Pizza Hut Made Me Cry
Posted by bigwomby@reddit | GenX | View on Reddit | 48 comments
Stopped at the local Pizza Hut tonight to pick up dinner and while waiting for my order had a rush of memories.
Going with my mom as a kid on a Friday night to celebrate a good report card.
Taking my first date there and almost spilling the pitcher of root beer while pouring as I was so nervous.
Enjoying the buffet on a Sunday afternoon as a poor college student as my big meal for the week.
Sitting on the floor of our first house eating stuffed crust while we waited for the moving truck.
Taking our kids out to dinner so they could redeem their Book It rewards.
Celebrating a big win with the kids (soccer,basketball,softball,track) teams.
All the good times.
Now the kids are older, the pizzas are smaller, the prices are higher and literally everyone out-pizzas the hut. Except when it comes to memories.
HighSeasArchivist@reddit
I still go there occasionally for nostalgia, but for pan pizza like the good ole days Jet's does an amazing pie.
tunaman808@reddit
A Domino's opened just down the street five years ago. The pizza wasn't terrible, they were mostly just skimpy with the toppings.
This location was sold to another franchisee, and these guys seem to follow the corporate instructions really well. Their pan pizza is about 90% as good as Peak Pizza Hut Pan.
Which is good, because the pan pizza from the actual Pizza Hut in my town is only about 55% as good as Peak Pizza Hut.
Ok_Status_4951@reddit
Domino's new pan is really good. I think it's the best of the major chains at the moment.
Aloxes@reddit
I think it depends on the location for Jet. Ive had terrible pizza that was silly expensive at Jet pizza. I can only assume that corporate doesnt enforce quality standards, and as a result some locations suck.
HighSeasArchivist@reddit
I have only been to our local one, but it's amazing with amazing staff. What you are saying makes it sound like Popeye's, where you never actually know what you're going to get from store to store.
Aloxes@reddit
I think so. Some wing stops are pretty good, others....not so much. Probably the same thing, a corporate that lets franchisers be good....or bad.
jbrown9972@reddit
There's a limited number of Pizza Hut Classic locations that recreate the old experience. They seem to be in odd locations though...
ave427@reddit
I didn’t know about those. Will have to see if there is one near me.
Lvrgsp@reddit
Illinois has two locations. Eureka and Geneseo I believe
ceeece@reddit
We have one in our town. It lacks the buffet, juke box and Pac-Man.
ceeece@reddit
FR. I totally get it. We have a Pizza Hut Classic in our town and it's got the stained glass chandeliers, the checkered table cloths, frosted red cups. No buffet, juke box or Pac-Man though. I usually get take out because it is so close. But I just want to sit down and eat there at least once. Going to Pizza Hut in the 80's was a real treat. It was always busy too.
jaxheather@reddit
We were on vacation in a town with a Classic last year. We try to eat at local restaurants not chains, but I talked my spouse into going there. So much nostalgia, I loved it. If we had one near us, I'd be there all the time.
Sufficient_Stop8381@reddit
I mostly remember the red cups, flat top video games, and it being the first salad bar I actually liked as a kid. Probably the super sweet Catalina dressing.
tunaman808@reddit
For the record, they're properly called cocktail table arcade games.
Select-Current-4528@reddit
A few of us would go on Fridays at lunch while we were in community college in the early nineties. One of the guys was over twenty one and would order pitchers of beer. The waitress was in one of my classes and would let us drink underage as long as we didn’t cause any trouble. We would slay the buffet. Good times.
tunaman808@reddit
Yeah. I can't believe I'm sharing this, but Ken's Pizza was the pizza chain in my home town. Pizza Hut came later. Ken's wanted to expand beyond pizza, so revamped the menu and renamed itself Mazzio's in 1984ish. They were all over my area for a while then slowly disappeared. There's one left in the whole southeast, and it's about 15 minutes from my sister's house.
In 2007 (I think) Mazzio's brought back "Ken's Special". I finally managed to stop there in 2020 and almost cried when I bit into a a slice... because my brain immediately went straight back to 1977!
Still good, too!
CommunicationNew3745@reddit
This, ALL of this. 'Kids' today have a hard time believing Pizza Hut, once upon a time, was actually a nice place with pretty good food. Last few times we ordered from them, though, it was obvious that those halcyon days were firmly in the past.
kozamel@reddit
BOOK IT!
Purrmaid14@reddit
Yes! The bookmobile would park on the street near my house. I was a voracious eater…I mean reader! I’m sure I spent my youth being made of at least 5-10% personal pan pizza.
Maximum_Ad8497@reddit
Last book was How to Eat Fried Worms that got me a personal pan pizza - we all went down for lunch as a class.
Fluid_Anywhere_7015@reddit
Pizza Hut lost its way when they moved the HQ out of Wichita.
Responsible_Bear752@reddit
All the pizza huts around me don’t have table service anymore. One person is there that tells you to order from the kiosk. You can take the pizza to a seat and eat it there but everything is self serve. No more deep dish pan or red cups. Not the same experience.
TheJokersChild@reddit
You picked it up? That's where we lost the magic. Eating it there was the reason we loved it so much.
Spreadeaglebeagle44@reddit
The sizzle of cast iron pizza...
AZPeakBagger@reddit
Pizza Hut was where I discovered that if you showed up to work on time and busted your butt the entire shift they'd make a 19 year old kid an assistant manager. In 1986 I was running the place on Friday nights and had people twice my age reporting to me. It was weird. But I'll always have fond memories of the place and what it did to kick start my career.
SouthOrlandoFather@reddit
Haha. My friend was managing a Taco Bell in high school back from like 89 to 92 while in high school. Seems crazy thinking about it now. He was managing the books and knew cost of labor and supplies.
AZPeakBagger@reddit
I was doing the nightly books, making bank drops and had a key to the store at 19. Didn't care for the long hours and the pressure that the franchise owner was putting on me to go into their manager training program so that I could have my own store. It was tough trying to balance school and work as it was. But the offer of making $29,000 in 1986 was tempting for a bit.
Klayton_1971@reddit
For me, it was Shakey's pizza buffet with mojo potatoes, the bright jangle of arcade games, and my uncle drinking a pitcher of beer while watching NFL football on a TV up in the corner. He'd smoke Kool cigarettes and constantly be checking a sheet of paper that had all his bets. My father was gone so uncle was my weekend Girl-Dad. Lovely memory.
YouHadMeAtDisgusting@reddit
Shakey's! The remaining franchises in SoCal don't quite capture the essence i remember, or the taste of that pizza.
We would watch the pizzas be made through the windows into the kitchen, sit at the old fashioned picnic benches that were somehow really comfortable, and it had a homey atmosphere with a player piano. My sister worked there for a while when she was in high school. Will always be a fond memory of visits there!
CrankyDoo@reddit
I have fond memories of Pizza Hut, but their pizza is ass now. I don’t know what they did to their recipe, but their pan pizza used to be savory, and now it’s just…edible. The only one that used to be in my area, an old-school one with seating and a salad bar, closed a few years ago and was torn down and now is literally used as a parking lot.
gmhelwig@reddit
Some person who went to some business school sat down one day looking at the books: expenses, receipts, and realized some cuts had to be made. Penny-wise, but entirely forgetting that the brand is built upon the quality of the product. And forgetting that it takes years to build a reputation, and just a second or two to destroy it irretrievably.
gmhelwig@reddit
Sunrise, sunset. Sunrise, sunset. Swiftly fly the years. One season following another. Laden with happiness and tears.
kahllerdady@reddit
the one in my town closed a few years ago. It was our go to place for a night out before grocery shopping or after a day of sledding or skating. Miss the place.
Scrappyl77@reddit
I went to an actual pizza hut last week. It was amazing.
TealFlamingoCat@reddit
This just happened to me in a Barnes and Noble. There are no book stores like this in my area but I was away for a few days. I walked in with my daughter and she said “wow! It really smells like books!” She went one way and I went the other. To the magazine racks. I flipped through a few magazines and was overcome with emotions! My eyes filled with tears in the magazine racks of a Barnes and Noble. I was not expecting that.
Top_Jaguar_5924@reddit
You were remembering civilization!
ONROSREPUS@reddit
I have these similar memories but of Godfathers Pizza. Closest PH to us was an hour away. The college student thing was 100% accurate for me. Usually with my college roommate that was even poorer then I was.
TalkOk4096@reddit
I’m sorry, but Pizza Hut Nostalgia is kind-of a cliche at this point. I can’t tell you how many of (these exact same) posts I’ve read.
Myfreakinglyfe@reddit
Fortunately, the world doesn’t revolve around you. This is the maybe the second one I’ve read. Don’t be a hater.
curyfuryone@reddit
Using quarters to play mrs pacman, digdug, galaxy, or donkey kong on those flattop arcades. If i remember correctly, one of them must of had a short circuit cause i remember getting zapped by one when i touched a metal bolt that held the glass down.
gcwardii@reddit
These games were what I was going to mention too! Our Pizza Hut had the only tabletop Ms. Pac Man game in town. The screen was smaller than the versions in the big cabinets. It was so much fun to sit and play lol
TheNolaCatLady@reddit
Yes! The Pizza Hut by me had Galaxian and something else I can't remember at the moment. I would ride my bike over there just to sit down and play video games.
BokChoyJr@reddit
I feel the same way when I make English muffin pizzas with my wife. Our entire childhoods are in the preparation, the smell of them cooking and the flavors. I remember the make-your-own pizza parties when I was a small child. The savage hunger as a growing teenager. The tight budget as a young adult. Now that I’m in my 50s, I’ve switched to Italian rolls or making my own dough but the sense of joy is the same.
Present_Yak_6169@reddit
I used to work at Pizza Hut…early 90’s. I get you. It’s sad how much things have changed. No more red plastic cups, no more open salad bar, no more of the waitress bringing hot pan pizzas and serving the first cheeze-stretching slice to each person…damn what a memory.
KrispyAvocado@reddit
I also worked there in the early’90s while at college. Loved that buffet! Slay had fun with my sibling rushing around looking for a “sit-down Pizza Hut” later in the ‘90s when they became scarce.
GrayBeardBoardGamer@reddit
It was really worth it to go and have that nice sit-down experience. Few things are more pleasurable to me than to go to a pizza place with friends or family, order a big pie to share, have drinks and conversation, then pile into a fresh pizza hot from the oven. I don't want just another place to shove food down my gullet and then get the fuck out. I'd pay to go to a throwback pizza hut- just as good as it was 25 years ago- in a heartbeat.
montbkr@reddit
Beautifully said!
MassCasualty@reddit
There's a desire the bring back the Pizza Hut experience. We used to hit the buffet after football practice and eat everything they put out for the two hour limit they had....