If you were to travel across Indiana on a quest to eat at all the Pizza King restaurants, you’d notice subtle differences in branding (some have a crown logo while others have a king character) as you make your way from one end of the state to the other. This is because the Swartz brothers — the two brothers who opened the original Pizza King in Lafayette, Indiana, in 1956 — ran into creative differences after the first year of operating. Unlike the two brothers behind Pizza Hut, whose differences in personalities reportedly made a great team, the Swartz brothers’ creative contrasts led them to split the state of Indiana, dividing the territory between two Pizza King companies. And while this sibling competition didn’t make our list of top U.S. restaurant rivalries, it’s still an interesting chapter in the chain’s history.
Bob Swartz went on to open Pizza King in eastern Indiana, which now has 59 locations. The eastern Indiana Pizza King maintains the catchphrase “Ring the King,” and customers at several locations can order a pizza using a phone in the center of the table (a vestige of the original concept) rather than give their order to a server.
Wendell Swartz opened Pizza King Inc. in the western part of Indiana, which has 63 locations listed (plus one additional location in Hoopeston, Illinois). Pizza King Inc. is based out of Lafayette, which is now the company’s “commissary office.”
Do Pizza King customers recognize a difference?
While Pizza King didn’t make our ranked list of 30 popular pizza chains, it’s a household name in many regions of Indiana. Ed Bogan, one of the two brothers who currently owns Pizza King Inc. in Lafayette (originally Wendell Swartz’s territory), explained during an interview with WHAS 11 that the regional preferences and loyalties run deep across the state, depending on where the customers grew up…