Little Caesars Used To Sell Buckets Of Spaghetti And We Want Them Back

Remember that time when you could buy buckets of spaghetti at Little Caesars? Yeah, me neither. The family-sized portions of pasta and sauce came and went at the pizza chain so fast that if you blinked, you probably missed it. Back in 1993, the company most noted for slinging "Pizza! Pizza!" toyed around with offering pasta. Available in small, medium, and "Big! Big!" buckets, each order had plain spaghetti noodles, sauce in a separate compartment, and breadsticks, all tucked away in a resealable plastic pail.

Once you brought the bucket home, instructions were to portion out the noodles and top with sauce. It was a novel idea: dinner for the family in a portable tote that could double as a Halloween candy vessel. While many surely found the idea endearing and fun, it wasn't enough to compete with the company's signature pizza. By 1994, spaghetti buckets were off the menu, and they haven't returned to Little Caesars since. The word is that the spaghetti was expensive and inconvenient for franchisees to make, especially when it wasn't even that popular with customers. However, I have little doubt that, should the company bring the concept back, people would flock to get their hands on the buckets, even if just for sheer nostalgia or curiosity. Until then, you could always try to get your hands on one of the original buckets on eBay and fill it with your own noodles and sauce.

Around the same time as its foray into pasta, Little Caesars was also making things interesting by playing around with different types of pizza crust and debuted a french-fry crust pizza, but, like the spaghetti bucket, it was short-lived, and hasn't made an appearance since the mid-1990s. There is, though, currently a Stuffed Crazy Crust on the menu; the mozzarella-filled crust is brushed with a garlic butter spread and sprinkled with parmesan cheese before it's baked. The chain's super-popular pretzel crust pizza was developed in 2014 and quickly became a hit. It reappeared on the menu in 2023 after a long stint when it disappeared from Little Caesars' offerings.

Aside from Crazy Bread (the chain's signature breadsticks), wings, and a couple of dessert options, Little Caesars offers pizza and not much else, leading us to believe that the company has recognized what it does best: classic pizza. Untraditional pizza options have come and gone from the chain as well. Over the years, Little Caesars introduced a 24-slice Big! Big! Pizza, pizza by the foot, and even a football-shaped pie, all three of which have joined its spaghetti buckets in the realm of memory, much like most of KFC's all-you-can-eat buffet locations.

If it's pizza and pasta you want, and you don't want to make multiple stops, Domino's might be your best bet. The nationwide chain is known for its pizza, but it has been fairly successful with its pasta offerings as well. Granted, Domino's pasta doesn't come in buckets, but in aluminum trays, which is a little less bizarre than a plastic bucket. Domino's doesn't have a spaghetti offering; it serves penne pasta with sauces and topping combinations like chicken carbonara and Italian sausage marinara.  You can also build your own pasta.

If time is your main priority, you have to hand it to Little Caesars for offering what is arguably the quickest option for grab-and-go meals in the fast food pizza space. The company's Hot-N-Ready program began in 2004 and is still going strong. Locations have pizzas hot and ready to go for customers to purchase on demand; no online ordering, customizing, or waiting. And they're all in boxes, not buckets.