Article

Pizza restaurants celebrating 'National Pi Day'

March 14 might be best known as the annual celebration of everyone's favorite mathematical constant, but it's an important day for pizza lovers, too.

March 14, 2016 by Travis Wagoner — Editor, Networld Media Group

March 14 might be best known as the annual celebration of everyone's favorite mathematical constant, but it's an important day for pizza lovers, too. 

Pi is the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter — a number that equates to roughly 3.14. In 2009, March 14 was officially designated as Pi Day. Pizza restaurants are celebrating the day with various deals and specials

Your Pie

Today Your Pie's 28 locations throughout 10 states will hold its eighth annual celebration of Pi(e) Day. In honor of pi (or π), the brand wants to recognize their current and future guests, according to a company press release. Your Pie will offer $3.14 pizzas, $3.14 pints of craft beer and $3.14 combos for every customer.

"This is one of the biggest times of the year to showcase why Your Pie is so great, and it has everything to do with our incredibly devoted guests that have helped to make our brand what it is today," said Drew French, founder of Your Pie. "This is our way of thanking them for their loyalty while at the same time, attracting new customers who will want to come see what all the excitement is about."  

To raise more awareness, Your Pie is introducing another incentive — Your Pie swag giveaways. By snapping a picture and sharing their Pi(e) Day experience on social media with #YourPieDay, customers will have the chance to win Pi(e) Dye-branded T-shirts and a Your Pi(e) Yetti Tundra 65 cooler. The brand will also award $500 to the store that gets the most #YourPieDay participation.

"While there aren't too many constants in this world, we know for a fact that there are at least two — pi's 13.3 trillion digits and our deep love for craft pizza and our customers. Your Pie fans have supported us for eight wonderful years, and just like pi, the relationship between Your Pie fans and our local franchise owners has been a beautiful ratio," French said.

Pizza Hut

Pizza Hut, in partnership with John H. Conway, a professor of pure and applied mathematics emeritus at Princeton University, and in honor of National Pi Day today, will release three math problems on its Hut Life blog with a unique challenge to diners and mathematics fans: Be the first person to submit the correct answer to any problem for a chance to receive 3.14 years of free pizza from Pizza Hut.

Varying in level of difficulty from high school to Ph.D. level, all three problems will be released at 8 a.m. ET, according to a company press release.

"Pi may be irrational, but free pizza is anything but," Conway said. "I'm eager to challenge America with these problems and find the next great pizza-loving mathematician that can solve them."

"In celebration of National Pi Day, which pizza companies worldwide have sort of adopted as their own special holiday, Pizza Hut is marrying math and pizza in a one-of-a-kind challenge to find our most math-inclined fans and reward them with our great-tasting pizza," said Doug Terfehr, senior director of public relations, Pizza Hut.

Math experts and Pizza Hut fans alike can visit the Hut Life blog to check out the math problems starting at 8 a.m. ET today. Answers must be provided within the blog comments, which will be time stamped to determine the potential winner (fans can only win once). Pizza Hut equates 3.14 years of free pizza to approximately $1,600 in gift cards from Pizza Hut.

The winnings can be applied toward Pizza Hut's new $5 flavor menu, which features a medium one-topping pizza, an eight-count of boneless WingStreet wings, the Ultimate Hershey's chocolate chip cookie, Hershey's triple chocolate brownie, Tuscani pastas, a double order of breadsticks or flavor sticks, and four 20-ounce Pepsi beverages for $5 each when ordering two or more items.

Blaze Fast-Fire'd Pizza

Blaze Fast-Fire'd Pizza will celebrate Pi Day by inviting guests to build their own pizzas for $3.14 at any Blaze Pizza location, according to a company press release. Originally imagined as an unconventional "pop-up" event three years ago, Blaze's Pi Day celebration has become a fan favorite and annual tradition for the company. Last year on March 14, Blaze's restaurants served more than 75,000 pizzas for $3.14 each; this year, they expect to serve twice that number of their celebrated pizzas, according to a company press release.

The company will also use Pi Day to officially launch its new Snapchat channel, with a "Be There Or Be Square" flash promo as part of its March 14 Snapchat story (user name: @blazepizza). Blaze's Snapchat channel will feature peeks behind the scenes at restaurant openings, pop up "pizza party" events and occasional takeovers by guest Snappers.

"Pi Day is an unconventional sort of holiday. For us, it's all about encouraging folks to think outside the box," said Jim Mizes, president and COO. "At Blaze, our guests find that they can have it all — pizzas with house-made dough and carefully sourced ingredients, crazy fast speed, and affordable value. Plus, with our recent move to nitrite-free meats and all-natural olives, our journey to clean food is now almost complete. We're changing the game in this industry, and we think that's a great reason for a giant pizza party."

Domino's Pizza

Domino's Pizza is kicking off Pi Day by offering 50-percent off all menu-priced pizza orders placed online for a week, beginning today and running through Sunday, March 20, according to a company press release.

"Our favorite 'pi' is pizza pie, of course, and we wanted to give college basketball fans a special deal during the first week of the tournament games," said Jenny Fouracre, Domino's spokesperson. "Basketball fans can now enjoy their favorite pizza combinations at half off when they use Domino's digital ordering channels."

The 50-percent off deal is only available on menu-priced pizzas ordered through Domino's digital ordering channels, which include Domino's website, as well as the iPad, iPhone, Android, Windows Phone 8, and Kindle Fire apps.

&pizza

&pizza's Columbia Heights shop, located at 1375 Kenyon St., NW, in Washington, DC., will transform into a pop-up wedding chapel from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. today. From flowers to music to a special wedding menu, guests will be treated to a pizza-lovers wedding. A marriage officiant, compliments of Pop! Wed Co., will be on-site all day to marry couples, according to a company press release.

Weddings and vow renewals can be reserved in advance by emailing connect@andpizza.com. Limited walk-in weddings will also be available until the shop closes.

About Travis Wagoner

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Travis Wagoner spent nearly 18 years in education as an alumni relations and communications director, coordinating numerous annual events and writing, editing and producing a quarterly, 72-plus-page magazine. Travis also was a ghostwriter for an insurance firm, writing about the Affordable Care Act. He holds a BA degree in communications/public relations from Xavier University.