The Old-School Mall Pizzeria That Went From Hot Spot To History

Featuring eateries such as Panda Express, Auntie Anne's, and Sbarro, mall food courts are a must for shopping trips. While the offerings are neither nutritious nor fancy, sometimes a warm pretzel or a bowl of orange chicken is all you need. Sadly, longtime food court fans know that chains come and go. Among the mall food court restaurants that disappeared is Pizza Haven, an establishment with a longer history than many realize.

Pizza Haven actually dates back to the late 1950s and was one of the first pizza chains in the Pacific Northwest. Founders Kent Heaps, Elmer Howard, Ronald Bean, and Jack Schneider opened Pizza Haven's first location in Seattle in 1958, stationing their restaurant near the hub of the University of Washington's Greek life scene. One of Pizza Haven's distinguishing features was delivery. While that is certainly no novelty today, at the time, it was one of the first pizza restaurants to offer what was then a luxury, making it popular with the fraternity scene.

However, delivery alone was not responsible for Pizza Haven's popularity. The food also helped. Today many fans remember Pizza Haven as one of the best food court restaurants. Naturally, It served pizza, and the high-quality crust remains a source of nostalgia for fans. There was more than just the titular dish to love, too. The franchise's chicken bisque soup, lasagna, and garlic bread were also fan favorites.

Pizza Haven's early success helped it grow from its rather humble beginnings near the University of Washington. The single restaurant evolved into a regional chain boasting 42 stores. It even had a small overseas presence with a handful of locations in Russia and some parts of the Middle East.

Sadly, the success was not to last. As the decades went on, the franchise began to flounder. Pizza delivery was no longer niche and Pizza Haven struggled to compete with bigger national chains. It shrank over the years, and by the 1990s, it downsized to a single pizza slice stand in the Seattle Center, operated by only two employees at a time. A missed tax payment eventually spelled doom for Pizza Haven in 1998, forcing the franchise to file for bankruptcy. The Seattle Center location hung on for a while, but sadly shut its doors in 2012, marking Pizza Haven as one of many American pizza chains that have vanished.