With the big holiday coming up this weekend, I’m dedicating this to Julius Caesar, who never saw it coming.

That’s right. I’m talking about the pretzel crust pizza from Little Caesar’s. A friend asked me if I had tried this, and I was sad to say I hadn’t. If you’re unfamiliar with it like I was, here’s what it is; the crust is a pretzel, the tomato sauce is replaced by a cheddar cheese sauce. It’s topped with an appropriate amount of mozzarella and munster cheeses, and a less than expected amount of pepperonis.

That same friend and I made a date to try this beast together. We decided the best place to meet would be the basement of our local improv theater, where we knew some of our other friends would be getting out of their classes or practices. We were setting up a surprise underground pizza party. A greasy speakeasy.

I parked my car and shook myself from any anxiety I was feeling. What if the pizza wasn’t good? What if it was too good that I couldn’t stop eating it and looked like a pizza monster in front of all my friends? I mellowed myself out, and walked the block and a half to the theater. As I walked in the back door, I could hear laughter and conversation coming from the basement. Any leftover anxiety was kicked out of my brain and I knew I was about to have a good time.

When I walked into the room, I saw my friend AND SOME MORE FRIENDS! Our plan had worked. Operation Pizza Party was a success. I find a chair and I sit. Everyone else is enjoying the pizza already, so I open the box and begin to dig in. “HEY WAIT!” I hear before I take my first bite (C’mon man! I’m dying to try this pizza! What can be so important I have to wait to take a bite?!). Then I’m handed a 20oz Mountain Dew. The perfect sweet to go with the salty pie I was about to indulge on. The interruption was warranted, and I began my journey into this new world of pizza innovation.

The first bite felt like love at first site. I guess. My mouth filled with all the saliva it could muster making it easier for the pizza to slide down my throat, allowing me to take my next bite quickly and safely. The first slice was gone in an instant it seemed. I didn’t want to seem greedy, so I took a slice of the back up pizza we had, just incase the pretzel pizza turned out to be a bust. The back up pizza was Little Caesar’s Deep! Deep! Dish Pizza, and while I inhaled it just as my first slice, I think it was only to get back to the pretzel pizza.

Eventually, the pizza ended and out friends had other places to be. We left and walked over to another local gathering spot for improv nerds where we ran into more friends, and handed out the hardly touched Crazy Bread.

If you feel like doing something good for yourself this week, I couldn’t recommend this pizza enough. It’s available Hot N Ready from 4pm to 8pm 7 days a week for only $6. And don’t worry, they’ll make one for you anytime they’re open if you just call ahead and give them about 17 minutes.