February 9th is National Pizza Day! For today, Alex shares some Sacramento pizza history that you can see when you attend a @Sacramento Kings game or event at the @Golden 1 Center. Sacramento was home to the original Shakey’s Pizza Parlor, which opened in April 1954, at the corner of J and 57th Streets. Sherwood “Shakey” Johnson and Ed Plummer converted a former grocery store at the location into a pizza parlor originally called Shakey’s Pizza Parlor & Ye Public House. The combination of pizza, beer, and jazz music made Shakey’s a local favorite. Not to mention a small pizza was 90 cents and a glass of beer was a dime. In 1956, a second Shakey’s opened making Shakey’s the first franchise pizza chain in the United States. By the time Johnson retired in 1967, there were 272 Shakey’s restaurants in the United States, and in the 1970s the company expanded internationally with over 400 restaurants worldwide. There were five other Shakey’s restaurants in Sacramento during the chain’s height. The original Shakey’s restaurant closed in 1996. The neon sign from the original Shakey’s was donated to the Center for Sacramento History. The sign resides today at the Golden 1 Center where it is on display with other neon signs from other prominent former businesses in Sacramento.
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