CLASSIC PIZZA HUTS ARE BACK.
Do you know that strange feeling immediately after waking up from a pleasant dream and thinking that it’s real?
The following story is just like that feeling…only multiplied by 10, smelling like bubbly cheese and being absolutely real.
After years of hope, frustration, bitterness and dismay, the pizza lords have granted us disciples with their biggest blessing known to man. Something that our cynical and easily distracted society I think desperately needs. Ladies and gentlemen of the TNUC nation,
CLASSIC PIZZA HUTS ARE BACK!
I write this with such conviction and pride in my tone because we have been clamoring to #MakePizzaHutGreatAgain for what feels like a century. For the longest time we’ve had to bare witness to Pizza Hut transform from a once family-style, sit down, FUN restaurant to a generic, carry-out thing shoved in corners of ugly strip malls across America. Gone of its charm. A shell of what it once was.
Those days are apparently coming to an end after what I witnessed firsthand last week while traveling to Minnesota for a wedding. About 14 miles from Minneapolis in the city of Spring Lake Park, an oasis in a hot desert came in the form of a red roof and an old familiar logo with the word CLASSIC literally below it.
There she was in all her glory. “Old Faithful” with the V shaped windows, tan & red exterior and gleaming, tomato sauce-colored hut roof. That happy place firmly planted in our memories which has for recent years only been seen when watching old movies and commercials. This classic Pizza Hut clearly wasn’t some abandoned “used-to-be-a Pizza Hut” decaying away or becoming an insurance agency. This beautiful healthy fortress was alive and well. Ready for steamy, hot pizza action.
Myself and a cousin-in-law were beside ourselves as we pulled into the parking lot. We couldn’t wait to see what wonders lay ahead. In the words of Freddy Mercury “Is this the real life…is this just fantasy?”
I’m not sure what they intend to do beyond a handful of these classic Pizza Huts popping up around the country, but all we can do is hope it continues, expands and fully crystallizes.
Uncle T could have walked out of there complaining about there not being a tabletop Pacman game, salad bar or the Priazzo. I just feel like that would be splitting hairs. Dan Carney and the experts at Pizza Hut have given us so much by turning back to the original formula of the old restaurant parlor.
Regardless of whether or not you like Pizza Hut’s food, there is a bigger picture here. This is one of those important examples of when simplicity works. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Having sit down, family style pizza parlors brought people together. Friends on Friday nights. Birthday parties. Celebrating Uncle Red getting out of his 9th stay at rehab. Pizza shouldn’t always be about take-out and throwing it on the coffee table at home. Sometimes we need the paper plates and sticky floors from decades of spilled root beer. When’s the last time you SAT DOWN for a pie with someone? Hopefully it’s as often as possible.
Pizza Hut……..MAKIN’ IT GREAT!
uncletnuc.com 
Fantastic read! Hope to see more of these popping up in the country. Something about the way Mr. Pibb tasted in those plastic red cups just hit differently…