Pizza Hut Closing 250 Locations— Southeast Minnesota Hit First

Pizza Hut will always have a spot in my heart. I grew up in a tiny town, and it was our only option for pizza. Growing up in the 1990s, I was also a proud BOOK IT! kid, which meant I gobbled up more than my share of personal pan pizzas.

Yum Brands announced this year that it will close 250 underperforming Pizza Hut locations nationwide. Pizza Hut currently operates more than 6,000 restaurants in the United States and 19,974 stores globally. The chain is credited with making pizza a mainstream food in America.

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ALSO READ: Guy Fieri's Top 7 Pizzas: TWO Are Right Here in MN

A Brief History of Pizza Hut

I’m a fan of The Food That Built America on the History Channel, a docuseries that traces the origins of some of the country’s most iconic foods. Its episode on pizza is fascinating, because pizza wasn’t really a thing in the U.S. until the late 1950s.

Today, Americans eat an estimated 3 billion pizzas each year, making pizza one of the most popular foods on the planet. But not that long ago, it was practically nonexistent in American culture.

In 1958, brothers Dan and Frank Carney were college students with no restaurant experience and no money, but they decided to take a chance. They borrowed $600 from their mom to open a small pizza restaurant in Wichita, Kansas. The inspiration came from an Italian peasant food that they had read about in a magazine. They named the restaurant Pizza Hut because their sign only had room for eight letters, and the rest is history.

Pizza Hut Shutters Southeast Minnesota Location

Pizza Hut currently operates more than 90 locations across Minnesota, spanning dozens of communities from the Twin Cities metro to Greater Minnesota. The company has not said which locations will be closed, but southernminn.com has confirmed the Pizza Hut on Oak avenue in Owatonna shut its doors for good last Tuesday.

Running 94 locations is impressive, but it’s not even close to the largest chain in the state. Check out which fast-food giant has the most locations in Minnesota below.