is a restaurant chain and international food
Franchise based in
Dallas, Texas specializing in American-style
Pizza . Pizza Hut is the world's largest pizza restaurant chain, with nearly 12,000 restaurants, delivery-carry out units, and kiosks in 84 countries
Our Story , ''PizzaHut.com''.
Pizza Hut was founded in
1958 by two college students,
Dan And Frank Carney in
Wichita, Kansas . The company gained national recognition in its first-ever advertising campaign, called "Putt Putt to Pizza Hut," which first debuted on American television in
1965 . It was bought by
PepsiCo, Inc. in
1977 .
Pizza Hut was "spun-off" from
Pepsi Cola , in
October 1997 , to
Tricon Global Restaurants , which has been renamed
Yum! Brands, Inc. . The most distinct symbol of Pizza Hut is the trademarked design of the restaurant's roof, which is painted red and slopes upward; the current design was adopted in
1969 , with a makeover in
1999 .
Oddly, although it operates all around the world, Pizza Hut has never entered the
Italian market.
Smaller outlets, offering a reduced version of the menu, appear in malls, airport terminals, department stores, hotels, cafeterias, gas stations, movie theatres and other places. Some of these are combined with express versions of
KFC and
Taco Bell .
Pizza Hut is currently opening new stores, and remodeling existing ones, into . The Pizza Hut Italian Bistro is a "casual dining" restaurant whose menu adds 25 additional items to the classic Pizza Hut menu.
Pizza Hut is also testing the format, which offers the pizza menu along with a variety of chicken wings.
In
Australia , Pizza Hut has followed a different model—after an initial attempt to introduce Pizza Hut restaurants as in the
United States and the
United Kingdom , Australian Pizza Huts now generally operate as
Take Out and
Delivery operations with minimal seating, although there are still some resturants available for dining in. Originally, Australian Pizza Huts were comparable to their American counterparts, but were scaled back due to increased competition from other fast food chains. Australian Pizza Hut restaurants currently compete with
Domino's ,
Pizza Haven ,
Eagle Boys and various other pizza stores. The situation has been similar for the brand in neighbouring country
New Zealand . In Australia,
Soya Oil is used instead of vegetable oil for all pies, and
Barbecue Sauce is available as an alternative to tomato sauce as a topping base. Also, in the United States most Pizza Hut Stores will offer the option of changing sauces on Pizzas at no extra cost (BBQ, Pan, Sweet, ect.). (However most stores will be very reluctanct and may even refuse to put "Thin Sauce" on any other crust due to cooking issues.)
The most commonly sold food at Pizza Hut restaurants is the "Pan Pizza", which usually comes in four different sizes (including Medium, Large, and the "Personal Pan Pizza", which is micro-sized), in a variety of toppings (as well as "specialty" styles, including the Lover's Line and Supreme). Compared to most other commercially available pies, the Pan Pizza has a thick crust - soft on the inside, crunchy on the outside.
In addition to the Pan Pizza, Pizza Hut also sells Stuffed Crust (a hand tossed crust, with the outermost edge wrapped around a coil of string cheese), Hand-Tossed (closer to traditional pizzeria crusts), Thin 'N Crispy (Pizza Hut's original crust), 4forALL (four small pizzas), More4ALL (one round pizza, divided into four triangular parts, each part having 4 slices), Dippin' Strips (rectangular slices that you can dip in sauces), The Edge (lots of toppings and no crust) and Cheesy Twisted Crust (a breadstick as the crust with sauce and two cheeses). Pizza Hut's newest creation is the Cheesy Bites Pizza. It is much like the Stuffed Crust Pizza except using more cheese in the ball shaped bites (it is actually made by twisting segments of the Stuffed Crust ninety degrees). This Pizza was advertised during
Super Bowl XL in a commercial featuring popstar
Jessica Simpson , then afterwards, in a spoof of it's own ad, used
Miss Piggy of the
Muppets in the same role as Simpson. Currently, the 4forAll, More4All, and Cheesy Bite promotions are all no longer in wide effect. The next anticipated promotion is the Side Sampler.
Other food items sold at many Pizza Huts include calzones ("P'zones"), buffalo wings (some locations are also co-branded "WingStreet" and offer more flavors), pasta, breadsticks, cinnamon sticks, mozzarella sticks, and jalapeño poppers. In the U.S.,
Canada , and most other countries,
Pepsi and other soft drinks made by PepsiCo are served. Most full-sized Pizza Hut restaurants also have a salad bar and/or a lunch buffet.
WingStreet is an alternate format restaurant, owned and operated by Pizza Hut. They are commonly attached to, or incorporated into, Pizza Huts. WingStreet sells chicken wings, which are available in several flavors. You may choose between, bone-in, bone-out (both breaded) or the new Traditional wing, which is a "naked" wing, with no breading. The side items available are: Wingstreet Taters (tater tots shaped like W's), fried mozerella cheese sticks and mini apple pies.
The menu has recently been simplified, there are now only four types of bases available, these are:
- Pan Pizza (The most popular deep pan cooked style).
- The Italian (A more traditional style pizza).
- The Edge (A really thin base with no crusts, cut into 16 squares, rather than traditional slices).
- Stuffed Crust (A large crust stuffed with cheese).
Pizza has recently become a trendy food in
India . Pizza Hut has opened outlets in cities including
Mumbai ,
Pune ,
Bangalore , and
Chennai . The restaurant is generally considered an upscale and trendy place to dine in. Pizza Hut advertising uses the catch line "Good times, Great Pizza". Menus are catered for Indian taste with spicy offerings such as "Tandoori
Paneer " and "
Chicken Tikka " varieties of pizza.
In Pakistan, Pizza Hut is very popular, especially among youth. Pizza Hut outlets are situated in big cities like
Karachi ,
Lahore ,
Peshawar and
Islamabad . It offers a wide variety of pizzas, combining western and eastern recipes.
Soon after its launch, Pizza Hut gained a lot of popularity over night in Dhaka. Within a year of the success in
Dhaka , Pizza Hut opened their 2nd outlet in the country in
Chittagong . The
Dhaka outlet which has seating capacity of 220 persons, is the largest outlet of Pizza Hut in the subcontinent.
Pizza Hut Philippines has become very popular in the Philippines. Though it is only available mainly in
Metro Manila , it is also found in
Gas Stations outbound and inbound Manila, with some in Laguna and Bulacan. There is also a small number of them in big provicial cities.
Here are some of the types of pizza available:
- Stuffed Crust (A large crust stuffed with cheese)
- Double-Stuffed Crust (Similar with stuffed except the crust is also stuffed with Pepperoni .
- Sausage Stuffed Crust (A large crust stuffed with a rope of sausage).
There are two initial catch lines which are:
- Pinaka-pizza
- Great pizza under one roof
The first Pizza Hut in
Mainland China was the restaurant at
Dongzhimen in
Beijing , opened on
December 1 1990 . As of 2005 there are nearly 200 restaurants in more than 50 cities, almost all the provincial capitals and large cities such as
Shanghai ,
Tianjin ,
Chongqing ,
Guangzhou ,
Nanjing ,
Shenzhen ,
Hangzhou ,
Wuhan and
Changsha .
Pizza Hut does not have an official international mascot, but at one time, there were commercials in the United States that featured Pizza Head (1993 to 1997).
Pizza Head was a slice of pizza with toppings rearranged to make a face. These advertising campaigns from San Francisco's
Goodby Silverstein & Partners were directed by
Walter Williams in a style similar to his "The
Mr. Bill Show", an early series of "
Saturday Night Live " skits.
In Australia during the Mid to late 90's, the advertising mascot was a delivery boy named Dougie, with boyish good looks who, upon delivering pizza to his father, would hear the catchphrase "Here's a tip, be good to your mother".
In recent years, Pizza Hut has had various celebrity spokespeople, including
Jessica Simpson and
The Muppets . Recent commercials have
Queen Latifah providing the voiceover.
The old
NES game
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: The Arcade Game, came with a coupon for a free pizza. The game was filled with Pizza Hut advertising and pizza that would refill your life.
- Makin' it great!
- You'll love the stuff we're made of.
- The best pizzas under one roof.
- Gather 'round the good stuff.
- Stop and Smell the Pizza.
- You do the Math, We'll do the Pizza.
- Eat. Laugh. Share. (Pizza Hut Canada)
- Go Deep
- Hit the Hut
- Who called the hut?
In 2005 Pizza Hut sponsored ''
The Simpsons '' on the British TV station
Channel 4 . The adverts often contained the catchphrase "Who's called the Hut?" At the same time,
Domino's Pizza sponsored ''
The Simpsons '' on British TV station
Sky One .
Pizza Hut has also been a longtime sponsor of the popular "Book It!" program, which encourages reading in
American schools. Those who read often are rewarded with Pizza Hut coupons offering free or discounted menu items.
In more recent history, Pizza Hut's and
APDD . In addition to wages, many Pizza Hut drivers have safety and job security concerns.
In to improve wage conditions and give workers secure hours.
- Pizza Hut delivered the first pizzas to the International Space Station in 2001.
- The company uses more than 700 million pounds of Pepperoni and more than 525 million pounds of Tomatoes each year. If the pepperoni slices were laid side by side, they would stretch twice around the Earth and all the way to the Moon .
- More than 300 million pounds of Cheese is used by the company each year, making it the world's largest user.
- In German , ''Hut'' means "hat". Combined with the somewhat hat-shaped Pizza Hut logo, this still has many Germans convinced that the chain, or at least the brand name, is of German origin.
- The true reason it was called 'Pizza Hut' is because when Dan and Frank Carney got the sign to put in front of their first restraunt in 'Wichita, Kansas' there was only enough room for a three letter word after Pizza.
- In the film '' Spaceballs '', one of the villains is named Pizza the Hutt
- In the 1989 film '' Back To The Future Part II '', the McFly family is having a Pizza Hut dehydrated pizza for dinner after being fully hydrated by a Black & Decker Hydrator. One side of the pizza has pepperoni, the other side has green peppers.
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