When I was about 10, I was once so excited to arrive at a Pizza Hut that I tripped on the uneven sidewalk during my sprint to the door, creating the worst gravel wound of my life. I still carry a scar on my knee in honor of my love of Pan Pizzas with extra cheese.

the magic of the Hut

If you also grew up in the 80s or 90s in the US, you likely have some emotional connection to Pizza Hut. With my design/culture/nerd hat on, I’ve thought about a few experience elements that made Pizza Hut such a beloved restaurant in decades past.

1. The vibe was vibing. The warm browns and reds in a Pizza Hut restaurant felt welcoming and cozy. Sure, it was THE time of browns, and all fast food and restaurant chains had similar palettes. (Did the restaurant entryway also smell like cigarettes? Probably.) But the checkered tablecloths, the curtains, the glass lamps… it was like home. It was comfortable and as a kid, you could be yourself.

2. Eating like royalty. In my memory, the small slices made me feel like I was devouring a week’s worth of meals and winning some kind of eating championship where my siblings were the only competitors. The lunch buffet was also an endless opportunity — salad, pizza, DESSERT pizza? Had we won the LOTTERY?

3. Corporate-sponsored literacy. The Book-It program, now a darling topic of nostalgia TikTok, rewarded your Superfudge rereads with a free lil’ pizza! Pizza: the ultimate prize of prizes. (If one of my clients took a page from the 90s elementary school teacher guidebook and offered me a pizza party TODAY for a job well done, I would be very pleased.) 

4. Ancillary activities. Some Pizza Huts had claw machines and arcade games. I remember wasting a ton of loose change instantly losing at Pac-Man, but I felt like a winner. The wait for a table, or for your pizza, felt never-ending in this era before phones and tablets — and these games helped the time fly by. (In service design, we’d call it easing the friction point of hungry, antsy, impatient children waiting for dinner.)

5. Advertising and toy tie-ins. Pizza Hut had ubiquitous ads, and kids-meal-style toys. The Casper tie-in from 1995 is extremely active in my memory (shockingly often). But their ads in general were strong as hell for a good long stretch. (Do you remember Pizza Head? Was he just Mr. Bill?)

Going to Pizza Hut was a reward for a good report card, surviving a softball game (who, me?), or cashing in your Book-Its (definitely me). It was family friendly. It was budget friendly. It was DELICIOUS. (I personally understand the value of a quality slice more than most, and this was categorically not capital-p “Pizza,” but rather its own treat.) 

There was nothing like it.

UTBAPHs

Noticeably, in the last few decades, we’ve seen a huge decline in the number of Pizza Hut restaurants. The exteriors got boring. The interiors got boring. The advertising got boring. Many of the remaining stores shifted to pickup and delivery only, or got abandoned or sold.

With many fallen Hut brothers, we gained something new: buildings that used to be a Pizza Hut. There’s even a 2014 episode of the 99% Invisible podcast about UTBAPHs. 

You can likely spot the silhouette of an ex-Pizza Hut unconsciously. No matter what color they’re painted when they become a Chinese food restaurant, former Huts remain an unmistakable echo of their past life. A sad beacon of American nostalgia.

where are they now?

What has Pizza Hut been doing right lately? 

For years, the visual identity of the stores and the brand regressed to the average, losing all its personality. But that’s being corrected. In 2019, they brought back a version of the old logo, and there’s now a whole Pizza Hut font! (We absolutely stan a logo with personality! Serifs! More serifs! The weirder the serifs, the better!)

And although the online shop is not currently functioning, a few years ago Pizza Hut offered a streetwear collection — no doubt reminding us that Gen X and Millennials will buy anything that reminds us of how it felt to run free, before the internet ruined everything. (But do we stan it though? Yeah, we do stan.)

Intriguingly, some Pizza Hut restaurants in small towns are now designated as “Pizza Hut Classics.” They are essentially historical sites, having been reverted to having the authentic red booths, branded stained glass lamps, checkered tablecloths… all of it. My fingers are crossed at a wider rollout of a restaurant rebrand (or pre… brand?).

And Book-It is running again!

Anyway, I can’t say I’ve had Pizza Hut anytime recently, and that makes me part of the problem. Maybe I’ll go order some Pizza Hut. 

miscellany

• Have you ever wanted to visit the world of Hasbro games and toys? Me neither, but Hasbro will be opening an arcade and themed experiences at American Dream in New Jersey. The Candy Land milkshake bar sounds enticing and big Monopoly set pieces seem fun (though whatever they do with Hungry Hungry Hippos could be horrifying). As far as brand-based immersive experiences go, it could be worse!

• Speaking of immersion, in 2026 Austin will see a reimagined, multisensory spa experience called Submersive. There will reportedly be 12 rooms that elicit different emotions by varying temperatures, visuals, lighting, and sound. The founder is a co-founder of Meow Wolf, so in my mind, that’s promising. I’d love to see it move from therapeutic toward extra weird, personally.

• This new Oslo tourism ad — called “Is it even a city?” — takes a unique, humble, anti-promotion approach to promotion. They use humor to lay out Oslo’s flaws, which genuinely sparked people’s curiosity for Norwegian travel. I was lucky to visit Oslo earlier this year, and I definitely laugh at how bland it is compared to Copenhagen and Stockholm, but those Opera House views are a mainstay of my phone wallpaper.