PHOTO BY SEAN COLLIER

You might not give a second glance to the fast-food restaurants that line Route 30 in Irwin. One, however, is home to a unique time capsule of the early 1990s.

Behind Irwin’s Pizza Hut location — itself a treasure, open since the 1970s and featuring the traditional architecture of the chain — you’ll find a sprawling mural of pop-culture references and local nods. The work of artist Dana King, who worked for two years at the restaurant as a short-order cook, the mural wraps around the building.

PHOTO BY SEAN COLLIER

You’ll find then-ubiquitous celebrities including Madonna, the New Kids on the Block and Sylvester Stallone alongside Disney characters and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. (Raphael, of course, is eating a Pizza Hut pizza.) A drawing of Bart Simpson gets existential, asking, “Some will, some won’t. So what?”

PHOTO BY SEAN COLLIER

One area is dedicated to portraits of the Pizza Hut staff at the time King created the mural; one employee pictured on the wall, Kathy Leonard, still works at the location today. If you go inside and say hello, you’ll get another pleasant surprise: While table service and the salad bar are no more, this location still looks like one of the chain’s early-’90s locations, with checkerboard tables and red hanging light fixtures.

If you dine in, they’ll even produce shakers of Parmesan and red-pepper flakes, just like it’s still the era of New Kids on the Block and Madonna.

Find It!
9253 Route 30, Irwin