Lou Malnati's: Rise Up and Demand a Deep-Dish Emoji!

Why isn’t there an emoji for deep-dish pizza? Why does the only pizza emoji on your smartphone’s keyboard represent a New York slice? Is it some kind of conspiracy? Is it all Steve Jobs’ fault? If you’ve ever wondered about that, you’re not alone. Now the plot thickens, so to speak.

Marc Malnati, owner of the legendary Lou Malnati’s in Chicago, believes the world needs a deep-dish pizza emoji. And he’s doing something about it.

In honor of National Deep Dish Pizza Day on April 5, Lou Malnati’s launched a national petition to add a deep-dish emoji to keyboards everywhere. And as a deep-dish institution in the city that gave birth to the style, the chain has even designed a couple of options for the emoji.

But first, a brief history of the emoji: Japanese artist Shigetaka Kurita invented emojis in 1999 as a sort of visual shorthand to convey information in a simple, succinct way, according to Wired. His original emojis related to weather (sunshine, clouds, snow), transportation (cars, airplanes, ships), technology and the phases of the moon. A few years later, companies like Apple decided to incorporate emojis into their platforms, and in 2009, a pair of Apple engineers asked the Unicode Consortium (a nonprofit group that maintains Unicode, an encoding standard for text data) to adopt 625 emojis into the Unicode standard. Unicode accepted the proposal in 2010, and emojis have since become a sort of lingua franca for the internet. Feeling grumpy? There are several emojis for that. Thirsty for a beer? Your keyboard’s got you covered with at least two emojis. Craving a deep-dish pie? You’re out of luck.

Today, Lou Malnati’s says, pizza is one of the most popular food emojis among all texters. So why do they still only have one choice—and a thin-slice one at that?

“America is more than one style of pizza, and Americans deserve more than just a N.Y. slice to express themselves,” Marc Malnati said. “Whether in our restaurants or shipped nationwide, we serve millions of deep-dish lovers every year. It’s time we give these fans their own icon and identity with a new emoji to express our deepest pizza-preciation.”

To unite #DeepDishNation, Lou Malnati’s has launched a national petition through which fans can register their support. Deep-dish lovers simply need to visit DeepDishEmoji.com, vote for their favorite emoji design and sign the official petition hosted on Change.org. Once closed, the votes and the petition will be presented to the Unicode Consortium. Lou Malnati’s will propose that the consortium add the winning design to the universal emoji keyboard.

“It’s true, deep-dish pizza did make its name in Chicago,” the petition reads. “But thinking deep-dish love stays within city limits is like saying only Philadelphians love cheesesteaks or only New Orleanians love gumbo. The truth is, millions of American pizza lovers share this deep love, yet the emoji authorities have stifled our love language. While N.Y.-style pizza fans have been unified, empowered and given a voice with the ubiquitous (and one-dimensional) emoji … what do deep dish fans have? Mere words? Google images?!?”

“Enough already!,” the petition continues. “It’s time for #DeepDishNation to rise up and demand more! More buttery crust, more melty cheese, more tangy, delicious sauce … and, for cryin’ out loud, more than a thin slice to express ourselves.”

Deep-dish fans and soon-to-be citizens of #DeepDishNation will have several months to lend their names to the cause. If the petition is successful, America could see the deep-dish emoji on their digital keyboards before the end of the year, according to Lou Malnati’s.

Click here to vote for your favorite deep-dish emoji design.

Click here to sign the petition for a universal deep-dish emoji.