The U.S. Pizza Museum at the Roosevelt Collection is growing! We’re adding additional gallery space to accommodate the display of over 100 more items in new and completely redesigned exhibits that tell the history of pizza while highlighting the people who helped make it America’s favorite food.

Open on Fridays from 1–8pm and Saturdays and Sundays from 11am–6pm, the museum features Founder and Director Kendall Bruns’ personal collection of pizza-themed memorabilia in exhibits about pizza throughout the United States, including New York, Chicago, New Haven and other prominent pizza cities. The museum will maintain regular hours throughout the renovation. The remodel and brand-new exhibits will be launching Friday, May 31 with an opening reception on Saturday, June 1 at 12:30pm featuring a presentation by Bruns with free pizza, while supplies last. Tickets can be reserved at uspizzamuseum.com/tickets.

New items on display include vintage pizzeria menus and advertisements, a 10 foot tall Pizzeria Due sign that hung outside the restaurant in the 1980s, a Pizza Hut Electric Baking Oven from 1975 that allowed children to make pizza at home.

There will also be original art on display, including photos from the upcoming Modernist Pizza book from the James Beard award winning team behind Modernist Cuisine, and “Forever Pizza,” a real slice of pizza preserved in acrylic by artist Steph Mantis.

Bruns says, “We’ll have more on display than ever before and there will be more context to understand what you’re looking at. For example, along with the Pizzeria Due sign we also have blueprints and photos of the sign when it was outside the pizzeria. It’s part of an exhibit that explores the origins of Pizzeria Uno and Due including key figures that sometimes get overlooked like Ric Riccardo and Alice Mae Redmond.” 

In addition to over 100 new items on display, improvements to the space include movable exhibition walls, a larger projection screen, and higher capacity.

“We are thrilled to have the opportunity to continue supporting the U.S. Pizza Museum at Roosevelt Collection,” says Shannon Ridgeway, General Manager of Roosevelt Collection Shops. “One of our center’s core values is bringing both visitors and Chicago locals together, and the remodeled space plus additional exhibits at the U.S. Pizza Museum continue to achieve that in new and exciting ways.”