Convenience Big Store: Small town brings back nostalgic Pizza Hut dining room of many childhoods

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Small town brings back nostalgic Pizza Hut dining room of many childhoods

Before moving to a larger city, I thought Pizza Hut held a pizza monopoly in most corners of the world. As they say, you can't out pizza the Hut.

My hometown's Pizza Hut buffet was the place to go after youth soccer games, going for a cheap treat for the family or going on a first date. It stayed the same through my childhood and was where many kids, including myself, got their first jobs.

It seems as though Hempstead's Pizza Hut serves its community in much the same way. Like my hometown's, Hempstead's offers a lunch buffet, and they've both recently been remodeled to look straight out of the 1970s, complete with original stained-glass light fixtures, checkered tablecloths and red cups.

With a little fewer than a dozen of these Pizza Hut Classics cropping up around Texas and new retro haunts like Nonno's in Houston, it seems nostalgia is back in business.

The Chronicle's Sonia Garcia went to visit the town of around 6,000 to check out the Pizza Hut from yesteryear, old-school hat and all. Check out the full story here.

How do you feel about chain restaurants embracing this old-school look? Let me know at claire.partain@houstonchronicle.com.

Claire Partain, Suburban reporter producer

Claire.Partain@houstonchronicle.com

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Openings and Closings

It was corrected in the article but sadly slipped through the cracks here: Pincho will host its grand opening tomorrow, not Wednesday. Sorry to anyone who was on the hunt for a discount burger yesterday.

Also, as a few of you pointed out, it's Lake Conroe Park that has closed, not Lake Conroe itself as said in the subject line. I think the freeze somehow infiltrated my brain.

Shout out

This week, we're taking time to remember Mike Jones, the Courier's sports editor from the 1990s to 2015.

There wasn't a high school team in Montgomery County he didn't cover, sharing the triumph in their wins and the agony in their defeats, Sondra Hernandez writes.