Stoopid economy

Sigh.

When we moved to the Chicago 'burb we live in back in 1999, it took us a good six months to find a decent pizza place. And it was even beyond just "decent", it was by far the best delivery pizza we'd ever had (and I am really picky about my pizza - not a deep dish girl, I was raised on thin, crispy crust pizza from a hot brick oven).

We actually found this place on my birthday. I wasn't cooking, and I wanted a pizza with shrimp and garlic for dinner. We called several of the places we'd been ordering from and none of them had shrimp that day. We finally decided to try this new place, Chicago Pizza Authority, and we were floored with how good it was. We haven't ordered from another place since 2000.

It's been awhile since we ordered from them, and tonight I got home from work and fell asleep sitting up on the couch (and I'm dealing with a nasty pulled muscle in my neck from freaking out upon when the world's largest centipede jumped out at me in my car bright and early this morning). So, we decided to call the pizza place.

But it's not the same.

Since we last ordered, they moved from their original location (which was in an area that turned into one of the two crappy areas in town) to working out of an Italian place that is only a couple blocks away. And the pizza is not the same. It's a different brand of cheese, the sauce is a little different, and the crust is WAY different. It's got no good "chew" to it.

It's not bad, but it ain't as great.

Sigh.

When we were looking to move out of our craptacular apartment, one of the key deciding factors was still being in the delivery area of this pizza place. This was the pizza we'd order when entertaining. In recent months, they'd been knocking every pizza outta the park with each pizza's fantasticness. I'm really, really sad right now.

Sorry, Chicago Pizza Authority. We did our best to be loyal customers. Heck, I still have 67 "collect 12 for one 50% off pizza PICKUP ONLY" coupons that I was going to try to barter for one stinkin' 50% off delivery pizza. Guess I'm too late.