Enjoy a deal on dinner and a show and save a few bucks too! Check out the August specials happening at Organ Stop Pizza in Mesa.
- Date Night Meal Deal
1 Small Pizza with unlimited toppings*
1 Appetizer**
1 Pitcher of Soft Drink
Only $13.99! – Upsize to a medium pizza for only $19.59!
*Extra/Double Cheese excluded
**Combo Basket excluded
- Family Fun Meal Deal
2 Large Pizzas with unlimited toppings*
2 Appetizers**
2 Pitchers of Soft Drink
Only $42.99!
*Extra/Double Cheese excluded
**Combo Basket excluded
“Kids enjoy it, mom and dad enjoy it, grandma and grandpa enjoy it,” said co-owner Jack Barz.
That’s because the star of the show here is the nation’s largest Wurlitzer pipe organ, built for the Denver Theatre and installed in 1927. “It’s a piece of American history,” Barz said.
After “talkies” took over the cinema and the Great Depression hit, the mighty Wurlitzer was rarely heard. It was damaged in a fire, but the original owners of Organ Stop Pizza bought it in 1975 and restored it for their second location in Mesa. (The first location opened in 1972 at the corner of Seventh Street and Missouri Avenue with an organ from Grauman’s Hollywood Egyptian Theater.)
Organ Stop Pizza moved to its current location at Stapley Drive and Southern Avenue in 1995. It attracts hundreds of thousands of patrons each year with its theatrical performances complete with dancing cat puppets, disco balls and bubbles. Songs range from classical music to Disney favorites to pop and rock hits.
The restaurant is jam-packed from fall through spring with winter visitors, so summer is prime time for local families to enjoy this rare treat: Though pizza-and-pipes restaurants were popular from the 1970s through the 1980s nationwide, Organ Stop Pizza is one of only two such concepts left in the United States. The instrument itself is so complex there are only about a dozen organists in the country who can play it, Barz noted. It has nearly 6,000 pipes and more than 1,000 buttons, knobs and switches. Two award-winning house musicians are at the helm, with a relief organist who flies in from Portland, Ore., when one needs time off. The organ undergoes six to eight hours of maintenance every Monday to keep it in tip-top shape.
Though known as primarily a pizza parlor, Organ Stop Pizza also serves up piping hot pastas, sandwiches, and all-American appetizers, and features a salad bar. Soda, beer and wine are available to wash it all down.
Only cash and checks are accepted; an ATM is located in the lobby. Group reservations are taken for parties of 20 or more, and Organ Stop Pizza is available during daytime hours for private parties of at least 100 and semi-private parties of 50 or more, depending on availability.
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