On Feb. 1, 2023, just in time for you to ditch your New Year's resolution, Pizza Hut will start selling its 16-inch pie, the Big New Yorker.
This "XL pizza," as the Plano, Texas-based company describes it, comes with six "oversized, foldable slices" and can be customized beyond the traditional double pepperoni order. The pizza was introduced in 1999, then retired at the end of that year, says a spokeswoman.
Its return arrives just before the Super Bowl on Feb. 12. The Super Bowl is one of Pizza Hut's biggest days of the year, and Pizza Hut's chief marketing officer Lindsay Morgan says it's the "perfect time" to unleash the Big New Yorker -- "in a big way, right before the big game."
The pizza is, notably, 30% larger than Pizza Hut's large-sized pizza. So "big" is appropriate here.
In an amusing throwback commercial, the Big New Yorker was once marketed thusly: "The economy bites, so bite the Big New Yorker." Hear me out, guys: Is this another reason the Big New Yorker is back? In time for what Moody's Analytics is calling a "slowcession" in 2023?
OK, probably not.
More than five years ago, Pizza Hut fans created a change.org petition, begging for their big pizza back. About 3,500 people signed it in those years. A modest Reddit thread with a dozen or so comments also brings up the question of a comeback.
We've seen social platforms enact great change for restaurant companies. Taco Bell leveraged Doja Cat and Dolly Parton's celebrity to bring back the Mexican Pizza. In Texas, TikTok saved a downtown Dallas sushi restaurant, boosted the followers of a West African restaurant in Grand Prairie and put 6.5 million eyes on a bar near uptown Dallas.
But it works the opposite way, too. When Chili's quietly removed the Original Chicken Crispers from the menu and the Dallas Morning News wrote about it, the "Today" show picked up the story and comments flooded in from sad millennials. One person declared it was "the worst day of my life."
Note: The 2023 version of the BNY will be made with different crust and cheese. The Pizza Hut team that redid the pie is using a new New York-style crust recipe alongside sweet marinara, cupped pepperoni and parmesan-oregano seasoning on top.
Prices for the Big New Yorker start at $13.99.
Hut Rewards members can order the Big New Yorker first starting Jan. 31. It's called limited-time pizza, and a spokeswoman didn't have info on how long the Big New Yorker will be available.
Be prepared to be outraged if or when it disappears for a second time.