I’m down for trying any new pizza place with garlic in the name.

I first learned about this pizza joint from one of their employees holding a sign out on the street. Yes, human street advertising works. In these parts we see lots of businesses running out workers dressed in crazy outfits holding oversized signs. We never ran any employees on the street outside when I was in the restaurant business pre 1994, but we did have people dress up for the kids on family nights. Relatively inexpensive advertising on busy streets, although I feel for the workers in blazing suits on sweltering days.

You can see if there is a Garlic Jims in your area by checking the GarlicJims.com Store locator. They appear to be in rapid franchise expansion mode.

What’s supposed to make Garlic Jim’s pizza different and better than the competition is that they are “gourmet.” I know, start raising your eyebrows now. Don’t you love it when places claim to be more upscale or fancy when at the end of the day the food tastes pretty much like (or worse) than every non-gourmet food tastes like? I mean really, it’s not like world famous chefs will be spinning pies at the local Garlic Jim’s. Chef Ramsey from that Hell’s Kitchen reality show running around demanding quality pies, not.

There is an upscale contemporary design inside their stores complete with two LCD TVs playing movies.

I noticed that the new Jack in the Box had an LCD TV in the store too. So while people are waiting in line they can watch TV. I’m sure some study has proven that if you show customers a TV they will be less likely to complain or react negatively to wait times, but we didn’t have any trouble getting pizza on Sunday afternoon. The whole time we were there (perhaps 30 minutes or less) we only saw two other customers.

We ordered two pizzas to take home, one of which was their best selling Ultimate. The kids and I liked the pie, but I’d put it about on par with Domino’s. Here’s how I’d rank the local pizza places on taste:

1. Round Table - they have the best sauce and understand when I say “extra, extra sauce” I mean literally oozing out of the pizza. Great buffet at a reasonable price too. My wife and I go there a few times a month.
2. Godfather’s - there isn’t a Godfather’s near by any more, in fact Garlic Jim’s opened in the same general area and what used to be Godfather’s is now a bank.
3. Pizza Hut - we love the breadsticks there!
4. Domino’s - got sick of Domino’s back when I was in high school and we ate them every day. I mean. Every. Single. Day. Sometimes multiple times in a day!
5. Little Caesar’s (if you can still find them) - the only place to find this pizza these days is at K-Mart and it’s gone way downhill. In its prime, I’d take this pizza over Garlic Jim’s.
6. Garlic Jim’s - #6 out of 8, not the ringing customer endorsement they were hoping for, but we’ll be back again trying other items on the menu.
7. Alfy’s - a little too pricey, pizza is alright.
8. Papa John’s Murphy’s (take and bake) - they have the closest location, but I’d rather eat frozen.

Here’s a scary thought: if it were fair to put frozen pizza options in the list above (it’s not, I’m just saying), I’d put Tombstone at #5 ahead of Garlic Jim’s and the others behind it. Tombstone pizza can be found at the local grocery store for a couple bucks a pizza and if you bake it and eat it right away. Good stuff.

Dwayne Northrop, president and one founder of Garlic Jim’s and opened the first store in March 2004 in Bellevue, Washington and says:

“Lots of people make a good pizza but can’t deliver it in less than an hour … A lot of people can deliver in less than an hour, but can’t make good pizza. We fill the gap.”

Apparently they have strict corporate delivery mandates that result in the pizza delivery service not extending very far in busy areas. The Garlic Jim’s manager (franchise owner?) we spoke to on Sunday mentioned that it was difficult to provide the fast delivery corporate demands in the busy area where their store was located during traffic peak times.

The GJ closest our home, about 8 miles is too far out of range for GJ delivery.

Sorry Dwayne and company but your pizza isn’t anything special nor fits what I’d call “gourmet.” The store design, decor and cleanliness? Excellent, A. Friendly help? Excellent, A, but the biggest weight in scoring goes to the pizza taste itself which I’d give a D+. It wasn’t that it wasn’t baked good, it just didn’t seem like that great a pie to me and my wife didn’t like it at all. She used less flattering terms to describe it. Our three teenagers ate it but teenage boys would clear out a fridge with food flirting with expiration if you let them. As mentioned above, we’re going to try the lunch menu later today and also pickup the new Ozzy CD. Maybe Garlic Jim’s lunch menu will prove more “gourmet” than their pizza? We’ll find out later today. Grade: C+.

How do you rank the pizza places in your area? Who has the best pie in your town?

Did this post make you go hmm?

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