Nostalgia Overload! Do you Remember Pizza Hut’s Priazzo Pizzas?

In the 80s, when I grew up there was only one restaurant in our small Nebraska town that my parents were willing to take all of us kids to, Pizza Hut. This was the old-school sit-down Pizza Hut. With the red and white checkered tablecloths and salad bar.

Or as we called it for years, Iz-a-hut, because the 'P' got knocked off the roof in a storm.

This was before the Internet, we didn't have that much to talk about.

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My family would take over a booth in the Pizza Hut dining room. Us kids would get our pops, mom an iced tea, and dad a coffee. And, of course, we'd drink nearly all of our pop before the server even had a chance to take our order.

Dad would fire up some Juice Newton on the jukebox and my brother and I would beg for quarters to play the tabletop Q*Bert game.

Usually, we'd order a large pan pizza; half supreme (no green peppers) and half pepperoni. But, in the mid-80s there was a brief time when we'd enjoy a crazy, casserole-like pizza called Priazzo.

It was a Chicago-style deep-dish pizza, but to us, it was a magical bread bowl of tomato sauce, cheese, and meat. Everything a growing boy needs.

For the longest time I thought that I'd imagined the existence of this pizza, but thanks to the internet, I found that I wasn't crazy. Here's a commercial for it.

Pizza Hut Priazzo Pizza

There were four varieties of the Priazzo: Roma, Florentine, Napoli, and Milano. My family tried them all.

Roma: Italian sausage, pepperoni, mushrooms, beef, pork, onion, mozzarella, and Cheddar. I remember this one being good, but 9-year-old me was staunchly against mushrooms and onions.

Florentine: Cheddar, ricotta, Parmesan, Romano, and mozzarella mixed with ham and spinach. At the time this was our least favorite. But seeing this list of ingredients today, I would love this pie.

Napoli: Parmesan, mozzarella, cheddar, and Romano topped with slices of tomatoes. A good one, but wait until you see the next pie.

Milano: bacon, pepperoni, Italian sausage, beef, pork, mozzarella, and cheddar. This was our favorite.

To paraphrase Joey Tribbiani: all that meat, good; all that cheese, good.

They still sound so delicious! And so heavy. If I ate some of that now I'd have to sleep it off like a bad hangover and then walk 10 miles.

Pizza Hut Priazzo Pizza's Short Life

The Priazzo didn't last very long, maybe only three years in the mid-1980s. They weren't the hit the Hut was hoping for. One reason was probably that they took so long to cook. Every time my family would order one my parents would warn us about the wait.

After the Priazzo party faded, we returned to a hum-drum life of Book-It personal pan pizzas.

At least I'll always have the great memories of dinner out with my family. And Juice Newton. We'll always have Juice Newton.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Ben Kuhns is just some guy on the internet. He is a wannabe writer, and his wife thinks he's funny. He writes for Results-Townsquare Media in Sioux Falls South Dakota.

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