Read time: 6 min.

Practically everyone in Central Indiana Pizza Kings. But have you really Pizza King’d if you haven’t been to Clara’s? Recently, I found out: you haven’t. 

In my neck of the woods, Pizza King traces its roots to 1958¹. From Muncie, it slowly spread outward and eventually landed in Richmond. There, the company unveiled Clara’s Pizza King on Northwest Fifth Street in 1978, and it’s a restaurant with a personality all its own. 

Named for founder Bob Swartz’s mother², Clara’s is almost less a pizzeria than an eclectic time capsule: the place is stuffed with hand-selected details! Leaded-glass chandeliers, Tiffany lamps, bench swings, and even ornate woodwork salvaged from Muncie’s old Masonic Temple are all over the place³.

For all of Clara’s eclectic décor, nothing steals the show quite like its centerpiece: a real, honest-to-God double-decker bus from London! Swartz tracked it down in South Carolina and personally drove it north- creeping along at a top speed of about thirty miles an hour⁴. 

Once in Richmond, the bus wasn’t just parked out front or displayed as a novelty. Instead, it was driven straight into place as the building went up! Its lower level has been transformed into one of the most unforgettable dining rooms in Indiana.

Walking into Clara’s was a feast for the senses- an experience that felt like a warm-up act for the meal itself. It also stirred a strange nostalgia: beyond Richmond’s location, Pizza King once operated at least two other Clara’s restaurants! I was too young to remember Muncie’s before it was gutted in a 1983 fire⁵. I could be wrong, but it appears as if another in Fort Wayne is one is no longer corporate-owned.

I was in Richmond with my mom when we decided to hit up Clara’s. Neither of us had been to Richmond’s before, but Mom remembered Muncie’s, and I’d spent many a childhood meal at the one in Fort Wayne. We spent a few minutes exploring the multi-level seating areas and appreciating the doodads and foobazz before we settled into a table. 

Being locals, Mom and I know the drill at Pizza King. There’s a phone on the table, and you dial the kitchen to place your order. That’s part of the experience! We never even got the chance, though, since an attentive and talkative waiter swooped in immediately and took our orders the old-fashioned way. Deciding what to eat was the real dilemma: everyone knows exactly what a Pizza King pizza means: a big old thin-crust pie sliced into a tidy grid, toppings spread right to the edge, and that familiar ground sausage and pepperoni combination. 

It almost felt wrong to review something so near and dear, so I zigged where I usually zag and went with the Stromboli Wrap-Up painted with dill butter. Mom ordered the regular Stromboli- an eleven-inch toasted sandwich she fully expected to eat half of to save the rest for later. The Stromboli Wrap-Up caught my eye for a couple of reasons. First, it looked exactly like something I’d been missing since my Fort Wayne days, when I happily stuffed myself with the Neapolitan at Lexy’s or grabbed a sausage roll at the Redwood Inn. Second, it promised a heavy dose of Strombolium- a rare nutrient unavailable at any compounding pharmacy.

It didn’t take long for our food to hit the table, and at first glance, everything looked promising. The Wrap-Up made a strong first impression. The regular Stromboli, on the other hand, was only serviceable. Mom and I did what any reasonable people would do and swapped halves so we could sample both. Our verdict was that the traditional Stromboli leaned hard on the bread, with just a whisper of cheese and a thin layer of sausage inside. Before long, we found ourselves abandoning the crust altogether as we happily excavated the excellent fillings with our tools.

The Wrap-Ups, however, were excellent, with lots of sausage, cheese, green pepper, and onion. At some point, our waiter showed up to tell me that any ten-inch pizza could be converted to a wrap-up. I wished I’d known that before ordering! The Royal Feast is always a go-to at Pizza King, but I’d have loved a Chicken Ranch Feast in mine. 

What we didn’t order at Clara’s were the breadsticks, which everyone knows are best when they’re served on the half-baked side. I went in hungry, but a basket of five would’ve pushed me straight into a coma. Our visit to Clara’s in Richmond was a win-win all around, though. After all, Pizza King breadsticks are easy to come by back home, but a great meal in the environment that Clara’s provides is worth saving room for.

I left Clara’s with a reminder that Pizza King isn’t just a menu. Hereabouts, it’s a culture! In Richmond, pizza has been turned into an experience. You don’t go there simply to eat something familiar; you arrive to sit inside a British bus, soak in decades of carefully curated oddities, and feel the echoes of a chain that experimented, indulged, and had a little fun with itself. 

Clara’s food may pull you in on nostalgia, but the setting keeps you lingering long after the plates are cleared. Plenty of Pizza Kings can serve up a fantastic square slice of nostalgia, but Clara’s does something rarer: it makes your meal feel like an event.

Sources Cited
1 At Pizza King every bite as a customer takes matters (2002, November 8). The Muncie Star Press. p. 47.
2 Clara Swartz, 79; Family Started Pizza King Chain. The Muncie Star. p. 8. 
3 Fredericks, O. (1995, December 14). Old, new mingle with style at Clara’s. The Richmond Palladium-Item. p. 31. 
4 Isaacson, P. (2001, May 1). The pizza on the BUS. The Richmond Palladium-Item. p. 24. 
5 Roysdon, K. (2002, May 20). Pizza King’s Clara’s was fixture near downtown until it burned. The Muncie Star Press. p. 7.