Documentary Explores Former Pizza Hut Architecture Across America

Filmmakers Rose Tucker and Matthew Salleh, a Brooklyn couple known for documentaries on everyday subjects, released "Slice of Life: The American Dream. In Former Pizza Huts." in 2025. The film examines businesses that have retrofitted former Pizza Hut locations, inspired by the blog "Used to Be a Pizza Hut." Pizza Hut's distinctive two-tiered red roof and trapezoid windows make the buildings easily recognizable. After the company shifted to a delivery and carry-out model in the late 1990s, many dine-in locations closed, leaving behind distinctive real estate. These spaces have been converted into a wide range of businesses including Mexican restaurants, Chinese restaurants, pizzerias, a flower shop, a liquor and tobacco store, a used-car lot, and multiple funeral homes. The film features the Church of Our Savior MCC in Boynton Beach, Florida, an L.G.B.T.Q.-friendly congregation; a husband-and-wife-owned marijuana dispensary in Colorado; and a karaoke bar in Texas. Salleh, 42, and Tucker, 40, explore the stories of people who transformed these spaces, asking what motivated their conversions. The documentary is part of a New York Times Design special section on retrofits.