Tuscaloosa residents will have the chance for more than a Throwback Thursday to welcome them back for the first week of fall semester.
Mellow Mushroom will be hosting Way Back Wednesday on Wednesday, Aug. 20 in celebration of the pizza franchise’s 40th anniversary.
Front of house manager Michellee Baker said the corporate Mellow Mushroom has been planning the event all year, and other Mellow Mushrooms will be conducting the same event company-wide.
“I feel like the marketing group at headquarters is really good at pinpointing a good theme for improvement. It’s our 40th anniversary; it’s been a long time, and being in tune with social media, we went with Wednesday and have been promoting it with flashback photos,” Baker said.
Mellow Mushroom will roll back its prices to circa 1974, the year the first Mellow Mushroom opened in Atlanta, Georgia. The price of a small cheese pizza will be $2.50, but additional toppings will be priced at the modern day rates. Domestic beers, such as Budweiser and Michelob Ultra, will be 75 cents, and Coke products will be 30 cents. The restaurant’s full menu will also be available at current prices.
Emma Duncan, a sophomore majoring in biology, will be going to the event not only for the lower prices, but to celebrate the first day of classes, which coincides with the event.
“Well, Mellow Mushroom started in Atlanta, and I’m from Atlanta, and it’s kind of a big deal there,” Duncan said. “It’s my favorite pizza place. It’s a good way to start off the school year – cheap, good pizza.”
Way Back Wednesday will be dine-in only to curb some of the crowds Baker expects to attend, and beers will be sold one at a time.
Baker said the focus for Wednesday is to avoid over-serving while retaining quality service. In preparation for the large crowds, employees will have already stretched 100 pizza doughs by opening.
“I hope, and am assuming, we are going to be pretty much packed from the time of opening to when we close. I expect a line by 10 o’clock,” Baker said.
Aside from cheap pizza, birthday decorations and party hats, Mellow Mushroom will have a piñata and a 100-person birthday cake depicting the company’s logo character, Mel. Local band The Junkyard Kings will be performing sixties and seventies songs on the restaurant’s mezzanine.
“Everybody’s trying to dress up in seventies gear. There will be costume contests, so if anybody has an outrageous costume or wants to dress in theme, I’m going to dish out gift certificates throughout the day,” Baker said.
Mellow Mushroom has had a cardboard standup of the original store on display all month. Restaurant goers have been encouraged to use the hashtag #40YrsBaked on Instagram to enter to win a couple’s trip to Amsterdam. Registration for the competition ends (August 31.)
Mellow Mushroom bartender Ryan Sparks said he is (excited) to be a part the event, which he says showcases the reason the company has remained in business so long.
“It shows that Mellow Mushroom has been able to stick around and is doing a good job,” Sparks said. “It also shows the customers that we’re willing to give something back by making everything so cheap and inviting them in for something like the birthday party.”
