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Is the era of taco pizza coming to an end?

They tried to do a Chuck E Cheese style Happy Joe's Pizza and Arcade in Waterloo in the 90s. Big night out. It was a fantastic Pizza and Arcade but it was very expensive for Waterloo. I don't think it lasted 5 years before it was a rental car place.
 
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Cici's have a very fine taco pizza. It's the only place I would ever eat it.
 
Happy Joe’s got to big for its birches when it started changing $25 for a pizza

the market is over saturated with much cheaper pizza options and HJ’s just isn't good enough to demand that price
This birch still loves Happy Joe's. We used to live around the corner from one so we never had to wait more than 20 minutes for a steaming hot taco pizza.
 
Lots of places make taco pizza (which is awesome)

And so is "baked potato pizza", with bacon, scallions, tater tots and ranch sauce...
 
Meh, just about everyone makes a taco pizza these days, and there are far too many great options to mourn over the death of a chain that didn't improve and evolve.
 
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The entire franchise started going downhill when Joe Whitty died.

FIFY

CSB my step-father (RIP in peace) had befriended him at one point in time and we would randomly get free pizza when I was younger because of that connection.

The lady who has celiac’s disease still rolls the dice on their gluten free pizza from time to time and it is probably the best gluten free pizza we can get in Iowa. Mellow Mushroom is an easy second place.


Casey's Pizza is a shell of its former self, including the taco pizza. There, I said it.

It honestly comes down to location and staff. Some locations still dish out that classic Casey’s but some
 
Happy Joe’s got to big for its birches when it started changing $25 for a pizza

the market is over saturated with much cheaper pizza options and HJ’s just isn't good enough to demand that price
Other than gas station chains, Domino's, and Little Caesar's, where are these much cheaper options? In the DSM area I am used to $25 between Pagliai's, Rosati's, Felix & Oscar's, Checkerboard, George's, etc. I love Happy Joe's.
 
In the DSM area, we are down to one location in Urbandale and it is carryout. I love the Happy Joe's Canadian bacon, the sausage, the combo, and the taco. The one in Pella closed during the pandy. Very sad if there is no Happy Joe's in the future!
 
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Godfathers in Mason City makes the 2nd best taco pie I've ever had and number 1 for chain places. The best taco pie I've ever had was at DTs Pub in Fayette. If you are nearby and like taco pie, definetly give it a try before you die.
 
Happy Joe’s got to big for its birches when it started changing $25 for a pizza

the market is over saturated with much cheaper pizza options and HJ’s just isn't good enough to demand that price
Does anyone pay full price at Happy Joe’s? There are coupons everywhere. My MIL (no pics) has a stack of them in a drawer in her kitchen. I don’t think their pricing was the issue as much as their plans for global expansion were maybe a little too ambitious.
 
Taco pizza is an abomination. Worst popular pizza flavor by far.
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Does anyone pay full price at Happy Joe’s? There are coupons everywhere. My MIL (no pics) has a stack of them in a drawer in her kitchen. I don’t think their pricing was the issue as much as their plans for global expansion were maybe a little too ambitious.
Around here it's the standard and they offer zero deals. Coupon? Lol. I rarely get it, but we just moved rather close to the original delivery/takeout location in town. It's great for slices after 8pm, but the pricing and general customer service is just ridiculous. Called in a large half taco, half pepperoni last week. Of course when you do that you pay the premium for the whole thing, not just the half. $31 dollars and change for a single pizza. The kid working the register (I say kid even though he was probably 35 but the staff is full of overachievers that work a high school job as a career) apparently rings it in wrong at $26. Then gets flustered because I was using gift certificates from the previous trip I was given after waiting a half hour past the quoted pickup time in the store. Calls over what appears to be a manager of some variety. After a lengthy exchange of confusing remarks where he basically calls the guy an idiot in front of me, he deletes the register transaction. Mind you I have pizza in hand at this point, and literally already would have been home. So now I'm pissed off that I'm still standing there after presenting payment with the item in hand, and dude rings it in as $31. I was like hey man, dude told me it was $26. He just shrugs me off and says the other guy was wrong and hands me back less change. Awesome. My inconvenience of waiting 5 minutes with the pizza already in hand was rewarded with adding $5 to the price. And that right there is why that chain is finally failing. The franchises around here are completely of the mentality of you need us more than we need you. Overpriced and staffed by people that hate their job and their lives. I was at the sit down location a few months ago for an end of season pizza party for one of the kids activities. They have been doing an annual group staff photo for both locations since it's inception. It's rather sad to see the metamorphosis of teenagers in the 80s and 90s that are now in their 40s and 50s in the recent pictures still doing the same thing. But, keeping cranking poor service and $31 pizzas because I guarantee you these will continue forever because it's like crack to the people in this city and they complain about it but still throw money at it. Like the Iowa football offense of the last decade.
 
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They tried to do a Chuck E Cheese style Happy Joe's Pizza and Arcade in Waterloo in the 90s. Big night out. It was a fantastic Pizza and Arcade but it was very expensive for Waterloo. I don't think it lasted 5 years before it was a rental car place.
Cedar Rapids had one by Lindale, but the pandemic killed it. They were open through most for carryout only, but then they opened a carry out only store in Hiawatha and closed the eat-in restaurant.
Does anyone pay full price at Happy Joe’s? There are coupons everywhere. My MIL (no pics) has a stack of them in a drawer in her kitchen. I don’t think their pricing was the issue as much as their plans for global expansion were maybe a little too ambitious.
Monday and Tuesday $16.99 for a large in Cedar Rapids. Used to be 15 but inflation/bankruptcy I guess.
 
Love to get some HJ taco pizza when I’m back home in CR. Just had it over Labor Day weekend. Pricey for sure…but certainly my favorite taco. Haven’t found anything close to it in Chicago.
 
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They have been doing an annual group staff photo for both locations since it's inception. It's rather sad to see the metamorphosis of teenagers in the 80s and 90s that are now in their 40s and 50s in the recent pictures still doing the same thing.

I left the restaurant business in 1996. There are people I worked with back then, all the way back to the 1980's, that are still working in the restaurant business at the same general position as back then - just different restaurants is all.

The years have not been good to them. Hell, I left the business because I was early 30's and my body was failing after 17 years in it...I cannot imagine how these people feel physically by now.

It is a hard life that is hard on the body.
 
Happy Joe's pizza is just not good enough to charge $20 for a large cheese pizza. That is at least $5 if not $10 too expensive for what you get. They are charging gourmet pizza prices for chain pizza quality.

I went to the one in my hometown a few years ago and ordered a sausage and mushroom. The mushrooms were out of a can. That is absolutely garbage for the prices they charge. They have two options if they want to survive.
1. Increase the quality to match the current prices.
2. Decrease the prices to match the current quality.

Really they should look at some combo of both if they want to thrive again. In the Twin Cities, which isn't a pizza town but is a big city, one of the top pizza places charges between $15-23 for their gourmet pizzas, which are admittedly smaller than a Happy Joe's large but far superior in ingredients and taste.
 
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