Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
Food
Video: Inside Long Island's Haunted Pizza Hut Bathroom
By
Lauren Evans
Published Oct 22, 2013
Modified Oct 22, 2013
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
By
Lauren Evans
Published Oct 22, 2013
Modified Oct 22, 2013
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
The falling leaves and cool nip in the air mean just one thing: It's time to investigate the haunted bathroom at one Long Island Pizza Hut. Rumor has it that a long, long time ago, the Centereach Pizza Hut was once a Jack in the Box. Back in those days, a person could buy a Bacon Ultimate Meat Pudding for just a nickel, and children's meals came with the choice of toy butter churn or miniature canon (with real gun powder!) Things, generally, were better back then.
Unfortunately, Bathroom Death was commonplace, what with toilet technology not quite what it is today. Legend has it that a man, or a woman—the legend has some factual holes—was either murdered or committed suicide or maybe just fell asleep for a minute. Can't a person just rest their eyes anymore? In any case, it's haunted. These guys from the Jersey Shore said so.
"Supposedly, when you're in the bathrooms at a Pizza Hut, you will feel cold spots and hear whispering," the narrator, whom we'll call Pauly, says. (Spoiler: The whispering is your stomach beseeching you to leave the foul Pizza Hut. The cold spots are the mango-sized tumor pulsating against your hypothalamus!) Employees have also claimed that pots and pans fall. That is shocking—they have cookware at Pizza Hut?
Pauly bravely enters the women's restroom, armed only with his iPhone and a willingness to talk to himself in a women's restroom. Things get pretty Blair Witch around the 2:50 mark, if the Burkittsville woods were a Pizza Hut restroom and the iconic snot-covered protagonist was a freshly-shaven guido and the weird blood-soaked bags were a Glade PlugIn.
Several sweeps around the bathroom and a bout with the lights out reveal to our hero that the bathroom is not, apparently, haunted. A title card helpfully confirms this.
Fanboy Kev (actual name) then enters the men's room, completing to our eyes a pretty lackadaisical look around before confirming that the men's room isn't haunted, either, only "creepy feeling." The mission was a failure. Pauly and Fanboy Kev returned to their tanning beds empty-handed. Or so they thought.
A few days later, Pauly did what any Ghost Hunter worth his EMF meter would do: He investigated the footage, frame by frame. What he found was shocking.
Wait, did I say "shocking"? I meant the other thing. Pauly claims to have found the silhouette of a woman's face hovering next to the toilet bowl. He insists that the Invisible Woman is not the result of a camera trick, and I believe him because there's nothing there, except for maybe some sort of urine stain. If you get drunk and squint, the shadows do form a sort of face, its expression twisted into a open-mouthed scream of silent, eternal terror. And who can blame him/her/it? That bathroom has seen unspeakable horrors. She probably looked pretty serene before they introduced the cheese pockets.
Tagged
haunted pizza hut
long island
pizza hut
Lauren Evans
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE food
Why NYC restaurants are playing coy about sustainability
Though it has multiple benefits, the practice remains popular for one basic reason: it saves money.
By
Samantha Dady
Published Oct 26, 2026
Where are the cheapest drinks in NYC? A new report details the city's average prices.
The median price of a cocktail in the city is now $16, and $9 for a draft beer.
By
Hannah Frishberg
Food
Where are the cheapest drinks in NYC? A new report details the city's average prices.
The median price of a cocktail in the city is now $16, and $9 for a draft beer.
By
Hannah Frishberg
North African restaurants are rare in NYC. These 10 are the best.
By
Robert Sietsema
10 dishes that demonstrate the delicious diversity of curry in New York City
By
Robert Sietsema
Frozen yogurt is back in New York City. So are the super long lines.
By
Sonia Rao
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .