For years, Sir Monkeypants and I couldn’t agree on what kind of pizza to order. He likes pizza with thin, crispy crust, while I prefer a thick, gooey, greasy crust. He likes minimal cheese and lots of chunky toppings, while I like thick cheese and small, sparse toppings (except for the mushrooms — you can put as many on there as you can get to fit). So we’d alternate, sometimes ordering from Pizza Hut (thin crust veggie special), sometimes ordering from Collonade (a local restaurant of the super-cheese variety), sometimes compromising on cheaper fare like Pizza Pizza or the next-to-the-rental-store Lorenzo’s.

But last winter we finally found common ground when a Domino’s franchise opened up in our nearby mini-mall. It was cheap and had just the right combination of chewy-but-not-too-chewy crust and chunky-but-not-too-chunky toppings. Since they opened up several months ago, we’ve gotten take out from them at least once a week.

We usually go and pick up our order too, since delivery costs a couple of bucks and it’s literally a two minute drive away. So since the beginning of our Domino’s obsession, we’ve known that the franchise was opened and is run by an older couple — probably in their late 50s or early 60s, I would guess. They’re super nice and I love the fact that whenever I go in there, they are bantering away with the teenage help as if they are everyone’s grandparents. I’m not sure what possessed them to start a new business at their age but I love ordering from there because they work there — even though it’s a chain store I feel like it’s our own little place, our own little part of the neighbourhood.

The last few times I’ve been in there, the woman has called me by name — that’s when I started to realize that maybe we order pizza a little too often. She always recognizes me as soon as I come in and even lets me jump the line — she just grabs our standard order and takes my money (I always know exactly how much it is) on the side. Last time I was in she called me by name and confided that when she got the word to make up a pizza that matched our standard order, she thought to herself, “Oh, I wonder if this is for Lynn.” It turns out her name is Bonnie and now I’ve totally adopted her as my surrogate mom in Ottawa. She told me that the combo we used to get — large pizza and 3 cokes — that had been phased out in the spring would be back soon. I so totally have an “in” at the Domino’s now!

Is it wrong that I love our pizza franchise owners?