10.99 supreme pizza (Pizza Hut's menu item) or two supreme pizzas for $9.98 (Little Caesars' option, christened the Supreme! Supreme! deal), the animal doesn't even think before opting for the second choice. Now that's how you take a dig against your rival.
This ad aired at the height of the "giant pizza war," fought primarily between Pizza Hut's 1993-inaugurated Bigfoot pizza and Little Caesars' 24-slice Big! Big! Cheese. Though the Supreme! Supreme! skirmish was smaller, it still made waves. The two-pizza deal was discontinued in the 1990s, sadly, but you can still get an Ultimate Supreme pizza (with pepperoni, sausages, mushroom, onions, and green peppers) at restaurants today. The feud between Little Caesars and Pizza Hut lives on as well -- the former chain doesn't miss any chances to throw shade at its competitor on social media.
Crazy Crust
Before Pizza Hut changed the pizza game forever by introducing stuffed crust, Little Caesars had its very own way of making pizza bones more delicious. We're talking about Crazy Crust, the company's 1990 menu item, which offered four different seasonings to add to one's crust: sesame seed, parmesan, poppy seed, or garlic butter. The Crazy Crust promotion came at $8.88 and included two pizzas with 8 toppings.
Apparently, you can still get this tasty blast from the past at your local Little Caesars if you know what to ask for. That's right: Little Caesars has a secret menu. Former and present Little Caesars employees shared on Reddit that their stores serve the topped crusts for an extra charge if the customer specifically asks for them. Usually, the butter parmesan crust is the winner. Moreover, in 2023, Little Caesars brought the Crazy Crust back to its menu for a limited time. It wasn't an identical retread of the '90s recipe, though: This crust was stuffed with cheese and featured only the garlic-infused butter sprinkled with parmesan. A few years prior in 2019, Little Caesars also tested a pizza with four different crust flavors, called Quattro Crust. Neither poppy seed nor sesame made a comeback in it, though.
French Fry Crust
Little Caesars is known for its penchant for experimentation, especially when it comes to pizza crusts. Some, like Little Caesars' popular pretzel crust, are limited-time offers that become so popular, the company brings them back. Others, like Little Caesars' corn cob pizza, only exist on social media for the sake of virality. A few are just plain wacky. Back in the 1990s, the company released a little-known crust that fell squarely into this final category.
Spaghetti buckets weren't the only eyebrow-raising additions to Little Caesars' menus in 1993. That year, the chain gave the world a French fry crust. Experimenting with crust texture was clearly seen as a key way to win the fast-food pizza competition in this decade, and oftentimes, it succeeded -- consider the beloved Crazy Crust. Not much is known about the mythic French fry crust, though, even on nostalgia-heavy forums and subreddits. Judging from the fact that the company has never reinstated it, we can assume that the item wasn't a success. Nevertheless, you can still find some people demanding Little Caesars bring it back. Fingers crossed they do, so we can try this zany pizza ourselves.
Read the original article on Daily Meal
