More Pizza Chains Should Offer This Side

The appetizers on offer at most of America's fast food pizza chains are generally pretty boring. You've got breadsticks, some form of chicken wings, salad, and, if you're lucky, maybe a novelty item like tater tots. Creativity in this department has historically been pretty low, since most pizzerias only have one appliance—the oven—at their disposal. But take-and-bake pizza shop Papa Murphy's has recently announced the arrival of a fun new appetizer, and it's one that has the power to break us out of our breadstick rut.

While appetizers are always designed to be shared, they rarely have such an interactive quality to them. For the uninitiated, monkey bread is served from a loaf or bundt mold but consists of little individual rolls of bread baked together into a single mass. This means you can grab onto one of its knots, tear it away from the loaf, dip it into some form of sauce, eat, and repeat. The dish has been served in the United States for about half a century; there are no actual monkeys involved, aside from maybe the rascal children happily picking at it.

One of monkey bread's best attributes is that it's versatile, and Papa Murphy's is serving both a sweet and savory version. The Garlic Monkey Bread features individual buttery garlic knots with marinara on the side, while the Cinnamon Monkey Bread functions as a dessert and is served with a side of cream cheese frosting for dipping (though I won't judge you if you decide to eat it as an appetizer).

Sure, monkey bread is just bread in a different format—basically bite-sized breadsticks. But it's designed for communal sharing, and with pizza already being a shareable dish by design, Papa Murphy's has landed on an appetizer that fits in with the same spirit.

Nation's Restaurant News reports that the monkey bread is a permanent addition to Papa Murphy's menu, so next time you're picking up a take-and-bake pizza, you've got a new side and a new dessert option, both of which are guaranteed to be crowd pleasers. All you have to do is pop it in the oven and start setting the table.