Feb. 9 is National Pizza Day, which inspires this look back at Anthony’s Pizza, the Exchange’s own pizzeria—which happened, in a way, because of a burger.
The first Anthony’s opened on May 1, 1987, at Fort Bliss. Sixteen years earlier, the Exchange made its first move into the fast-food business with Run-In Chef, a restaurant that offered a limited menu for takeout sales. The first one opened in 1971 at Fort Leonard Wood.
Competition from fast-food restaurants in civilian areas outside installations’ gates was strong, and in the ’80s, the Exchange decided to take a deeper dive into the fast-food biz. In 1983, Congress approved Exchange plans for a five-location test of a name-brand fast-food burger operation, which evolved into the AAFES Burger King Program. On May 15, 1984, the Exchange awarded a contract to Burger King to open a minimum of 185 Burger Kings on Army and Air Force installations worldwide.
Anthony’s Pizza—The World’s Greatest Pizza was one of the first food concepts to build on the foundation of the Burger King program. After the first one opened at Fort Bliss, Anthony’s grew to have nearly 300 locations worldwide at its peak. Locations often held morale-building (and perhaps waistline-building) promotions such as pizza-eating contests. In the mid-’90s, Anthony’s was one of a number of restaurants the Exchange opened in the Balkans to serve more than 2,000 American troops that were part of a NATO peacekeeping mission to Eastern Europe.
As demand for name-brand restaurants grew, however, the demand for Exchange-exclusive brands such as Anthony’s declined. In April 2021, Stars and Stripes reported on the closure of the Anthony’s at Ramstein Air Base in Germany—the last location in Europe. Thirteen locations remain in the Pacific Region, and three in CONUS.
In addition to Anthony’s, Blaze Pizza, Domino’s, Hunt Bros., Papa John’s and Pizza Hut operate concessions at various Exchange locations worldwide.
Sources: “One Hundred Years of Service: A History of the Army and Air Force Exchange Service”, Exchange Post archives, Exchange history Flickr.
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