You may not recognize this pizza restaurant after big makeover

The Pizza Hut at 337 E. National Road (U.S. 40) in Vandalia — built more than four decades ago — has reopened after an extensive makeover.

The restaurant’s franchise owner “was very interested in updating the location to meet the expectations of today’s consumer,” a spokesman for Pizza Hut told this news outlet. The restaurant reopened on Dec. 6 after several weeks of construction.

The makeover is part of an overall brand refresh. Pizza Hut will be updating roughly 700 locations across the country in 2017, the restaurant chain’s spokesman said.

The Vandalia location opened in 1975, and still had many of the identifying hallmarks of dine-in Pizza Hut restaurants from that era, including the iconic bright red hut roof.

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The “full remodel” transformed the restaurant using Pizza Hut’s new prototype design, and incorporated the brand’s “WingStreet” wings brand.

“The customer experience will be greatly improved with the new restaurant flow, more windows and lighting, a patio and seating arrangement,” the spokesman said. Three large-screen televisions also were installed.

Pizza Hut just completed a similar redesign at its restaurant in West Carrollton and will complete another early next year in Bellefontaine, the spokesman said.

The renovation projects come amid a surge in competition in the local pizza market locally and nationally, much of it generated by relatively new fast-casual chains, including Rapid Fired Pizza, which opens its 10th location in southwest and west-central Ohio Friday in Kettering.

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