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Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to favor prediction of iHeartRadio. I'm Annie Reese.

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Speaker 2: And I'm more In Vogelbaum and today we have an

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Speaker 2: episode for you about Pizza Hut.

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Speaker 1: Yes, which is not a sponsor, we should say, nope,

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Speaker 1: nopeurse not currently this one has felt like a long

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Speaker 1: time coming in a lot of ways.

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Speaker 3: Uh huh, uh huh.

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Speaker 2: One of our kind of favorite things to do amongst

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Speaker 2: us and the super producers Dylan and Andrew is to kind.

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Speaker 3: Of like trade weird food.

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Speaker 2: Products that we find in our little group chat and

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Speaker 2: stuffed crust pizza is weird, y'all.

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Speaker 1: It is. It is strange enough that we're planning a

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Speaker 1: short all about it. And that was part of the

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Speaker 1: inspiration for this episode was I had been bombarded with

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Speaker 1: ads from various various fast food chains, Pizza Hut being

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Speaker 1: among them. That was just like what I was bamboozled.

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Speaker 1: I was shocked that what they were putting in a

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Speaker 1: stuffed crust, and kind of the attitude of it was like,

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Speaker 1: and now we put chicken wings in the crust, all shrimp.

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Speaker 3: You're welcome, Like what these are real things?

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Speaker 1: And I went on this rabbit hole and then here

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Speaker 1: we are, but we're still not really going to get

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Speaker 1: into the depth of the crust.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, now that's a different episode.

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Speaker 2: It went a little off the rails, to be honest. Yeah, yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 2: this one. I had to like push back recording a

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Speaker 2: couple of times because I was like, Annie, I'm still

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Speaker 2: I'm still reading about Pizza Hut.

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Speaker 1: Yes, yes, because it was just involved in so much,

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Speaker 1: so much pizza innovation.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it was.

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Speaker 1: They've gotten up to some stuff, and we've also we

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Speaker 1: did an episode on Domino's. They can see they've also

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Speaker 1: gotten up to some stuff. And now I'm really interested

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Speaker 1: in what American based pizza fast food chains have gotten

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Speaker 1: involved in. But they there's a lot of rabbit holes

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Speaker 1: for us to pursue, and yeah, we shall. We have

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Speaker 1: a working document of things we would like to return to.

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Speaker 1: I know I've told this story before, but there was

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Speaker 1: a Pizza Hut in the small town that I grew

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Speaker 1: up in as a kid. And in my small town,

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Speaker 1: everything was really read apart, right, so it would take

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Speaker 1: you a while to get to places. Pizza Hut was

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Speaker 1: one of the closest restaurants at like a mere fifteen

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Speaker 1: minutes away. Oh, so we would go not infrequently, and

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Speaker 1: I remember it very fondly. I loved the personal pan pizza.

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Speaker 1: That was my favorite thing. But it also had what,

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Speaker 1: to my like child brain, looked like a jukebox and

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Speaker 1: you could press like buttons and it would flip through

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Speaker 1: sleeves of things like a jukebox does.

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Speaker 3: But it was PlayStation one demos. Oh what that is

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Speaker 3: so cool?

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Speaker 1: It was the coolest, Lauren. So we would always go

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Speaker 1: and see what was the new thing. And these demos

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Speaker 1: would have like maybe six seven games on there, but

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Speaker 1: you could only play ten minutes. I played the first

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Speaker 1: ten minutes of so many games I've never played in

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Speaker 1: my life. That's amazing. But I would play those ten

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Speaker 1: minutes over and over again. So I have a very

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Speaker 1: fond memory of doing that. That Pizza Hut actually was

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Speaker 1: recently featured on Retro Pizza Huts I saw, so.

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Speaker 3: It's still around, I guess, yeah. Yes.

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Speaker 1: On the other hand, Pizza Hut was one of the

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Speaker 1: most fancy restaurants I ate at when I was in China.

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Speaker 1: I went there because I thought it would be quick

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Speaker 1: like fast food. I'd been there for eight months, so

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Speaker 1: please don't send your judgment my way.

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Speaker 3: I was just like I need something really quick.

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Speaker 1: It was not that they like sat me down, unfolded

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Speaker 1: the napkin.

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Speaker 3: Oh there were chandeliers, Oh my goodness.

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Speaker 1: And it was like a cut like they gave me

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Speaker 1: a knife and fork for this pizza and it was

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Speaker 1: very nice.

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Speaker 3: I was very taken aback that I love this.

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Speaker 2: And yes, it turns out that Pizza Hut China has

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Speaker 2: this whole premium brand extension, like one like serves a

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Speaker 2: Beef Wellington. Okay, I think that that will have to

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Speaker 2: be part of that separate episode, like just Pizza Hut

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Speaker 2: wacky branding, perhaps especially internationally separate separate episode.

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Speaker 1: Yes, and listeners, we're giving you the heads up if

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Speaker 1: you've got any thoughts about this experiences, Oh yes, please

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Speaker 1: let us know. I also have to mention Pizza the

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Speaker 1: Hut from Spaceballs. I still get the spelling mixed up

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Speaker 1: because of that. I always add the second T.

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Speaker 2: I feel like they've even leaned back into that recently

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Speaker 2: because one of their relatively new slogans is no one

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Speaker 2: out pizzas the Hut, and every time I hear it,

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Speaker 2: I think of Spaceballs.

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Speaker 1: So no one out pizzas the Hut is such a

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Speaker 1: ridiculous funny slogan.

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Speaker 3: Oh my.

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Speaker 1: As mentioned, yes, you can see our past episode on Dominoes,

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Speaker 1: also our past episode on Pizza at Large. But I

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Speaker 1: guess this brings us to our question. I guess it

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Speaker 1: does Pizza Hut.

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Speaker 3: What is it? Well?

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Speaker 2: Pizza Hut is an American brand of franchised fast food

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Speaker 2: or fast casual pizza restaurants that currently emphasizes its home

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Speaker 2: delivery service. It's logo references its traditional restaurant roof architecture,

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Speaker 2: which is rectangular a pavilion style in this bright deep

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Speaker 2: red color. Being a franchise, not all locations offer the

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Speaker 2: same food, especially internationally, but you've basically got a selection

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Speaker 2: of like American style pizzas made with a plain wheat

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Speaker 2: flour dough, tangy seasoned tomato sauce, and gooey salty mutsurella cheese.

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Speaker 2: You can choose the style of crust like thicker and chewy,

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Speaker 2: soft or thinner and crunchy, and in the toppings that

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Speaker 2: you'd like. They also have a number of alternatives and

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Speaker 2: sides and desserts available depending on the store, and serve

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Speaker 2: soda fountain drinks. Some dining locations serve beer and wine.

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Speaker 2: They are a truly gigantic brand that offers comforting sameness

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Speaker 2: and familiar, nostalgic comfort food and a certain amount of

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Speaker 2: like stunt dishes to drum up interest.

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Speaker 3: In addition, the food.

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Speaker 2: Is heavy and deeply mediocre and so satisfying. It's like

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Speaker 2: the McDonald's of pizza for lots of Americans anyway. It's

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Speaker 2: sort of like your childhood stuffed animal or imaginary friend,

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Speaker 2: like coming up and giving you a big ol'd hug,

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Speaker 2: like really comforting and slightly unsettling.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, uh okay, So the pizza, there are a

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Speaker 4: few crust styles.

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Speaker 2: You've got hand tossed, which is like a soft and

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Speaker 2: chewy crust that's medium. Thick stuffed crust is similar, but

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Speaker 2: the round edge is stuffed with a stretchy mozzarella. You've

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Speaker 2: got thin and crispy, which is a thinner dough for

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Speaker 2: a crunchy crust, and a pan pizza, which is a

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Speaker 2: thicker crust baked in a hot pan with oil in

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Speaker 2: the bottom, creating like a crunchy bottom layer and a

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Speaker 2: kind of pillowy, chewy crumb.

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Speaker 4: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: The toppings at my local restaurant, they currently offer pepperoni, bacon, sausage, ham, chicken, beef,

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Speaker 2: and pork, then mushrooms, onions, black olives, green bell pepper,

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Speaker 2: jalapenia peppers, banana peppers, fresh tomato, and pineapple. Alternative sauces

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Speaker 2: include barbecue sauce and buffalo sauce. They also offer melts now,

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Speaker 2: which are sort of like a large slice of pizza

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Speaker 2: without the tomato sauce folded over on itself. Meant to

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Speaker 2: be like a single serving sandwich kind of thing, like

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Speaker 2: kind of cows zy in concept but not closed.

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Speaker 3: Yeah right. Sides.

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Speaker 2: Sides are a popular thing. Breadsticks, cheesy breadsticks, cheesy breadsticks

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Speaker 2: with toppings like garlic or bacon, French fries, breaded deep

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Speaker 2: fried bzzarella sticks. Pasta bakes with either a tomato sauce

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Speaker 2: or a creamy alfredo style sauce, and then mixin's like

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Speaker 2: vegetables or chicken or Italian meats. Not sure what that means,

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Speaker 2: love it. They also have chicken wings bone in or boneless.

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Speaker 2: The boneless style are more breaded. It's a chicken tender, y'all.

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Speaker 2: And then desserts there's cinnamon bread sticks with icing dip,

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Speaker 2: shareable like large format chocolate chip cookies or brownies, fried

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Speaker 2: apple pie bites, fried chocolate doughnut bites, or mini Cinnabon

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Speaker 2: branded cinnamon rolls.

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Speaker 3: Wow.

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Speaker 2: And I would say that dipping sauces are a big

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Speaker 2: part of this, Like pizza experience, they have little little

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Speaker 2: little cups of their their red sauce, like a creamy

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Speaker 2: garlic sauce, Ranch honey, barbecue, Buffalo, and New Burger sauce,

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Speaker 2: which I strongly suspected Thousand Island.

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Speaker 1: This is really interesting to me because, as I said,

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Speaker 1: we would you couldn't deliver from Pizza Hut where I was.

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Speaker 4: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and it had like a buffet, yeah.

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Speaker 1: Salad buffet, which we talked about in mcale episode. They're

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Speaker 1: kind of known for having at one point a lot

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Speaker 1: of kale.

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Speaker 2: A lot, Yeah, like at one point, and I believe

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Speaker 2: the early nineties, early to mid nineties they were the

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Speaker 2: top purchaser of kale because they put it as a

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Speaker 2: garnish around their salad bars.

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Speaker 1: Yes, so that is what I that is what I recall.

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Speaker 1: Things have changed at Pizza Hut. I've got to.

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Speaker 2: Say, yeah, yeah, they they are always innovating.

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Speaker 1: They are they are well what about the nutrition.

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Speaker 2: I would say that treats are nice. That's what I'm

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Speaker 2: going to say. These these dishes are frequently calorically dense.

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Speaker 2: But you know, yeah, have a pizza party. Pizza parties

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Speaker 2: are great.

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Speaker 3: Yes they are, Yes, they are. And we're not the

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Speaker 3: only ones who think.

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Speaker 2: So.

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Speaker 3: We do have some numbers for you, my goodness, we do. Okay.

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Speaker 2: So, as of twenty twenty three, Pizza Hut had nineteen

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Speaker 2: eight hundred and sixty six restaurant locations around the world,

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Speaker 2: only about six thousand of which are in the United States.

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Speaker 2: They are in over one hundred countries. They were making

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Speaker 2: twelve point eight billion dollars a year in global sales,

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Speaker 2: with their actual revenue somewhere above a billion dollars. Franchise

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Speaker 2: Times listed them as the twelfth just franchise in the

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Speaker 2: world that year. Wow, very nearly twenty thousand restaurant locations.

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Speaker 3: That is so wild. Yeah, that is a lot to

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Speaker 3: take in.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, this is why more episodes are for more

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Speaker 2: like yeah, like the spinoffs are forthcoming here.

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Speaker 3: Okay.

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Speaker 2: So, the group Civic Science ran a survey in twenty

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Speaker 2: twenty two and found that Pizza Hut is the preferred

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Speaker 2: pizza chain among American adults with thirty five percent of

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Speaker 2: people surveyed saying that they like it best. Dominos came

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Speaker 2: in second with twenty seven percent of the vote, and

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Speaker 2: then Papa John's and Little Caesars were also a little

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Speaker 2: bit lower on there. But it was also interestingly strongly

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Speaker 2: weighted by age. The older the respondent was, the more

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Speaker 2: likely they were to prefer Pizza Hut.

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Speaker 3: Hmmm.

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Speaker 1: I wonder if their new like Retro campaign is leaning

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Speaker 1: into that at all.

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Speaker 2: Oh goodness, my goodness. We will talk about that in

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Speaker 2: the history section. As of twenty eighteen, the book It

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Speaker 2: Reading Program was in six hundred and twenty thousand classrooms

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Speaker 2: across the United States, reaching fourteen million students grades K

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Speaker 2: through six with the promise of a free personal pan

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Speaker 2: pizza if they meet reading goals. If you haven't heard

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Speaker 2: of this, you will, you will. As of that year,

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Speaker 2: it had since its start, had sixty five million participants.

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Speaker 2: That's like one in every five Americans.

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Speaker 3: Yep, yep.

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Speaker 1: I have to say my school did Papa John's, and

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Speaker 1: I would have.

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Speaker 2: Oh wow, Okay, the pizza wars continue, bueal goodness.

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Speaker 3: You can visit a Pizza.

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Speaker 2: Hut museum on the campus of Wichita State University. It

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Speaker 2: is free to go. They do not serve pizza blumber.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: The brand also maintains a dedicated studio set for advertising

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Speaker 2: and marketing shoots. I assume that that's probably a common thing,

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Speaker 2: but I'd never run across that fact about anyone before,

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Speaker 2: so I'm like, no, I mean sure, yeah.

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Speaker 3: Interesting.

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Speaker 2: They also hold a couple of world records. In twenty sixteen,

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Speaker 2: Pizza Hut set a Guinness record for the highest altitude

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Speaker 2: pizza delivery to a group of employees in Kilimanjaro hiking

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Speaker 2: guys at over nineteen thousand feet at the top of

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Speaker 2: Mount Kilimanjaro. It took four days to make the delivery

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Speaker 2: and was done in celebration of Tanzania becoming the one

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Speaker 2: hundredth country.

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Speaker 3: To host a Pizza Hut location.

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Speaker 1: Ooh ooh, that's a lot of that's some dedication for

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Speaker 1: delivering the pizza.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, yep.

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Speaker 2: Then in twenty twenty three, they set another Guinness record

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Speaker 2: for the world's largest pizza with a surface area of

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Speaker 2: fourteen thousand square feet that's about thirteen hundred square meters.

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Speaker 2: That involved thirteen thousand pounds of dough about five thousand

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Speaker 2: pounds of sauce and nearly nine thousand pounds of cheese,

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Speaker 2: plus over six hundred and thirty thousand individual slices of pepperoni.

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Speaker 1: Ooh again, my brain just cannot fathom this.

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Speaker 3: I cannot process that.

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Speaker 2: But yeah, it's a lot. That's a lot. This is

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Speaker 2: all a lot.

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Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, this is quite a lot.

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Speaker 1: And the interesting thing is it started from a kind

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Speaker 1: of small beginning.

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Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. We are going to get into

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Speaker 2: that and into the kind of meteoric rise in our

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Speaker 2: history section. And we are going to get into that

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Speaker 2: as soon as we get back from a quick break

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Speaker 2: forward from our sponsors.

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Speaker 3: And we're back. Thank you sponsors, Yes, thank you again.

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Speaker 1: See our past episode on pizza for more information on that.

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Speaker 1: But what would become the first pizza hut originated in

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Speaker 1: nineteen fifty eight when students of Wichita University out of

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Speaker 1: Kansas named Frank and Dan Carney set up what they

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Speaker 1: thought would be a small, local pizza shop staffed by

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Speaker 1: their friends, family, and fraternity brothers. According to the company,

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Speaker 1: the brothers got their startup money by borrowing six hundred

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Speaker 1: dollars from their mom, and the name was in part

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Speaker 1: because they could only fit eight letters on the sign.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so they were like, pizza hut sure, yeah, that's fine,

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Speaker 2: get it.

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Speaker 3: Yes.

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Speaker 1: Another source claims that they mixed their dough in a

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Speaker 1: plastic baby bats up and gave away free slices in

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Speaker 1: order to attract customers, which.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, sure, sure yes.

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Speaker 1: In later interviews, Frank said that they were just looking

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Speaker 1: for a way to pay for college. Well, yeah, succeeded.

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Speaker 2: Their first logo involved this little cartoon guy with a

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Speaker 2: big black mustache called Pizza Peat Pizza Pete.

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Speaker 1: At the time, a pizza was somewhat of a trendy

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Speaker 1: food in the United States, and this business was successful

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Speaker 1: enough so that they opened five other locations within a year.

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Speaker 1: Had a franchise location into Peka, Kansas soon after in

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Speaker 1: nineteen fifty nine. From there, locations popped up across the state,

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Speaker 1: and then in nearby states, and then across the country.

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Speaker 1: By nineteen sixty eight, they went international when they launched

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Speaker 1: a location in Canada. Franchises in Australia and Europe started

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Speaker 1: opening in nineteen seventy one, and this, all of this

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Speaker 1: catapulted it to the top of the pizza chain competition

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Speaker 1: in terms of number of outlets and sales.

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Speaker 3: This is wild to me.

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Speaker 2: It was it was ten years in and they were international,

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Speaker 2: but okay, So with this move, the Carnes were looking

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Speaker 2: for ways to make their brand recognizable, and they hired

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Speaker 2: one of their other frat buddies who was working as

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Speaker 2: an architect and artist in Wichita, to design a building

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Speaker 2: that would stand out. So Richard D. Burke in nineteen

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Speaker 2: sixty nine came up with this rectangular pavilion shaped red roof,

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Speaker 2: and by nineteen seventy four like they had even incorporated

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Speaker 2: it into their logo. The building design also incorporated trapezoid

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Speaker 2: shaped windows and interiors that were decked out to resemble

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Speaker 2: like a quaint mom and pop pizza bistro. Lots of

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Speaker 2: wood and brick, red and white, checkered plastic coated table claws,

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Speaker 2: red vinyl booths, customs, stained glass lampshades, and red and

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Speaker 2: white with the brand name and black lettering. A lot

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Speaker 2: of big fast food brands were doing this type of

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Speaker 2: like very mid century, very standout design at the time.

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Speaker 1: This is bringing back so many memories for me. I

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Speaker 1: forgot about the stained glass lamps.

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Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

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Speaker 1: Oh why well, pizza hut Stock started to be traded

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Speaker 1: on the New York Stock Market in nineteen seventy two.

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Speaker 2: As of nineteen seventy three, they were making two hundred

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Speaker 2: and twenty five million dollars a year in sales across

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Speaker 2: about one than eight hundred restaurants.

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Speaker 1: Seventy seven, the stockholders sold Pizza Hut to Pepsi Co.

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Speaker 1: For about three hundred million dollars, while both of the

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Speaker 1: Carnie brothers left the company. Pepsi kept the company's headquarters

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Speaker 1: in Whichital until nineteen ninety five, when they relocated to Dallas, Texas.

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Speaker 2: And then okay Slight Sidebar. In the late seventies and

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Speaker 2: early eighties, arcade video games started to really hit it big,

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Speaker 2: with cabinets like Space Invaders, Centipede, Donkey Kong, and Pac

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Speaker 2: Man all debuting within a few years.

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Speaker 3: There.

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Speaker 2: I couldn't find a date for when Pizza Hut began

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Speaker 2: placing arcade games in their restaurants, but it would have

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Speaker 2: been like an obvious family restaurant marketing move and like

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Speaker 2: extra cash scheme, you know. The trend intensified through the

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Speaker 2: mid nineteen nineties with the release of games like Street

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Speaker 2: Fighter and Virtual Fighter, and personal favorite Teenage Mutan Ninja turtles. Yes,

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Speaker 2: they debuted the pan pizza in nineteen eighty and again

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Speaker 2: yes this is a pe so cooked and a then

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Speaker 2: a cast iron skillet. Not sure what it's up to

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Speaker 2: now so that it develops that crispy bottom sort of

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Speaker 2: fluffy chewy center for its crust. It would be served

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Speaker 2: right in the skillet, either a usual usual shareable pizza

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Speaker 2: size or the smaller personal pan pizza size. And then

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Speaker 2: in nineteen eighty four, which is ironic when I think

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Speaker 2: about it, the book It Program. This is a program

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Speaker 2: to encourage elementary school kids grades kindergarten through six to

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Speaker 2: read more books by offering prizes of like stickers and

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Speaker 2: buttons and a free one topping personal pan pizza up

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Speaker 2: to a pizza party for the whole classroom, all sponsored

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Speaker 2: by Pizza Hut. Okay, so, back in nineteen eighty one,

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Speaker 2: then President Ronald Reagan had set up this task force

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Speaker 2: to get private sector companies involved in public initiatives like education.

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Speaker 2: I guess that got then president of Pizza Hut incorporated

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Speaker 2: one art Gunther thinking, and he landed on a reading

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Speaker 2: program because his twenty something meters son had struggled with

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Speaker 2: that as a kid. So he worked with like the

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Speaker 2: Secretary of Education and a whole bunch of educators to

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Speaker 2: create this program, first just with local Kansas schools, and

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Speaker 2: then by nineteen eighty five a year later, with seven

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Speaker 2: million students across the country. They gave away some fifty

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Speaker 2: million dollars worth of free pizzas that year, although because

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Speaker 2: it is a tax write off and since families would

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Speaker 2: buy other stuff when they took their kid in to

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Speaker 2: get a pizza, their total out of pocket was only

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Speaker 2: about ten million.

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Speaker 3: Wow.

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Speaker 2: Just genius marketing. I kind of hate it. It's so smart.

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Speaker 1: I mean, it really worked because I do remember, like

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Speaker 1: I said, we didn't get pizza hut, which I'm wondering

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Speaker 1: now if Papa John's lost their own competitor. But whatever,

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Speaker 1: but you did. They didn't come with a drink, so

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Speaker 1: normally you would buy your drinks when you went in

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Speaker 1: and something else. And so of course, yeah, you're spending

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Speaker 1: more money.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and if your parents are there with you, then

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Speaker 2: they have to eat something to to but go ahead.

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Speaker 1: Sorry, yeah, but that that I was very competitive. I

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Speaker 1: don't think they surprised anybody. So I made it like

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Speaker 1: my mission to win this pizza. Party every year.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, and because I felt so cool.

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Speaker 1: I was like, because of all the things I have read,

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Speaker 1: we all getting pizza.

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Speaker 3: We all get pizza.

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Speaker 2: You're welcome.

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Speaker 1: It felt so special, even though like no offense, but

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Speaker 1: yeah it's pizza or like Papa John's or whatever. So yeah,

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Speaker 1: I mean I would love to hear from younger listeners.

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Speaker 1: What's what's the situation now? Yeah, when I was a kid,

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Speaker 1: it was a big deal.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think right, like, yeah, it was. I was like, ooh,

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Speaker 2: I can earn something. Yeah, and I get a pizza.

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Speaker 2: That's just mine. It's just for me.

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Speaker 3: It's my pizza.

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Speaker 1: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Fascinating, really psychologically interesting. Yeah, And that was not the

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Speaker 2: only move that they made. In nineteen eighty nine, they

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Speaker 2: co founded this annual event called National Young Readers Week

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Speaker 2: with the Library of Congress to further encourage reading in

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Speaker 2: young people with activities like celebrity story time and like

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Speaker 2: day long readings at schools. Later, First Lady Barbara Bush

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Speaker 2: hosted a Reading in Pizza party for like two hundred

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Speaker 2: local kids at the White House, all sponsored by Pizza Hut.

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Speaker 2: And I will say, speaking of the psychology angle, I

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Speaker 2: will say a study in nineteen ninety nine that looked

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Speaker 2: into this found that being rewarded with stuff like pizza

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Speaker 2: for reading does not harm rates of reading later when

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Speaker 2: the reward is no longer active, and can sometimes increase

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Speaker 2: rates of reading overall.

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Speaker 3: I love that.

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Speaker 1: I love someone looked into that. To be honest, I

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Speaker 1: want to read anyway. The pizza was just.

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Speaker 2: A nice Oh sure, yeah, yeah, that's all I was

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Speaker 2: doing at that age, so right, like.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, like wait, this Lord of the Reading's book is

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Speaker 1: worth sixty eight points. Definitely, I'll done that.

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Speaker 3: Fascinating.

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Speaker 1: In nineteen eighty six, the original Pizza Hut relocated to

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Speaker 1: the campus of Wichita State University. It was relocated to

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Speaker 1: a different part of the campus in twenty seventeen and

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Speaker 1: was made into a museum.

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Speaker 3: Again, listeners, if you've been, please let us know.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's got like four stars on trip Advisor.

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Speaker 3: It looked cool. It looked small but cool. Yeah yeah, yeah, it.

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Speaker 2: Was a small building anyway, perhaps what a hut?

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Speaker 3: Yeah for hps.

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Speaker 1: Well, now we must talk about stuffed crust pizza. While yes,

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Speaker 1: we are going to put a lot of this in

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Speaker 1: our side Dish episode, we have to touch on it.

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Speaker 1: This is another genius marketing thing that happened, because yeah,

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Speaker 1: I mean, the idea of stuffing dough with something is

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Speaker 1: by no means new, But Pizza Hut is widely recognized

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Speaker 1: as the first pizza chain to invent stuffed crust pizza,

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Speaker 1: which he has exactly what it sounds like in the

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Speaker 1: nineteen nineties. Okay, so this is a story that many contest,

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Speaker 1: but the popular story goes that in nineteen ninety two,

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Speaker 1: recent college graduate and food scientist Patty Sheebmeer, I hope

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Speaker 1: that I'm close. We try to look it up, but

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Speaker 1: couldn't find it. That pronunciation was adjusting to her job

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Speaker 1: as a full time pizza scientist amazing with Pizza Hut. Allegedly,

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Speaker 1: she was in what sounds like a very boring focus

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Speaker 1: group meeting where a man was complaining about the crust

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Speaker 1: and he called it pizza bones that he fed to

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Speaker 1: his dog. And so this gave her the idea of

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Speaker 1: making the crust just as delicious as the rest of

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Speaker 1: the pizza, so that none of it would be wasted

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Speaker 1: or given to your dog. As she was looking through

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00:27:22,880 --> 00:27:27,359
Speaker 1: the grocery store, she got this idea, what if we

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Speaker 1: put string cheese in the crust? Several years of testing later,

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Speaker 1: Pizza Hut debuted their cheese stuffed crust pizza and it

442
00:27:38,800 --> 00:27:43,320
Speaker 1: was pretty much an immediate hit. Yes, other similar companies

443
00:27:43,359 --> 00:27:45,320
Speaker 1: like Papa John's followed suits soon.

444
00:27:45,200 --> 00:27:49,479
Speaker 2: After the testing and several years is correct because the

445
00:27:49,480 --> 00:27:53,800
Speaker 2: testing was intense apparently, like the crust kept failing, it

446
00:27:53,840 --> 00:27:57,320
Speaker 2: would split open in the oven. Higher ups almost killed

447
00:27:57,320 --> 00:28:01,359
Speaker 2: the project thirteen times. But once it came out, Yeah,

448
00:28:01,359 --> 00:28:05,960
Speaker 2: stuffed cruss sales hit a billion dollars within the first year.

449
00:28:07,440 --> 00:28:14,479
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, I remember it was very novel. I

450
00:28:14,520 --> 00:28:17,840
Speaker 1: remember when it was like big and it was like, oh, yeah,

451
00:28:17,840 --> 00:28:19,240
Speaker 1: you could put cheese.

452
00:28:18,880 --> 00:28:19,640
Speaker 3: In the crust?

453
00:28:20,080 --> 00:28:22,000
Speaker 2: Yeah, why not?

454
00:28:24,080 --> 00:28:29,280
Speaker 3: Oh my, there's something about me that loves it so much. Okay.

455
00:28:29,400 --> 00:28:36,639
Speaker 1: However, Family Pizza restaurant Angelo Mangiello's children LLC sued Pizza

456
00:28:36,720 --> 00:28:39,800
Speaker 1: Hut in nineteen ninety five for one billion dollars, claiming

457
00:28:39,800 --> 00:28:42,440
Speaker 1: that they were the ones to invent stuffed crust pizza.

458
00:28:42,720 --> 00:28:44,680
Speaker 3: Oh uh huh.

459
00:28:44,760 --> 00:28:47,120
Speaker 1: They claimed that they had filed for a patent in

460
00:28:47,240 --> 00:28:50,479
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty seven, and they further claimed that they had

461
00:28:50,520 --> 00:28:54,360
Speaker 1: approached Pizza Hut with the idea and had been turned away.

462
00:28:54,480 --> 00:28:57,680
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, but they ultimately lost their case.

463
00:28:59,280 --> 00:29:01,840
Speaker 3: Oh my huh.

464
00:29:02,440 --> 00:29:07,360
Speaker 1: Stuffed crust intrigue and speaking of yes, and it has

465
00:29:07,640 --> 00:29:10,840
Speaker 1: since then taken on a whole life of its own,

466
00:29:11,440 --> 00:29:15,480
Speaker 1: especially abroad. We're gonna talk about in short listeners please

467
00:29:15,480 --> 00:29:15,840
Speaker 1: write in.

468
00:29:16,120 --> 00:29:16,360
Speaker 2: Yeah.

469
00:29:17,160 --> 00:29:21,760
Speaker 1: Also, I have to issue a mid episode correction. Apparently

470
00:29:21,800 --> 00:29:28,680
Speaker 1: we've never done an episode on Domino's. I guess that

471
00:29:28,760 --> 00:29:32,520
Speaker 1: we've just talked about it kind of at length, and

472
00:29:32,600 --> 00:29:36,280
Speaker 1: the food delivery episode and probably the pizza episode.

473
00:29:36,520 --> 00:29:39,760
Speaker 2: Sure, sure, yeah, gotten up to a lot of stuff.

474
00:29:39,880 --> 00:29:44,160
Speaker 2: They have, they have, they're busy. But yeah, because we

475
00:29:44,160 --> 00:29:46,840
Speaker 2: were taking a pause to try to find the pronunciation

476
00:29:47,000 --> 00:29:50,760
Speaker 2: for Patty the food scientist's last name, and I was like,

477
00:29:50,920 --> 00:29:55,280
Speaker 2: have we because I don't remember one and I but

478
00:29:55,320 --> 00:29:58,959
Speaker 2: I frequently don't, so I checked him. Yeah, yeah we

479
00:29:59,000 --> 00:29:59,280
Speaker 2: had not.

480
00:30:00,080 --> 00:30:01,080
Speaker 3: Apologies everyone.

481
00:30:01,160 --> 00:30:04,400
Speaker 1: I guess it's just I remember the facts about Domino

482
00:30:04,640 --> 00:30:08,960
Speaker 1: so clearly that was were involved in that food delivery

483
00:30:09,000 --> 00:30:11,200
Speaker 1: episode that I just thought we had.

484
00:30:11,760 --> 00:30:14,040
Speaker 3: But that means future.

485
00:30:13,960 --> 00:30:19,680
Speaker 2: Another future episode. Yeah, oh man, this path is truly branching. Okay,

486
00:30:20,960 --> 00:30:24,480
Speaker 2: So back to Pizza Hut. So this stuffed Crust pizza

487
00:30:24,680 --> 00:30:28,840
Speaker 2: was by far not the only innovative product that they

488
00:30:28,880 --> 00:30:33,080
Speaker 2: came out with during this era of the like mid

489
00:30:33,160 --> 00:30:38,200
Speaker 2: eighties to mid nineties. Okay, Apparently in the nineteen eighties

490
00:30:38,240 --> 00:30:41,320
Speaker 2: the company had hired this marketing manager by the name

491
00:30:41,360 --> 00:30:45,080
Speaker 2: of David Novak, and he started up this new product

492
00:30:45,120 --> 00:30:49,440
Speaker 2: development team. Where their DEV teams had previously been bent

493
00:30:49,520 --> 00:30:53,880
Speaker 2: on like quality control and efficiency, he was just cranking

494
00:30:53,920 --> 00:30:56,880
Speaker 2: out new reasons to get people to spend money at

495
00:30:56,880 --> 00:31:01,240
Speaker 2: Pizza Hut. And this strikes me as super funny because

496
00:31:01,240 --> 00:31:04,239
Speaker 2: before I read this next fact, I wrote down that

497
00:31:04,480 --> 00:31:06,720
Speaker 2: it felt like through the late eighties and across the

498
00:31:06,760 --> 00:31:10,080
Speaker 2: nineties they were hawking some heck in new concept every month.

499
00:31:11,160 --> 00:31:14,560
Speaker 2: It was actually six to eight weeks. Novak wanted a

500
00:31:14,560 --> 00:31:19,480
Speaker 2: new product out every six to eight weeks. They did

501
00:31:19,560 --> 00:31:27,480
Speaker 2: testing for each product for at least eighteen months. Wow,

502
00:31:28,600 --> 00:31:32,160
Speaker 2: thatt some thought for them, Oh what a ballet of

503
00:31:32,240 --> 00:31:33,360
Speaker 2: weird pizzas.

504
00:31:33,760 --> 00:31:34,920
Speaker 3: Uh.

505
00:31:35,080 --> 00:31:38,280
Speaker 2: Yeah. By nineteen ninety four they had sixty employees on

506
00:31:38,320 --> 00:31:43,360
Speaker 2: this team. Patty, whose name we don't know how to pronounce,

507
00:31:43,960 --> 00:31:46,040
Speaker 2: was one of the first I think like three two

508
00:31:46,160 --> 00:31:50,920
Speaker 2: or three employees. Anyway, Yeah, they did a barbecue sauce pizza,

509
00:31:51,360 --> 00:31:54,240
Speaker 2: a cheeseburger themed pizza. They had the whole Lover's line,

510
00:31:54,280 --> 00:31:57,240
Speaker 2: you know, meat lovers, veggie lovers. They had the Sicilian,

511
00:31:58,200 --> 00:32:02,400
Speaker 2: the Bigfoot, which was a rectangular pizza like two feet

512
00:32:02,440 --> 00:32:05,959
Speaker 2: by one foot in size, which is about sixty by

513
00:32:06,040 --> 00:32:10,360
Speaker 2: thirty centimeters, the Edge that had toppings that go all

514
00:32:10,400 --> 00:32:14,080
Speaker 2: the way to the edge, The Triple Decker, which was

515
00:32:14,120 --> 00:32:18,120
Speaker 2: like a pizza crust that was topped with two extra

516
00:32:18,360 --> 00:32:22,960
Speaker 2: thin layers of crust, sandwiching three layers of cheese, the

517
00:32:22,960 --> 00:32:27,440
Speaker 2: Big New Yorker, which had like larger foldable slices, and

518
00:32:27,480 --> 00:32:33,280
Speaker 2: the Pisone, which was basically a calzone. This was all

519
00:32:33,360 --> 00:32:37,920
Speaker 2: part of the Pizza Wars Capital p Capitol w so

520
00:32:38,360 --> 00:32:42,320
Speaker 2: all right. By the mid nineteen eighties, Pizza Hut Done

521
00:32:42,400 --> 00:32:45,120
Speaker 2: had been the biggest pizza chain in the US, but

522
00:32:45,160 --> 00:32:49,120
Speaker 2: they were almost completely focused on their in restaurant experience.

523
00:32:49,880 --> 00:32:54,600
Speaker 2: Dominoes meanwhile, went all in on delivery and takeout. It

524
00:32:54,640 --> 00:32:57,560
Speaker 2: was sort of this like middle class like status symbol

525
00:32:57,920 --> 00:33:01,640
Speaker 2: or sort of like small luxury convenience to have the

526
00:33:01,640 --> 00:33:05,160
Speaker 2: money to eat out, but to order in instead, especially

527
00:33:05,200 --> 00:33:09,280
Speaker 2: with the rise of cable television and VHS and Domino's

528
00:33:09,320 --> 00:33:14,680
Speaker 2: business was skyrocketing. Pizza Hut did not even do delivery

529
00:33:14,800 --> 00:33:19,840
Speaker 2: at all of its locations until nineteen eighty six. The

530
00:33:19,960 --> 00:33:24,800
Speaker 2: second they did. Their advertising push was heavy and Dominoes

531
00:33:24,880 --> 00:33:27,960
Speaker 2: responded in kind. At the time, Dominoes had this like

532
00:33:28,040 --> 00:33:31,360
Speaker 2: thirty minute guarantee or your pizza is Free campaign. They

533
00:33:31,400 --> 00:33:35,760
Speaker 2: had this mascot called Thenoid. We will have to do

534
00:33:35,760 --> 00:33:41,800
Speaker 2: that Domino's episode. Like, if you weren't watching television during

535
00:33:41,880 --> 00:33:44,400
Speaker 2: this era, it is difficult for me to express to

536
00:33:44,480 --> 00:33:48,360
Speaker 2: you how omnipresent the pizza wars were in popular culture.

537
00:33:50,960 --> 00:33:55,840
Speaker 1: And if your parents would get like newspapers they had

538
00:33:55,840 --> 00:33:59,400
Speaker 1: that coupon section pizza coupons.

539
00:33:59,480 --> 00:34:07,600
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, so intense. Just for one example of the

540
00:34:07,720 --> 00:34:10,360
Speaker 2: kind of marketing schemes that they came up with, a

541
00:34:10,480 --> 00:34:15,520
Speaker 2: Pizza Hut created a blimp for the big Foot, the

542
00:34:15,560 --> 00:34:22,520
Speaker 2: two feet by one feet rectangular pizza. They created a

543
00:34:22,560 --> 00:34:26,400
Speaker 2: blimp for it. It sadly had a malfunction and crashed

544
00:34:26,400 --> 00:34:28,319
Speaker 2: into the roof of an apartment building in New York

545
00:34:28,360 --> 00:34:31,680
Speaker 2: City on July fourth of nineteen ninety three. The two

546
00:34:31,719 --> 00:34:34,840
Speaker 2: crew members stained minor injuries, but no one else was hurt.

547
00:34:35,920 --> 00:34:37,800
Speaker 2: And if I may quote from the New York Times.

548
00:34:38,719 --> 00:34:41,560
Speaker 2: As the one hundred and sixty five foot dirigible plowed

549
00:34:41,600 --> 00:34:44,440
Speaker 2: into the top of the seven story building, its gondola

550
00:34:44,560 --> 00:34:47,400
Speaker 2: came to rest just inside the parapet, and its body

551
00:34:47,440 --> 00:34:50,880
Speaker 2: perched perilously and surreally, with its nose on the rooftop

552
00:34:51,040 --> 00:34:54,359
Speaker 2: and its tail jutting out high over the street. Then,

553
00:34:54,440 --> 00:34:57,200
Speaker 2: said witnesses, some of whom were sunning themselves on the roof,

554
00:34:57,480 --> 00:35:00,600
Speaker 2: the huge airship rapidly deflated from a gash to side,

555
00:35:00,719 --> 00:35:03,239
Speaker 2: Its nose fell limp amid a forest of pipes and

556
00:35:03,360 --> 00:35:06,040
Speaker 2: vents on the gray asphalt roof, and its tail dropped

557
00:35:06,080 --> 00:35:10,120
Speaker 2: down the building's brownish brick facade, covering scores of windows

558
00:35:10,120 --> 00:35:12,760
Speaker 2: with a bunting that might have been conceived by Salvador.

559
00:35:12,840 --> 00:35:17,560
Speaker 3: Dolly, that's amazing. I'm so I've been glad. No, it's ert.

560
00:35:18,320 --> 00:35:22,720
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, but wow, I hope a full recovery fared

561
00:35:22,760 --> 00:35:23,960
Speaker 2: those two crew members.

562
00:35:26,560 --> 00:35:30,120
Speaker 3: The Pizza Wars did not mess around.

563
00:35:30,280 --> 00:35:37,560
Speaker 2: No, no, there were dirigibles involved. Airships, airships in the

564
00:35:37,600 --> 00:35:38,520
Speaker 2: Pizza Wars.

565
00:35:39,760 --> 00:35:44,640
Speaker 3: Wow, oh heck, oh yeah.

566
00:35:44,800 --> 00:35:48,040
Speaker 2: The Pizza Hut also introduced that all you can eat

567
00:35:48,040 --> 00:35:51,880
Speaker 2: pizza buffet in nineteen ninety two, with about two thousand

568
00:35:52,000 --> 00:35:55,439
Speaker 2: units installed across the US. At first, these fourteen foot

569
00:35:55,480 --> 00:35:59,400
Speaker 2: buffet setups offered a number of pizza options, plus pasta dishes,

570
00:35:59,600 --> 00:36:03,480
Speaker 2: build your own salads, and dessert options like cookies and pudding,

571
00:36:04,000 --> 00:36:08,640
Speaker 2: all for a lunch price of three ninety nine. It

572
00:36:08,680 --> 00:36:12,000
Speaker 2: was a simpler time. Amidst their growing delivery business, they

573
00:36:12,040 --> 00:36:14,200
Speaker 2: like really wanted to make sure that dine in sales

574
00:36:14,280 --> 00:36:18,000
Speaker 2: maintained steam. It was very back and forth at the time.

575
00:36:18,000 --> 00:36:20,799
Speaker 2: They were really trying to grow both both portions. In

576
00:36:20,920 --> 00:36:24,680
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety four, we got Pizza Net. This was a

577
00:36:24,719 --> 00:36:28,080
Speaker 2: program piloted by this one franchise in Santa Cruz, California.

578
00:36:28,520 --> 00:36:31,480
Speaker 2: You could go online to pizza dot net, fill out

579
00:36:31,480 --> 00:36:34,239
Speaker 2: a form with your delivery info in order, and it

580
00:36:34,239 --> 00:36:37,640
Speaker 2: would be delivered. I know that this sounds like super

581
00:36:37,680 --> 00:36:40,279
Speaker 2: basic now, but this was one of the first, if

582
00:36:40,280 --> 00:36:45,279
Speaker 2: not the first product that was delivered from an online order.

583
00:36:46,200 --> 00:36:46,720
Speaker 3: It worked.

584
00:36:46,880 --> 00:36:49,560
Speaker 2: It worked by submitting the data from the form to

585
00:36:49,600 --> 00:36:52,120
Speaker 2: a server in Wichita, which then sent the order to

586
00:36:52,200 --> 00:36:54,680
Speaker 2: a computer at the restaurant in Santa Cruz, where an

587
00:36:54,680 --> 00:36:57,600
Speaker 2: employee would receive it and call you to confirm the order,

588
00:37:01,160 --> 00:37:02,520
Speaker 2: so quaint, I love it.

589
00:37:02,800 --> 00:37:09,680
Speaker 3: That's great, that's great. Yeah.

590
00:37:09,960 --> 00:37:12,880
Speaker 2: Pizza Hut was the first of several like fast food

591
00:37:12,920 --> 00:37:17,439
Speaker 2: fast casual restaurant chains that PepsiCo acquired, including Taco Bell

592
00:37:17,560 --> 00:37:21,360
Speaker 2: and KFC in the eighties. In nineteen ninety seven, PepsiCo

593
00:37:21,480 --> 00:37:24,360
Speaker 2: spun off their fast food division into what would become

594
00:37:24,719 --> 00:37:29,879
Speaker 2: Young Brands, which is the corporate overlords now. And this

595
00:37:29,920 --> 00:37:33,799
Speaker 2: brings us to two thousand and one, a pizza odyssey. Okay, So,

596
00:37:35,480 --> 00:37:39,680
Speaker 2: in two thousand and one, Pizza Hut delivered a pizza

597
00:37:40,360 --> 00:37:44,400
Speaker 2: in space for the first time. They worked with a

598
00:37:44,440 --> 00:37:47,520
Speaker 2: team of Russian food scientists to design a personal pan

599
00:37:47,640 --> 00:37:50,600
Speaker 2: sized pizza that could be taken to the International Space

600
00:37:50,640 --> 00:37:54,360
Speaker 2: Station and heated there in the kitchen oven. It was

601
00:37:54,400 --> 00:37:58,400
Speaker 2: a pizza with red sauce and mozzarella and salami. Apparently

602
00:37:58,440 --> 00:38:00,600
Speaker 2: pepperoni failed like the space taste test.

603
00:38:00,920 --> 00:38:04,239
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't know they had.

604
00:38:04,239 --> 00:38:07,720
Speaker 2: Pizza Hut had also sponsored some rocket development around that time.

605
00:38:08,719 --> 00:38:12,480
Speaker 1: Wow, they are into stuff and surprisingly a lot of

606
00:38:12,560 --> 00:38:14,319
Speaker 1: stuff coming up in the air.

607
00:38:15,040 --> 00:38:20,120
Speaker 3: Yeah wow. Oh heck.

608
00:38:21,840 --> 00:38:25,120
Speaker 2: In the early two thousands, Young Brands paired Pizza Hut

609
00:38:25,160 --> 00:38:29,000
Speaker 2: with this existing pasta concept called Pasta Bravo and this

610
00:38:29,160 --> 00:38:32,960
Speaker 2: new Wings concept called Wingstreet and began offering those dishes

611
00:38:33,000 --> 00:38:37,239
Speaker 2: at more restaurants. The brand started faltering though in the

612
00:38:37,320 --> 00:38:41,520
Speaker 2: twenty teens, with like a Dominoes coming out ahead in

613
00:38:41,680 --> 00:38:47,279
Speaker 2: online delivery technology and b fast casual chains that are

614
00:38:47,360 --> 00:38:50,920
Speaker 2: that were more focused on like food quality, both eating

615
00:38:50,960 --> 00:38:55,120
Speaker 2: into Pizza Huts customer base. Dominoes pushed ahead of Pizza

616
00:38:55,200 --> 00:39:00,239
Speaker 2: Hut in market share in twenty nineteen. This would not do.

617
00:39:00,360 --> 00:39:04,600
Speaker 2: Pizza Hud started trying to pivot. By at least twenty fourteen,

618
00:39:04,880 --> 00:39:09,880
Speaker 2: they had discontinued the red roof style for new locations

619
00:39:09,640 --> 00:39:12,080
Speaker 2: for something like they were trying to go for something

620
00:39:12,120 --> 00:39:15,759
Speaker 2: like sleeker and more modern. By twenty eighteen, they were

621
00:39:15,840 --> 00:39:20,360
Speaker 2: deep into actively replacing like red roof dine in restaurants

622
00:39:20,400 --> 00:39:24,880
Speaker 2: with new toned down delivery and take out focused restaurants.

623
00:39:25,560 --> 00:39:29,680
Speaker 2: An executive told QSR magazine at the time in twenty eighteen, quote,

624
00:39:29,840 --> 00:39:31,680
Speaker 2: we have a lot of red roof restaurants that are

625
00:39:31,680 --> 00:39:34,400
Speaker 2: in the wrong part of the trade area, haven't been remodeled,

626
00:39:34,440 --> 00:39:43,160
Speaker 2: and clearly need to go away. Oh yeah, yeah. But

627
00:39:43,280 --> 00:39:47,120
Speaker 2: through all this, like the companies reach like being second

628
00:39:47,160 --> 00:39:52,759
Speaker 2: to Dominoes is still very huge, Like there's still they've

629
00:39:52,880 --> 00:39:55,280
Speaker 2: they've still been up to all kinds of things, Like Meanwhile,

630
00:39:55,320 --> 00:39:58,319
Speaker 2: in twenty fifteen, they paired with an online university to

631
00:39:58,320 --> 00:40:01,359
Speaker 2: help staff members get a college degree that they can

632
00:40:01,400 --> 00:40:05,040
Speaker 2: earn credits toward a business program while they're working. In

633
00:40:05,120 --> 00:40:08,880
Speaker 2: twenty eighteen, they struck a deal with the national United

634
00:40:08,880 --> 00:40:11,960
Speaker 2: States government to put twenty five percent more cheese on

635
00:40:12,000 --> 00:40:14,600
Speaker 2: their Pan pizza in the US in an attempt to

636
00:40:14,840 --> 00:40:17,880
Speaker 2: help the dairy industry move an additional one hundred and

637
00:40:17,920 --> 00:40:24,560
Speaker 2: fifty million pounds of milk every year. Wow, they've re

638
00:40:24,719 --> 00:40:28,760
Speaker 2: engineered their Pan pizza pans to make better pizza cheaper

639
00:40:29,680 --> 00:40:32,760
Speaker 2: and their delivery system to get product to you fifteen

640
00:40:32,800 --> 00:40:41,400
Speaker 2: degrees hotter. But then then the company had a couple

641
00:40:41,520 --> 00:40:45,440
Speaker 2: of like fairly disastrous business years during the early pandemic,

642
00:40:45,920 --> 00:40:51,160
Speaker 2: and hundreds of locations closed across the United States. And

643
00:40:51,239 --> 00:40:55,120
Speaker 2: with that they started to reevaluate all of these changes

644
00:40:55,160 --> 00:40:57,800
Speaker 2: that they had been making, like not the technology ones,

645
00:40:57,840 --> 00:41:01,959
Speaker 2: but certainly they're like stuff all right.

646
00:41:02,280 --> 00:41:05,440
Speaker 1: And as I've mentioned, there has been a move to

647
00:41:05,480 --> 00:41:12,120
Speaker 1: restore or highlight the retro fashion of old pizza huts there.

648
00:41:12,960 --> 00:41:17,520
Speaker 1: It's really interesting because they make it sound as I said,

649
00:41:17,520 --> 00:41:21,480
Speaker 1: I saw mine highlighted recently on social media, and they

650
00:41:21,520 --> 00:41:24,200
Speaker 1: make it sound like, oh, it was so ancient. But look,

651
00:41:24,280 --> 00:41:27,600
Speaker 1: it's like that friendly and like, wait a minute.

652
00:41:27,560 --> 00:41:30,799
Speaker 3: It's like unearthing a fossil exactly.

653
00:41:32,000 --> 00:41:33,719
Speaker 2: How could the people have lived? Then?

654
00:41:35,520 --> 00:41:38,320
Speaker 1: It does feel the vibe of the social media posts

655
00:41:38,320 --> 00:41:40,080
Speaker 1: are very like, look.

656
00:41:39,920 --> 00:41:42,640
Speaker 3: What they got up to back in the day.

657
00:41:42,920 --> 00:41:49,759
Speaker 1: We still have restaurants, all right, So it.

658
00:41:49,719 --> 00:41:52,200
Speaker 2: Was like only like like thirty years ago.

659
00:41:52,600 --> 00:41:55,080
Speaker 3: Well, I guess that is a while.

660
00:41:55,320 --> 00:42:01,560
Speaker 2: Anyway, it's not fossil a while. No, thank you, thank

661
00:42:01,600 --> 00:42:02,319
Speaker 2: you still here.

662
00:42:02,320 --> 00:42:06,200
Speaker 3: I still have those demos. I'd still have my PlayStation one,

663
00:42:06,920 --> 00:42:10,319
Speaker 3: me two, me too? Why would I give that away?

664
00:42:10,320 --> 00:42:10,759
Speaker 3: Come on now?

665
00:42:10,840 --> 00:42:18,279
Speaker 2: Yeah ridiculous? Uh yeah yeah. The fate of those the

666
00:42:18,680 --> 00:42:22,920
Speaker 2: fate of those red roofed restaurants is really interesting, like

667
00:42:23,680 --> 00:42:27,720
Speaker 2: going back, because they're very stand out like and if

668
00:42:28,000 --> 00:42:31,719
Speaker 2: a franchise closes and just like Abandons, one of those

669
00:42:32,400 --> 00:42:36,200
Speaker 2: restaurant locations, there's no way to make it look like

670
00:42:36,280 --> 00:42:37,319
Speaker 2: anything but.

671
00:42:37,360 --> 00:42:38,120
Speaker 3: A pizza hut.

672
00:42:38,160 --> 00:42:41,840
Speaker 2: It is very clear. Going back to the year two thousand,

673
00:42:41,960 --> 00:42:44,880
Speaker 2: the Onion was joking about how funny it is to

674
00:42:44,920 --> 00:42:48,120
Speaker 2: find these abandoned Pizza Hut buildings that have been converted

675
00:42:48,160 --> 00:42:52,840
Speaker 2: into like other businesses or like churches, like what have you.

676
00:42:54,520 --> 00:42:57,360
Speaker 2: There has since been a lot of pop culture coverage

677
00:42:57,400 --> 00:43:01,440
Speaker 2: of this and also a lot of nostalgia, and so

678
00:43:01,640 --> 00:43:06,279
Speaker 2: in their like repivot, Pizza Hut is really leaned into this.

679
00:43:07,800 --> 00:43:12,040
Speaker 2: In twenty twenty one, they debuted an arcade throwback pizza box.

680
00:43:12,160 --> 00:43:15,080
Speaker 2: It has it has like a Pacman board printed on it,

681
00:43:15,160 --> 00:43:17,120
Speaker 2: and you can use your smartphone to play like an

682
00:43:17,160 --> 00:43:23,120
Speaker 2: augmented reality pac Man game. They also promised that they

683
00:43:23,120 --> 00:43:26,279
Speaker 2: would be bringing back those translucent red plastic cups and

684
00:43:26,360 --> 00:43:30,000
Speaker 2: some classic menu items and those boocket pins.

685
00:43:30,520 --> 00:43:31,520
Speaker 3: Yeah.

686
00:43:31,800 --> 00:43:33,960
Speaker 2: This is all part of a trend that the the

687
00:43:34,880 --> 00:43:41,719
Speaker 2: news sometimes calls nostalgia, which makes me really hate it.

688
00:43:44,160 --> 00:43:45,799
Speaker 3: Oh my yeah, uh huh.

689
00:43:46,239 --> 00:43:47,919
Speaker 2: Yeah.

690
00:43:48,000 --> 00:43:50,560
Speaker 1: I have to say I am pretty wary of nostalgia.

691
00:43:50,920 --> 00:43:52,759
Speaker 1: I don't think there's anything necessarily wrong with it, but

692
00:43:52,800 --> 00:43:55,759
Speaker 1: I like to like take a step back.

693
00:43:56,480 --> 00:44:00,640
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, like consider how your childhood is being marketed

694
00:44:00,680 --> 00:44:01,080
Speaker 2: back to you.

695
00:44:01,880 --> 00:44:02,120
Speaker 3: Yes.

696
00:44:02,400 --> 00:44:04,920
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm surprised how nostalgic this one is making me,

697
00:44:05,040 --> 00:44:09,319
Speaker 1: because I mean, like I said, Pizza Hut was that

698
00:44:09,360 --> 00:44:11,320
Speaker 1: was where we went. It was where we went after church.

699
00:44:11,360 --> 00:44:15,720
Speaker 1: It was like our brunch, yeah, but at lunch buffet.

700
00:44:16,640 --> 00:44:19,200
Speaker 1: Lunch buffet. But it was something I did like when

701
00:44:19,200 --> 00:44:24,360
Speaker 1: I started. When I got to college, I pivoted to Dominoes.

702
00:44:25,160 --> 00:44:27,040
Speaker 3: Because they had the pizza tracker.

703
00:44:27,840 --> 00:44:28,080
Speaker 2: Yeah.

704
00:44:28,120 --> 00:44:31,680
Speaker 1: Anyway, so I'm kind of surprised at how many things

705
00:44:31,719 --> 00:44:35,160
Speaker 1: in here, especially around like the decor and just the

706
00:44:35,160 --> 00:44:36,680
Speaker 1: the vibe of it.

707
00:44:37,680 --> 00:44:39,480
Speaker 3: I'm feeling really nostalgic, Lauren.

708
00:44:39,880 --> 00:44:41,960
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, I mean that's that's it was part of

709
00:44:41,960 --> 00:44:46,080
Speaker 2: your childhood, man, That's fair. And yeah. Yeah, like like

710
00:44:46,160 --> 00:44:48,720
Speaker 2: part of the reason that the Pizzahead is still flagging

711
00:44:48,800 --> 00:44:50,799
Speaker 2: a little bit in terms of delivery sales is that

712
00:44:50,840 --> 00:44:52,960
Speaker 2: they just never quite got the technology down the way

713
00:44:52,960 --> 00:44:57,680
Speaker 2: that Dominoes did. They they have turned to the Pizza

714
00:44:57,760 --> 00:45:01,880
Speaker 2: Head has turned to using third party delivery services like

715
00:45:01,960 --> 00:45:06,640
Speaker 2: Uber Eats or whatever it is, and that has seen

716
00:45:06,680 --> 00:45:07,920
Speaker 2: them get a little.

717
00:45:07,719 --> 00:45:09,640
Speaker 3: Bit more success. But but yeah, they're.

718
00:45:09,560 --> 00:45:11,359
Speaker 2: Kind of still playing with it. Dominoes just came in

719
00:45:11,480 --> 00:45:15,400
Speaker 2: so strong on that. Yeah, I didn't. I didn't have

720
00:45:15,440 --> 00:45:19,000
Speaker 2: a lot of experience with Pizza Hut growing up. I

721
00:45:19,000 --> 00:45:21,120
Speaker 2: think we were a Domino's household when we did that

722
00:45:21,239 --> 00:45:24,880
Speaker 2: kind of thing, which was rarely or like preferably a

723
00:45:24,920 --> 00:45:30,480
Speaker 2: local pizza place. Definitely, like like as a grown up,

724
00:45:30,920 --> 00:45:35,160
Speaker 2: if we choose to use that term, Dominoes is my

725
00:45:35,320 --> 00:45:40,440
Speaker 2: preferred fast food pizza. But yeah, the more that I

726
00:45:40,480 --> 00:45:43,560
Speaker 2: wrote about it, the more I started craving pizza hut

727
00:45:43,600 --> 00:45:44,120
Speaker 2: pan pizza.

728
00:45:44,760 --> 00:45:45,200
Speaker 3: Mm hmm.

729
00:45:45,800 --> 00:45:50,040
Speaker 2: There's this like particular texture. It's just like so soft

730
00:45:50,120 --> 00:45:54,520
Speaker 2: and not quite food like, Yeah, I know what you mean.

731
00:45:55,760 --> 00:46:00,560
Speaker 2: It's got a very particular texture. And this is I mean,

732
00:46:00,880 --> 00:46:04,000
Speaker 2: this has been a fun one in terms of all

733
00:46:04,040 --> 00:46:04,879
Speaker 2: of the.

734
00:46:04,600 --> 00:46:06,080
Speaker 3: Areas that they've dabbled in.

735
00:46:06,360 --> 00:46:10,040
Speaker 1: Yeah, the Pizza Wars, we definitely are gonna have to

736
00:46:10,040 --> 00:46:11,640
Speaker 1: come back and talk about Dominoes.

737
00:46:11,680 --> 00:46:15,359
Speaker 2: But yeah, yeah, and the Pizza Wars could probably them

738
00:46:15,760 --> 00:46:18,480
Speaker 2: itself be a whole episode.

739
00:46:18,840 --> 00:46:20,719
Speaker 1: They really did get up to so much stuff like

740
00:46:20,840 --> 00:46:27,719
Speaker 1: video games, blimps like I mean, Dominoes. Go hear the

741
00:46:27,800 --> 00:46:31,600
Speaker 1: not Dominoes episode on food delivery. They've been like a

742
00:46:31,680 --> 00:46:37,319
Speaker 1: technology company almost. Yeah, Yeah, it's wild to me. This

743
00:46:37,400 --> 00:46:38,720
Speaker 1: has been a fun ride.

744
00:46:39,480 --> 00:46:42,839
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, and more and more is coming if we so,

745
00:46:42,960 --> 00:46:44,080
Speaker 2: if we missed.

746
00:46:44,360 --> 00:46:47,160
Speaker 3: Any of your favorite Pizza Hut facts.

747
00:46:47,960 --> 00:46:50,680
Speaker 2: Please please please write in and let us know because

748
00:46:50,719 --> 00:46:51,680
Speaker 2: there is time.

749
00:46:52,560 --> 00:46:53,360
Speaker 3: There is time.

750
00:46:53,600 --> 00:46:58,160
Speaker 1: That would be great, But I think that's what we

751
00:46:58,200 --> 00:46:59,920
Speaker 1: have to say about Pizza Hut for nat.

752
00:47:00,680 --> 00:47:01,520
Speaker 3: It is it is.

753
00:47:01,960 --> 00:47:04,000
Speaker 2: We do already have some listener mail for you, though,

754
00:47:04,000 --> 00:47:05,239
Speaker 2: and we will get into that as soon as we

755
00:47:05,280 --> 00:47:06,879
Speaker 2: get back from one more quick break for a word

756
00:47:06,880 --> 00:47:07,680
Speaker 2: from our sponsors.

757
00:47:16,960 --> 00:47:19,799
Speaker 1: A're back, Thank you sponsor, Yes, thank you, and we're

758
00:47:19,800 --> 00:47:27,840
Speaker 1: back with school pizza.

759
00:47:31,760 --> 00:47:34,200
Speaker 3: Mm hmm okay.

760
00:47:34,760 --> 00:47:38,239
Speaker 1: Kenna wrote, my mom's favorite cake is carrot cake with

761
00:47:38,360 --> 00:47:42,880
Speaker 1: cream trees frosting no reasons. As the eldest child, it

762
00:47:42,880 --> 00:47:46,640
Speaker 1: has usually fallen to me to prepare the birthday cake. Unfortunately,

763
00:47:46,680 --> 00:47:51,200
Speaker 1: I have recently discovered that my hands are allergic to carrots. Yes,

764
00:47:51,360 --> 00:47:56,560
Speaker 1: really just my hands and an actual immune system allergy.

765
00:47:57,600 --> 00:47:59,799
Speaker 1: I didn't know what could happen, and neither did my

766
00:48:01,480 --> 00:48:04,240
Speaker 1: so the last few years I have deputized the shredding

767
00:48:04,239 --> 00:48:07,280
Speaker 1: of the carrots, leading my father, very much not a baker,

768
00:48:07,640 --> 00:48:08,560
Speaker 1: to claim.

769
00:48:08,239 --> 00:48:10,680
Speaker 3: That he made the cake. The liar.

770
00:48:10,960 --> 00:48:15,360
Speaker 1: No, he does not know the secrets. He doesn't arrange

771
00:48:15,440 --> 00:48:18,880
Speaker 1: chopped walnuts into little rosettes are known. How to avoid

772
00:48:18,920 --> 00:48:22,960
Speaker 1: having large pockets of baked salad in the middle. He

773
00:48:23,040 --> 00:48:25,480
Speaker 1: also doesn't know that I put an extra cinnamon in

774
00:48:25,600 --> 00:48:29,759
Speaker 1: the frosting. Though now you two know the secret to

775
00:48:29,840 --> 00:48:33,600
Speaker 1: the perfect carrot cake frosting about a quarter teaspoon of cinnamon.

776
00:48:34,000 --> 00:48:36,759
Speaker 1: The frosting will be lightly beige. But white frosting is

777
00:48:36,800 --> 00:48:38,399
Speaker 1: not the point of carrot cake.

778
00:48:39,480 --> 00:48:42,160
Speaker 3: Thankfully. My mom is no fool.

779
00:48:42,400 --> 00:48:45,920
Speaker 1: She is, however, not allowed to shred the carrots because

780
00:48:45,960 --> 00:48:48,879
Speaker 1: that is too close to baking your own birthday cake.

781
00:48:50,200 --> 00:48:53,840
Speaker 2: Yes, yes that is, that is and that is not allowed,

782
00:48:53,960 --> 00:48:54,759
Speaker 2: so you know.

783
00:48:56,400 --> 00:49:01,240
Speaker 1: The rules against the rules. I do love this trying

784
00:49:01,239 --> 00:49:07,800
Speaker 1: to claim the carrot cake making. You're just helping as symbol.

785
00:49:09,760 --> 00:49:12,160
Speaker 2: You're helping. You're not even helping assemble. You're helping with

786
00:49:12,200 --> 00:49:16,960
Speaker 2: one task. You're helping with an ingredient. And yes it's

787
00:49:17,040 --> 00:49:18,440
Speaker 2: the titular ingredient.

788
00:49:20,640 --> 00:49:22,439
Speaker 1: But you don't know what to do if you don't

789
00:49:22,440 --> 00:49:24,200
Speaker 1: know how to make it. I've never thought about that,

790
00:49:24,600 --> 00:49:25,839
Speaker 1: but not have salad it.

791
00:49:26,080 --> 00:49:28,680
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, that is a perfect description for carrot cake

792
00:49:28,920 --> 00:49:32,280
Speaker 2: gone wrong, and I have had that happen. And yes, yeah,

793
00:49:32,760 --> 00:49:37,040
Speaker 2: it's difficult. You have to be mindful, you have.

794
00:49:36,960 --> 00:49:41,600
Speaker 1: To be mindful and very sorry to hear about this allergy.

795
00:49:41,960 --> 00:49:50,160
Speaker 1: Yeah that's something. Yeah, yeah, but that sounds delicious. And

796
00:49:50,200 --> 00:49:51,680
Speaker 1: thank you for the for the frost tip.

797
00:49:52,360 --> 00:49:57,920
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, okay, Bart wrote, I was so happy to

798
00:49:57,920 --> 00:50:00,360
Speaker 2: see you dedicate a recent episode to my apps flute

799
00:50:00,360 --> 00:50:05,600
Speaker 2: favorite white fish, the very underappreciated halibit. Firstly, you asked

800
00:50:05,600 --> 00:50:08,120
Speaker 2: for recipes. My advice there is to keep it really simple,

801
00:50:08,239 --> 00:50:10,600
Speaker 2: especially the first time you cook halibate. The fish has

802
00:50:10,600 --> 00:50:13,160
Speaker 2: an amazing flavor and texture all by itself, and while

803
00:50:13,200 --> 00:50:15,240
Speaker 2: it can be nice to pair that with other flavors,

804
00:50:15,360 --> 00:50:18,000
Speaker 2: I think your first experience should be of the fish itself.

805
00:50:18,520 --> 00:50:20,560
Speaker 2: Then you'll be in a position to better understand what

806
00:50:20,600 --> 00:50:22,479
Speaker 2: other flavors you might like to add to that base

807
00:50:22,520 --> 00:50:25,440
Speaker 2: in the future. My advice is to simply season a

808
00:50:25,480 --> 00:50:28,040
Speaker 2: nice halibu steak with salt and black pepper, then fry

809
00:50:28,040 --> 00:50:30,400
Speaker 2: it quickly in just a little butter until it's nicely

810
00:50:30,440 --> 00:50:32,880
Speaker 2: browned and just cooked through. No need to coat it

811
00:50:32,920 --> 00:50:35,080
Speaker 2: in flour or anything like that. It's a good firm

812
00:50:35,120 --> 00:50:37,680
Speaker 2: fish that will hold together nicely all by itself. And

813
00:50:37,719 --> 00:50:39,600
Speaker 2: I do mean just a little butter. I use about

814
00:50:39,600 --> 00:50:43,239
Speaker 2: half a teaspoon per steak. Secondly, at the start of

815
00:50:43,280 --> 00:50:45,560
Speaker 2: the show, you listed loads and loads of ways to

816
00:50:45,560 --> 00:50:48,920
Speaker 2: prepare halibit, and I was listening for my favorite smoked

817
00:50:49,120 --> 00:50:50,960
Speaker 2: and it wasn't on the list. I was going to

818
00:50:51,000 --> 00:50:52,799
Speaker 2: write in to say that you missed one, But much

819
00:50:52,880 --> 00:50:55,120
Speaker 2: later in the show you got to how the Norwegians

820
00:50:55,200 --> 00:50:57,880
Speaker 2: love it smoked and asked if anyone had any experience.

821
00:50:58,520 --> 00:51:01,120
Speaker 2: What I know is that the practice definitely extends, at

822
00:51:01,200 --> 00:51:04,759
Speaker 2: least as far south as Belgium. In my childhood years,

823
00:51:04,800 --> 00:51:07,279
Speaker 2: our family celebrated New Year at home in Belgium with

824
00:51:07,360 --> 00:51:10,360
Speaker 2: a big, cold buffet style dinner with lots of salads

825
00:51:10,360 --> 00:51:13,000
Speaker 2: and all the seafood you could ever want. The idea

826
00:51:13,080 --> 00:51:15,640
Speaker 2: was to have a delicious meal for twentyish people that

827
00:51:15,680 --> 00:51:18,720
Speaker 2: could be entirely prepared upfront and that everyone could enjoy,

828
00:51:18,800 --> 00:51:23,680
Speaker 2: including my vegetarian parents. Everyone had their own favorite. For

829
00:51:23,840 --> 00:51:26,359
Speaker 2: my mum it was tomatoes stuffed with tiny Belgian gray

830
00:51:26,440 --> 00:51:28,880
Speaker 2: shrimp with egg and mayo, but for me it was

831
00:51:28,920 --> 00:51:32,480
Speaker 2: a smoked fish platter. We already lived in Ireland then,

832
00:51:32,640 --> 00:51:35,000
Speaker 2: so we would bring half a smoked salmon over and

833
00:51:35,040 --> 00:51:37,400
Speaker 2: that would be complemented by smoked halibate from the local

834
00:51:37,440 --> 00:51:41,040
Speaker 2: market in Belgium. Smoked halibate has the same texture as

835
00:51:41,040 --> 00:51:43,880
Speaker 2: smoked salmon, but it is snow white. It would be

836
00:51:43,960 --> 00:51:46,600
Speaker 2: arranged on the platter in alternating little rolls of rich

837
00:51:46,680 --> 00:51:50,160
Speaker 2: pink Irish smoked salmon and white smoked halibate, around two

838
00:51:50,239 --> 00:51:53,120
Speaker 2: pots of sauce, mary rose for the salmon and tartar

839
00:51:53,280 --> 00:51:56,400
Speaker 2: for the halibate. I would just fill my plate with salads,

840
00:51:56,520 --> 00:51:59,600
Speaker 2: both smoked fish and both sauces and ignore all the.

841
00:51:59,520 --> 00:52:00,000
Speaker 3: Rest of the space.

842
00:52:00,080 --> 00:52:03,160
Speaker 2: Read to this day, whenever my parents visit Belgium and

843
00:52:03,200 --> 00:52:05,160
Speaker 2: ask what they can bring back to Ireland for me

844
00:52:05,239 --> 00:52:08,160
Speaker 2: is a treat, It's always the same two things, Hoe Garden,

845
00:52:08,200 --> 00:52:10,799
Speaker 2: Grand Crew festival beer. The regular hoe Garden is fine,

846
00:52:10,800 --> 00:52:13,160
Speaker 2: but the Grand Crew is something truly special and only

847
00:52:13,200 --> 00:52:16,200
Speaker 2: available for a short time each year, and a pack

848
00:52:16,239 --> 00:52:19,080
Speaker 2: of smoked halibate. I taught myself to make my own

849
00:52:19,120 --> 00:52:21,360
Speaker 2: tartar sauce that tastes like the stuff in Belgium, just

850
00:52:21,360 --> 00:52:22,239
Speaker 2: to get the most from it.

851
00:52:24,120 --> 00:52:31,080
Speaker 3: Oh, oh, that sounds amazing, that really does Oh man?

852
00:52:31,840 --> 00:52:34,000
Speaker 3: I do I do love a smootfish. I love a

853
00:52:34,040 --> 00:52:34,720
Speaker 3: smoked fish.

854
00:52:35,600 --> 00:52:38,239
Speaker 1: I do as well, I do as well, and I

855
00:52:38,280 --> 00:52:44,400
Speaker 1: did get some halibit. Yeah, so this is perfectly timed

856
00:52:44,400 --> 00:52:44,640
Speaker 1: for me.

857
00:52:45,760 --> 00:52:47,280
Speaker 2: Beautiful, it can be beautiful.

858
00:52:47,560 --> 00:52:48,799
Speaker 3: Oh, I'm so excited for you.

859
00:52:49,040 --> 00:52:57,160
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh my well, thank you so much to both

860
00:52:57,200 --> 00:52:59,960
Speaker 1: of these listeners for writing in. If you would like

861
00:53:00,080 --> 00:53:01,799
Speaker 1: to right to us, we would love to hear from you.

862
00:53:01,800 --> 00:53:04,160
Speaker 1: You can email us at hello at savorpod dot com.

863
00:53:04,280 --> 00:53:07,480
Speaker 2: We're also on social media. Hypothetically we forget to check

864
00:53:07,520 --> 00:53:10,600
Speaker 2: it sometimes, but here we are. Yeah. We are on Twitter, Facebook,

865
00:53:10,600 --> 00:53:13,360
Speaker 2: and Instagram at saver pod, and we do hope to

866
00:53:13,400 --> 00:53:16,160
Speaker 2: hear from you. Savor is production of iHeartRadio. For more

867
00:53:16,200 --> 00:53:18,800
Speaker 2: podcasts from my Heart Radio, you can visit the iHeartRadio app,

868
00:53:18,960 --> 00:53:21,920
Speaker 2: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

869
00:53:22,160 --> 00:53:25,600
Speaker 2: Thanks as always to our superproducers Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard.

870
00:53:25,880 --> 00:53:27,640
Speaker 2: Thanks to you for listening, and we hope that lots

871
00:53:27,719 --> 00:53:37,000
Speaker 2: more good things are coming your way