This Original Little Caesar's Is Adorable (Pizza Treat)

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Via Little Caesars corporate site here.  This is not my photo. 

I saw this photo (above) in this video from Company Man on YouTube (He's a good follow there. Interesting brand histories and some speculation/rationale for why they succeed/fail.  That's what I'm pretty sure is the first franchise of Little Caesar's in Warren Michigan.  On the Little Caesars corporate site, they list 1962 as the year of the first franchise and include this photo.

At first glance, I love just everything about this photo.  The name (Little Caesar's Pizza Treat), the sign (the fonts, the shape, the l-shaped light bulb row down the side and across the bottom).  Then, inside the place, those light fixtures hanging from the ceiling.  The fact that they have a lamp in there.  The fact that the store is split up 50/50 front-to-back so from the outside you get a peek into the kitchen.  The entirely glass front of the store.  The employees wearing white with paper hats.  And that car parked out front.  The neon sign that reads "15 minute service".  This photo is in black and white, but you can just FEEL the 1960's colors screaming out to you, right?

I wanted to see if I could find more about the store and sure enough, there's NOT A LOT of info out there, but if you look hard enough, there's some.

On Flickr, I came across this photo from Ryan Khatam that shows what I'm pretty is this very same restaurant in Warren Michigan. See it below in this post.   I mean...it *has* to be the same store, right?   Look at the light fixtures and lamp.  Then, if you look at the kitchen photo - notice the peg legs of the oven near where guy is crouching down?  They look similar to the ones in the original photo, don't they?

This is not my photo.  Via Ryan Khatam on Flickr here.
Takeout pizza places don't look like this anymore.  The colors of the furniture are awesome.  The tropical - almost Tiki-esque artwork on the walls?  It is all perfectly mid-century, right?  You walk into a pizza place today it is either jammed with fake grapes and dusty wine chianti bottles on a shelf or is just a counter facing the curb in a suburban strip mall. 

I've long dreamed (and JUST DREAMED...because I'm not a lunatic and know the data on restaurant owners/failures) about a little pizza place.  What it would look like.  What would be on the menu.  How it would be different than what is in the market currently, etc.  I think it warrants a full post that shows some of the little touches that I've collected in my brain over the years.  For sure there are a bunch of influences/ideas/what-have-yous from this awesome Little Caesar's Pizza Treat in Michigan. 

While I get to that, enjoy the full video about Little Caesars rise and fall and rise again from Company Man that turned me on to this whole thing. 

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