Slicing into culinary history and pop culture on National Pizza Day
A meditation on Pizza Hut Classics and the origins of America's love of the humble pie
My Pizza Hut Classic piece is the most popular post I’ve ever published on the Retrologist Substack. Although my list of dozens of restaurant locations has been up for over two years, I still receive hundreds of visitors daily to that single post.
Why?
Well, it’s elementary that Americans love Pizza Hut and, more broadly, pizza, regardless of its point of origin. But the obsession with Pizza Hut, in particular, is about more than culinary affection.
Pizza Hut Classics are embedded into our collective imagination, our shared sense of an America that is gone, that slipped through our fingers without realizing it. They are tied into memories of Friday night pizza outings with family and friends, post-game visits with your teammates and coach, Saturday afternoon birthday parties with your grade-school buddies, and other moments in our lives, moments that were pedestrian once but that now hold a place of privilege in our hearts. Nowhere was a cell phone in sight, as they didn’t exist, or at least were only used then by high-powered executive types. We were there, in the moment, because there was nowhere else we could be. For many, their first taste of pizza — the gateway drug, so to speak — was found on the checkered tablecloth of their hometown Pizza Hut.
Pizza Hut Classics are designed to be immersive time machines. Indeed, Pizza Hut is the only chain that has deliberately modified its legacy buildings to look as they did in the 1970s through 1990s.
As I explain in my article, the ingredients of a Pizza Hut Classic include:
The old logo is used in pole signage as well as at the top of the (usually but not always) red-roofed restaurant. The pole sign features the addition of the word “Classic.”
The interior features cozy red booths and old-school Pizza Hut lamps.
Stickers featuring the long-discarded character Pizza Hut Pete are found on the door.
Posters feature classic photos from Pizza Huts of yore.
A plaque displays a quote from Pizza Hut co-founder Dan Carney, explaining the concept as a celebration of the brand’s heritage.
The experience works and offers a reprieve from the wrenching realities of American life in 2025. But the Huts aren’t exactly as they were, of course. If the dining rooms look a little brighter than they did back in the day, that’s because the old curtains weren’t part of the throwback design. And, of course, you’re no longer peering through a haze of cigarette smoke.
I bring up Pizza Hut Classics on this National Pizza Day because I had the privilege to participate in a brilliant video on Phil Edwards’ excellent YouTube channel. He reached out to me to talk about Pizza Hut Classics for “The United States of Pizza, mapslained,” in which he goes deep into the subject with what he calls “pizzalectuals” into the origins of pizza in America, from the Neapolitan style of New York City (his experts shatter the Lombardi’s origin myth) to New Haven apizza, Chicago deep dish and countless regional variations, including one of my favorites, the Old Forge style of northeastern Pennsylvania, and — where I come in — Pizza Hut.
The video is a great watch, and I think you’ll learn a thing or three about pizza in America. I sure did. Give it a play below, and give Phil a follow.
Watching while consuming the pizza of your choice is not mandatory but highly recommended because you’ll be ravenous by the end of the video.
Enjoy Pizza Hut Classics and other classic American fast-food places? You’ll want to preorder my book, The Great American Retro Road Trip.
Good stuff. Pizza is a communal, celebratory food, and every town has a Pizza Hut nearby. The place evokes a ton of memories. I can even get flashbacks when I hear the specific phone ringer sound my local Pizza Hut had. Takes me back.
My first job in 1984 was at a Pizza Hut (which is still there but is now mainly for takeout). I agree that a juke box is a must along with the brown uniforms I had to wear that reeked of oil from oiling the pan pizza pans. Oh and bring back the Priazzo!