The Perry Pizza Hut at 2812 Willis Ave. was welcomed into the Perry Chamber of Commerce Tuesday with a ribbon-cutting event that coincided with the store’s celebration of nearly 50 years as a Perry business.
Perry Pizza Hut Manager Josh Biondi, flanked by Servers Brianna Murphy and Christa Hall, was joined at the ceremony by Pizza Hut Area Coaches Kirk Duff and Deb Holdeman and Pizza Hut Regional Manager Kyle Jorgensen for the ribbon cutting.
Biondi said the sales event was featuring Flashback to the Seventies prices, including $2 pizzas and $1 beers.
Jesse Siglin of Perry, who managed the Perry Pizza Hut at the time of its May 2015 closure, said the Perry store was built in 1969 and opened in 1970. Siglin said he was sure of the dates because his father told him he worked for Pizza Hut when it opened in Perry.
The Perry restaurant reopened in August 2015 under the new ownership of Joe Comes, president of West Des Moines-based Comes Investments Inc., who owns about a dozen Pizza Hut franchises in Iowa and South Dakota.
The Perry City Council voted unanimously June 1, 2015, to approve Comes’ application for an urban renewal loan of $25,000 from the city’s revolving loan fund. The interest rate on the five-year loan was 3 percent.
Pizza Hut is a subsidiary of the world’s largest restaurant company, Yum! Brands Inc. Founded in 1958, Pizza Hut has nearly 17,000 restaurants workdwide.
