Who Doesn't Love a Good Wedgie?

I sure do! But not the kind you're thinking of, so let's continue.

"Listen my children and you shall hear of the midnight ride of Paul Revere." Certainly those of us of a certain age remember that Revolutionary War rhyme, but in the fall of 1981 it took on a completely new meaning to me. It was the start of my freshman year at Drake University in Des Moines, IA and Paul Revere's Pizza was the go-to for delivery. Sadly, when Domino's arrived in early 1982 PRP's days were numbered, and today there's no longer a Des Moines location.

One of PRP's menu items was the Wedgie, which was basically a 12" pizza folded in half and filled with whatever the consumer wanted; my go-to was pepperoni, sausage, mushrooms, black olives, extra cheese and extra sauce )I could afford such extravagance because extra sauce was free). And now you're thinking, "Brad, isn't that basically just a calzone?" and you're probably right, but in 1981 Iowa nobody knew calzone from Capone so "Wedgie" it was.

Years (a whole lot of 'em) went by and every so often I'd fondly remember the Wedgie. There were even PRP locations in a couple of towns not too far from me but for some reason they didn't have Wedgies on the menu. But last year I decided to act on those memories and I planned a stay in Cedar Rapids because there's still a PRP there.

I ordered a Wedgie for carryout and took it back to the hotel to share with my wife, who was actually a little curious to see this thing her husband had been babbling about for so long.

Ah, memories! Unfortunately, I couldn't get the color balance quite where I wanted.

It's OK to drool. You know you want to.

Was the Wedgie delicious? Absolutely. Was it as I remembered? Well...not quite. Back in the day the extra sauce was actually inside the Wedgie and I would have to bite a hole in the fold and eat some of the sauce with a spoon to reduce the potential mess, but this Wedgie came with the extra sauce on the side. Disappointing. But otherwise it was definitely a tasty trip down memory lane and I kicked myself a little for waiting so long. In fact, of the 2 semi-local PRPs I mentioned 1 is still in business and now has the Wedgie on the menu, so it won't be another 40 years until my next one!