Today, pizza is a dinner staple for many State College families and a major food group for Penn State students. In the early 1950's, though, the treat was new to town, listed only as a novelty on restaurant menus. Then, in 1952, Frank "Fritz" DeFluri returned from the Korean War to finish his business degree at Penn State. The GI Bill paid his tuition, but the former Navy Lieutenant Commander needed to find a way to support this wife, Anne, and their 2-year-old son, while he went to school. Spotting a sun porch at the back of Mabel Gentzel's house at 129 South Pugh Street, Fritz had an idea for putting his Italian heritage to work.

"He convinced her to let him take the back porch and turn it into a pizza oven", says son Dick DeFluri. Home Delivery Pizza was strictly a walk-up and delivery business at first, using high-roofed vans with refrigerators converted into warming ovens to deliver "The Perfect Taste Treat", as it was billed then. Two kinds of pizza were offered: plain and pepperoni.

Fritz graduated from Penn State in 1956. "The original plan was just to do pizza while he went to college" Dick says. "But it became so busy that after graduation, he kept it going. Fritz recruited his brother Art, and they eventually took over Mrs. Gentzel's back yard to build indoor seating. Dick recalls growing up in the pizza shop surrounded by Penn State football players who made it their second home. The teams outside linebacker position was nicknamed "The Fritz", after the pizza shop owner, during Coach Rip Engle's tenure as head football coach.

Unfortunately sales dropped dramatically when students went home for the summer, so the DeFluris spent summers in a pizza booth at area fairs, introducing fairgoers to "the Perfect Taste Treat." Although the booth continued at the Grange Fair for 35 years, the restaurant eventually closed until Art's son, Ron, and Dick reopened at 1820 South Atherton Street where it still stands today.

Today, Home Delivery Pizza offers a full menu including hand-tossed, fresh-dough pizza in a full service restaurant. And yes, we still deliver.

Information Courtesy of Home Delivery Pizza Pub
http://www.homedeliverypizza.net/index.html