Pizza Hut Is Releasing A Pizza Bagel, But There's A Catch
Everything old is new again, as Pizza Hut is proving with its "latest culinary innovation" — pizza bagels. Yep, maybe the chain didn't get the memo that Bagel Bites have been around since 1985, nor that countless home cooks already discovered how easy it is to top a bagel with sauce and cheese. (Here's a handy homemade pizza bagel hack for covering up the hole.) What Pizza Hut's PR team probably means is that pizza bagels are new to the brand, but don't look for them to be added to the menu any time soon. The Big New Yorker Pizza Bagel, it seems, isn't just a limited-time offer, but a limited-place one, as well.
Per an email received by Mashed, you'll only find these pizza bagels in LA or New York in late March. The product of a collaboration between Pizza Hut and LA-based bagel food truck Yeastie Boys, the bagels will debut at the Los Angeles music festival Rolling Loud between March 15 and 17. If you miss them there, you can chase a dedicated pizza bagel food truck through the streets of that city between March 22 and 24 or another one that will cruise in NYC from March 22 to 23. The good news is that if you manage to catch one of these trucks, your pizza bagel will be free. If you're really lucky, you might get a figurative golden ticket with a prize code for free pizza or Yeastie Boys merch.
Pizza bagels may be meant to appeal to younger consumers
Pizza bagels may seem like something intended to appeal to '90s kids since the last decade of the 20th century was pretty much the heyday of afterschool Bagel Bite nuking. Still, it seems as if Pizza Hut may have a different target audience in mind other than middle-aged millennials if it plans to introduce this "innovation" to the main menu at some point. The 66-year-old chain has reportedly been struggling to attract younger customers, so instead of focusing on family-sized bundles, it's switching gears to offer smaller and perhaps more portable options.
One such item is the quesadilla-like Melt, which the company has admitted was designed to interest younger patrons — as reported by Restaurant Business. The product is meant for a solo diner and, as such, is priced cheaper than a full-sized pizza. Pizza bagels, too, are strictly one-size-serves-one, although Pizza Hut is unlikely to be giving them away for free once the current promo ends. They would probably also cost less than standard pizzas.