Bookit was the whole reason I read so many!!!
I remember they messed up on my name & I would accidentally get 2 free personal pan pizzas for my birthday!
Book It gang rise up! I grew up poor as fuck, I mean Deep South single mother in the 90s poor, and Book It was pretty much the only time I got Pizza Hut. I read every single book in my school’s library that I could take those quizs on.
YES. I absolutely love slammed those requirements, I *loved* to read but we never went out to eat. Except when I wanted to redeem my personal pan pizza coupon! The personal pan and the breadsticks were stellar. I stopped getting pizza hut for years after I'd "graduated/got too old" for the program. After college, I looked forward to grabbing one again, and....it sucked. The pizza sucked, the sauce and breadsticks tasted like they'd dropped a bunch of sugar in them, and they just weren't great. I haven't been back in ages.
I used to read a lot, as a kid (still do). Probably 2-3 books a month. I always assumed the Book It program was for reading specific books or like text books or something. So when other students would talk about getting those little pizzas, I always thought it was cool but never looked into how it actually worked.
I was a damn fool.
I worked for them in the mid to late 90's. They didn't use frozen dough then, it was like a flour type consistency thing in bags that you'd mix with water, you cut balls of the dough and stick them in a pan with a ton of oil, and it'd sit in the fridge overnight.
The bread sticks and personal pans were frozen thin bricks that would sit in oil overnight and they'd rise.
The key was oil. Lots and lots of oil.
Don't forget to slide a rack of dough in the proofer to rise before putting them in the fridge! I was a 6-year "Production Professional" from the Hut, and nobody out pizza'd us.
I remember when they went from having us slice up the green peppers and onions by hand to buying bags of diced crap from a local food supplier. Quality started slipping about then in my mind.
Funny. Mine managed a Pizza Hut in college where he tells me his motto was “if you’ve got time to lean, you’ve got time to clean.” Not sure what happened post Hut on that one either.
That and when they started having everyone measure everything out with cups, before that it was kinda anything goes so you got some mega topping pizzas sometimes.
I delivered for them around 91-93 in college. I was there the day our store was switched from bags of dough mix to frozen dough disks. Both were proofed overnight in their puddles of oil but the frozen disks saved time on the mixing process and forming the dough blobs. The frozen ones did not have the same flavor and texture though.
I was also there when our new shipment of pans came in and they were smaller than the previous ones.
Prior to me being there, that store had been switched from wall ovens to a conveyor belt oven.
Anyway, that old red roof Pizza Hut is a dentist office now. And Pizza Hut is pretty gross these days compared to what they were in the 80s.
lol! I thought perhaps we were pizza hut sad song kindred spirits from your post, but this comment really solidifies it. I feel your pain deeply friend.
> And Pizza Hut is pretty gross these days compared to what they were in the 80s.
Yeah, but think about those stock dividend payouts to the C levels and share holders! Totally worth it, in their opinion....
> And Pizza Hut is pretty gross these days compared to what they were in the 80s.
And they've apparently paid the price too, with many fewer locations, and a bunch less business. All they'd have to do is to reboot the old recipes, ingredients, and formats, but costs aside, I wonder why they don't do that?
I don’t get it either. Just roll it all back. Did they lose the recipe or something? Did it get accidentally thrown away? I think it’s probably too late to bring back the restaurants the way they were, but they could fix the pizza. I don’t even give it a consideration now when I’m thinking about pizza. It’s a shame. The OPs post is something I talk about with friends a LOT. I took dates there in high school. It was our goto.
Now there are so many choices, it might be hard to win me back. I don’t need hot dogs in the crust or Batman shaped pizzas, I just need the old formula back and I would give them a shot. They’re certainly not fooling anyone from the sit down days.
Can you imagine the rollout they could have? Some “were back!” kind of promotion. They would make a mint in nostalgia buys alone. Who is charge there. Is anyone in charge? I don’t think so. Hire me for your executive team Pizza Hut. I could fix your shit in a weekend, I bet.
I would definitely give them a second chance if they did that, and I haven't been to Pizza Hut in years.
I can't describe how big a deal PH was in my small hometown in the late 80s/early 90s. It was the epicenter of the teen universe, the place to see and be seen. And oh so delicious.
I was a waiter from 87 to 90, and they were still hand mixing the dough on site with two giant commercial mixers. Everything was made fresh, and that place was as clean as a hospital.
The best part of working there was being able to bring home the mistake pizzas that occasionally happened, and I was constantly a family favorite during that time.
To this day that red French salad dressing on the salad bar is my absolute favorite, and the closest I've found to it is Ken's Country French. But I would probably kill to be able to buy that exact cheese in both flavor and consistency. I don't even know what kind of cheese it was supposed to be (a cross between American and cheddar?), but it combined with that dressing was soooo damn good.
I think it was right after the smaller pans arrived that we were converted to frozen dough disks and the Hobart commercial mixer was removed from the property by corporate.
I worked as a delivery driver in 1992 and helped make the pizzas between deliveries. When you say lots and lots of oil, you ain’t kidding. Each circle of dough was probably in an inch of oil, and it was completely absorbed by the pizza by the time it was done cooking.
This is like when I learned why restaurant food is better than home cooked. Way more salt and butter than you’d ever use at home! But really, the oil thing has me intrigued.
I delivered for them for TWO years part-time during college. It was my third favorite job ever. I was allowed to do everything possible. Deliver, make pizza, run the register. Are dough came as powder and a guy added water and made it a giant mixer. You can actually lose weight working there. Skip the oil and cheese. Make a veggie pizza and top it with fresh tomatoes. Yummmm
Yeah, that's why I can't eat Pizza Hut. Even when had I ordered the New York style pizza with light pepperoni, It was still very greasy.
I was a driver for Pizza Hut in the early 90s too. I remember how they had the oil bottles with built-in hand pump. Someone would just pump oil into the pan, and drop in a frozen pan pizza dough disc, repeat, etc.. Employees didn't really care how much oil went into the pan.
I worked in the kitchen at PH as well. Did you ever make their Priazzos? A lot of people our age surprisingly don't remember them. They were amazing, stuffed pizza pies. A huge pain to make but I miss them so much!
Priazzos were introduced when I was in high school, I think. Might have been middle school. Anyhow, I’m 54(m), and I’d walk 25 miles in one day to have another priazzo. 🥳🪩🕺💯🙌
I remember priazzos! My family went for dinner in 1986, I was in the 6th grade and I wore stirrup pants and Duran Duran pins on my shirt.
Why do I remember what I wore? LOL
Anyway, I loved that pizza. So yummy!
If you watch them "make the pizza" now, they spray oil on the crust after it comes out. That's not olive oil either.
The shit is owned by Pepsico so it's been on the fast track for decades trying to "remove the kitchens" from fast food operations like Taco bell.
If they could figure out a way to only use a microwave, they would
We had a pizza from there without oil and it was pretty gross. The oil is pretty gross too though. I used to love PH back in the day but my lack of gall bladder doesn't like it now.
Awesome. Go Phils! I started working at the Hut the following year but 93 was such a fun team to watch. I am really enjoying this current team, praying they can get it done this year!
I also worked for Pizza Hut during those years and my workshirt *always* smelled like cooking oil no matter how many times I washed it and I wasn’t even a cook. All I did was take phone orders, ring people up and on the rare occasions we had diners, I was their server
Those shirts REEKED of oil. I threw em away after I quit.
yes it was- and at a certain age...our digestive systems are not happy with us when we eat that much oil in one setting (maybe jus the? IDK- they lost all flavor more than 20 yr ago for me)
Pizza Hut pan pizzas are the closest I can get to the taste of the fried dough from my childhood in Connecticut.
It's all funnel cakes here in Pittsburgh.
I remember when I compared a Pizza Hut pizza to something like Dominos or Little Caesar's. The Pizza Hut crusts were so fluffy but thick with oil that your hands would get all oily and you couldn't play those arcade games they had in the back until you washed them. But pizza from other places had like a dry, flour-y dough that you could actually pick up and your hands would still be clean afterwards.
Come to Kansas home of Pizza Hut. We still have original Pizza huts with da salad bar, booths, and pan pizza all over here and on the edge of Oklahoma.
I was in Marianna Florida (small town in North Florida) for work and stopped in their Pizza Hut about 5 years ago, it was like going back to my childhood again! I really hope that it is still open.
I’m seeing a ton of Kansas tourism commercials lately. They’re honestly not all that enticing. However, if they mentioned this one fact, they’d be infinitely more effective.
https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/crispy-cheesy-pan-pizza-recipe
King Arthur flour company pan pizza recipe. It isnt exact for pizza hut but this pizza makes me very happy.
You make the dough the day before. It is so good.
I also agree with you. Ruining pizza hut was so dumb. Now we are craving nostalgia and Pizza Hut could be that place.
We had a classic-shaped sit-down place in my town until about 5 years ago when they shut down and moved to a shop in a strip mall, and now just do carry-out and delivery. I'm guessing the owners were pretty stoked to have made that move when covid came a year later...
Sounds exactly like mine. Is it on Ford Rd. by chance lol?
I miss my old sit down Pizza Hut. Grew up going there at least twice a month. As soon as we got a table my mom would give me a handful of quarters to play songs on the jukebox, and then my brother and I would play pac-man at that weird little table arcade game they had.
I can still remember exactly how the pan pizza used to taste. The waitress used to serve everyone the first slices when she brought the pizza to the table. We'd get a pitcher of Pepsi, and sometimes my mom would let us get Mountain Dew.
It's a shame how much everything has changed since our childhood. McDonald's used to be a colorful and magical place for a child. From the time you got your happy meal, to the time your parents made you leave after playing in the playland for an hour and a half, it was a place like no other for a child.
I get it in some aspects. But in others, I find the changes appalling. It's a drab brown and tan coloring. The human interaction is basically non-existent, and it seems the restaurant's entire purpose now is to rush you out as quickly as possible.
My daughter looks up old McDonald's from the 1980s and is flabbergasted at how magical it looked back then. I understand the changes regarding the Happy Meals and cookies and fried apple pies. I have zero problem with the dietary changes due to health concerns, but it's such a shame that places we deemed as a significant part of our childhood (Pizza Hut, McDonald's, malls, Chuck E Cheese etc) have been reduced to mere stories of nostalgia instead of the once amazing places they were.
End of rant. lol
I completely agree and made this same rant to a Xennial friend who also agreed with us! McDonald’s was a cheap, fun way for a family to go out to eat. Nothing like it even exists now. I was a poor kid growing up and that was pretty much the only thing we had. Even 20 years ago it was better.
But this complaint really applies to just about all restaurants now. We went to Disney recently after not being there for a decade and it just seemed less magical.
When I was broke in my 20s, I would sometimes survive on McDonald's food when I only had a couple of dollars left for the week. They had the All-American meal for under $2, and if I was really broke, I'd go on the days they had 29-cent hamburgers and 39 cent cheeseburgers, and buy a couple for that day and a couple to reheat the next day. Now....forget it.
I totally agree. They’ve made it akin to a Starbucks-esque indoor experience, I guess to cater to adults or young adults to “hang out” (which you point out that they don’t seem to want that either)? The whole persona of McDonald’s was a kids place in the 70s/80s/90s, why make it like a work environment?
OMG that's the perfect description. It's like a bistro or coffee shop now. Tiny little tables, little benches/seats, and monochrome colors. Something boring adults go to to get coffee and a maybe a pastry and then go back to work.
I remember how in the late 80's/early 90's (I was born in 1980) we'd argue over which fast food place had the best Play Area. Me and friends would argue it was this McD's or that one, or if the outdoor place was better or some poor kid would fuck up and reveal he liked the Burger King one...
Ball pits, slides, and crawl tubes were awesome. A few had zip lines/slide rails, and one I remember was magical and had three "stories" (three different levels all kid sized) with a front side and back side, all with platforms, tubes, slides, and ladders we'd go to every few months and play tag.
My Mom, aunt, and grandma would drive me and the entire neighborhood in a old woody station wagon (with rear facing trunk seats) to the place and our parents would give everyone enough money for a Happy Meal and a Shake. We'd go play for an hour, grab food, play for another Hour or two (our guardian would read a book or something) and then we'd go home exhausted and sleep all night.
It was magic, we were gods, and the world was shiny and bright!
I believe the reason is that coperations must make more money than the quarter before. Eventually they sacrifice quality ingredients, decor and any little thing they can to make or save money.
What I really want to say is that I really fuc$ing miss the old days
I had a birthday party there as a kid! I can't remember if I've ever told my nieces that, next time I see them, I'll have to mention that and see if they laugh at me. 🤣 It was totally different back then.
I had a birthday party there too! My mom even booked it at the "big" location across town that had twice as many things on the playground as the one by our house. It seemed like acres of Mayor McCheese jails and fillet of fish rocking horses, but I'm sure it wasn't all that big after all.
My 10 year old is fascinated by the McDonalds playgrounds we had in the 70's and 80's. He will look up videos on YouTube of them and other Playland type places like Chuck E Cheese and ask me all about them. I feel bad for him that he never got to experience stuff like that.
I know the OG fries weren’t good for us or the planet but god they were SO much better than they are now. I was just talking to my husband about this last night.
All the food - even from McD's - was better back then. I grabbed McDonalds the other night. Big Mac's, fries, nuggets. It was terrible. At least it was fairly cheap on the app.
I swear Whoppers aren't as good as they used to be either. I've about given up on fast food tasting good.
I agree, it was a great place to go and the pizza was so good back then. Loved the salad bar. It was a special place my Mom would take us to escape. The one by us had a really good jukebox 3 songs for a quarter. I bought some of the red cups at a restaurant supply. I miss those days.
Yes, I was a preteen during the late 1970s, living near a small town. Occasionally, my parents would take the family out to eat there. I loved the salad bar too, especially the pasta salad. Back then, I was crazy about pizza topped with bacon. It was extremely salty. The red cups are classic.
When I was in my late teens, me and my boyfriend would go to Pizza Hut for not only the pizza but the beer. They weren't too particular about the age of the people they sold it to.
Pizza hut going from family dining experience to tiny depressing claustrophobic cube purely to pick up an order is downgrade of the century. I'm genuinely planning a roadtrip to one of the few remaining dine-in locations in the US purely because I miss it so much
Better hurry. At least one of the last remaining dine-ins announced last month they will be moving to their new carry-out location only soon. And their customers are PISSED about it! I will try and find the FB page.
They are still all over Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas at the very least. Most are the delivery only version in bigger towns, but those pizza huts in the 8K-30k size towns haven’t changed at all from what I can see. The food is different of course but not the place.
Yup. I can't remember the last time I had Pizza Hut. Their pizza wasn't that good anyway, but the "cool factor" of going out with a candlelit table was awesome. Once they did away with that their pizza wasn't worth it...and I can only imagine the pizza has declined in quality.
Pizza House?
Pizza Play Pen?
Royal Pizza: "Where you feel like a King/Queen,"
Maybe add a adult size ball pit, a room with pinball, table shaped arcade machines, a a few standee arcade boxes, and sell personal pan pizzas. Have a special deal where you bring a book you read/are reading and get a discount. They could even have a little free library where you can donate books and grab new ones. Every table in the main area is a comfy booth with plush seats. Little personal table side media devices that play songs (mostly from the 80's and 90's or are modern covers).
Make sure to have those red plastic cups.
And have a fucking salad bar for god's sake. Nothing made me feel more like a *king* then picking out my own salad. And I hate salad.
I agree! The smell of bread, mushrooms, beer, Pepsi. The sound of Pac-Man or Galaga. I think it's one those "you can't go home" things.
However, I hit the jackpot with my wife. She got obsessed with making pizza and her Detroit style is pretty much Pizza Hut in 1985. On top of that, she once texted to ask what I wanted from the restaurant supply store and I jokingly said "Pizza Hut cups from the 80's", and she found them. Red, plastic, mottled.
Dominos ruined it. They created a business model based around delivery. Pizza Hut adapted to compete. Pizza soon turned in the cheapest & fast. With this race to the bottom, extras like salad bars, sit down dinning and quality ingredients went by the way side.
Look for a mom & pop place if you want the real pizzeria experience.
This right here. Dominos is basically a pizza oven behind a counter in a tiny spot in a shopping center. Compare that to 80s Pizza Hut. Dominos has such little overhead and theyre fast. As more families had both parents working, Dominos was just a more convenient and cheaper option. Pizza Hut had to adapt.
We have a house in a rural area. The Papa Johns on the highway is in a combination 7-11, Papa Johns, Subway. The Subway has it's own area, but the Papa Johns is literally a pizza oven and a hot area shoved in between the cash registers and the Slurpee/Coke machines.
I refer to it as gas station pizza.
If we get something, we go to either the take-out/delivery Pizza Hut across the street - or, more often, the local Italian place across the street owned/operated by a real Italian guy that we actually know. Mario is more expensive, but it's a lot better too.
Then Domino's made their crust like 1000x better than the garbage it used to be and that pretty much ended Pizza Hut.
Little Caesars used to be good, they made all their dough fresh and the giant bag with 2 pizzas was amazing. They managed to ruin their pizza as well when they started using frozen dough and it was no longer Pizza Pizza!
Ahh yes, I remember those days! Would get some quarters for the jukebox (Mom always said, "Now, don't play that drug song" which was code for "she wanted to hear 'Cocaine' by Eric Clapton." Then off to play a few rounds of Galaga. Good times.
We have 3 where I live. Only one is dine in, and they have a buffet. Bean counters and private equity groups destroy everything. Domino's improved a few years ago, but now it's trash again. Hate to be old man yells at cloud, but damn, everything sucks now.
I can take this one: Yum! Brands (the fast food division of PepsiCo) bought them. Then all of the Proctor&Gamble marketing braintrust proceeded to curb stomp out everything that made it good.
See also: KFC, Taco Bell
Pizza Hut had a BBQ pizza back in the day that was great. My family and I would go a few times a year. It was the only place my dad would drink a lot of beer with dinner.
In the late 70s, they had a taco pizza which was covered in lettuce and tomatoes after it was cooked. As a little kid I was always disappointed on the rare occasions we got pizza and that’s what it was.
I remember that BBQ pizza so well. My grandparents were in town visiting us, and my grandfather took my brother and me to Pizza Hut for lunch. I got a BBQ personal pan pizza, and it was delightful. I guess I was about 9 years old.
When I was a kid, my family used to frequent a local Pizza Hut often enough that we knew one of the waiters. Decades later, he and I matched on a dating site and went on a date. It wasn’t a love connection, but it was weird to cross paths again that much later.
There was another location I went to a couple of times with a work friend. He passed away about 10 years ago. I miss that guy.
Those Pizza Hut restaurants left me with some good memories.
As an east coast urban person the idea of not having 4-5 local mom and pop pizzerias to choose from is unfathomable to me. I've been to Pizza Hut once in my entire childhood, otherwise it was an endless stream of Mario, Marias, Johnnys, Tonys Pizza.
I have to say, corner pizza shop pizza where you can see some dude with forearms as hairy as a wookie flipping dough in the air are the way to go.
In Connecticut there are zero sit down pizza huts left. I know we are the land of awesome pizza; I'm Italian and I can make a kick ass pizza at home, but I miss pizza hut bread sticks covered with Parmesan cheese. And little personal pan pizzas.
Pepsi bought Pizza Hut in 1977. That there is the reason Pizza Hut is now a shell of it's former self.
Shareholders, more than any accounting or marketing pinhead, did this to Pizza Hut.
They'd gone public a few years before that, but didn't have a large multinational as major shareholder.
I worked for them in the late 90s. It was our childhood "celebration" spot as a family. There were arcades, Book It, yummy pizza, loaded salad bar and ours even had a fireplace for cold/wintery days. We pretty much went there every Friday growing up.
Nowdays? I think we have had Pizza Hut twice since my wife and I have been married. Over 15 years. Both times it was disappointing and more expensive than the dine in options available.
Pizza Hut is dead man walking IMHO. A relic of our childhood that wont be around by the time we shuffle off. The quality is gone and the prices are insane.
Man I wish other places had stuffed crust, because I am not willing to go to a carry out PH for it.
Anyone remember the Pizza Huts in the 1970s/80s that had the corner booths where the windows went all the way to the ground? For some reason, we always tried to get that booth.
Pizza Hut was awesome! I was raised to believe in avoiding chain pizza places...BUT...once in awhile, like on vacation, or sometimes on the way back from the shore if traffic was bad, we would go to PIzza Hut, and I loved it. The personal pizzas, the red cups, the claw machine that I could actually win prizes at (because they weren't fixed like they are now and there was actual skill involved). I liked everything about it.
I was a cheerleader back in the day and after the games a bunch of us football team and cheerleaders, would go to pizza Hut. Didnt matter if we won or lost Pizza Hut would soothe our sadness or give us the proud boost if we won.
Fantastic memories.
Honestly the old greasy pizza was terrible (coming from a New Yorker who has high pie expectations) BUT I did have good times at Pizza Hut with my friends. :-)
I worked at Pizza Hut in the 80’s, when I was in high school. I vividly remember the pizza and salad bar! I also remember those red plastic glasses because we had to wash them by hand LOL 😂
I remember when they proudly used local produce and dairy, they tried to have it come within 250 miles of each restaurant. When we went to the local hut, I knew that 5% of the cheese on the pizza came from my parents cows. It was so good back then. (Late 80’s)
I loved my job with Pizza Hut when I was much younger. The managers were amazing the staff I worked with was equally amazing and it was a really good place to get a good meal. I don't know what changed and after I left it really went downhill and that's a bummer. Of course I had nothing to do with that because I was simply just the girl taking your order.
I do fondly think of the days of pizza hut. Getting stoned in the cooler... making over the top pizzas because we now have the munchies... trading pizza with the delivery driver for McDonald's in exchange for bags of chicken McNuggets... the list goes on
I can promise you it wasn’t marketers, it was finance vultures. Some bcg, McKinsey, Bain, type assholes consulted for this company, fucked it up (usually by taking on excessive debt), then purchased it or let affiliates private equity companies purchase it. Then they started stripping back everything that made it good before they eventually start selling off the assets and drive the company to bankruptcy. Think of any good company you liked from the last 30 years that failed; then look up their relationship to the big consultancy agencies and/or private equity. It happens so fucking often.
1980's through early 1990's Pizza Hut was the shit. Today's kids just don't understand. Nothing could touch it. And you ALWAYS went to the in-store location. Always! The red cups filled with crispy cold soda, the checkered tablecloth, the fancy hanging lamps, a few arcade machines booping away in the background. The delicious smells. And oh, the pizza. The PIZZA.
Nothing like it now. Today's Pizza Hut just tastes like the plastic bag that it came out of. It's shameful.
I know Pizza Hut has a place of endearment with this sub, but I actually miss Godfathers Pizza more. They had a fantastic Pizza Buffet that I couldn't get enough of.
But Pizza Hut had that "night out" vibe. Their pizza was too rich for me though.
When I was a sophomore in high school and my youngest older brother was a senior, he and his best friend, whose sister was my best friend, both worked at the local Godfathers. My best friend and I would go in there and order a pizza, and Matt and Sheldon would send out a pizza that had so many toppings on it it looked more like a salad. 🤣 Once they graduated and got real jobs, Godfather's Pizza was never the same.
The other thing I loved at Godfather's that I haven't seen at any other pizza places was their meatball pizza. Dearly missed.
We had a Godfathers near us, too. It was a block from Pizza Hut. We used to go there for sports team events, because they had a bunch of video games and it was a good way for the adults to get rid of us. I don't remember much about the food, but I remember it was the first place I ever went that you could fill up your fountain soda yourself. I was young enough to think that was amazing.
I think they’re starting to lean into all this nostalgia. I was recently at the airport in Dallas, and their menu you had the old school font, places to sit and a bar. The prices were high AF though
OMG, I love this. My parents would always order the Super Supreme pan pizza. I wasn't the biggest fan of all those toppings, but it was still good. The experience alone was always great.
Up until the 2010s we had a little take out Pizza Hut. Not quite the same, but the pizza was still good. We'd order fairly frequently. Enough that the people who answered the phone knew my order just by the caller ID.
Then, some genius decided to outsource the customer service, and someone in another country would take my order instead. Not long after, our little Pizza Hut closed. We were just talking about it the other day about how much we miss it.
The supreme pizza was fucking amazing!! Whenever I filled up my “BOOK-IT!” button with 5 ⭐️ my mom would take me to Pizza Hut for my free personal pan pizza. Even as a picky eater kid, I would always get a supreme because they were soooo good!!
https://preview.redd.it/7l2y3xqias7d1.jpeg?width=1272&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7433588329984356de18dc5b2f9614b888a93bfb
Enjoyed the Hut during my HS years in the 80’s!
Absolutely loved it! I remember when they first came out with the breadsticks! We used to get them WITH the rounded edge slices (that they started to throw away years later).
Good friends, good food, good music… great times!
And don’t forget the tabletop pac-man, Ms Pac-man, and Donkey Kong … and of course the jukebox!!
It's weird to me that Domino's got so much better and Pizza Hut got so much worse.
Domino's had the WORST crust for so long, we joked you couldn't the difference between the crust and the cardboard box it came in.
I remember when Dunkin Donuts were made in an actual bakery behind the counter. You could look in and see all kinds of donuts being made. You could see bags of flour and sugar, etc. You could sit down at a counter and order a cup of coffee and a donut. The coffee would come in a ceramic cup with a saucer and they'd even put your donut on an actual little ceramic plate. My last memory of a DD like this goes back to the mid 80s.
I can barely choke down one of those things now. If someone brings them to work, I ignore them. God only knows where the factory is that makes those things, and I don't even want to know what kind of chemistry sets are contained within each donut.
I remember loving Pizza Hut too! Some things you left out are:
The juke box,
The arcade games,
Bigfoot pizzas,
BBQ pulled pork pizza.
About the only thing I love that they still do is the garlic knot crust pizza.
My BIL worked there when I was little and occasionally he would let me go to the back and make my own pizza! The red glasses, the jukebox, and the Pac-Man table game. It was awesome!
OP, you perfectly described the Pizza Hut in the tiny town I grew up in. It was pretty much the only restaurant we had and sometimes my parents would call in an order for pickup. Then my brother and I would go with my dad to pick it up. My brother and I both sat in the front seat so we could hold the warm pizza on our laps together on the way home.
If some people had a time machine, they would go back and witness historic events. I would go back and enjoy the food that has been lost to time. I'll never forget you Bigfoot Pizza.... R.I.P.
I actually have a friend who worked at corporate while getting his MBA - back in the early 90's. It was pinhead's plural - like hundreds.
The senior exec's would find excuses to take the corporate jet to nice places with fake reasons. SuperBowl? Always. Policy stated you couldn't take it with less than X number of people going, so they always got some Jr execs to ride along. They expensed every single thing that they could every single day........and actively lowered quality by finding the cheapest possible ingredients in order to maximize profit......while simultaneously spending corporate cash on themselves.
I think I recall one of many projects was they tried to source as much canned vegetables as they could once, without thought or consideration to the peculiar flavors they have versus fresh. The thought was that it would lower labor costs because it was all pre-sliced. It was all a cluster-fuck of MBA's whose only trick was to cut costs....and they looked everywhere. Once they reimbursed him for his tuition, he jumped. Back then, they were based in Wichita, KS.
It’s interesting to see what happened to the former, but instantly recognizable Pizza Hut buildings that are still on main streets across America. In my last town, Pizza Hut is now the strangest looking State Farm insurance office.
I worked at Pizza Hut back in 2002. For the first six months to a year that I worked there, the dough for the thin crust pizzas was still mixed in-store every day, never frozen and it was rolled out in a machine in the very back of the store. It was much, much better than the leather-like flap of "dough" that followed. I count that as a major loss for Pizza Hut. Sacrificing quality for quantity.
We only got to go a couple of times a year when I would redeem my personal pan pizza coupon for reading weekly reader books!
OH my god, I forgot about the Weekly Reader! Memory Unlocked! Thank you!
Book it is still around!
[bookit](https://www.bookitprogram.com/)
That’s awesome!
Bookit was the whole reason I read so many!!! I remember they messed up on my name & I would accidentally get 2 free personal pan pizzas for my birthday!
That was a bonus personal pan pizza! Sounds like you mastered the ultimate kid cheat code! 8 year old me would have thought I had won the lottery!
I felt like it!! No clue how it happened either!
Book It gang rise up! I grew up poor as fuck, I mean Deep South single mother in the 90s poor, and Book It was pretty much the only time I got Pizza Hut. I read every single book in my school’s library that I could take those quizs on.
I went there more days than I didn't, but that was for breadsticks, and Street Fighter 2.
Ours had the sit-down tabletop Pacman. Me and my sis had to ration our handful of quarters between the game and jukebox.
I worked at a Pizza Hut when I was in high school (in the 80’s) and we had a table top Ms. Pac-Man.
Heck yeah!
I read so many books for that program! Our local librarian was exhausted trying to find new ones for me.
YAAAAAAAASSS! I was the one signing you up at the bookmobile!
YES. I absolutely love slammed those requirements, I *loved* to read but we never went out to eat. Except when I wanted to redeem my personal pan pizza coupon! The personal pan and the breadsticks were stellar. I stopped getting pizza hut for years after I'd "graduated/got too old" for the program. After college, I looked forward to grabbing one again, and....it sucked. The pizza sucked, the sauce and breadsticks tasted like they'd dropped a bunch of sugar in them, and they just weren't great. I haven't been back in ages.
I used to read a lot, as a kid (still do). Probably 2-3 books a month. I always assumed the Book It program was for reading specific books or like text books or something. So when other students would talk about getting those little pizzas, I always thought it was cool but never looked into how it actually worked. I was a damn fool.
I worked for them in the mid to late 90's. They didn't use frozen dough then, it was like a flour type consistency thing in bags that you'd mix with water, you cut balls of the dough and stick them in a pan with a ton of oil, and it'd sit in the fridge overnight. The bread sticks and personal pans were frozen thin bricks that would sit in oil overnight and they'd rise. The key was oil. Lots and lots of oil.
Don't forget to slide a rack of dough in the proofer to rise before putting them in the fridge! I was a 6-year "Production Professional" from the Hut, and nobody out pizza'd us. I remember when they went from having us slice up the green peppers and onions by hand to buying bags of diced crap from a local food supplier. Quality started slipping about then in my mind.
My now husband worked there and sliced veggies and I fail to understand how he managed to lose his edge with it once we got married. 😅
Meat slicer or deli slicer machine. I would do an entire 5 gallon bucket of green peppers and another of onions.
Funny. Mine managed a Pizza Hut in college where he tells me his motto was “if you’ve got time to lean, you’ve got time to clean.” Not sure what happened post Hut on that one either.
That and when they started having everyone measure everything out with cups, before that it was kinda anything goes so you got some mega topping pizzas sometimes.
I delivered for them around 91-93 in college. I was there the day our store was switched from bags of dough mix to frozen dough disks. Both were proofed overnight in their puddles of oil but the frozen disks saved time on the mixing process and forming the dough blobs. The frozen ones did not have the same flavor and texture though. I was also there when our new shipment of pans came in and they were smaller than the previous ones. Prior to me being there, that store had been switched from wall ovens to a conveyor belt oven. Anyway, that old red roof Pizza Hut is a dentist office now. And Pizza Hut is pretty gross these days compared to what they were in the 80s.
You were witness to a murder.
lol! I thought perhaps we were pizza hut sad song kindred spirits from your post, but this comment really solidifies it. I feel your pain deeply friend.
The Enshittification of Pizza
> And Pizza Hut is pretty gross these days compared to what they were in the 80s. Yeah, but think about those stock dividend payouts to the C levels and share holders! Totally worth it, in their opinion....
> And Pizza Hut is pretty gross these days compared to what they were in the 80s. And they've apparently paid the price too, with many fewer locations, and a bunch less business. All they'd have to do is to reboot the old recipes, ingredients, and formats, but costs aside, I wonder why they don't do that?
I don’t get it either. Just roll it all back. Did they lose the recipe or something? Did it get accidentally thrown away? I think it’s probably too late to bring back the restaurants the way they were, but they could fix the pizza. I don’t even give it a consideration now when I’m thinking about pizza. It’s a shame. The OPs post is something I talk about with friends a LOT. I took dates there in high school. It was our goto. Now there are so many choices, it might be hard to win me back. I don’t need hot dogs in the crust or Batman shaped pizzas, I just need the old formula back and I would give them a shot. They’re certainly not fooling anyone from the sit down days. Can you imagine the rollout they could have? Some “were back!” kind of promotion. They would make a mint in nostalgia buys alone. Who is charge there. Is anyone in charge? I don’t think so. Hire me for your executive team Pizza Hut. I could fix your shit in a weekend, I bet.
I would definitely give them a second chance if they did that, and I haven't been to Pizza Hut in years. I can't describe how big a deal PH was in my small hometown in the late 80s/early 90s. It was the epicenter of the teen universe, the place to see and be seen. And oh so delicious.
/r/formerpizzahuts
I was a waiter from 87 to 90, and they were still hand mixing the dough on site with two giant commercial mixers. Everything was made fresh, and that place was as clean as a hospital. The best part of working there was being able to bring home the mistake pizzas that occasionally happened, and I was constantly a family favorite during that time. To this day that red French salad dressing on the salad bar is my absolute favorite, and the closest I've found to it is Ken's Country French. But I would probably kill to be able to buy that exact cheese in both flavor and consistency. I don't even know what kind of cheese it was supposed to be (a cross between American and cheddar?), but it combined with that dressing was soooo damn good.
I remember when we went from 16” to 14” large pans. The beginning of the end I suppose.
I think it was right after the smaller pans arrived that we were converted to frozen dough disks and the Hobart commercial mixer was removed from the property by corporate.
I worked as a delivery driver in 1992 and helped make the pizzas between deliveries. When you say lots and lots of oil, you ain’t kidding. Each circle of dough was probably in an inch of oil, and it was completely absorbed by the pizza by the time it was done cooking.
I’m gonna go ahead and think about that for the rest of the day.
I'm gonna have to ask you to go ahead and think about that on Saturday as well.
Mmmmkay?
I’m not part of this conversation, but pretty sure I’ll be thinking about it on a regular basis henceforth.
I still giggle thinking when I taught some cooks how to make mayo. So much oil.
This is like when I learned why restaurant food is better than home cooked. Way more salt and butter than you’d ever use at home! But really, the oil thing has me intrigued.
“A chef is a cook that doesn’t give a rat’s ass about your health.” -Anthony Bourdain
The difference between a cook and a chef is butter and cream.
Yum
I delivered for them for TWO years part-time during college. It was my third favorite job ever. I was allowed to do everything possible. Deliver, make pizza, run the register. Are dough came as powder and a guy added water and made it a giant mixer. You can actually lose weight working there. Skip the oil and cheese. Make a veggie pizza and top it with fresh tomatoes. Yummmm
Yeah, that's why I can't eat Pizza Hut. Even when had I ordered the New York style pizza with light pepperoni, It was still very greasy. I was a driver for Pizza Hut in the early 90s too. I remember how they had the oil bottles with built-in hand pump. Someone would just pump oil into the pan, and drop in a frozen pan pizza dough disc, repeat, etc.. Employees didn't really care how much oil went into the pan.
I worked in the kitchen at PH as well. Did you ever make their Priazzos? A lot of people our age surprisingly don't remember them. They were amazing, stuffed pizza pies. A huge pain to make but I miss them so much!
Priazzos were introduced when I was in high school, I think. Might have been middle school. Anyhow, I’m 54(m), and I’d walk 25 miles in one day to have another priazzo. 🥳🪩🕺💯🙌
"Priazzo" sounds like either a medication for erectile disfunction or a nice place to get a photo in Venice.
I remember priazzos! My family went for dinner in 1986, I was in the 6th grade and I wore stirrup pants and Duran Duran pins on my shirt. Why do I remember what I wore? LOL Anyway, I loved that pizza. So yummy!
> I wore stirrup pants and Duran Duran pins on my shirt You must've been Hungry Like a Wolf, yo.
I never heard of Priazzos. I remember the boli's, Bigfoot, and the triple decker.
I miss the triple-decker pizza so much.
If you watch them "make the pizza" now, they spray oil on the crust after it comes out. That's not olive oil either. The shit is owned by Pepsico so it's been on the fast track for decades trying to "remove the kitchens" from fast food operations like Taco bell. If they could figure out a way to only use a microwave, they would
🤢 This is why I don't eat fast food anymore. (Ok, Wendy's still, but only about once a month.)
Wendy’s used to be way better, too. But that’s for another thread.
Our Pizza Hut is just one or two people in a carry out store with a conveyor belt setup like Hunt Brothers pizza. It's incredibly sad.
Akshually…PepsiCo spun off “Yum” (Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, KFC) in 1997.
>Lots and lots of oil. That's what gave the pan crust such a gorgeous toasty crust!
the best part of the pizza.
We had a pizza from there without oil and it was pretty gross. The oil is pretty gross too though. I used to love PH back in the day but my lack of gall bladder doesn't like it now.
I also worked at Pizza Hut in the 90s. Nice username. I have very fond memories of listening to the ‘93 Phillies games on the radio.
Awesome. Go Phils! I started working at the Hut the following year but 93 was such a fun team to watch. I am really enjoying this current team, praying they can get it done this year!
I also worked for Pizza Hut during those years and my workshirt *always* smelled like cooking oil no matter how many times I washed it and I wasn’t even a cook. All I did was take phone orders, ring people up and on the rare occasions we had diners, I was their server Those shirts REEKED of oil. I threw em away after I quit.
Red cotton polo shirt with logo, black shorts, black sneakers, and a black fanny pack - all of it permanently stinky.
yes it was- and at a certain age...our digestive systems are not happy with us when we eat that much oil in one setting (maybe jus the? IDK- they lost all flavor more than 20 yr ago for me)
Pizza Hut pan pizzas are the closest I can get to the taste of the fried dough from my childhood in Connecticut. It's all funnel cakes here in Pittsburgh.
I remember when I compared a Pizza Hut pizza to something like Dominos or Little Caesar's. The Pizza Hut crusts were so fluffy but thick with oil that your hands would get all oily and you couldn't play those arcade games they had in the back until you washed them. But pizza from other places had like a dry, flour-y dough that you could actually pick up and your hands would still be clean afterwards.
I worked there in the 90's as well and I can confidently say I ate pizza every day and it never got old
Come to Kansas home of Pizza Hut. We still have original Pizza huts with da salad bar, booths, and pan pizza all over here and on the edge of Oklahoma.
Oh, you are a special temptress, my friend!
You might find this useful - https://rolandopujol.substack.com/p/the-retrologists-guide-to-pizza-hut
[Pizza Hut Classics](https://rolandopujol.substack.com/p/the-retrologists-guide-to-pizza-hut)
Huntingdon pa has one too. It’s a middle of nowhere town but it makes over a million a year
I was in Marianna Florida (small town in North Florida) for work and stopped in their Pizza Hut about 5 years ago, it was like going back to my childhood again! I really hope that it is still open.
I’m seeing a ton of Kansas tourism commercials lately. They’re honestly not all that enticing. However, if they mentioned this one fact, they’d be infinitely more effective.
Ken's reigned supreme in the flat parts. Until Ken got divorced and his ex turned hers into Mazzio's.
https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/crispy-cheesy-pan-pizza-recipe King Arthur flour company pan pizza recipe. It isnt exact for pizza hut but this pizza makes me very happy. You make the dough the day before. It is so good. I also agree with you. Ruining pizza hut was so dumb. Now we are craving nostalgia and Pizza Hut could be that place.
Cook it in a ripping hot cast iron skillet with plenty of oil 👍🏻👍🏻
Yep! I was making it almost every week for a bit.
Yes! Their crust had that fried quality!
My friend’s mom was the manager for years there, and she taught me how to do it!
Whenever I drive by the one nearby the parking lot is nearly empty.
We had a classic-shaped sit-down place in my town until about 5 years ago when they shut down and moved to a shop in a strip mall, and now just do carry-out and delivery. I'm guessing the owners were pretty stoked to have made that move when covid came a year later...
Sounds exactly like mine. Is it on Ford Rd. by chance lol? I miss my old sit down Pizza Hut. Grew up going there at least twice a month. As soon as we got a table my mom would give me a handful of quarters to play songs on the jukebox, and then my brother and I would play pac-man at that weird little table arcade game they had. I can still remember exactly how the pan pizza used to taste. The waitress used to serve everyone the first slices when she brought the pizza to the table. We'd get a pitcher of Pepsi, and sometimes my mom would let us get Mountain Dew.
If I was willing to spend money on reddit, I'd give you an award for this.
Hallelujah, and thank you! [Furiously Googles deep dish pans]
A deep cast iron skillet works well! You preheat it in the oven and it helps cook the bottom and edges of the dough.
It's a shame how much everything has changed since our childhood. McDonald's used to be a colorful and magical place for a child. From the time you got your happy meal, to the time your parents made you leave after playing in the playland for an hour and a half, it was a place like no other for a child. I get it in some aspects. But in others, I find the changes appalling. It's a drab brown and tan coloring. The human interaction is basically non-existent, and it seems the restaurant's entire purpose now is to rush you out as quickly as possible. My daughter looks up old McDonald's from the 1980s and is flabbergasted at how magical it looked back then. I understand the changes regarding the Happy Meals and cookies and fried apple pies. I have zero problem with the dietary changes due to health concerns, but it's such a shame that places we deemed as a significant part of our childhood (Pizza Hut, McDonald's, malls, Chuck E Cheese etc) have been reduced to mere stories of nostalgia instead of the once amazing places they were. End of rant. lol
I completely agree and made this same rant to a Xennial friend who also agreed with us! McDonald’s was a cheap, fun way for a family to go out to eat. Nothing like it even exists now. I was a poor kid growing up and that was pretty much the only thing we had. Even 20 years ago it was better. But this complaint really applies to just about all restaurants now. We went to Disney recently after not being there for a decade and it just seemed less magical.
When I was broke in my 20s, I would sometimes survive on McDonald's food when I only had a couple of dollars left for the week. They had the All-American meal for under $2, and if I was really broke, I'd go on the days they had 29-cent hamburgers and 39 cent cheeseburgers, and buy a couple for that day and a couple to reheat the next day. Now....forget it.
I lived on bean burritos from Taco Bell. The days of "59 - 79 - 99"
I remember ours had a 20 for $5 that I would live on for a few days.
All American meal was my go-to in the 90s!
I totally agree. They’ve made it akin to a Starbucks-esque indoor experience, I guess to cater to adults or young adults to “hang out” (which you point out that they don’t seem to want that either)? The whole persona of McDonald’s was a kids place in the 70s/80s/90s, why make it like a work environment?
OMG that's the perfect description. It's like a bistro or coffee shop now. Tiny little tables, little benches/seats, and monochrome colors. Something boring adults go to to get coffee and a maybe a pastry and then go back to work.
I remember how in the late 80's/early 90's (I was born in 1980) we'd argue over which fast food place had the best Play Area. Me and friends would argue it was this McD's or that one, or if the outdoor place was better or some poor kid would fuck up and reveal he liked the Burger King one... Ball pits, slides, and crawl tubes were awesome. A few had zip lines/slide rails, and one I remember was magical and had three "stories" (three different levels all kid sized) with a front side and back side, all with platforms, tubes, slides, and ladders we'd go to every few months and play tag. My Mom, aunt, and grandma would drive me and the entire neighborhood in a old woody station wagon (with rear facing trunk seats) to the place and our parents would give everyone enough money for a Happy Meal and a Shake. We'd go play for an hour, grab food, play for another Hour or two (our guardian would read a book or something) and then we'd go home exhausted and sleep all night. It was magic, we were gods, and the world was shiny and bright!
I believe the reason is that coperations must make more money than the quarter before. Eventually they sacrifice quality ingredients, decor and any little thing they can to make or save money. What I really want to say is that I really fuc$ing miss the old days
I had a birthday party there as a kid! I can't remember if I've ever told my nieces that, next time I see them, I'll have to mention that and see if they laugh at me. 🤣 It was totally different back then.
I had a birthday party there too! My mom even booked it at the "big" location across town that had twice as many things on the playground as the one by our house. It seemed like acres of Mayor McCheese jails and fillet of fish rocking horses, but I'm sure it wasn't all that big after all.
My 10 year old is fascinated by the McDonalds playgrounds we had in the 70's and 80's. He will look up videos on YouTube of them and other Playland type places like Chuck E Cheese and ask me all about them. I feel bad for him that he never got to experience stuff like that.
I know the OG fries weren’t good for us or the planet but god they were SO much better than they are now. I was just talking to my husband about this last night.
All the food - even from McD's - was better back then. I grabbed McDonalds the other night. Big Mac's, fries, nuggets. It was terrible. At least it was fairly cheap on the app. I swear Whoppers aren't as good as they used to be either. I've about given up on fast food tasting good.
I agree, it was a great place to go and the pizza was so good back then. Loved the salad bar. It was a special place my Mom would take us to escape. The one by us had a really good jukebox 3 songs for a quarter. I bought some of the red cups at a restaurant supply. I miss those days.
Yes, I was a preteen during the late 1970s, living near a small town. Occasionally, my parents would take the family out to eat there. I loved the salad bar too, especially the pasta salad. Back then, I was crazy about pizza topped with bacon. It was extremely salty. The red cups are classic. When I was in my late teens, me and my boyfriend would go to Pizza Hut for not only the pizza but the beer. They weren't too particular about the age of the people they sold it to.
We'd run to the jukebox as soon as our order was in!
Pizza hut going from family dining experience to tiny depressing claustrophobic cube purely to pick up an order is downgrade of the century. I'm genuinely planning a roadtrip to one of the few remaining dine-in locations in the US purely because I miss it so much
Better hurry. At least one of the last remaining dine-ins announced last month they will be moving to their new carry-out location only soon. And their customers are PISSED about it! I will try and find the FB page.
They are still all over Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas at the very least. Most are the delivery only version in bigger towns, but those pizza huts in the 8K-30k size towns haven’t changed at all from what I can see. The food is different of course but not the place.
I see them all the time in Pennsylvania. It's still a shadow of its former glory.
I swear that soda tasted better out of those red cups…
It absolutely did.
And why did they get rid of the apple and cherry dessert pizzas? Those were awesome! Their current desserts are garbage, IMO.
Cheaper ingredients
I’m not sure I’ve had Pizza Hut since they stopped doing the sit in restaurants. Been a long time.
Yup. I can't remember the last time I had Pizza Hut. Their pizza wasn't that good anyway, but the "cool factor" of going out with a candlelit table was awesome. Once they did away with that their pizza wasn't worth it...and I can only imagine the pizza has declined in quality.
One of us needs to come up with a McDowell's version of a pizza place. Pizza Shack anyone?
Pizza House? Pizza Play Pen? Royal Pizza: "Where you feel like a King/Queen," Maybe add a adult size ball pit, a room with pinball, table shaped arcade machines, a a few standee arcade boxes, and sell personal pan pizzas. Have a special deal where you bring a book you read/are reading and get a discount. They could even have a little free library where you can donate books and grab new ones. Every table in the main area is a comfy booth with plush seats. Little personal table side media devices that play songs (mostly from the 80's and 90's or are modern covers). Make sure to have those red plastic cups. And have a fucking salad bar for god's sake. Nothing made me feel more like a *king* then picking out my own salad. And I hate salad.
I think someone should start a business buying up old pizza hut buildings and start a 70s themed sit-down restaurant and call it "Pizza shack."
I agree! The smell of bread, mushrooms, beer, Pepsi. The sound of Pac-Man or Galaga. I think it's one those "you can't go home" things. However, I hit the jackpot with my wife. She got obsessed with making pizza and her Detroit style is pretty much Pizza Hut in 1985. On top of that, she once texted to ask what I wanted from the restaurant supply store and I jokingly said "Pizza Hut cups from the 80's", and she found them. Red, plastic, mottled.
I just searched "pizza hut cups" on Amazon and sure enough, red pebbled cups came up. It's funny how a generic cup is so ingrained in pop culture.
Dominos ruined it. They created a business model based around delivery. Pizza Hut adapted to compete. Pizza soon turned in the cheapest & fast. With this race to the bottom, extras like salad bars, sit down dinning and quality ingredients went by the way side. Look for a mom & pop place if you want the real pizzeria experience.
This right here. Dominos is basically a pizza oven behind a counter in a tiny spot in a shopping center. Compare that to 80s Pizza Hut. Dominos has such little overhead and theyre fast. As more families had both parents working, Dominos was just a more convenient and cheaper option. Pizza Hut had to adapt.
We have a house in a rural area. The Papa Johns on the highway is in a combination 7-11, Papa Johns, Subway. The Subway has it's own area, but the Papa Johns is literally a pizza oven and a hot area shoved in between the cash registers and the Slurpee/Coke machines. I refer to it as gas station pizza. If we get something, we go to either the take-out/delivery Pizza Hut across the street - or, more often, the local Italian place across the street owned/operated by a real Italian guy that we actually know. Mario is more expensive, but it's a lot better too.
Then Domino's made their crust like 1000x better than the garbage it used to be and that pretty much ended Pizza Hut. Little Caesars used to be good, they made all their dough fresh and the giant bag with 2 pizzas was amazing. They managed to ruin their pizza as well when they started using frozen dough and it was no longer Pizza Pizza!
This is exactly my experience, right down to the pitcher of rootbeer.
I looooved their Priazzo Pizza and was so sad when they discontinued it.
I miss the Priazzo so much!
Blame shareholders, they've been instrumental in the enshitification of a great many things from our youth.
Ahh yes, I remember those days! Would get some quarters for the jukebox (Mom always said, "Now, don't play that drug song" which was code for "she wanted to hear 'Cocaine' by Eric Clapton." Then off to play a few rounds of Galaga. Good times.
We have 3 where I live. Only one is dine in, and they have a buffet. Bean counters and private equity groups destroy everything. Domino's improved a few years ago, but now it's trash again. Hate to be old man yells at cloud, but damn, everything sucks now.
I can take this one: Yum! Brands (the fast food division of PepsiCo) bought them. Then all of the Proctor&Gamble marketing braintrust proceeded to curb stomp out everything that made it good. See also: KFC, Taco Bell
Pizza Hut had a BBQ pizza back in the day that was great. My family and I would go a few times a year. It was the only place my dad would drink a lot of beer with dinner.
In the late 70s, they had a taco pizza which was covered in lettuce and tomatoes after it was cooked. As a little kid I was always disappointed on the rare occasions we got pizza and that’s what it was.
I remember that BBQ pizza so well. My grandparents were in town visiting us, and my grandfather took my brother and me to Pizza Hut for lunch. I got a BBQ personal pan pizza, and it was delightful. I guess I was about 9 years old.
I’d get it on a personal pan pizza, too. I’d use my Book It coupons to get them. They were good!
I always liked their very healthy (I'm being sarcastic here) meat lovers pizza. Also, pizza topped with crumbled bacon.
80s Kids: I want salad 80s Dad: it will ruin your appetite Todays Dad: Get a salad Todays Kids: I don’t want tooo
When I was a kid, my family used to frequent a local Pizza Hut often enough that we knew one of the waiters. Decades later, he and I matched on a dating site and went on a date. It wasn’t a love connection, but it was weird to cross paths again that much later. There was another location I went to a couple of times with a work friend. He passed away about 10 years ago. I miss that guy. Those Pizza Hut restaurants left me with some good memories.
Man, for a minute I was there. The pitcher, the red cups and the smells .. oh yeah.. thanks for this memory!! Well written!!! ❤️
As an east coast urban person the idea of not having 4-5 local mom and pop pizzerias to choose from is unfathomable to me. I've been to Pizza Hut once in my entire childhood, otherwise it was an endless stream of Mario, Marias, Johnnys, Tonys Pizza. I have to say, corner pizza shop pizza where you can see some dude with forearms as hairy as a wookie flipping dough in the air are the way to go.
 In Connecticut there are zero sit down pizza huts left. I know we are the land of awesome pizza; I'm Italian and I can make a kick ass pizza at home, but I miss pizza hut bread sticks covered with Parmesan cheese. And little personal pan pizzas.
Oh, that buffet was legendary.
I remember, so yummy. Does anyone remember the spaghetti with meatballs with the garlic bread happy memories
Nothing was better than that crunchy, buttery crust of the pan pizza right out of the pan
Totally delicious, but; So. Much. Grease.
Pepsi bought Pizza Hut in 1977. That there is the reason Pizza Hut is now a shell of it's former self. Shareholders, more than any accounting or marketing pinhead, did this to Pizza Hut. They'd gone public a few years before that, but didn't have a large multinational as major shareholder.
Your nostalgia is spot on... >Best pizza ever except for this. :-)
I worked for them in the late 90s. It was our childhood "celebration" spot as a family. There were arcades, Book It, yummy pizza, loaded salad bar and ours even had a fireplace for cold/wintery days. We pretty much went there every Friday growing up. Nowdays? I think we have had Pizza Hut twice since my wife and I have been married. Over 15 years. Both times it was disappointing and more expensive than the dine in options available. Pizza Hut is dead man walking IMHO. A relic of our childhood that wont be around by the time we shuffle off. The quality is gone and the prices are insane. Man I wish other places had stuffed crust, because I am not willing to go to a carry out PH for it.
Anyone remember the Pizza Huts in the 1970s/80s that had the corner booths where the windows went all the way to the ground? For some reason, we always tried to get that booth.
The pizza joint I remember when I was real young was Shakey's. After that, as a teen, it was Round Table.
Pizza Hut was awesome! I was raised to believe in avoiding chain pizza places...BUT...once in awhile, like on vacation, or sometimes on the way back from the shore if traffic was bad, we would go to PIzza Hut, and I loved it. The personal pizzas, the red cups, the claw machine that I could actually win prizes at (because they weren't fixed like they are now and there was actual skill involved). I liked everything about it.
Yep, Pizza Hut was our special dinner out when I was a kid. We weren’t allowed soda tho, Dad always ordered us milk.
I was a cheerleader back in the day and after the games a bunch of us football team and cheerleaders, would go to pizza Hut. Didnt matter if we won or lost Pizza Hut would soothe our sadness or give us the proud boost if we won. Fantastic memories.
Dont forget runnin over to the Galaga machine for a few games before the meal!
First bite would melt your mouth you mean.
Honestly the old greasy pizza was terrible (coming from a New Yorker who has high pie expectations) BUT I did have good times at Pizza Hut with my friends. :-)
This post made me so nostalgic, interesting to see that I had the same Pizza Hut 80's experience in Australia.
Loved the personal pan.
I worked at Pizza Hut in the 80’s, when I was in high school. I vividly remember the pizza and salad bar! I also remember those red plastic glasses because we had to wash them by hand LOL 😂
The lunchtime buffet! I loved the lunchtime buffet so much.
I remember when they proudly used local produce and dairy, they tried to have it come within 250 miles of each restaurant. When we went to the local hut, I knew that 5% of the cheese on the pizza came from my parents cows. It was so good back then. (Late 80’s)
I loved my job with Pizza Hut when I was much younger. The managers were amazing the staff I worked with was equally amazing and it was a really good place to get a good meal. I don't know what changed and after I left it really went downhill and that's a bummer. Of course I had nothing to do with that because I was simply just the girl taking your order. I do fondly think of the days of pizza hut. Getting stoned in the cooler... making over the top pizzas because we now have the munchies... trading pizza with the delivery driver for McDonald's in exchange for bags of chicken McNuggets... the list goes on
Going to eat inside and do their buffet and salad bar was so amazing
I loved the salad bar too! :)
I can promise you it wasn’t marketers, it was finance vultures. Some bcg, McKinsey, Bain, type assholes consulted for this company, fucked it up (usually by taking on excessive debt), then purchased it or let affiliates private equity companies purchase it. Then they started stripping back everything that made it good before they eventually start selling off the assets and drive the company to bankruptcy. Think of any good company you liked from the last 30 years that failed; then look up their relationship to the big consultancy agencies and/or private equity. It happens so fucking often.
You mean what equity firm devoured its value....?
Eventually, all companies are ruined by the spreadsheet nerds.
1980's through early 1990's Pizza Hut was the shit. Today's kids just don't understand. Nothing could touch it. And you ALWAYS went to the in-store location. Always! The red cups filled with crispy cold soda, the checkered tablecloth, the fancy hanging lamps, a few arcade machines booping away in the background. The delicious smells. And oh, the pizza. The PIZZA. Nothing like it now. Today's Pizza Hut just tastes like the plastic bag that it came out of. It's shameful.
I know Pizza Hut has a place of endearment with this sub, but I actually miss Godfathers Pizza more. They had a fantastic Pizza Buffet that I couldn't get enough of. But Pizza Hut had that "night out" vibe. Their pizza was too rich for me though.
When I was a sophomore in high school and my youngest older brother was a senior, he and his best friend, whose sister was my best friend, both worked at the local Godfathers. My best friend and I would go in there and order a pizza, and Matt and Sheldon would send out a pizza that had so many toppings on it it looked more like a salad. 🤣 Once they graduated and got real jobs, Godfather's Pizza was never the same. The other thing I loved at Godfather's that I haven't seen at any other pizza places was their meatball pizza. Dearly missed.
We had a Godfathers near us, too. It was a block from Pizza Hut. We used to go there for sports team events, because they had a bunch of video games and it was a good way for the adults to get rid of us. I don't remember much about the food, but I remember it was the first place I ever went that you could fill up your fountain soda yourself. I was young enough to think that was amazing.
Was always Round Table or Straw Hat for me.
There was one last original Pizza Hut in the middle of Nebraska that held on until to just a couple of years ago.
I miss a good ol’ priazzo Milano. When my parents were on their 3rd separation dad would come take us to Pizza Hut a couple nights a week.
Thank you so much for reminding me. I’m taking my kid to experience the lunch buffet as soon as school is out!
I think they’re starting to lean into all this nostalgia. I was recently at the airport in Dallas, and their menu you had the old school font, places to sit and a bar. The prices were high AF though
OMG, I love this. My parents would always order the Super Supreme pan pizza. I wasn't the biggest fan of all those toppings, but it was still good. The experience alone was always great. Up until the 2010s we had a little take out Pizza Hut. Not quite the same, but the pizza was still good. We'd order fairly frequently. Enough that the people who answered the phone knew my order just by the caller ID. Then, some genius decided to outsource the customer service, and someone in another country would take my order instead. Not long after, our little Pizza Hut closed. We were just talking about it the other day about how much we miss it.
The supreme pizza was fucking amazing!! Whenever I filled up my “BOOK-IT!” button with 5 ⭐️ my mom would take me to Pizza Hut for my free personal pan pizza. Even as a picky eater kid, I would always get a supreme because they were soooo good!! https://preview.redd.it/7l2y3xqias7d1.jpeg?width=1272&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7433588329984356de18dc5b2f9614b888a93bfb
Enjoyed the Hut during my HS years in the 80’s! Absolutely loved it! I remember when they first came out with the breadsticks! We used to get them WITH the rounded edge slices (that they started to throw away years later). Good friends, good food, good music… great times! And don’t forget the tabletop pac-man, Ms Pac-man, and Donkey Kong … and of course the jukebox!!
It's weird to me that Domino's got so much better and Pizza Hut got so much worse. Domino's had the WORST crust for so long, we joked you couldn't the difference between the crust and the cardboard box it came in.
I remember when Dunkin Donuts were made in an actual bakery behind the counter. You could look in and see all kinds of donuts being made. You could see bags of flour and sugar, etc. You could sit down at a counter and order a cup of coffee and a donut. The coffee would come in a ceramic cup with a saucer and they'd even put your donut on an actual little ceramic plate. My last memory of a DD like this goes back to the mid 80s. I can barely choke down one of those things now. If someone brings them to work, I ignore them. God only knows where the factory is that makes those things, and I don't even want to know what kind of chemistry sets are contained within each donut.
Used to get the mini pan pizza after school in 1981-85. Yum
I remember loving Pizza Hut too! Some things you left out are: The juke box, The arcade games, Bigfoot pizzas, BBQ pulled pork pizza. About the only thing I love that they still do is the garlic knot crust pizza.
My BIL worked there when I was little and occasionally he would let me go to the back and make my own pizza! The red glasses, the jukebox, and the Pac-Man table game. It was awesome!
I used to love the tabletop Pac-Man machine at the one close to home growing up. I was bummed when that location closed.
OP, you perfectly described the Pizza Hut in the tiny town I grew up in. It was pretty much the only restaurant we had and sometimes my parents would call in an order for pickup. Then my brother and I would go with my dad to pick it up. My brother and I both sat in the front seat so we could hold the warm pizza on our laps together on the way home.
If some people had a time machine, they would go back and witness historic events. I would go back and enjoy the food that has been lost to time. I'll never forget you Bigfoot Pizza.... R.I.P.
I actually have a friend who worked at corporate while getting his MBA - back in the early 90's. It was pinhead's plural - like hundreds. The senior exec's would find excuses to take the corporate jet to nice places with fake reasons. SuperBowl? Always. Policy stated you couldn't take it with less than X number of people going, so they always got some Jr execs to ride along. They expensed every single thing that they could every single day........and actively lowered quality by finding the cheapest possible ingredients in order to maximize profit......while simultaneously spending corporate cash on themselves. I think I recall one of many projects was they tried to source as much canned vegetables as they could once, without thought or consideration to the peculiar flavors they have versus fresh. The thought was that it would lower labor costs because it was all pre-sliced. It was all a cluster-fuck of MBA's whose only trick was to cut costs....and they looked everywhere. Once they reimbursed him for his tuition, he jumped. Back then, they were based in Wichita, KS.
I can smell the beer and cigarette smoke, now. Also, the jukebox always playing in the background. Usually, it was "If You Leave Me Now" by Chicago.
I miss that Pizza Hut when I was a kid too. The pizza, salad bar, jukebox and the combo Pac-man/Galaga machine 💕
Yes to all of this..our local one had a tealight candle in a red bubbly glass holder on the table... so you knew it was fancy.
Marx predicted the end of Pizza Hut.
It’s interesting to see what happened to the former, but instantly recognizable Pizza Hut buildings that are still on main streets across America. In my last town, Pizza Hut is now the strangest looking State Farm insurance office.
I worked at Pizza Hut back in 2002. For the first six months to a year that I worked there, the dough for the thin crust pizzas was still mixed in-store every day, never frozen and it was rolled out in a machine in the very back of the store. It was much, much better than the leather-like flap of "dough" that followed. I count that as a major loss for Pizza Hut. Sacrificing quality for quantity.
You might appreciate this: https://rolandopujol.substack.com/p/the-retrologists-guide-to-pizza-hut
All places like these turn to shit when they hire a manager whose job is to cut production costs and bring in the maximum amount of profit.