Say cheese: Two Arizona cities rank best in nation for pizza lovers
Sep 8, 2017, 5:35 AM | Updated: 2:09 pm
(Facebook/Lou Malnati's)
(Facebook/Lou Malnati's)
PHOENIX — Do you love pizza? If you live in these two Arizona cities, you’re in luck.
Two Arizona cities — Peoria and Mesa — have cracked the top 10 cities in the entire country for pizza lovers, according to a recent report from SmartAsset.com.
Peoria ranked sixth in the nation, making it the highest Arizona city on the list.
The company said it ranked the Phoenix-area suburb so high because of the “sheer availability of pizza.” Peoria has 45 pizza places per every 10,000 residents.
But there’s not just a lot of pizza in Peoria — but a lot of good pizza, the report found.
Yelp users ranked Peoria pizza places an average of 3.3 stars, an above-average ranking. More than 15 percent of pizza places in Peoria also have an average rating above 4.4 stars, ranking the city 40th in the nation.
Mesa came in just a couple of spots behind, at eighth in the nation. Mesa also has a lot of pizza places — about 17.7 per every 10,000 residents — and an average pizza place rating of 3.34 stars on Yelp, which is above the national average. About 12 percent of pizza places in Mesa have an average rating above 4.4 stars.
While Peoria and Mesa were the only two Arizona cities to crack the top 10, several other Phoenix-area suburbs ranked among the top 25 cities in the nation for pizza lovers.
Tempe just barely made the cut, ranking No. 11 due to its low percentage of highly-ranked pizza places. Glendale, home of the Arizona Cardinals and Phoenix Coyotes, ranked at No. 18.
Phoenix, which recently welcomed a whole slew of Chicago deep-dish pizza classics, including Lou Malnati’s and Gino’s East, ranked No. 19 on the list, in part due to its low percentage of highly-ranked pizza places.
The last Arizona city to crack the top 25 was Gilbert, which was given an average pizza place rating on Yelp of 3.33 stars with 374 pizza places per every 10,000 residents.
