An Ode To The Sit-Down Pizza Hut
An oft-overlooked American institution
Most people have a restaurant memory from their childhood that stands starkly above the rest. Maybe it’s the Taco Bell of the 90s, with its crazy color scheme and talking chihuahua. Maybe it’s a regional chain like Whataburger or In N Out. For me, it’s the sit-down Pizza Hut.
Yesterday, it was reported by the USA Today that as many as 500 dine-in Pizza Huts will be closing within the next year as the company looks to transition to a more carryout and delivery centric model. A moment of silence for a fallen American icon.
Like most millennials, I am intimately familiar with the red, trapezoidal roof that beacons in those looking for a cheesy, carb-based meal. I’m not sure if they still do it (and refuse to do any farther research for this blog post) but when I was growing up, this restaurant may have single-handedly saved me from illiteracy with their Book It! program.
The sit-down Pizza Hut was and is a truly special place. Also, as a small aside, I know they may be known as “dine-in” Pizza Huts, but to me, they’ll always be a “sit-down” Pizza Huts. You go in, you sit down. It’s a sit-down Pizza Hut.
To those of us that grew up in small southern and midwestern towns, Pizza Hut may as well have been the pizza parlor in 3 Ninjas Knuckle Up.
These Pizza Huts were either right by the town mall or by a random stretch of stores in one of the weird stretches of town. Sometimes, your town had both. No matter which of these it was, time stood still when you entered a sit-down Pizza Hut.
I experienced the sit-down Pizza Huts mostly through the lens of Little League baseball. Growing up, I was on one of those traveling baseball teams that played in different tournaments throughout the summer. Whenever we’d notch a big win, there was only one place to go: Pizza Hut (the one by the mall. It had a dinner buffet).
Nothing accents the feeling of victory better than the inside of a Pizza Hut. I can still smell the mix of pizza and all-purpose cleaner. I can still picture the carpet and themed lighting.
There were always 100 booths and exactly 4 tables. We would take over those tables, pushing them together so the team could sit as one. We’d grab our cups (you know the ones) and head to the PepsiCo based soda machine. Cherry Pepsi, Mt. Dew, and Mug Root Beer flowed freely. This was the place I learned the practice of the “suicide,” combining every flavor of soda into one mutant hybrid beverage. It was essentially a children’s Four Loko. I have heartburn just thinking about it.
I cannot say that as a child, I had a propensity to eat what was good for me, but the Pizza Hut salad bar was such an elite option, it couldn’t be skipped.
After the salad bar, it was time for the pizza buffet. Plenty of plain cheese and pepperoni to go around. If the adults were feeling especially generous, they’d order up a couple of Stuffed Crust™️ pizzas for the table.
You’d eat your fill, bug your parents for some quarters to play Cruisin’ USA a couple of times, then head home, hoping for another win big enough to justify a Pizza Hut celebration.
While I totally understand Pizza Huts move away from the sit-down restaurant from a business perspective, I can’t help but wax a little nostalgic about the 90s Pizza Hut experience. There’s a couple of people trying to keep the spirit alive (shoutout to Shakey’s Pizza) but you can’t top an OG.
So, grab a red cup and pour out a Pepsi for the sit-down Pizza Hut. It just doesn’t taste the same at home.
