TOliver wrote:

> I recall recipes and seeing "Hawaian Pizza" during a period, late 60s or
> so, long predating the California Pizza Kitchens.
>
> There are two versions that I recall....the first with ham, green pepper and
> canned pineapple chunks atop tomator sauce, the second and likely
> "authentic" Hawaian, Span cubes and pineapple chunks over tomato sauce.
>
> The mere thought is enough to generate the first tickle of incipient
> projectile vomiting.

I first saw "Hawaiian Pizza" with ham and pineapple in the SF Bay Area
during the mid-50's. Before then, most pizza was sold by family owned
Italian-American restaurants. The first one to open in San Francisco
was Lupo's in the 1930's. This place, now called Tommaso's, is still
there on Kearney St. and still sells Neapolitan style pizze cooked in a
wood fired oven. But as pizza became more popular, a couple of chains
arrived in the Bay Area around 1956. There was Me'n'Ed's based in
Portland and Shakey's from Sacramento. I can't remember which one (or
both) had "Hawaiian" but that's when it arrived. They also had picnic
tables, signs on the johns that said things like "Ye Olde Gents Room",
and sometimes (ugh) corny banjo music. But it caught on with families
and softball teams and , as they say, the rest is history. One of our
local parlors caught on is now the Round Table chain.

D.M.