Pizza Hut returns to Culpeper
Photo by Laura Kebede
READY TO SERVE: Pizza Hut servers line up behind the counter during special hours for police officers and first-responders on Wednesday. From left are Jen Ballogh, Chaunti Wells, Emily Daigly, Kaila Racey and Ashley Corbin. The restaurant is scheduled to open to the public today. Members of management say they are still hiring.
Published: July 9, 2009
Updated: July 9, 2009
With friendly greeters at the door and a scent of everything new, Pizza Hut opens today at 11 a.m. according to employees.
Bright signs say “Get your Wings on!” and “Best of both worlds” advertising the addition of Wing Street — 162 varieties of chicken wings in all — to the menu.
Napkins give way to paper towel rolls on each table. TVs adorn each corner of the restaurant with Culpeper sports memorabilia on the walls.
Servers represent the new attitude printed on their fiery red shirts “Cut with Pride” as they prepare the new furnishings for customers.
The grand opening comes after an apparent electrical fire severely damaged the interior in August 2008.
After a long-awaited opening, community members are glad to have the business back in operation.
“We’ve missed it,” Marie Jenkins of Culpeper said of herself and her husband, Robert. “We’re looking forward to their service. My husband is looking forward to the wings.”
Server Ashley Corbin of Culpeper says that employees will help build a better reputation for the restaurant.
“This is a good hang-out place and this place is very up-to-date, yet still has Culpeper’s history here and I think that will draw people,” she said. “We will try our hardest to keep (the restaurant) new and make our customers happy.”
Shift Manager Jan Roberts says the restaurant is still hiring.
“We have about 20 to 30 employees right now and we are looking to hire more servers.”
Employees have been training for the past few weeks and served first-responders in uniform on Wednesday before opening to the public today.
Jen Ballogh of Culpeper, who applied for the job online, is looking forward to putting her training into practice.
“I’m really excited,” she said after explaining she had never worked for a Pizza Hut before. “It looks really good in here and we’re ready.”
The restaurant will be under the management of General Manager Dee Dee Walton and Assistant Manager Jeannette Southard.
Pizza Hut, located at 876 N. Main St., is open from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week.
Advertisement
Reader Reactions
Pizza Hut returns and not a great experience. We went in for lunch buffet on a Tuesday. Slow getting our drinks, slow on refilling the buffet and then trying to pay was terrible. No one had made up a “ticket” for us so we stood there and waited until someone finally did. If the server would have worried about us instead of who is relieving her at 2pm, then it could have been better. We will not be going again. Back to Ledos!!!!!!
Actually, Miss Woodward, I am a third generation Culpeper resident. I was born in Culpeper Memorial.
Perhaps I will dine there. Although, I have no desire to.
My point is, complaining won’t get you far. Your “vote” is your dollar. If everyone chokes them out by not eating there, it will send a powerful message to the rest of the restaurants in town, and also to the rest of the businesses.
Culpeper should boycott all of these corporate restaurants. Except for Chik-Fil-A, I hear the people that own it are super-nice.
I like to make a comment to Mr. or Mrs. Kiveat. First of all, we are not brats. We are, or myself is a born and raised resident to Culpeper county. We speak our mind on our experiences. I put in a complaint to Pizza Hut. Maybe you should go dine there and tell us what you think.. Yeah Town Manager will do nothin, thats a given. But dont call people brats, when they are speaking their minds. Thats allowed!!!
You can’t get the town manager to do anything about poor service. Your only hope is that others feel the same way enough to choke the business out by not eating there.
The corporate office with refer you to the franchise owner. Even corporate Dominoes couldn’t do anything about those people who were tanting the food.
Really, you people sound like brats. Any business has kinks to work out in the beginning. Corporate food stinks, anyway. I guess there is no accounting for taste.
And your boys will live. Why don’t you people get mad about real issues like the cost of water and the over-development of our fair town? Your priorities are completely out of whack.
(mommyof2boys) That’s horrible. You and others should contact the town manager and require him to contact Pizza Hut’s cooperate office. This is totally unacceptable. Other food establishments open without the events as have been described. I will never go back!! Sorry for your boys.
This was my first experience at the pizza hut in Culpeper ever and I was hoping to really enjoy it however it ended up being a horrifying experience! First off we were seated by a lady manager, she seemed nice enough and took our drink order and then NO one came back with our drinks or to ask if we had been helped for 30 minutes. When we were finally helped and had ordered our food my meal came out first and then my husbands did not come out for another 20 minutes. I then went to take my child to the bathroom to change his diaper and the bathroom has no changing table and was absolutely filthy. And on top of everything the place is infested with flys..I don’t mean I saw only one or two flys, I mean there were six flys on the window that my booth was seated next to and then many many more flying around. All and all this place is horrible and should be shut down! Service is bad, they run out of food and the food sucks when you do recieve it.
That is hilarious. Were you really expecting anything else? For the most part, it is young people working there. High demand + teenagers = iffy output. Duh.
I think that plot of land is cursed. And besides,...don’t you people know that corporate restaurants stink? Haven’t you figured that out yet? Entrepreneurship is where its at. And thanks to all the nasty corporatism in this town, turn-over for new, privately owned businesses is high.
And furthermore: no one in this planet is entitled to anything. The fact that food makes it to your mouth everyday is a bloody miracle - not a given. You should thank your lucky stars that you even got to experience this, whiny Americans. When you realize how good you’ve have it, will probably about the same time that things aren’t going that great for any of us.
Eat Digorno and hug your kids, you ungrateful lot.
Seemed like the same old Pizza Hut to me. Poor service, ran out of pizza. How does a pizza business run out of pizza? I left, went to Pete’s Pizza, great pizza! They had plenty.
Grand opening was a disaster. Due to rude service, lack of teamwork. Unorganzied. I think they all were not ready for the doors to open. Heard all excuses for over 2 hours. Yes, you heard right over 2 hours. From the time we arrived.Order was wrong 3 times. People were excited that Pizza Hut was back in town. My experience was horrible. Hope they shape up and get employees to work together. Its pretty bad, when the kitchen staff serves you better than the floor staff…..
UNTOLD….if that is true that if very funny…they must have ran out of pizza. GoTo LEDO’s great pizza and service. I think they imported their workers from somewhere besides Culpeper.
Advertisement