It's Casey's. vs. Weigel's in a gas-station pizza smackdown | Grub Scout

My review of Calloway’s Tennessee Kitchen a couple of weeks ago hinted that I might be taking Casey’s Pizza out for a taste test in the near future. The future arrived, but I decided to take things one step further by comparing Casey’s to another area convenience-store chain that prepares pizzas to order on site — Weigel’s.

The Grub Spouse and I started with the Cedar Bluff Road Casey’s, which — if I’m not mistaken — is one of only two Knoxville-area Casey’s locations with an operating pizza kitchen right now. Word on the street is that it will take several years for all the regional stores to come online in terms of food service.

We ordered our pie on the Casey’s app since we were still driving back to town after a weekend getaway. The menu features six different single-topping pizzas as well as eight types of specialty creations. Those who want to custom-create a pie from the crust up have that choice as well. We wanted to order a medium Supreme pizza (pepperoni, sausage, beef, green peppers, onions, mushrooms, black olives), but The Spouse did not notice the option for size customization on the app, so we ordered the default setting of large. The cost: $18.56.

Upon our scheduled arrival, we had to wait a few moments for our order, mainly because they had accidentally made a medium instead (the irony!) and had to redo our order as a large 12-slicer (the staff had already started munching on our medium). Inside the store, I noticed a heated display case in which individual slices of pizza were available for carryout, but I didn’t see any whole pies to go.

We dined immediately in the parked Grubmobile, and I have to admit this pizza was better than what I expected. It’s very similar to Gondolier pizza, both in taste and thickness. The crust is on the thin side, which made it difficult to keep the toppings from sliding off, even when folded. I really needed a fork to scoop up the droppings.

Two days later, I swung by the Hardin Valley Road location of Weigel’s for a solo lunch outing. I spotted a couple of kiosk-style screens adjacent to the kitchen area, so I started keying in my order — a large Supreme — so I could compare apples to apples. The price was $15.28.

At one point, before I completed my order, I asked the young woman in the pizza kitchen if sizes other than large were available; she said they were not. Then she told me that if I wanted a large Supreme, she would be happy to make me one from scratch, but she also pointed out that she had just loaded a fresh-from-the-oven Supreme into their accessible warming oven, from which customers can grab whole pies to go. The store also has a heated display case where a variety of pizza slices were available for carryout.

I canceled my kiosk order, grabbed a Supreme to go and paid at the counter. Out in the Grubmobile, I opened the lid on a large six-slice pie that differed from Casey’s in two ways that were immediately noticeable: First, the crust was thicker, though not nearly as thick as a deep-dish or Detroit-style crust. Second, it did not automatically come topped with green peppers or olives.

Again, I was fairly impressed by the quality. In fact, I have to say that between the two, I preferred the Weigel’s pizza, if for no other reason than I’m partial to thicker crusts. Also, I simply liked the overall flavor better, and that pizza wound up costing $3 less than the Casey’s Supreme. There’s also the fact that more than 40 Weigel’s locations are serving pizza right now, and they provide more to-go options. The drawbacks to that chain are the crust-size limitations, the smaller number of toppings on a Supreme and the lack of a delivery option. For me, those didn’t outweigh the pros.

The bottom line, however, is that I enjoyed both of these pizzas more than I thought I would. I would choose either over a store-bought or a Little Caesars or Pizza Hut pie any day. Even national chains like Domino’s or Papa John’s might have their work cut out for them in terms of quality. I’ll usually support my favorite locally owned pizzerias first, but the next time I’m looking for a convenient pie to go, I may not have to look farther than my neighborhood market.

Casey’s

Food: 3.75

Service: NA

Atmosphere: NA

Overall: 3.75

Address: 421 N. Cedar Bluff Road

Phone: 865-693-2428

Order by phone, app or in store for carryout or delivery.

Weigel’s

Food: 4

Service: NA

Atmosphere: NA

Overall: 4

Address: 1405 Lovell Road

Phone: 865-693-3038

Order by phone or in store for carryout.

If the idea of convenience-store pizza doesn’t necessarily whet your appetite, you might be pleasantly surprised by the ‘za fare offered by these two chains.

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Pizza review: Casey's. vs. Weigel's in a gas-station smackdown