Pizza Hut's "latest culinary innovation"—pizza bagels—proves everything old is new again. Yes, the company may have missed the fact that Bagel Bites have been around since 1985
And that many home cooks have realized how easy it is to top a bagel with sauce and cheese. (Cover the hole with this homemade pizza bagel trick.)
Pizza Hut's PR team likely means that pizza bagels are new, but don't expect them soon. The Big New Yorker Pizza Bagel appears to be a limited-time and limited-place promotion.
According to an email Mashed received, these pizza bagels are only available in LA or New York in late March. The Pizza Hut-Yeastie Boys bagels will debut at Rolling Loud on March 15–17.
If you miss them there, you can pursue a pizza bagel food truck through that city from March 22 to 24 or in NYC from March 22 to 23. You can get a free pizza bagel if you catch one of these trucks.
Pizza bagels may look like a '90s throwback since afterschool Bagel Bite nuking was popular in the 1990s. If Pizza Hut introduces this "innovation" on the main menu, it may target a different clientele than middle-aged millennials.
The 66-year-old chain is converting from family-sized bundles to smaller, possibly more portable options to target younger clients.
According to Restaurant Business, the quesadilla-like Melt was created to attract younger customers. The solo diner pizza is cheaper than a full-sized pizza.