Mod Pizza Is Trying To Create Tacos Out Of Pizza

While MOD Pizza's name (the MOD part, of course) is an acronym for Made On Demand, the word is also short for modern, which ties in with the pizza chain's stated desire to be cutting edge, innovative, not your grandfather's pizzeria, and all that. The main thing the restaurant offers that other pizza chains do not is the ability to make a very customized pizza. Sure, you can specify the sauce, toppings, and crust on any pizza you order from Domino's or Pizza Hut, but Mod Pizza ups the ante by offering a far greater variety of options from which to choose. They're also the only major chain we know where the pizza names aren't the least bit descriptive of what's on top — no plain cheese pizza from MOD, instead, it's a "Maddy."

The chain's newest innovation, however, doesn't have a particularly creative name, nor is it really all that "mod." While the new pocket pies may look like a pizza/taco mashup, they're actually just one more spin on a folded pizza concept that dates back several centuries.

MOD Pizza introduced its pocket pies just in time for Pi Day, which is a cute bit of marketing even if the non-circular shape means that you can't calculate their circumference by multiplying the diameter by 3.14. Nor is the idea of folded, filled pizza dough particularly innovative — just ask calzones and strombolis. The former has been around since 18^th century, while the latter was invented in the 1950s. More recently, Papa John's debuted the papadia while Pizza Hut introduced the pizza melt. Both, like MOD's pocket pies, are folded rather than crimped, although the pocket pies do look more like tacos.

Still, why shouldn't MOD Pizza get in on the foldover pizza game? If its pies are anything like the rest of its pizza lineup, they'll probably be a pretty high-quality product. They come in three flavors: four cheese, chicken bacon ranch, and Italiano, a veritable kitchen sink of a pie made with both white and red sauces along with mozzarella and parmesan cheeses, pepperoni, salami, arugula, basil, roast peppers, and tomatoes. The pies are priced between $7.99 and $9.56 depending on location, and if you want to give them a try, you've got the standard limited-but-unspecified time in which to do so. They should be available at least through the end of May, though, since there's a pocket pie meal deal, $9.99 for a pie and a drink, that runs from March 27 through May 29.