Have you purchased a pizza lately? What has happened to the cost of dough, sauce and cheese? Sure, I understand that everything is more expensive these days, but it is flour, water, sauce and cheese. At the beach this summer I was alarmed to pay $5 for a slice, but that is a different story. The beach merchants have 2 months to make their profits for the year and the slice at the beach is a half of the size of a whole pie in Philly.
We actually ordered quite a few pizzas this summer for the pool, and on average during the rest of the year, we order pizzas twice a month. It never seemed very expensive. Then we needed pizzas to give as a gift to a bunch of guys who helped our family this year. My husband called Tony and Joe’s in Conshohocken. This was my favorite pizza as a child growing up in Conshohocken and a local favorite today. $85 for 6 pies. Plain pizzas with no toppings cost him $85.00. Their pizza is $12.05 per pie. He carried on for days about how expensive that was, not because he didn’t want to spend the $85, but because it was flour, water, sauce and cheese.
Upon further investigation, we figured out that we had such sticker shock because our “go to” pizza, close to our home, from Luigi’s Pizza in Glenside was considerably less. Monday through Thursdays at Luigi’s, 2 whole pizzas are just $16.99. To be fair the price is $10.50 on the weekends, but when you order multiple pies and usually add toppings, the difference adds up!
So I decided to research the costs of pizza around the area and compare. OK, research may a bit bold. I browsed through a few price lists and made a few calls! Here is what I found.
All prices are for a large, plain pizza.
Luigi’s ~ $8.50 weekdays and $10.50 on the weekends
SliCE ~ $11.70
Tony and Joe’s ~ $12.05
Tacconelli’s ~ $13.05
Pizzeria Stella ~ $13.00
Marra’s ~ $11.00
Lorenzo’s ~ $9.00
Tony A’s ~ $11.99
So it would appear that our sticker shock from Tony and Joe’s was valid. It was the most expensive pizza not only in the burbs, but 3rd only to Stephen Starr and Taconnelli’s in price! Luigi’s was the least expensive in the burbs, but the over-all, everday lowest priced pies can be found in The Italian Market at Lorenzo’s!