On my way back from Montgomery, I stopped and dined in at this pizza joint in Tuskegee. It was pretty decent pizza and it was incredibly cheap…like I got a whole medium pizza for $4 cheap. Under normal circumstances, I would be skeptical of such places but it was clean and the food rating was 100 so I was all for it. Besides, it was good pizza. It reminded me of a place I frequented back when I lived in South Georgia. That brings me to this week’s moment in the Flashback Friday series: Pizza Quick.
How I first came across this moment? I first came across Pizza Quick in 2005, when they opened the location on Inner Perimeter Road right next to the Walmart Supercenter. I looked like a Little Caesars Pizza and I was hungry so I went in. I purchased a 10-piece order of cheese sticks for $2. It was good and I was sold.
What it meant to me then? Back in 2005, it was great food. I won’t put it ahead of Hungry Howie’s on Northside but it was really good quality pizza and it was incredibly cheap. I was only an Airman 1st Class at the time so my pockets weren’t deep and anytime I could get a full order of cheese sticks for $2 or a large pepperoni for $5, I was taking that deal. The employees were cool too…especially John, who ran the show during the lunchtime hours. He and I always had good conversations about the intricacies of pizza-making. I guess you can say we were kindred spirits.
What it means to me now? I haven’t been inside of a Pizza Quick since May 10, 2010, when I stopped in during my first visit to South Georgia after leaving exactly 3 years earlier. The staff was different but the service and the pizza quality was still the same as it was in November 2005. The cheese sticks were still amazing. Word on the street is that they opened a location out on Bemiss Road, closing to Moody AFB. I bet it’s jumping. Anyway, Pizza Quick was one of the gems on my South Georgia experience and it made me look at small-chain pizzerias a little bit differently. I probably wouldn’t have appreciated Pizzakaya in Tokyo the way I did had it not been for Pizza Quick. One of these days, I’ll get back down to Valdosta and get myself a 10-piece order of cheese sticks from the Inner Perimeter location.
