Little Caesars has added a garlic-forward version of its best-known pie. The Cheesy Garlic Pepperoni pizza, which reached participating restaurants on November 2, 2026, puts garlic into both the sauce and the crust and sells for $6.99.
The chain is selling it as a Hot-N-Ready item, meaning it is meant to be waiting on the rack for walk-in customers during the dinner window, and it is scheduled to stay on the menu through December 27.
What Goes on the Cheesy Garlic Pepperoni
According to the Little Caesars announcement distributed through PR Newswire, the pizza starts as a large round pie. Instead of the usual tomato sauce, it gets a cheesy garlic white sauce, then mozzarella, pepperoni and a garlic herb seasoning.
The finish happens at the edge. The crust is toasted with garlic, Parmesan and Asiago, so the last bite of each slice carries the same flavor as the center. The company said the goal was to keep the familiar pepperoni pizza and add what it called a craveable garlic twist.
Greg Hamilton, the chain’s chief marketing officer, said in the release that pepperoni pizza will always be a favorite, but that guests are also looking for new flavors and more variety. He described the new pie as offering the best of both worlds.
Asiago is the less familiar of the two crust cheeses. Wikipedia’s entry on Asiago describes it as a cow’s milk cheese first made in the Asiago area of Italy, with a smooth texture when fresh and a crumbly one once aged. The aged style is the one commonly grated over pasta and sauces, which is the role it plays on a pizza edge. Home bakers who already turn out their own pies on an outdoor pizza oven will recognize the move of brushing the rim with garlic and hard cheese before baking, and a wide pizza peel keeps a loaded pie intact on the way onto a hot stone.
When and Where the $6.99 Price Applies
The Hot-N-Ready window runs from 4 to 8 p.m. local time at participating locations, according to the company. The pizza can also be ordered online or through the Little Caesars app, and the release says carryout and delivery orders are available through the app and LittleCaesars.com through December 27.
The $6.99 figure is not universal. The fine print in the announcement notes that prices and participation vary by location, and that prices run higher in Alaska, Hawaii and California, in parts of New York, Oregon and Washington, and on third-party ordering sites. Delivery charges, small-order fees, service fees and taxes can also be added.
National advertising for the pizza began November 9. The campaign features San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle, whose bold presence the company said it is pairing with the big garlic flavor. Little Caesars is also the official pizza sponsor of the NFL, according to the same release.
Diners who like to scan a menu before heading out, a habit often linked to a planner’s mindset, will find the full list of current pizzas on the chain’s website and app.
How Hot-N-Ready Shaped the Chain
The new pizza leans on a format the company has used for nearly three decades. According to Wikipedia’s history of Little Caesars, the chain introduced its Hot-N-Ready large pepperoni pizza in 1997 at $5, and the concept proved successful enough to become permanent. It also shifted the business toward carryout.
That 1997 price makes the new $6.99 pie an easy point of comparison for longtime customers. The garlic version adds a different sauce, extra seasoning and a cheese-coated crust, and still costs less than $2 more than the original ready-to-go pepperoni did at launch.
Little Caesars dates back much further than Hot-N-Ready. Mike and Marian Ilitch opened the first store on May 8, 1959, in a strip mall in Garden City, Michigan, which puts it among the fast-food chains that got their start in the 1950s. The company, now headquartered in downtown Detroit, says it is the third-largest pizza chain in the world, with restaurants in all 50 U.S. states and 30 countries and territories.
The carryout model also changed how the chain thinks about kitchens and pickup. Its heated, self-service Pizza Portal pickup station lets app customers collect an order without waiting at the counter, a convenience that echoes the delivery-first thinking behind ghost kitchens.
Other Cheesy Garlic Versions on the Menu
The pepperoni pie is the headliner, but it is not the only one. The company said additional Cheesy Garlic varieties are available online, including Cheesy Garlic Cheese, Cheesy Garlic Bacon and Ham, and Cheesy Garlic Mushroom and Onion.
For customers who would rather keep the classic flavor, the pepperoni and cheese versions can be ordered with the chain’s regular red sauce instead of the white garlic sauce. That gives a household the option of splitting one order between a traditional pie and the new one.
Pepperoni itself is a natural match for the change. As Wikipedia’s pepperoni entry explains, it is an American variety of spicy salami made from pork and beef seasoned with paprika and chili peppers, and sliced pepperoni ranks among the most popular pizza toppings in American pizzerias. A creamy garlic base gives that spice something mellow to play against, much as a garlic butter dip does with a slice of plain pepperoni.
What Shoppers Should Know Before Ordering
The basics are straightforward. The Cheesy Garlic Pepperoni is a large round pizza priced at $6.99 at participating restaurants, with higher prices in the areas the company listed. It is ready to grab from 4 to 8 p.m. local time, and it can also be ordered online or in the app.
The run ends December 27, so the pizza will be available through Thanksgiving weekend and the December holidays, ending two days after Christmas. App customers can also collect orders at a Pizza Portal where a restaurant has one installed.
Because participation varies, the safest step is to check the specific restaurant in the app before making a trip. The company’s site lists the current Cheesy Garlic lineup along with the chain’s other pizzas, Crazy Bread and Crazy Puffs.
This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
Image: Rick Obst – CC BY 4.0/Wikimedia Commons
