Hot and fresh or old and cold, pizza never really disappoints. Some would argue that it has never been as good as it is today, with various pizza chains prioritizing high-quality ingredients. Yet, those folks may have forgotten, or are too young to remember, how humble, old-school pizza haunts like Washington State’s Pizza Haven used to be the bar by which a pizza parlor was judged.
Every state in the U.S. has a quality hole-in-the-wall pizza joint hiding somewhere within its borders. For years, Pizza Haven was one of those establishments gracing Seattle’s neighborhoods. It opened its doors in the city’s University District in 1958, the same year Pizza Hut was founded. The pizza itself wasn’t anything special — just a modest, cheesy, greasy pie with dependable favorites for toppings. But get a group of people together to enjoy a few slices washed down with some cheap lagers, and you had a recipe for treasured memories in the making.
Pizza Haven initially separated itself from its competitors by offering delivery service, much to the delight of local college students. “It was the goto pizza place for students when I was at university in the mid ’90s,” one Redditor recalled. “The cleaners in halls of residence asked us not to shove the empty boxes in our bins because they were hard to get out, and to stack them at the end of the hall instead.” It was successful enough to expand into a 42-location empire across other regions of the country and even overseas in the Middle East and Russia. But sadly, Pizza Haven couldn’t stand the test of time. Various factors likely played into the company’s demise that left a pizza-sized hole in the hearts of Seattleites.
The unfortunate downfall of Pizza Haven
Seattle’s Pizza Haven serves as an example of how smaller fish in the pond can be consumed by a bigger fish hungry for market share. As pizza joints became increasingly popular, major chains like Domino’s and Pizza Hut were expanding into territories like Seattle. They were able to advertise deals and provide coupons for cheaper food that led many folks through their doors. Like many local pizza shops in the 1960s and ’70s, the Seattle staple suddenly found itself competing with those discounts…