Donatos Pizzeria Test-markets New Bakery Pizza In Cleveland

(Saturday, January 31, 2009) - Donatos Pizzeria is taking advantage of our weakness for pizza by test-marketing an oversized double-decker pie available only in Greater Cleveland.

Dubbed "the Bakery Pizza" because of its light, bready crust, each 13-by-13-inch layer of the sheet pizza is 10 percent larger than Donatos' large.

It comes in a specially designed "Big Value Box" that packs one pie right on top of the other, with a tray in between.

Besides its fluffy, bakery-style crust (dusted with Italian breadcrumbs), the $19.99 single-topping pizza also features a sweeter Italian sauce. Donatos says the 32-slice double-decker is enough to feed eight to 10 people.

A single 16-slice Bakery Pizza costs $11.99. Additional toppings are $1.70 each.

Two slices of Pepperoni Bakery Pizza pack 338 calories, 6 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat and 36 grams of carbs.

If the Bakery Pizza sells well among the 24 stores in Northeast Ohio, Donatos may launch it in all 177 stores nationwide.

"Cleveland's a great pizza city, always has been," said spokesman Tom Santor, a Clevelander who graduated from St. Ignatius High School. "Cleveland pizza eaters are extremely discriminating pizza eaters, and they know good pizza."

Maybe that's why Cleveland regularly makes the list of the top 10 Fattest Cities in America, according to Men's Fitness magazine. This year, the magazine rates us the 15th Fittest City in America (no joke), but it still gave us an "F" for having too many junk-food eateries per resident.

Lisa Cimperman, a clinical dietitian at University Hospitals Case Medical Center, shuddered at the description of Donatos' latest creation.

"The words that come to mind are 'dietitian's nightmare,' " she said. Ohio ranks as the nation's sixth-chubbiest state, according to the Ohio Department of Health. With nearly two-thirds of Buckeyes overweight or obese, "do they really need one pizza on top of another?"

Packing two pies in a single box "just makes it easier for people to overindulge," she said.

"If you want to indulge, my recommendations would be: Look for places that offer a whole-wheat crust, ask them to go easy on the cheese, get lean toppings like chicken or vegetables, and pair it with a side salad. That's actually an excellent dinner choice."

Otherwise, the consequences of eating too much will more than cancel out the $4 you save by buying the Big Value Box.

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