Revolutionary Pizza: Little Caesars' Drive-Thru Michigan Origins

The concept of drive-thru pizza may just be the most perfect use case for a drive-thru window. Pair that with Little Caesars, the chain that's known for Hot and Ready pizza.

It's likely that Little Caesars, which has a history of pizza innovation, of bringing America the first pizza drive-thru.

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Known as the Pizza Station, it was installed in the late 1970s at a Little Caesars location in Warren, a suburb of Detroit.

The Dawn of Drive-Thru Pizza: The "Pizza Station" Concept

The concept of a drive-thru was so new that a diagram of how a drive-thru works needed to be included in the newspaper advertising of the era, as seen in this February 1979 ad from the Detroit Free Press.

To use the Pizza Station:

Drive up to the Menu Board and place your older over the speaker.
Seconds later, pull up to the Convenience Window and you order's ready.

The ad promised fresh pizza in 15 seconds. The cost? Just 59 cents. Those were the good ol' days.

The pizza drive-in concept was taken even further a decade or two later when Spad's took the Hot n Now concept and transferred it to pizza.

As for Little Caesars innovations, their home market of Detroit has long been a testing ground including a long forgotten casual sit-down restaurant that included a full line of Italian dishes in Dearborn including wine on the menu.

And the pantheon of Detroit-region pizza chains - Little Caesars, Domino's, Hungry Howie's, Jet's - may collectively claim the innovation of taking the auto industry's assembly line concept and bringing it to pizza effectively creating the modern American pizza chain.

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The Legacy Lives On: The Pizza Station Location Today

The location of that Pizza Station at 12 Mile and Hayes in Warren right on the border with Roseville is still in business as a Little Caesars and still has a drive-up window.

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Gallery Credit: Jacob Harrison

Little Caesars’ Fantastic Four-N-One Pizza

Little Caesars has a new pizza for The Fantastic Four: First Steps with four different flavors on one pie. Just don’t try to buy it at the Little Caesars on Yancy Street.