Quad Cities Style Frozen Pizza Is The #1 Frozen Pizza, But The Company’s Not From The Quad Cities

A listener sent us an email to tell us a Quad Cities Style frozen pizza is getting some national attention after a news network tried 130 frozen pizzas, and ranked them, putting the QC Style pizza in the #1 slot.

The pizza is from Outsiders Pizza Company, based in the northern part of Illinois. Two of their pizzas made the #1 and #2 slots:

1. Bacon and Jalapeño Quad Cities Style
2. Three Cheese Detroit Style

First off, this pizza company is a nationally distributed pizza that isn't even from the Quad Cities. Sure it's got malt crust and the meat's all underneath the cheese and it looks kinda tasty but this isn't right. It's square. SQUARE!

This horrendous attempt at a money grab from our Quad Cities Culture is a disgusting display of how BIG PIZZA thinks they can just do what they want. They think they can take the culinary specialties from different cultures and turn a profit. For the record, they're also marketing a Detroit Style and a Milwaukee Style.

Quad Cities Style Pizza should come from the Quad Cities.

If I'm going for frozen pizza, especially local frozen pizza, I'm grabbing Mama Bosso. The company has been in the Quad Cities for over 60 years. In 1986, their restaurant closed, but they continued to sell their pizzas in grocery stores.

Unlike a lot of companies that truck premade doughs into the factory, Mama Bosso Pizza is made on fresh dough that's proofed overnight. Just like a traditional pizzeria.

 “We use traditional ingredients such as malt syrup, high protein flour and traditional processes.  We allow the dough to develop flavor with ‘floor time’ and then freeze it quickly so when the consumer bakes it in a hot oven at home, they’ll enjoy a REAL crust," says Don Montgomery, Mama Bosso's Production Manager.

If you've been to a Hy-Vee, or a plethora of other stores in the Quad Cities in the last couple years, you've probably met some of Mama Bosso's friendly Demo Specialists handing out free samples.

They also have a few establishments in the Quad Cities serving them up, so you don't even have to head to the store first to get them.

• Rozz Tox, Rock Island, Illinois
• Bent River Tap Room, Rock Island, Illinois
• Steve’s Belgrade, Moline, Illinois
• Crawford Brew Works, Bettendorf, Iowa

Mama Bosso is community centered, they help schools, sports teams, and other churches with fundraising opportunities.

They have so many different toppings of pizza, there's one for everyone. Two of my favorites are the Hot Mama, and their Breakfast Pizza that gives Casey's a run for their money.

While this Outsiders Pizza might be a case of cultural appropriation, they still had 2 pizzas in the top 2 slots of a 130 nationally sold pizzas. Maybe I'll check it out, but I'll do it begrudgingly.