Markets 
Back to the good old days.
2026 has proven to be the year of nostalgia. Youngsters are resorting to old-school tech like vintage flip phones and iPods. Others are returning to analog hobbies and activities.
Even beloved restaurant chain Pizza Hut is going back in time, reverting to its retro glory — red checkered tablecloths and all.
Tim Sparks, president of Daland Corporation, a Kansas-based company that operates almost 100 Pizza Hut locations across the country, is helping keep Pizza Hut alive by rewinding the clock and redecorating over 80 annoyingly modern, stark-looking locations to make them look like they did decades ago.
Red roof? Check
Red-checkered tablecloths, vinyl booths and Tiffany-style lamps? Check, check and check.
The beloved salad bar and red plastic cups will be back.
Even the old-school Pac-Man machines will return.
Unsurprisingly, customers are losing their minds over this massive change.
“I am so excited and when they are restored I will be eating there as a new tradition every Friday,” one wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
“This was our Thursday night meal out before kids. Salad bar and pac-man. Waitress knew our order too. It would be nice to return to that atmosphere in our retirement too where you can have an audible conversation while in a restaurant,” another wrote in a Facebook comment.
Others pleaded for Pizza Hut to bring back its OG pizza recipe.
“go back to the old crust, and I’m in!” an X user suggested.
“The one thing Pizza Hut & every other chain mentioned in this story won’t be bringing back is the actual original food recipes, ingredients, and cooking methods so it tastes like it did decades ago. I could care less how original the place looks. Make it TASTE the way it use to,” chimed in someone else.
“They need to go back to the original pan pizza recipe! That shit rocked! The hubs and I doordashed one a few months back after at least 20 years, and it was terrible. Unrecognizable. We ended up throwing most of it away,” quipped another X commenter.
As many old-school chains have attempted, the pizza franchise founded in 1958 in Wichita, Kansas, tried to keep up with the times by modernizing many of its restaurants. And if you walked into one, you probably had to do a double-take to make sure you were in the right place because let’s face it, they were an eyesore.
Unsurprisingly, Pizza Hut eventually lost its charm, sales declined, and in February of this year, the chain announced the closure of 250 “underperforming” locations.
Pizza Haunchos, like Sparks, desperately scrambled to keep the franchise alive by not only restoring many locations to their original look but also by resurrecting the BOOK IT!’s Summer of Stories program, where young pizza lovers were incited to read during summer break and be rewarded with a Personal Pan pizza.
“Get ready to turn reading time into pizza time!” a post from the BOOK IT! Instagram page read. “This summer, keep your kids’ reading, learning, and loving books… all while earning FREE pizza.”
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