Food, Hampton Roads

Norfolk Is One Of The Country’s Best Pizza Cities

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Glen Pearson
11:32 pm

Time to read: 1 minute

March 27, 2022

It’s been a mainstay of birthday parties, office parties, and just about every other kind of get-together for decades, and there are countless types, and nearly as many ways to eat it. It’s always one of the first suggestions when nobody wants to cook, and usually wins out around here, at least. It’s the almighty pizza.

There’s no question why pizza is so popular. This combination of fresh, aromatic bread with stringy cheese, tangy sauce, and savory toppings is cheap, relatively easy, and near-ubiquitous. It’s no wonder an American will eat more than 6,000 slices in their lifetime.

But who’s got the best pizza game in the country? The people at AnytimeEstimate.com wanted to know, so compared the 50 most populace places in the country on 10 different metrics including pizza places per capita, pizza places per square mile, Google Trends pizza varieties, and Google Trends pizza practical terms.

According to the writers, Norfolk is the tenth best city for pizza in the country. It’s quite the distinction considering that pizza is one of the world’s favorite dishes, and so popular here that we have over 75,000 pizza restaurants. Norfolk has 8.2 pizza joints per 100,000 residents and an average cheese pizza price of just $8.02. That’s the 2nd lowest prices in the country, so it seems all the amazing competition has driven prices down giving pizza lovers even more reason to indulge.

It seems the people of Hampton Roads are also particular about their pies, and like them from independent establishments:

This city by the river really delivers. Norfolk (along with Virginia Beach) ranks No. 1 in search interest for both meat pizza and New York-style pizza. The metro area has a wealth of New York-style options such as Sal's NY Slice Pizzeria in neighboring Virginia Beach.[15] Norfolk has 3.7 independent pizza restaurants per 100,000 residents — 20% better than the average city in our sample.

America’s love affair with pizza isn’t showing signs of waning. 13% of Americans eat some form of pizza every day, and 93% of Americans will eat pizza in the next 30 days. It’s currently a $54 billion industry, and on average the number of pizza joints in the country increases by some 6,000 every year.

As for the controversial topic of toppings, pepperoni is still the king of the pizzas, while the least favorite topping is anchovies, somehow.

The most pizza-friendly city in the country is Detroit, MI, followed by Cleveland, OH and Columbus, OH. Virginia capital Richmond is the city with the 2nd most independent pizza joints in the country, and is the 20th best pizza city in the nation.