Despite his immense wealth, Warren Buffett, as he admits, is a man of simple tastes. More than a few times, he's been spotted tucking into a diner meal centered around burgers and cola.

Perhaps that focus on basic American food staples inspired one of the more unexpected new buys from his investment vehicle Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A)(NYSE: BRK.B). Buffett and Berkshire now own a slice of storied pie slinger Domino's Pizza (NYSE: DPZ). Here's a brief glance at the durable restaurant company, and a view as to whether investors should follow Buffett with buying a few slices (sorry, shares).

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The power of the pie

The Domino's purchase was made public on Thursday, in Berkshire's latest 13F filing (the regulatory document that catalogs the quarter-by-quarter holdings of large-scale investment managers). All told, Buffett and his team loaded up on nearly 1.28 million shares of Domino's. On the day the buy was revealed, the stake was worth a total of almost $557 million.

This doesn't position the restaurant chain as one of Berkshire's largest holdings. After all, the monster equity portfolio of Berkshire Hathaway has no less than 29 positions that exceed $1 billion in value. Similarly, the buy doesn't make Berkshire an overpowering presence in Domino's ownership structure, as that stake amounts to less than 4% of shares outstanding.

Buffett and his Berkshire lieutenants haven't yet explained what attracted them to Domino's, so we can only make educated guesses about their motivations.

The Domino's brand unarguably has broad and wide recognition. Now more than six decades old, the company is the one that many consumers (at least in the U.S.) most readily identify with nationwide pizza delivery. Buffett has always been drawn to a brand with power. He also likes a beaten-down underdog, and Domino's has not been a top dog of late with investors. Its sub-6% price gain year-to-date is eclipsed by the S&P 500 index's almost 25%.

These days, investors like the stocks they own to be outperformers, and Domino's hasn't really fit the bill for a while. It's in a tough industry, after all, and the company's outlets (94% of which are franchise locations) are hardly the only restaurants in any given town baking and delivering pizza.

So, in a way, it's admirable that management has been able to keep the growth engine running. Total sales rose by nearly 4% year over year in the third quarter, with same-store sales advancing 3% in the U.S. (International growth was less impressive, at below 1%.) For the most part, Domino's is growing through both its ever-active expansion program -- mainly abroad -- and through revenue improvement in its existing stores.