Forney Has the Pizza Hut Everyone Else Wishes They Still Had
There was a time when going to Pizza Hut meant actually going to Pizza Hut.
You sat in a booth. The pizza came out in a hot pan. There were red cups, dark wood, weird lamps and probably a kid playing an arcade game somewhere near the salad bar.
Most of those Pizza Huts are gone now.
Forney still has one.
The Pizza Hut at 924 E. Highway 80 still has a full dining room, and it feels a lot closer to the Pizza Hut people remember from the 1980s and 1990s than the smaller carryout-focused locations that have become common today.
It also serves alcohol, including liquor. The Forney location holds a Mixed Beverage Permit, which allows it to sell distilled spirits, wine and malt beverages.
That makes it a little more interesting than your average Pizza Hut.
You can bring the kids, order a pan pizza, sit down for dinner and, if the day has been especially long, order an actual drink with it.
Why People Miss the Old Pizza Hut
Pizza Hut used to be a destination.
Families went there after baseball and soccer games. Kids had birthday parties there. The BOOK IT! program gave generations of students a reason to suddenly care about reading, because enough books eventually meant a free Personal Pan Pizza.
Then the business changed.
Delivery became more important. Online ordering took over. Dining rooms got smaller or disappeared completely, and a lot of Pizza Hut locations became places you picked food up from instead of places you stayed.
Nobody seemed to care much at first.
Now people absolutely care.
There are social media accounts, Reddit threads and entire websites devoted to old Pizza Hut restaurants. People look for the red roofs, the booths, the lamps and anything else that reminds them of the Pizza Hut they grew up with.
Pizza Hut has even leaned into the nostalgia with official “Pizza Hut Classic” locations that bring back parts of the old look and feel.
The Forney restaurant is not officially listed as a Pizza Hut Classic, but that is almost beside the point.
It still has what people are looking for: a real dining room and the feeling that you are going out for pizza instead of just picking it up.
Forney Has Had It This Whole Time
That is probably the funniest part.
People around the country are searching for old-school Pizza Huts, driving out of their way to visit them and posting videos when they find one.
Meanwhile, Forney has had one sitting on Highway 80.
It is not a museum. It is not some heavily marketed retro concept. It is just a Pizza Hut where you can still walk in, sit down, order dinner and hang out for a while.
And yes, have a drink.
Forney spends a lot of time talking about what restaurants we need, what restaurants are coming and what restaurants we wish would open here.
Every once in a while, it is worth noticing something we already have.
Especially when the rest of the country seems to want it back.
