Closing Tuesday

Pizza Hut in Creston closing after nearly 45 years on Highway 34. Customers flood establishment Thursday to get their “last pizza.”

Rain pitter-pattered atop the famous “red roof” of Pizza Hut on Highway 34 in Creston Thursday afternoon.

It was 4 p.m. and word had most definitely spread that Creston’s Pizza Hut was closing. The phone was ringing off the hook with customers calling in their “last pizza” from the establishment while others like Lindsay Jones of Creston and her family had no problem shrugging off some rain so they could “dine in” at least one more time.

“A coworker texted me this afternoon and told me the news,” Jones said. “I told the kids, ‘we’re going.’ We may only get to eat here one or two more times. We had to come. I wish they weren’t closing the doors. We didn’t get much notice.”

Jones and her two children — 8-year-old Stephen and 9-year-old Savannah — come to Pizza Hut in Creston at least once per month to redeem a free personal pan pizza the children earn through an after school Book-It reading program.

It’s also tradition they come to Pizza Hut each winter after sledding.

“We will miss that,” said Jones, who doubts they’ll make the 35-minute trek to the nearest Pizza Hut location in Osceola.

Not far from Jones, Teresa Foote of Afton was standing in the lobby Thursday waiting to pick up her last Pizza Hut pie: A large, steaming hot, half pepperoni, half supreme pan pizza that met her satisfaction as the team member opened the box to confirm a correct order.

“I’ve been eating here since it opened in the ‘70s,” Foote said. “So, I’m devastated. I could eat here every night, but my husband can’t tolerate pizza that often.”

Foote planned to share the pizza with her son Jesse Meggison.

Other memories and comments have flooded the Creston News Advertiser Facebook page over the past 18 hours with 40 people commenting and more than 8,000 people viewing the closure announcement.

Pizza Hut in Creston will close officially at 10 p.m. Tuesday with lights out and doors closed indefinitely at that time. Management would not say why the Creston location is closing and calls by the News Advertiser to Pizza Hut’s corporate number were not returned as of deadline today.

Pizza Hut in Creston has about 25 employees (full and part-time). They were told about the closure May 8. Management said some employees will transfer to the Pizza Hut in Osceola while the rest have filed for unemployment or have found another job.

The community can try and save Creston's Pizza Hut by going online to www.tellpizzahut.com and telling corporate you don't want the establishment here to close. Creston's store number is 4316.

Creston is not the only Pizza Hut to close in Iowa over the past year. Chariton’s Pizza Hut closed about one month ago and Perry’s closed earlier this week. Pizza Huts in Clear Lake and Forest City closed around this time last year.