When you look up your local pizza shop, you take it for granted that they will deliver. After all, pizza delivery is just a part of American life. But it wasn’t always that way. Pizza delivery is actually a relatively new development in pizza history.
Let’s speed through the history of pizza delivery.
The Queen of Italy received the first pizza delivery.
Pizza, in one form or another, has been around for thousands of years, but pizza delivery is only about 130 years old. The first time pizza was delivered was in 1889. After the nation-states of Italy were united under King Umberto I, he and his wife, Queen Margherita, made a tour of their kingdom. One of their stops was Naples, where they asked to sample the local cuisine. Chefs from all over the city sent food to the king and queen, including pizza. Queen Margherita reportedly loved pizza so much that they named the Margherita pizza after her.
Pizza took over the U.S. in the mid-20th century.
After the Second World War, American soldiers returned home. Although they were fighting while in Europe, they still tried the local cuisine, and they really loved pizza. Pizzerias popped up all over the U.S., and many offered “pizzas to take home.” In larger cities, like New York and Los Angeles, some restaurants offered delivery, and the service soon became popular throughout the country.
That was 1945. In 1960, we got a very important advancement in pizza delivery technology: the corrugated cardboard pizza box. Before Tom Monaghan (the founder of Domino’s) came up with the idea, soggy pizza was a serious problem. The cardboard pizza box allowed delivery drivers to stack pizzas while also letting the steam vent.
Online ordering changed the pizza delivery game.
Ordering pizza with your phone or computer is commonplace now, but it was an exciting development back in 1997. That’s when the first online pizza-ordering service appeared on the internet. People were skeptical at first, but they soon adopted the new technology. Once smartphones became ubiquitous around 2009, ordering apps made getting a pizza to your home even easier.
