How Much Does A Pizza Cost In Your Neighborhood?

By Chuck Sudo in Food on Feb 28, 2014 5:30PM

An "Around the World" pizza from Vito & Nicks. (Photo credit: Chuck Sudo/Chicagoist)

When I order a pizza for delivery from Phil’s in Bridgeport I tend to order a large sausage pie, which runs $19.50 with tax. It’s a pricey pizza but I always justify the purchase to myself with explanations that the leftover pizza will save me money down the road. Others in the neighborhood disagree and complain about the cost of a pizza from Phil’s or Punky’s or Connie’s Pizza on Archer, where a large pie can run a customer upwards of $30 with delivery charges and tax. And that’s before a tip.

NPR’s “Planet Money” blog used data from delivery services Seamless and Grubhub to break down the median cost of a cheese pizza in neighborhoods across the city. The more affluent neighborhoods had more expensive pizzas (and a greater number of pizzerias) while the neighborhoods with fewer pizza joints charged less for a pizza. You’re paying for location, folks!

Pizzas were most expensive in the Loop, River North and Uptown while the neighborhoods with the least expensive pies included Austin, the city’s East Side and, curiously, Dunning and Avondale. Planet Money’s Quoctrung Bui listed the reasons why it’s wise to order a large pizza previously, calculating that since a pizza is a circle and the area of a circle increases with square of the radius a large pie is a better value than a small or medium.

Or you can just buy whatever pizza you want.