There’s a moment from my childhood that bounces around my brain constantly. I often bring it up whenever the words ‘Pizza Hut’ are uttered, or there’s reference to an all-you-can-eat type situation. The moment, happened inside the dine-in Pizza Hut in Traralgon, at one of the many birthday parties in that establishment. A place where the pizza slices were constant, the chocolate mousse extremely rich, and the soft serve machine continually pouring.
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The late 90s truly were heady days for kids wanting fast food that came with a toy tied to favourite cartoons, or the latest movie that had hit the screens at Mid Valley 8. But for me, fast food was a long way away. Yarram, Victoria was not exactly flush with the likes of McDonald’s, Kentucky Fried Chicken, or Pizza Hut. For those delicacies, you had to head ‘over the line’ (a phrase I never fully understood) and drive 50 minutes through the farming hamlets of Won Wron, Carrajung, and Gormandale until you reached Victoria’s brown coal mecca, the Latrobe Valley.
Here, in Traralgon (there was probably one in Morwell as well), stood before us a classically-styled dine-in Pizza Hut. That iconic red-angled roof that you can recognise in a second. The Traralgon restaurant was unique in that it was well above ground—I think due to its proximity to the ever-flooding Traralgon Creek—with parking underneath, and a long access ramp that led us to temptation. It was here that my friend Ben—I was once in a class that saw 6 other Bens on the morning roll—consumed at least 20+ slices of pizza in one sitting. Over the years the amount was debated, I remember it being somewhere between 21 and 28, so let’s call it 25 slices.
This over-the-top consumption of average slices of pizza became somewhat of an urban legend, although to be honest, I’d be surprised if anyone else can even recall the event, let alone have it constantly on the top of their mind.
Dine-in Pizza Hut restaurants have unfortunately gone by the wayside since this time, with only one purveyor of ‘The Works’ left in Victoria, and a few others dotted around New South Wales, Queensland, and South Australia.
I feel like a Boomer on Facebook talking about the good old days, but these truly were the good old days, we just didn’t know it at the time. The beacon of light that stood out when you knew you were heading to Pizza Hut for someone’s birthday in a few weeks really kept you going. You felt like royalty, like you could eat like a king for the day. And from memory, The Works only cost $7.50 at the time.
We recently took our kids to the last bastion of all-you-can-eat pizza, pasta, and mousse goodness in Victoria, the Pizza Hut in Ballarat. I’ve never seen my daughter enjoy a restaurant experience more. “Everything is free!” she said over and over again. Little does she know, you’d struggle to get out of feeding a family of 4 with The Works these days for less than $100.
The whole experience definitely had me longing for those birthday party days in the late ’90s. Generations following mine suffer from the absence of this kind of meeting place. A comically long table with kids jammed alongside, running around a restaurant like absolute lunatics while piling pizza, pasta, jelly, mousse, ice cream, and sprinkles as high as they possibly can before it all topples over. Never salad though, of course.
There are very few dine-in Pizza Huts, and you never see birthday parties at Macca’s anymore—and the once familiar party room has long since disappeared.
I was recently reading a piece in Texas Monthly that inspired me to write this. In the article, the author Adam Chandler was quoted “Pizza Hut stands alone in being a community meeting place,” he told Dan Solomon. “That wasn’t in the business model for other chains, because they were built around the car—there’s a quote, ‘One goes to McDonald’s to eat, not to dine,’
Recently, small-town Texas has seen an iteration of Pizza Hut that harks back to the restaurant of old. Pizza Hut ‘Classic’ now exists in at least nine Texas towns with a population of less than 20,000 people. Inside you’ll find red and white chequered tablecloths, stained-glass ‘Pizza Hut’ lamps suspended over the tables, and pizza served on actual ceramic plates.
While Pizza Hut Classic could be a resurrection of the nostalgic meeting place that Pizza Hut once was for families split by distance, junior sports teams celebrating a win, or birthday parties, we’re unlikely to see something like this in Australia anytime soon. Until then, you have to wonder if everyone will have all they can eat.
Dine In Pizza Huts Left in Australia
As I mentioned, there are still a few dine-in Pizza Hut’s left on this great island continent. Unfortunately for Victoria’s sake, the pandemic caused the end of both the Bendigo, and Shepparton restaurants. These are the all-you-can-eat Pizza Hut’s left in Australia.
New South Wales
- Windsor
- Minto
- Orange
- Waterloo
Victoria
- Ballarat
Queensland
- Gympie
- Browns Plains
- Toowoomba
Tasmania
- New Town
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