ObservanceTuesday, February 9, 2027
National Pizza Day
- Date
- Recurs
- Every year on February 9
- Category
- Food
National Pizza Day falls on February 9, and what it mostly consists of is discounts: chains, pizzerias and frozen-pizza brands use the date to run free-slice and two-for-one offers. Nobody has documented who started it or when. The food itself is better recorded — though less settled than it looks, because the standard story of how pizza reached America has been seriously challenged in the last decade.
History
The origin of this observance is not well documented. No founding organization, proclamation or recorded first observance meets this site's sourcing standard. The earliest solid trace is news coverage of the promotions, which reports February 9 as settled fact without saying where the date came from. Any confidently named founder for this day is unsourced.
The food has a longer and more contested history than it usually gets credit for. Pizza took its recognizable shape in Naples as cheap food for the working class — the National Park Service dates that to 17th-century Naples, Smithsonian to the 1700s. The Margherita, dough with tomato, mozzarella and basil, is popularly said to be named for Queen Margherita, wife of Umberto I, who supposedly remarked that its colors matched the Italian flag. Britannica files that as legend rather than history. Naples' claim on the craft is official in one sense: in 2017 UNESCO inscribed the art of the Neapolitan Pizzaiuolo on its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, counting roughly 3,000 working pizzaiuoli in the city.
The American story is where the ground has moved. The standard account credits Gennaro Lombardi with the first licensed American pizzeria, on Spring Street in Manhattan in 1905, and Britannica still prints it. Independent researcher Peter Regas, working through New York's Italian-language newspapers, reported finding the Spring Street shop already in business years earlier — likely opened in 1898 by a largely forgotten immigrant named Filippo Milone, who had a habit of opening pizzerias and selling them on, and who passed it to Giovanni Santillo, advertising pizza there by 1901. Regas could not locate the 1905 license at all, and found that Lombardi arrived in New York in 1904 at seventeen, classified on his papers as a laborer. Britannica's own general pizza article says only that the first pizzeria appeared "about the turn of the 20th century." The honest summary is that the date is open.
What made pizza general was not a pizzeria but a war. Few Americans outside Italian neighborhoods knew what pizza was before 1945. Servicemen stationed in Italy came home wanting it, one of them an oven repairman named Ira Nevin, who designed a gas-fired pizza oven that freed restaurateurs from temperamental coal and wood. The chains followed in the 1950s.
Timeline
- 17th–18th century — Pizza takes shape in Naples as cheap food for the working class. The National Park Service dates the dish to 17th-century Naples; Smithsonian puts it in the 1700s.
- 1898–1901 — By Peter Regas's research, the Spring Street pizzeria in Manhattan is already in business: opened by Filippo Milone, then sold to Giovanni Santillo, advertising pizza there in 1901.
- 1905 — The traditional date for the first licensed American pizzeria, G. Lombardi's on Spring Street. Britannica still gives it; Regas could not find the license.
- After 1945 — Servicemen returning from Italy create the first broad American demand. Ira Nevin designs a gas-fired pizza oven; the chains arrive in the 1950s.
- 2017 — UNESCO inscribes the art of the Neapolitan Pizzaiuolo on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
- November 2024 — The USDA publishes its most recent pizza data brief: on any given day, about 11 percent of the U.S. population eats pizza.
How to observe
Order from the oldest pizzeria within reach and ask who owned it before the current owners. The Regas research turned on exactly that kind of record — ownership changes nobody bothered to document because nobody thought pizza mattered.
For the real numbers behind the day, the USDA's Food Surveys Research Group publishes a short, free data brief on pizza consumption: who eats it, what share of a day's calories and sodium it accounts for, and where it is bought.
The promotions are real, and worth checking the day before rather than the day of: most require an app order or a coupon code, and the frozen-pizza deals usually run a few days either side of the 9th.
Frequently asked questions
Is National Pizza Day the same as Pi Day?
No. National Pizza Day is February 9; Pi Day is March 14 and is about the number, not the food. February 9 is also shared with a separate observance called Pizza Pie Day.
Who started National Pizza Day?
Nobody credible has documented it. There is no founding organization, proclamation or recorded first observance this site can cite, and the founders named on aggregator sites carry no sources.
Was Lombardi's really the first pizzeria in America?
The question is open. Britannica still credits Gennaro Lombardi with the first licensed American pizzeria in 1905, but research by Peter Regas, reported by Smithsonian, indicates the same Spring Street location was selling pizza years earlier and that the 1905 license cannot be found.
Is the Queen Margherita story true?
It is a legend. Britannica describes the naming of the Margherita for Umberto I's queen, and her remark about the flag's colors, as popular legend rather than established fact.
How much pizza do Americans actually eat?
Per the USDA's most recent data brief, about 11 percent of the population eats pizza on any given day, and on the day they do it supplies roughly 27 percent of their calories. Men average four slices at a sitting, women three.
When is National Pizza Day?
| Year | Date | Day |
|---|---|---|
| 2027 | February 9 | Tuesday |
| 2028 | February 9 | Wednesday |
| 2029 | February 9 | Friday |
| 2030 | February 9 | Saturday |
| 2031 | February 9 | Sunday |
Sources
- Encyclopædia Britannica, How Was Pizza Invented? — https://www.britannica.com/topic/How-Was-Pizza-Invented → Naples origin; Margherita toppings and the Queen Margherita naming as popular legend; Italian immigrants bringing pizza to the U.S. in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; G. Lombardi's in 1905 as the first licensed pizzeria; postwar spread.
- Encyclopædia Britannica, Pizza — https://www.britannica.com/topic/pizza → the Margherita naming described as popular legend; the first New York pizzeria dated only to "about the turn of the 20th century"; the postwar boom.
- Smithsonian Magazine, The Father of American Pizza Is Not Who We Thought He Was — https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/father-american-pizza-not-who-we-thought-it-was-180971454/ → Peter Regas's research; Filippo Milone and the 1898 Spring Street opening; Giovanni Santillo advertising pizza there in 1901; the missing 1905 license; Lombardi's 1904 arrival at seventeen as a laborer; Naples in the 1700s; postwar demand and Ira Nevin's gas-fired oven; the 1950s chains.
- UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage, Art of Neapolitan 'Pizzaiuolo' — https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/art-of-neapolitan-pizzaiuolo-00722 → inscription in 2017 on the Representative List; about 3,000 pizzaiuoli living and working in Naples.
- U.S. National Park Service, A Slice of History: Pizza in America — https://www.nps.gov/articles/pizza-in-usa.htm → pizza traced to 17th-century Naples and brought to America by Italian immigrants in the late 19th century.
- USDA Agricultural Research Service, Food Surveys Research Group, Dietary Data Brief No. 62, Pizza Consumption in the U.S. (What We Eat in America, NHANES 2017–March 2020 Prepandemic), November 2024 — https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK610659/ → 11 percent of the population on any given day; 27 percent of energy intake on the day consumed; about one-third of total fat, saturated fat and sodium; over half from restaurants and about a quarter from grocery stores; four slices for males and three for females.
- TODAY (NBC News), It's National Pizza Day! Here's where to get freebies and meal deals — https://www.today.com/food/when-national-pizza-day-where-go-free-pizza-t173243 → the February 9 date; the day's character as chain and grocery promotions; the distinction from Pi Day.
Source conflict, disclosed rather than averaged: the National Park Service dates the recognizable dish to 17th-century Naples, while Smithsonian puts its coming-of-age in the 1700s. Both are acceptable sources and neither is more primary on an 18th-century question, so the page gives the range both support rather than picking one.
On the 1905 question the page does not split the difference either: it states the traditional Britannica account, then the Regas findings reported by Smithsonian, and says the date is unsettled.
Rejected as sources: nationaltoday, nationaldaycalendar, checkiday, timeanddate and content-farm pages, including every page that names a founder for this observance.
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