The Pentagon Pizza Theory You Might Want To Pay Attention To

Before we get into anything else, we should make this clear: This is not a foolproof, scientific way to suss out foreign policy developments in advance. If you want to know what happens in Ukraine or the Middle East before the papers do, you have to do it the old fashioned way and plant a bug in the Pentagon. (Please don't actually do this.) But for what it's worth, there is a reported phenomenon that happens just before major events take place on the global stage: The pizza places near the Pentagon get really, really busy.

The idea is that when employees of the Department of Defense are faced with a sudden development that requires work late into the night, they order something quick and easy to munch on while paying attention to something more important. (This is the same principle behind Election Night Pizza.) There are a multitude of fast food restaurants in the Pentagon complex, but no pizza places. So, when a breaking development happens, such as the missile strike Israel launched at Iran in 2024, Papa John's and other pizza chain restaurants close by get much busier than usual.

Although this is, once again, unscientific and may not signify much, it's also worth noting that this theory is not something the internet just made up. Back in 1991, right after Operation Desert Storm kicked off, multiple news outlets interviewed Frank Meeks, a man who ran a number of Domino's locations in the D.C. area. He attested that the busiest day on record for the CIA vis-à-vis pizza deliveries was August 1, 1990 — when Saddam Hussein was gearing up to invade Kuwait. (The CIA isn't headquartered in the Pentagon, but the same principle applies.) The phenomenon also occurred before the invasion of Panama in 1989. It seems that pepperoni, one of America's favorite pizza toppings, has had a front row seat to foreign policy developments for decades.

Now, what does this mean? Not very much, all things considered. Spiking pizza orders are by no means a crystal ball in which you can foresee the future and making decisions based off them is not something we would advise. That being said, this theory is a fascinating look at the way large institutions affect the businesses that surround them.