The U.S. Pizza Museum in Chicago (not to be confused with the pop-up Museum of Pizza that hit New York for two weeks last fall) has been around in some form since 2015 – first as a pop-up exhibition and then, last summer, finding an initially temporary and now permanent home in the Roosevelt Collection Shops in Chicago's South Loop neighborhood.

The museum, which celebrates the history of and news about pizza as well as its role in pop culture, has been remodeled and reconceived – with an expanded space and new exhibits – and is set to celebrate its official reopening with a free reception on Saturday, June 1. The museum’s founder and director, Kendall Bruns, whose personal pizza memorabilia collection originally launched the museum, will give a presentation at the event, and free pizza will also be given out to attendees, while supplies last.

The museum, to which admission is actually always free (though voluntary donations are accepted), encourages visitors to “explore the evolution of pizza culture through vintage artifacts and interactive programming” and to “learn about the history of pizza and how different styles of pizza became popular in America through displays of pizza memorabilia including: menus, pizza boxes, toys, games, buttons, vinyl records, and tools of the pizza-making trade.”

New items in the expanded space will include vintage pizzeria menus and ads, giant signs and a sculpture called “Forever Pizza,” which, Food and Wine notes, is “billed as a real slice of pizza preserved in acrylic by artist Steph Mantis.”

“Be the first to view our new exhibits in our expanded space at the Roosevelt Collection, with over 100 new items on display!” the official website trumpets.

You can register for tickets to the free event here. Get ‘em while they’re hot.

Photo: iStock

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