The Vintage Chuck E. Cheese Pizza That Featured A Truly Unusual Ingredient

When you're planning your adult birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese – because we know you're doing it — you might upgrade your experience with some CEC pizza. Nowadays, Chuck's pizza menu is long on the favorites. You have supreme, five meat, and veggie, to say nothing of Build Your Own. What if we told you, however, that once upon a time, Chuck E. Cheese offered a Hawaiian pizza that was (likely) unlike one you've ever had before? It included slivered almonds as a topping.

Over on History Channel's "Adam Eats the '80s", host Adam Richman was treated to a private tasting of two old-school pizzas by Chuck E. Cheese employees in Northridge, California ... along with a history lesson. The Northridge restaurant, as of the episode's filming, was one of the last Chuck E. Cheese locations in the world to have singing animatronics. In honor of CEC history, Adam was treated to a '80s-vintage variation on supreme pizza that featured Portuguese sausage, and a very special old-school Hawaiian pizza with ham, pineapple, and slivered almonds. Both pizzas were from old CEC menus. The employees couldn't say why the Hawaiian pizza had almonds, sharing the rumor that it came about as the result of an accident.

Interestingly, and possibly related, Chuck E. Cheese upgraded its pizza offerings in 1985 when the chain, teetering on the verge of bankruptcy, merged with Showbiz/Pizza Time Theater Inc., a similar company. Showbiz expanded the pizza menu with new varieties, and first brought in the idea of beer for adult patrons. Was a nutty Hawaiian pizza part of that '80s upheaval? We can't be sure. It turns out, however, that Hawaiian pizza with almonds isn't extinct ... there's at least one American chain that offers it today.

Unlike the facts you never knew about pizza, it's a well-established truth that pineapple on pizza is a source of major controversy. You either love this fruity spin on 'za, or you make it your life's mission to hate on it. There's no middle ground. We can only imagine that pineapple and ham pizza with almonds and cinnamon is polarizing to the max. And, yet, at Donatos, a Midwestern chain, this is exactly what's on the menu. While two notable pizza chains are natives of Michigan, Donatos was born in Columbus, Ohio, and it's stuck close to home, with stores in Kentucky and Indiana as well as the Buckeye State.

We've heard of Hawaiian pizza with honey and candied jalapeños; we've seen pies that add green pepper, red onion, and/or BBQ sauce. Hawaiian pizza is a pretty forgiving canvas, after all. If the pineapple is there, the rest is up for interpretation. We also don't hate the idea of almonds on pizza — we've seen cheese and almonds paired together in both snack plates and the type of cheese ball that you see on a party table. 

The good news is that you don't have to waste a takeout night on a pizza that you might hate. Hawaiian pizza with almonds is easy-peasy to make at home. Either use your favorite homemade pizza recipe or grab a plain cheese freezer pie, and add canned (drained!) pineapple, ham chunks, and some slivered almonds. You can choose salted or unsalted, but we'd probably opt for the latter, since ham is already pretty salty. Stick that bad boy in the oven, and develop your own opinions on this nutty, vintage pizza from Chuck E. Cheese's past!