Get Back To Where You Once Belonged
If you know my daughter Maggie, you probably know how much she loves Pizza Hut. So she was the first person I thought of when I saw all the hullabaloo about Pizza Hut Classic. Yep, it’s true. Pizza Hut is back, baby.
Franchisee Tim Sparks has redesigned 38 Pizza Huts back to their original look—with 12 more on the way. The Tiffany lamps, salad bars, checkered tablecloths, vinyl booths, and big red cups are back. They’ve got the old-school Pac-Man machines in some spots and they’re even bringing back the “Summer of Stories” program, where kids read a book over the summer and are rewarded with a personal pan pizza for it.
It’s getting a ton of press and customers are loving it. People are saying they’re going back to their Friday night traditions. They remember how waitresses knew their names and orders. People want to return to that atmosphere. Here’s hoping the original recipes are coming back with the décor. Even Pizza Hut was a hell of a lot healthier in the 80s and 90s than it is today.
They call it “newstalgia.” Millennials are driving this, trying to relive their childhood memories. I guess all generations are going back because it beats going forward with what’s happening out there, Bucko. Despite what people might think, a lot of Millennials and Gen-Z hate AI and are embracing more authentic, analog things like the old-school Pizza Hut dining experience.
Anyways, when Maggie was a kid, we went to Pizza Hut in the K-Mart Plaza in Holyoke every week. We knew the waitresses and became friends with the manager, Rob Dulanski. A lot of great memories and conversations in that Pizza Hut.
Mag is now a Special Ed teacher in the Holyoke Public School System. So what I’m gonna do is find the closest Pizza Hut Classic, round up Maggie and Rob, and take a road trip for old time’s sake. Keep your dukes up.
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