Things You Never Knew About Pizza Hut

Pan pizza, hut-shaped red roofs, nostalgic red plastic cups — there are so many Pizza Hut staples that we all know and love. The restaurant has been around for seven decades and is the second-largest pizza chain in the world. While it may be well-known and certainly well-loved, do you really know everything there is to know about Pizza Hut? 

Related: Historic Fast-Food Restaurants Across America

Today, Pizza Hut is one of the biggest pizza chains in the world, but how did it come to be in the first place? Two brothers, Dan and Frank Carney, came up with the concept for the pizzeria while they were still in college. To jumpstart their venture and open their first restaurant, they borrowed $600 from their mother — talk about a good investment.

Related: Best Cheap Delivery Pizza

There wasn’t a whole lot of free rein when settling on the name “Pizza Hut.” The signage for the restaurant only had room for eight letters, so the founding brothers were limited in their options.

For more fun trivia stories, please sign up for our free newsletters.

Have you ever given your address at the end of placing a pizza order for delivery and heard the dreaded, “I’m sorry, that’s outside of our delivery zone”? Pizza Hut broke that boundary in 2016 when a group of staff members hiked with experienced guides to the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro, all with a pepperoni pizza in tow. The feat earned Pizza Hut a Guinness World Record for “highest altitude pizza delivery.”

Related: 24 Surprising Facts About Pizza, America's Favorite Comfort Food

While ordering pizza online is now the most common method, it wasn’t always an option. Pizza Hut was the first pizza restaurant to provide customers the ability to order online.

Related: The Most Common Complaint About Pizza Delivery

The original Pizza Hut building is a 500-square-foot brick house that was uprooted from its original location and moved to Wichita State University’s campus in Kansas. Now a museum, the building is home to tons of memorabilia from the original restaurant.

When it comes to advertising, Pizza Hut has had a bit of a go-big-or-go-home mentality. In 1999, the pizza parlor wanted to use a laser to have its logo appear on the moon. The Hut’s bubble was ultimately burst upon discovering the logo would need to be the size of Texas in order to show up on the moon, which would have cost millions.

Related: The Craziest Marketing Stunts of All Time

Before pizza delivery became an expected perk, Pizza Hut delivered its first pizzas in Aggieville, Kansas by way of a three-wheeled scooter. The concept for delivery definitely caught on, but the vehicle of choice has certainly changed.

Pizza Hut perfume started as a joke, but became a reality when Pizza Hut Canada’s Facebook page reached 100,000 fans. The fragrance harnesses the aroma of freshly baked, hand-tossed dough, so you can smell like a warm, just-opened pizza box.

Related: Brand Mashups You Never Saw Coming

There is no challenge or journey too big for Pizza Hut. In 2001, the pizzeria delivered a pizza to the International Space Station after going through a rigorous process to maintain the pizza’s freshness.

Related: Best Hole-in-the-Wall Pizza Joints Across America

Thanks to former First Lady Barbara Bush, the White House has a spot on the list of impressive places where Pizza Hut has delivered food. In 1989, Bush hosted a charity event with more than 200 children and had Pizza Hut handle the catering. 

In 1984, Pizza Hut launched a campaign aimed at encouraging kids to read. The Book It! program offers free pizza to kids as an incentive for reading books. Going strong for almost four decades, Book It! reaches about 14 million children every year.

Ronald McDonald, Colonel Sanders, and Little Caesar are just some of the notable fast food mascots. But did you know that Pizza Hut used to have a mascot, too? Pizza Pete was a cartoon man with a mustache wearing a chef’s hat, neckerchief, and apron. He served as the pizza parlor’s logo until 1969 when the iconic red roof logo was adopted.

Related: Fast Food Restaurants Then and Now

Pizza Hut’s humble beginning started in Wichita, Kansas. Today, the company has branches in more than 100 countries.

Related: Fast-Food Menu Items You'll Only Find Abroad

The Carney brothers hit the ground running after they opened the first Pizza Hut location in Wichita, Kansas. They started to franchise within their first year of business, establishing a new branch in Topeka and six other establishments.

Pizza is a love language, right? According to Pizza Hut it definitely is. In 2012, the pizzeria marketed an engagement package that included a fireworks show, limousine service, videographer, photographer, a ruby red ring, and flowers for $10,010. How could anyone say no to a proposal like that?

Related: Dos and Don’ts of Marriage Proposals

There are plenty of tasty ingredients that go into creating Pizza Hut’s incredible pizzas and one of the key components is cheese. The company uses more than 300 million pounds of cheese every year, making it one of the biggest consumers of cheese in the world. 

In 2008, U.S. Pizza Huts sent out emails to subscribers advertising the pasta menu. In the email, the company announced its new name, “Pasta Hut.” The marketing tactic was actually just an April Fools prank that lasted through the month.

Pizza Hut has always made high quality ingredients one of its top priorities. The company partners with farmers, sourcing all-natural ingredients through them. As an added bonus, since the business continues to thrive, Pizza Hut helps to support farmers through the partnership. 

Typically escaping a hostage situation is thanks to law enforcement intervention. However, a woman who was being held hostage by her boyfriend ordered a pizza through Pizza Hut’s mobile app and added a note asking for help. The Pizza Hut crew notified the authorities immediately upon receiving the order and the woman safely escaped when the authorities came to deliver the pizza.

Related: Beloved Local Pizza Chains the Rest of the Country Needs