It’s the end times, y’all.
Domino’s is boldly going where no American pizza company has gone before: Italy.
Domino's Pizza Italia opened its first store in Milan, Italy, on Monday and has plans for another three restaurants by year’s end, according to Marketwatch.
The idea for the Italian expansion came from an Italian entrepreneur, Alessandro Lazzaroni, who now holds the right to open Domino’s franchises throughout Italy, including, theoretically, in the motherland of all pizza—Naples.
"Italy can be a major milestone for the recognized world leader in pizza delivery, as no major American pizza brand has successfully entered the market," Richard Allison, president of Domino's International, said in a statement, apparently overlooking the fact that no major American pizza brand can compete with real Italian pizza.
Italians (or visiting Americans) shouldn’t head to Domino’s Italian outposts to get their fried chicken pizza crust fix, though. Instead of trying to convince Italians to purchase menu items like the Cali Chicken Bacon Ranch™ Pizza, the Philly Cheese Steak Pizza, or even the comparatively tame Wisconsin 6 Cheese Pizza, The Italian Domino’s menu is unabashedly Italian with Sicilian and Neapolitan style pies for sale along with a simple tomato-mozzarella Margherita, which according to Domino’s is favored by 70 percent of Italian consumers. (So far they haven’t been swayed by the Chicken and Bacon Carbonara version.)
To translate the ultimate American pizza to Italian tastes, Lazzaroni and his staff took Domino’s original recipe and gave it some Italian touches. They are incorporating locally sourced ingredients like prosciutto di Parma, Gorgonzola, Grana Padano, and Mozzarella di Bufala Campana and are even using Italian wheat for the crust. To round out the menu they will have dessert options like tiramisu, instead of Cinna Stix®. Their loss.
