Millcreek Pizza House
Address: 1357 East 3300 South
Telephone: 801-438-9929
Website: millcreekpizzahouse.com
District: Millcreek
“It is my own little playground with really good pizza.” Stacy House grew up just south of Chicago in Coal City, a small town where pizza ruled the restaurant scene. “The only restaurant, to be honest, that I ever wanted to own was a pizza place,” she said. “Because I grew up south of Chicago, and I have a very specific pizza type and flavor that I love, and I’ve had a very hard time finding it in the West.” That dream finally became a reality with Millcreek Pizza House, the restaurant she and her family opened in 2024.
Chicago may be known for deep dish, but that was not what Stacy grew up eating. “Where I’m from, all the small, local pizza places that I worked in or visited, we always ordered thin crust,” she said. “We never ordered deep dish pizza. I watched a documentary once and found out deep dish really only became a thing about forty or fifty years ago. We didn’t grow up eating that.”
At fifteen, Stacy got her first job at a local pizza shop and was instantly hooked. “I always loved pizza, and I always loved restaurants,” she said. “All my friends worked in retail or bookstores, but I always wanted to be in restaurants.” Growing up, Stacy was always on the move, whether it was playing sports, organizing activities, or taking charge wherever she could. “I was president of the student council and my class,” she said. “If I could do it, I did it.” That same drive followed her through college at Southern Illinois University, where, no matter what else she was studying or doing, she found herself back in pizza shops, drawn to the energy of the kitchen and the simple satisfaction of making something people loved.
After college, in 1998, Stacy headed to Florida for an internship at Walt Disney World, spending six months driving safari trucks through Animal Kingdom’s Kilimanjaro Safaris. “It was right when Animal Kingdom opened,” she said, still smiling at the memory. When the internship ended, Stacy packed up her car and drove across the country to San Diego with no job and no clear plan other than satisfying her own curiosity and looking for a sense of adventure.
Stacy landed at HMSHost, the company that runs many of the restaurants and retail stores inside airports across the country. There she learned the business side of hospitality - operations, staffing, and the pace of serving thousands of travelers a day. “That job taught me everything about people and how to handle pressure.”
It was also where Stacy met Jim. It was 1999. He was working in the defense industry for a contractor managing missile ranges, anti-ballistic defense, and emergency planning projects. Originally from Southern California, Jim was calm, analytical, and quietly funny. He was the perfect match for Stacy’s creative energy. “He came from a totally different world than mine,” she said, “but somehow it worked.”
They married soon after and began building a life together. In 2004, Stacy was asked to temporarily relocate to Utah to help HMSHost at the Salt Lake City airport “It was supposed to be a one-month assignment,” she said, “but they asked me to stay.” She became the permanent director and ran the program for eight years.
In December 2012, Stacy was promoted again, assigned to oversee the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport operation. “By that time, we had three kids, a dog, and two cats,” she said with a laugh. “We packed them all up and drove north.” They spent nearly a decade in Washington, where Stacy met what was to become a long-term partnership with Seattle chef Kathy Casey and brought in her friend, Steve Brewster from Millcreek Coffee Roasters in Salt Lake City. Together, they opened Lucky Louie Fish Shack inside the SEA airport in March 2019. “We serve fish and chips and the best fish sandwiches you’ll ever have,” she said proudly. “It’s still open today, in 2025.”
One year after opening the Fish Shack, the pandemic hit. “I laid off almost everyone before our one-year anniversary,” Stacy said quietly. “It was heartbreaking.” Still, Lucky Louie survived, and the experience reminded her what she missed most: being close to the food and the guests.
When schools stayed closed in 2020 for more than a year in Seattle and their daughter entered her teens, Stacy and Jim began to feel that Washington no longer fit the kind of life they wanted for their family. “We needed to be somewhere that felt more grounded for our kids,” she said. Utah called them back.
Steve was opening a coffee shop in the new Millcreek Common, and Stacy began spending time there, helping where she could and imagining what might come next. Then, in late 2023, she overheard a conversation that changed everything. “I heard Mike Winder, the city manager of Millcreek City, talking about the pizza place in the common,” she said. “It had been abandoned, and they were getting ready to show it to someone else. I could almost feel the opportunity slipping away.”
Stacy asked to see it. “The moment I walked inside, I just knew,” she said. “I could picture people sitting here with their kids, laughing, eating pizza. It was instant.” That night, she gathered her family around the kitchen table and told them what she wanted to do. They talked it through, and everyone said yes.
The name came easily once they stopped overthinking it. Stacy had wanted to call it The Fool, after the first card in the tarot deck, symbolizing a leap of faith. But a friend suggested something simpler. “Millcreek Pizza House,” he said. “The House family running Pizza House,” Stacy laughed. “It just worked.” The initials, MPH, became their playful motto: making people happy.
When Stacy stepped behind the counter for the first time in years, she had a small moment of awe. “My hands just knew what to do,” she said. “It was like muscle memory. I hadn’t made pizza in so long, but it came right back.” The crust she makes now is the one she grew up on - thin and crisp with a touch of cornmeal, topped with fresh sauce and a cheese blend of mozzarella, provolone, and fontina.
The menu reflects both her roots and her humor. There is WTF (What the Fungi), a mushroom pizza finished with burrata, and Little Miss Figgy, with pesto, prosciutto, brie, and hot honey. Salads are fresh and generous, and the hoagies have names that make people smile - Saucy Balls, Pesto Tomatoza, and Buffalo Chick. There are beer and wine, and by the end of 2025, Stacy plans to add weekend mimosas and a breakfast pizza.
Inside, the restaurant feels like a family living room that happens to serve remarkable pizza. There are board games on the shelves that people actually play, and a rack of stickers because Stacy loves them. Blankets are available for cool nights on the patio, and a jar of Andies candies rest on the counter. The Italian oven, which is the heart of the kitchen, glows from morning to night. “We only cook with that one oven,” she said. “No fryer, no flat top, no microwave. Everything comes from that same flame.”
December brings the joyful chaos of the ice rink, but it is the summer that really sings. Families gather at the splash pad, DJs play in the plaza, and parents sit outside with a glass of wine while their kids roller skate nearby. “This is the kind of place we always dreamed of creating,” Stacy said.
Jim is everywhere - rolling dough, greeting customers, fixing what needs fixing. He jokes that he learned to cook from “YouTube University,” but he has a natural touch and an easy presence that customers love. “We’ve been together twenty-six years,” Stacy said with a grin. “It works out well.” Their children also help, and the team has their own creations on the menu. “Everyone here has a hand in it." That’s what makes it special.”
Some evenings, Stacy goes home, opens the restaurant’s cameras on her phone, and just watches. “I see people laughing, playing games, eating pizza, and I feel this wave of gratitude. They could go anywhere, but they come here. That means everything.” Looking around the restaurant, filled with the hum of conversation, the warmth of the oven, the easy laughter between tables, Stacy adds. “We put MPH on the wall because that’s what it’s all about. Making people happy.”
