The Pizza Meter: the best way to get a slice of Washington politics

You probably have heard in the past of The Big Mac Index or the KFC Index, which help to predict price disparity and purchase power among different countries. However, if you want to know where the wind blows in Washington, check your local pizzeria!

On April 13, 2024, Iran sent a massive drone and missile attack against Israel. Meanwhile, in the US capital, pizza orders in restaurants near the White House, the Pentagon, and other federal government agencies suddenly increased.

According to Spanish financial newspaper El Economista, this sudden trend was quickly noted on X (formerly Twitter) by user donald_PL_ and others.

Although unorthodox, the so-called Pizza Intelligence (or Pizzint) is regarded as part of open-source intelligence, the branch of information gathering focused on analyzing public data that anyone can have access to.

However, pizza has a long, storied tradition as being a relevant measuring stick to know what’s going on in the US capital.

The year was 1983. Ronald Reagan was in the White House, and the United States was preparing to invade Grenada. On the eve of the military operation, the Beltway pizza places were flooded with large orders from the Pentagon, the CIA, and other important government agencies.

The pattern repeated in pizzerias all over Washington one December night in 1989. A few hours later, the United States invaded Panama to oust Manuel Noriega.

Frank Weeks, described in a 1998 piece by The Washington Post as DC’s unofficial pizza historian and owner of over 50 Domino’s Pizzas in the Beltway area, quickly noticed what he dubbed as The Pizza Meter.

The Chicago Tribune reported in January 1991 that Weeks effectively predicted a major offensive in the Gulf War by checking his Pizza Meter.

Weeks claimed back then that the previous time so many pizza orders were placed in Washington D.C. was when Ferdinand Marcos fled from the Philippines.

The Washington Post wrote in 1998 that during the Monica Lewinsky Scandal, the White House and the US Congress broke their record, by ordering large amounts of pizzas for at least three days in a row.

However, some experts claim that we got the last slice of the Pizza Meter somewhere in the late 1990s or early 2000s.

The White House, the Pentagon, and other important federal government agencies wised up and started to diversify their food orders, to avoid a potential intelligence breach.

After all, this was around the time the War of Terror began and security concerns were a top priority for the United States.

Another thing that probably affected the Pizza Meter were different food trends, from tacos and sushi to vegans and those needing a gluten-free diet, thus the constant presence of the pizza took a hit.

However, if the reported increase of food order activity in pizza places nearby government buildings in Washington is any indication, governments will come and go, but hunger remains the same!