There is no chest full of gold awaiting those who participate in a secret treasure hunt that takes place at Zachary’s Chicago Pizza in Oakland, California – successful hunters receive a $10 Zachary’s gift card. But that was enough to get Bay Area investigators excited, two of whom solved the case. According to the pizzeria, 13 more gift cards are still available.
As first reported by SFGateZachary’s hosts an annual art contest. One of the winners of last year’s contest hid a treasure hunt in his artwork, which hangs on the wall of the pizza company’s Grand Lake location. A year went by without anyone noticing.
The artist, who remains anonymous to the public, contacted the pizzeria to explain the puzzle they created. The owner of the pizzeria liked the puzzle so much that he recently announced a special promotion: 15 $10 gift cards for the first group of people to complete the treasure hunt.
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The timing happened to be good for Zachary’s, which is celebrating its 41st anniversary in business. The deep-dish pizza brand has a total of five locations in the East Bay, two of which are in Oakland. The Grand Lake location appears to have opened just before the pandemic.
“I think it makes everything cooler when there are cool treasure hunts,” the artist told SFGATE about why he created a piece of art with a treasure hunt in it. “That’s the kind of society I want to live in, so I’m always up for any opportunity where I can bring something like that to the community and to our society in the Bay Area.”
After contacting the restaurant to explain what was going on, the artist wrote a post on Reddit to generate interest in the treasure hunt. The artist claims to have left some clues in this post, but what are those clues? Your guess is as good as ours.
“I can’t stress this enough: just be cool,” the artist wrote on Reddit. “Don’t touch the paintings, don’t cause traffic jams in their restaurant, don’t climb on anything, etc. Zachary’s didn’t ask me to interfere with their business with my little game, but they are cool about announcing it with me. So just be cool and enjoy the pizza!”
The pizzeria repeated many of these thoughts in a Announcement on the website with all the details about the contest. “All of us at Zachary’s … (hope) that this treasure hunt inspires our community to always be creative and generous,” the restaurant wrote. “Happy treasure hunting!”
