Last month, The Street reported that the Pizza Hut chain has remodeled several of their 6,000+ restaurants, and “plans to remodel roughly 700 of its U.S. stores a year through 2022 in the new format.” The newly refurbished Pizza Huts will continue to have the company’s ” trademark red and black colors, albeit with deeper hues” and will also “feature wraparound windows, outdoor seating and yes, a drive-thru.”
All well and good, so far, but so what, you may be asking. Pizza Hut has also added beer and wine service at the remodeled locations, and plans to add alcohol to each refurbished restaurant. Frankly, I didn’t realize they didn’t serve beer already. Pizza and beer are pretty much a perfect pairing, as iconic as peanut butter and jelly or grilled cheese and tomato soup. The more I think about it, almost every pizza place I can name also serves beer, both chains and the small mom and pop pizza joints. How many brewpubs serve pizza? Lots of them, with many even specializing in it.
Why I bring this up is because the wackos at Alcohol Justice tweeted their displeasure at this idea, with this. “Now Pizza Hut wants to sell booze too bit.ly/1PkIwe1 What’s next…wine tastings at Toys-R-Us?” That’s what’s known as a false equivalence, one does not follow from the other. It is, in effect, a bullshit argument. One is a restaurant, and a type of restaurant that typically does carry beer and wine. The other is a toy store. There’s no link whatsoever, nothing that would make this in any way logical. It’s AJ making a mountain out a molehill, as they so often try to do. It’s just absurd.
They idea that a pizza restaurant serving beer and wine is cause for alarm is absolutely laughable. It’s harder to think of one that doesn’t already serve beer then come up with all of those who do. Several times I’ve gone with Porter’s basketball team and his little league baseball team to a Mountain Mike’s or Straw Hat Pizza after a game with the whole team and their parents. Many pizzas are ordered for everyone, with pitchers of beer for the parents. That’s the very definition of family-friendly, with something for everyone. Not once has there been a problem. But in AJ’s worldview, beer at a pizza joint with beer is the same as booze being served at a toy store. But now I’m feeling hungry. I’ve got plenty of beer. I wonder if it’s too late to order from Pizza Hut? They just opened one in our town, and I definitely want to support their decision to upset Alcohol Justice.
Do I have to buy a pizza to have a beer?
I wouldn’t think so, though unless there’s a bar, it might be weird.
My early college years were spent in Storm Lake, Iowa. As a temporary transplant from the NY/NJ metropolitan area, I missed pizza, and in Storm Lake in the early 70s, the only option was the heinously bad pizza that places like PizzaHut and Shakey’s were serving in those days (PH still doesn’t seem like “real” pizza to me, but I’ll admit that it has gotten somewhat better since then).
But the real saving grace for this small college town PH in 1970 was a marginally palatable selection of hot sandwiches, and that fact that the restaurant also had a small bar which served beer…and they always had a dark lager on the taps; it was usually either Miller, Schlitz, or Pabst Dark but it was a tasty alternative to the beers normally found back then. It even made the lousy fake pizza easier to choke down. 🙂
In thinking back on it, it seems that I can remember a lot of restaurants in the midwest back then always seemed to have had a dark lager on their taps along with the usual stuff. And these BMC dark beers were actually not all that bad (particularly Pabst’s version, which was clearly something more than just a caramel colored version of Blue Ribbon).
I haven’t eaten at a Pizza Hut since I was a kid, so it is probably a good idea that they are updating the restaurants. I would much rather get a beer on tap to go with my pizza than open a can or bottle. Overall, I agree that adding beer to place this is an appealing option for parents, while the kids can still enjoy the food.
I remember going to Pizza Hut in early 80s with family, parents would sometimes have beer with pizza at Pizza Hut. when I turned 18 in the mid 80s, we “friends” used to go to Pizza Hut & get hot ham n cheese sand., or pizza w a pitcher of beer; jukebox; Pac-Man machine etc in all pizza huts.; picture of beer with pizza they served back then until early 90s when owners-“Pepsi” stopped having beer I believe, beer was taken out; they even got rid of Blu cheese dressing, from salad bar; no more hot ham & cheese lol; then juke boxes taken out, then pax man games etc; which is about when I started to not go there as often anymore lol.. it used to be a nice fun place to visit, but now all you do is go there and eat with nothing around but tables lol..
Hurray,
Pizza without beer is pretty sad. I live near Plano TX, the headquarters of Pizza Hut. I stopped going there years go.
Living in the bible belt means no beer with Pizza and lots of drunks on the road. DWIs decreased when Collin Co voted to allow beer and wine sales. I have lived in California, Colorado, Minnesota, and other states with bars and liquor sales. It was safer than driving in Texas, and Kansas, where you can’t get a beer, so you drive to a wet area to drink, then buy a 20 pack to make it home on.
Pizza and moderate beer consumption makes life better and safer.
This should help YUM stock.