Pizza Hut corporate officials have chosen Brookhavenites to bethe guinea pigs for an all-new restaurant design that is scheduledto be up and running in the city by the end of the year.

Company spokesman Christopher Fuller said Brookhaven would playhost to a prototype redesign of the familiar red-roofed pizza denthat will have a modern look and function inside and out.

The existing store will close Sept. 20, be demolished and thenew establishment built in its place, he said. The new store shouldbe completed by the end of the year.

“In square footage and seating it’s going to be about the same,but it’s going to be a very new, contemporary, updated look to therestaurant,” Fuller said.

Fuller said the Brookhaven location would also receive PizzaHut’s full menu and be built with an adjoining WingStreet, a siderestaurant specializing in chicken wings owned by Yum! Brands, thesame company that operates Pizza Hut, KFC, Taco Bell and others.The new diner will also have a pickup window and will makedeliveries.

The redesigned restaurant will feature a new color scheme andnew logos, with a more open, brighter interior, Fuller said. Hesaid the company will likely maintain the existing staff.

Even with seemingly radical changes happening to the brick andmortar, the pizza will be the same.

“It’s been 50 years we’ve been serving pizza at Pizza Hut – it’sjust as delicious as it was when we started, but the buildings needa change,” he said. “We want people to get excited about the brandagain.”