Mama Meany's Pizza Palace

"We've been working for months on this skyscraper!" This article requires all sections to be fully complete! By adding information, you can help out and finish the page!

Mama Meany's Pizza Palace was a chain of Italian restaurants owned by Mama Meany. It is said to be the worst pizza restaurant in the world. It is now out of business after Mama Meany's final defeat.

History

The restaurant opened soon before the events of “Perfect Pizza,” where it served pizzas both in-restaurant and by delivery. Its marketing practices such as discounts and contests with big cash prices stole Vito’s customers for the first time. It later closed after Eddie Gourmand tells his audience that it stinks on his show.

By way of their advertising, which has a hypnotic effect on the majority of those who saw it and that it was frequently on, Mama Meany’s Pizza Palace re-opened, with a large install base. It is also revealed that the restaurant has a worldwide chain of franchises, which includes those in the United States and China.

During Eddie Gourmand’s World of Food, Eddie reveals that a Lasagna Tree, which grows the world’s most delicious lasagna, is in Italy, which leads to Mama Meany and his operatives, Gruber and Louie to search for it. Due to Garfield’s ingenuity, however, it eventually leads to Mama Meany exposing that he knows his chain is awful, and that he cares about as much about it as he cares about his consumers. In Garfield’s flash forward, the restaurant closed down soon after, with Mama Meany briefly using the commercials to get people back into the restaurants as a last-ditch effort to save the chain.

Exterior

The restaurant contained three segments, designed as if it’s a pantheon. The bottom segment was its dining area, while the second segment had windows and the top segment contained a sunroof. Below it was a long staircase, with either side housing carvings of a lion. At the top was a depiction of a man in a toga, carrying a pizza as if it is a stone. At the center, the words “Mama Meany” were seen above the door, which is between two of the bottom floor’s four front pillars.

Interior

The motif seen in the exterior continued into the interior, with various pillars and ridges. It also had checkered floors and angular chairs. Its tables are propped up by a thick stand. The Pizzagrand 7000 took up all three floors, and contained a counter where Mama Meany's Employee received profit, as well as two number-pads that determines what pizza was assigned to the machine, and which ingredients are to be used in the pizza. The machine also had an oven that opens when the pizza was completed. When the restaurant re-emerged, however, the Pizzagrand 7000 was taken out. The restaurant also contained a picture of Mama Meany on the left side of the restaurant.

Food Served

Pizza was the main food served in the chain, and were produced via the Pizzagrand 7000, which is touted by Mama Meany to be the modern way of making pizzas. The machine was capable of making 10 pizzas in a minute. The toppings included pepperoni, onions, peppers, anchovies, pineapple and other kinds of meat.

Other types of cuisine served include Fettuccine, Ravioli, Pannoli, Tortellini, Rigatoni, Cannelonni, Macaroni, Linguini, Breadsticks, Spaghetti, Lasagna, Chicken Parmesan and Fettuccine Alfredo.

Of the known foods, they were created via lower-quality means, with the pizzas having rancid pepperoni, dry and tasteless slices and tasted like cardboard or Styrofoam, depending on the flavor that was ordered. The breadsticks were created from Styrofoam and the spaghetti was created from boiling twine. The Chicken Parmesean contained neither chicken or parmesean and the Fettuchini Alfredo contained fake fettuchini by people who is not named Alfredo. According to Louie, the lasagna tastes like garbage, the ravioli tastes like trash and minestrone tastes like junk.

Processing Plant

Mama Meany’s food was created in the chain’s processing plant, which was located in Italy. The plant involved scientists studying the food they were assigned to analyze and find ways to make it more cost-effective. The plant also contains Mama Meany’s office, which contained abstract patterns, with a burgundy table and a beige patterned couch, along with a computer and a television. It also had a telephone on Mama Meany’s desk.

Advertising

Mama Meany’s Pizza Palace initially advertised on billboards across the city. Mama Meany was also seen on an issue of Secret Mag. Mama Meany feigned a sense of pro-consumerism with their advertising. They had deals and coupons for cheaper pizza, discounts for their pizza and contests with big cash prizes, which was the main factor they stayed in business in “Perfect Pizza.” When the restaurant re-emerged, it relied on advertisements that used a song designed to both promote Mama Meany’s Pizza Palace and to hypnotize people to enter his restaurant. These advertisements were frequent, and tend to show up all the time. Mama Meany saw these advertisements as a means of masking the quality of his products, and relied on them to carry his business forward. When the restaurant closed, Mama Meany used them as a last-ditch effort to save his restaurant, but it was clear no one was willing to order from him after seeing him on Eddie Gourmand’s World of Food.

Practices

Mama Meany’s Pizza Palace was bent on being the premier restaurant for Italian cuisine, and was willing to bring down every other restaurant to make that happen. It primarily wanted to take down Vito’s, which does care about Italian culture, as he tried to prevent his pizza to be delivered to Eddie Gourmand, and later had his operatives attempted to infest his restaurant with rats. Gruber and Louie then attempted to injure him by disabling his breaks. Mama Meany also wanted to expand his business to other clients, as he wanted to tear their previous restaurants down, and attempted to bribe him to make it happen. He also believed that Italian restaurants that do become a Mama Meany’s franchise were "smart."  Mama Meany’s Pizza Palace cared very little about their consumers or his food, as he assumed that they were gullible to the point of being regular patrons.

Closures

Mama Meany’s Pizza Palace closed for the first time in “Perfect Pizza,” in which he attempted to stop Garfield and Jon from delivering Vito’s pizza to food critic Eddie Gourmand, which Vito realized was his last-ditch effort to save his restaurant. Mama Meany and his employee attempted to prevent the delivery, knowing that Eddie Gourmand would indirectly decide which restaurant would stay open. However, Garfield not only impeded Mama Meany’s goal, but also let Eddie Gourmand know which pizza is which when he tried out Mama Meany’s pizza under the assumption that it was Vito’s by bringing him an actual Vito's pizza.

The chain closed a second time in the Lasagna Tree special, in its finale, "The Big Broadcast." In Italy, Mama Meany held Garfield and Odie for ransom, in exchange for Mama Cappelliti’s lasagna. While she obliged, albeit begrudgingly, Garfield decided to expose him by using Eddie Gourmand’s cameraman, thereby broadcasting him around the world as he vented about how little he thinks of his food and his customers. Eddie Gourmand reminds him that he’s being broadcasted all over the world, and Mama Meany realizes that his chain had been tarnished upon realizing. Following the broadcast, every restaurant went out of business and nobody (who saw the broadcast) will ever set foot into Mama Meany's Pizza Palace again.

Employees

• Mama Meany
• Mama Meany's Employee
• Gruber (fired)
• Louie (fired)
• Mama Meany's Cook
• Mama Meany's Scientists (via Mama Meany's Processing Plant)

Trivia

• It is seen in the intro of The Garfield Show, despite not being present outside of the episodes revolving it, barring advertisements or cameos.
• The space housing the main restaurant in its episodes were used for City Hall or contests in other episodes.
• It was located on West Central Avenue, next to Vito's.

Appearances

The Garfield Show

Season 1

• "Perfect Pizza"

Season 4

• "Lasagna Tree: The Rat Pack"
• "Lasagna Tree: The Pasta Plant"
• "Lasagna Tree: The Big Broadcast"

Master Chef attributes the location to Vito's Pizzeria (which Mama Meany's resided next to) as 150 West Central Avenue.