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The Pizza Index, also known as the Pentagon Pizza Meter, refers to sudden and observable surges in takeout food orders from offices such as the Pentagon, the CIA or the White House right before major international events or crises are announced to the public.
Government officials order food from nearby restaurants when they stay late at the office to monitor developing situations such as the possibility of war or coup, thereby signaling that they are expecting something big to happen even before the public is made aware. This index can be monitored through open resources such as Google Maps, which show when a business location is "abnormally" busy.
Likewise, businesses around government buildings (such as bars or night clubs, notably Freddie's Beach Bar & Restaurant, a gay bar located near the Pentagon) that show less activity than usual also give an indication of the pizza index, as government employees that would normally go to these locations after work are instead tied up at work.
The index can be used as a form of open-source intelligence (OSINT) to get an idea of what a government, and particularly its intelligence agencies, is focusing on or expecting to happen in the next few hours or days.
Origins and history[edit | edit source]
This phenomenon was first observed near the end of the Cold War and in the midst of Operation Desert Storm when Frank Meeks, a Domino’s franchise owner in Northern Virginia, noticed that pizza deliveries spiked markedly during high-pressure national security moments.[1]
Starting in 2024, the Pizza Index saw a resurgence on social media and particularly Twitter after the start of the 2023 Israel-Gaza war and genocide.
Notable incidents[edit | edit source]
Pizza orders to the Pentagon doubled up the night before the United States' invasion of socialist Grenada in October 1983, and the same thing happened yet again the night before the December 1989 invasion of Panama.[2]
On the night of August 1st 1990 the Central Intelligence Agency ordered 21 pizzas in a single night right before the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, setting a new record.[3]
Pizza orders to the White House surged again in December 1998, during the impeachment hearings of then-president Bill Clinton and the US-backed war in Kosovo, part of the Yugoslav wars.[4]
On April 13 2024 Pizza orders surged once again when Iran launched drones towards the "State of Israel" in retaliation for the Zionist bombing of the Iranian consulate in Syria,[5] during the ongoing Israel-Gaza war and genocide.
As per ProleWiki's own data, interest in the Pizza Index surged online in the days prior to and on the day of the first June 2025 Iran-"Israel" strikes.
See also[edit | edit source]
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ David Mouriquand (2025-06-06). "What is the Pentagon Pizza theory eating away at the internet?" Euronews.
- ↑ Paul Gray (1990-08-12). "And Bomb The Anchovies" Time.
- ↑ “The one-night record for late-night deliveries at the CIA--21 pizzas--was set Aug. 1, the night before Iraq invaded Kuwait”
"Slice of Life: Pizza Orders Soar in D.C." (1991-01-16). Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2024-04-14. - ↑ Sarah Schafer (1998-12-19). "With Capital in Panic, Pizza Deliveries Soar" Washington Post. Archived from the original.
- ↑ Alejandro Cañas (2024-04-16). "What is the Pizza Meter? The signal that spiked on Saturday during Iran’s attack on Israel" AS.