Buildings have a funny way of reinventing themselves. Some get makeovers so smooth you’d never guess their former lives! Others can’t shake their past. Chesterfield is home to a perfect example. I usually pass it once or twice a day, and I can’t help but smirk. This Mexican restaurant isn’t fooling anyone: it’s clearly an old Pizza Hut.

Pizza Hut got its start in 1958 thanks to two enterprising brothers from Wichita named Dan and Frank Carney. Chesterfield joined the party in 1978¹. By 1983, its proprietor, Paul Kozel, also owned five similar outlets in Anderson, four in Muncie, and one in Winchester². On the day it opened, Chesterfield’s Pizza Hut featured free Pepsi soft drinks and Looney Tunes glasses. Of course, the giveaway lasted only as long as the supplies did³. 

Chesterfield’s Pizza Hut shut its doors sometime before 2007, when the familiar red roof was transformed into a tavern called The Spot⁴. A few years later, in 2010, restaurateur Joe Hinkle gave the building new life once again by opening Flamingo Joe’s, a place well known for its home-cooked breakfasts and lunches⁵.

Flamingo Joe’s appears to have closed by the time I worked nearby ten or twelve years ago. In 2022, the old Pizza Hut was purchased again and painted in bright colors⁶. Today, the building is home to “Mexican The Old Way and Bar.” I’ve heard the food is fantastic! Still, I’m loath to give up Juan’s.

Sources Cited
1 Madison County Office of Information & GIS Services. (2025). Parcel ID: 48-12-11-200-157.000-035. Madison County, Indiana Assessor. map, Anderson, IN.
2 New Pizza Hut opens on Bethel (1984, May 18). The Muncie Evening Press. p. 16. 
3 Chesterfield…Pizza Hut Grant Opening! (1978, September 28). The Anderson Daily Bulletin. p. 26.
4 Yencer, R. (2007, September 29). Felon suing tavern owners. The Muncie Star Press. p. 1.
5 New restaurant opens in Chesterfield (2010, June 24). The Muncie Star Press. p. 46. 
6 (See footnote 1).