What is the Pentagon Pizza theory eating away at the internet?

Published on 06/06/2025 - 8:14 GMT+2

What if ordering a pizza adjacent nan Pentagon heralded geopolitical doom?

That's nan halfway of the persistent Pentagon Pizza mentation – aliases “Pentagon Pizza Meter”.  

Made celebrated by nan website The Takeout, this far-fetched but enticing thesis is making a comeback aft going viral past year.  

The theory?  

If nan teams astatine nan Pentagon aliases nan Department of Defense are peculiarly busy, they can’t time off their desks. Therefore, it must mean that superior things are afoot. Regardless, nan teams request sustenance, so they’ll extremity up ordering food. And what could beryllium quicker than a pizza? 

Ergo: If pizza deliveries spell up successful Washinton D.C., it could awesome an imminent crisis.

This each goes backmost to nan Cold War.  

At nan time, Soviet intelligence services monitored excessive pizza deliveries by couriers to gauge alertness to imaginable crises.  

Then, connected 1 August 1990, Frank Meeks, a well-established Domino's franchisee successful Washington, noticed a abrupt surge successful deliveries to CIA buildings... each connected nan eve of Iraq's penetration of Kuwait, which kicked disconnected nan Gulf War.  

What he thought was a coincidence astatine nan clip has go a shape complete nan years. 

Meeks told the Los Angeles Times that a akin surge successful pizza deliveries happened successful December 1998 during nan impeachment hearings of erstwhile President Bill Clinton. 

In nan property of societal media, nan mentation has led online sleuths to scan the area astir nan Pentagon for pizza bid spikes.

And wouldn’t you cognize it, connected 13 April 2024, location were unusually high pizza orders from not only nan Pentagon but besides nan White House and nan Department of Defense.  

That day marked Iran launching drones into Israeli territory.

The mentation quickly became a meme, pinch X users posting screenshots from Google Maps showing real-time activity astatine pizza outlets - peculiarly astatine a Papa John’s successful Washington D.C. 

On X, nan @PenPizzaReport relationship has group itself nan daunting task of monitoring nan activity of pizzerias adjacent nan Pentagon successful existent time.  

And this week, connected 1 June 2025, nan relationship published: “With little than an hr to spell earlier closing time, nan Domino's closest to nan Pentagon is experiencing unusually precocious footfall.”  

A fewer hours later, tensions escalated betwixt Israel and Iran.  

So, tin pizzas foretell warfare or be utilized to measure US engagement successful world crises? 

It's hardly a reliable geopolitical indictor and nary definitive relationship has been established. However, it remains a tasty predictor if so. 

As CNN’s then-Pentagon analogous Wolf Blitzer reported successful 1990: “Bottom statement for journalists: Always show nan pizzas.” 

A joke, maybe. But possibly nan Pentagon needs to diversify their nutrient orders...