5 Once-Beloved American Pizza Chains That Flopped Miserably
The restaurant business can be ruthless at the best of times, and pizza chains are no exception. Despite offering food and drinks that people love, there is no guarantee of long-term success, and sometimes certain spots just can’t survive. When even the big chains like Pizza Hut and Cicis are struggling, it’s not wonder the smaller ones don’t make it. Here are five pizza chains that used to be popular but have since disappeared.
Eatza Pizza
Eatza Pizza launched in 1997 and closed down completely by 2008. The Scottsdale, Arizona-based chain is not going down without a fight—it looks like the restaurant is still doing pop-ups at the Blindhouse Beer Co. “I need to know where the chocolate chip pizza is bcs the one that was in my city is closedddd I use to eat that as a child all the time,” one fan said.
Pizza & Pipes
Pizza & Pipes was a big deal in the 70s and 80s—this unique restaurant had diners eating pizza while being entertained by a performer playing a giant pipe organ. It sounds strange but people loved it at the time, and sadly the last one closed down in 2001. “They had the funniest sign for awhile: ‘Same great food, same great service, no pipes’,” one Redditor shared. Pizza & Pipes was a popular pizza chain in the 1970s and 1980s, with the final location in Santa Clara closing down in 2001. The niche concept had guests enjoying their pizza dinner while listening to a professional musician playing a giant pipe organ, plus an accompanying light show. Apparently people enjoyed this back then—it’s a pity the concept didn’t survive!
Pizza Cucinova
Ohio-based Pizza Cucinova was one of the more recent pizza chains, founded in 2013 but floundering by 2019. “They spent more time joking with each other than expeditiously getting pizzas ready. There were about 10 of us in line at noon and they couldn’t have been slower and sloppier. Lots of work to be done,” one Yelp reviewer wrote back in 2019.
Pizza Haven
Based in the Pacific Northwest, Pizza Haven (“A slice of Seattle Since 1958”) was one of the first chains to offer delivery pizza for customers but ended up filing for bankruptcy by the 90s, unable to compete with the big chains. “Remember it very well. Way before pizza hut, Godfathers pizza, dominos, and papa murphys,” one fan said.
ShowBiz Pizza Place
Before Chuck E. Cheese and Dave & Busters, there was ShowBiz Pizza Place, a hugely popular family restaurant. Founded in 1980, the beloved chain was gone by the mid 90s after being merged with and subsequently replaced by Chuck E. Cheese. Fans of ShowBiz Pizza Place can check out old photos here.