Ah Wawa, wawawawawa!

Wawa is getting into the pizza game, which I'm both a bit horrified by and a bit "what took so long?" about:

According to The Cherry Hill Courier-Post, the chain is rolling out pies to virtually all of their 1000-plus locations this summer. Customers can use their app or a touch screen to order a 14-inch or 16-inch pizza ($12.99 and up) with their choice of toppings beginning at 4 p.m. and running through their late-night closing time at 3 a.m. As the pizzas are made fresh, consumers face a somewhat inconvenient wait time of 20 minutes or so.

Wawa is FANTASTIC when it comes to sandwiches so I don't know why I'd think any less of their pizzas, but hey what can I say I am only a man (if that, really).

""But Xmastime", you say in the voice of Craig “Ironhead” Heyward from those soap commercials (RIP), “weren't you pleasantly surprised by 7-11's pizza before, meaning you should at least give the always MUCH better Wawa a chance now?"

Sigh. Yes I did, faithful readers, YES I did:

Yesterday I was in Ridgewood, Queens; or as I call it, "somewhere a thousand miles away in Middle America." In other words, there was a 7-11 there, and since I'm a real American I couldn't go by without walking in and getting some 7-11 "foodstuffs." My standard go-to is of course the Buffalo Chicken taquito*. Years ago Brothatime!! lived down the block from a 7-11, and whenever I'd visit I'd make a big show of "well, I'm gonna go for a walk...need anything? Milk for the baby? No? Okay, see ya in a bit" and then sprint to 7-11 and inhale 2 3 4 a taquito. So I order one yesterday, and found myself staring at the slice of pepperoni pizza rotating in that concentration camp death over-heating thing they have, and something compelled me to buy it. I'd never had 7-11 pizza before, and I was aware that it was probably bad enough fresh, much less having sat around so long as to be the last piece selected which, for all I knew, was a month.

I must say. I was beyond pleasantly surprised. It being edible was the first surprise. But then I realized that besides just the regular pepperoni you'd have on a slice, it was filled with those tiny, diced chunks of pepperoni I remember from school lunch pizza. You know, that strange mix of cardboard and processed glue cheese that for some reason made kids line up out the door to get a slice of? Lunchbags would be left home for the day, friends would be offered free slices to show up early and hold spots in line, etc etc. All for what, looking back, probably shaved years off our lives. Really, it was camping out all night for Beatles tickets, and then looking back two decades later and realizing you'd seen The Backstreet Boys.

You're not gonna sit around the campfire writing country-western songs about it, but at $1.29 a slice, you can do a lot worse. I've had worse "real" NYC slices, and for more than 2x the price.

*I have no idea why I said this, I can't remember ever putting ANY taquito above the beloved magical standard of Taco & Cheese!!