Pizza maker Jesus Garcia slices a pizza at the original Round Table Pizza restaurant in Menlo Park, Calif., on Nov. 17, 2021.
Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE
The brand, which was founded in 1959 in Menlo Park, California, now has more than 410 Round Table locations; California is home to 338 of them. Bill Larson created the brand in the Bay Area and started expanding across California in 1962. Around the state, it is known as a family gathering place on Friday night or the site for a post-Little League Baseball game pizza party. Birthdays were a common occurrence, too. The original location, at 1225 El Camino Real, is in prime Silicon Valley real estate. But Larson’s son, Bob, the current owner, refuses to sell the joint.
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“If I sell it, it’s gone forever,” Bob told SFGATE in 2021.
The pizza at Round Table is relatively thin-crusted and was named after King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table (the Menlo Park location even has a suit of armor in one corner). Some of specialty pizzas are homages to Arthurian characters, such as King Arthur’s Supreme, with pepperoni, Italian sausage, salami, linguica, mushrooms, green peppers, onion and black olives, or Guinevere’s Garden Delight, which is basically the same as the King Arthur’s Supreme except you substitute diced tomatoes for all of the meat.
Before 2019, the aesthetic of Round Table locations was that of a tavern — low-hanging lamps, pleather booths, wooden decor. Now, all new Round Table pizzerias have a “perfect blend of medieval and modern elements.” Gone are the days of the green awnings and coat of arms logo. The new signage looks similar to the “Gran Turismo” font.