North Carolina’s love of barbecue might lead one to suspect that meat would also make a popular pizza toping statewide. That suspicion would be correct – for the most part.
Celebrated on Feb. 9, National Pizza Day represents a great way to feast on Super Bowl Sunday. BetCarolina.com, which offers NC sports betting promo codes without the need to tip a delivery driver, used Google Trends to rank the top five pizza toppings in North Carolina. We ranked them based on interest scores from searches conducted over a year, up to Jan. 27, 2025.
Rank | Toppings | Search Interest Score |
1 | Cheese | 75 |
2 | Sausage | 32 |
3 | Pepperoni | 30 |
4 | Supreme | 21 |
5 | Margherita | 10 |
No matter what else we put on our pizzas – and nowadays there are dozens of options, varying by region – it pretty much always starts with three things: Dough, sauce and cheese. Even the type of sauce can vary but, really, is it even pizza without cheese? There are also vegan substitutes for cheese, pleasing those who refrain from eating any animal products including dairy.
Also see our list of North Carolina’s top 5 cheese products to satisfy your appetite.
Cheese was the runaway leader with a search interest score of 75, but sausage (32 points), pepperoni (30) and supreme (21) also are on the minds of Tar Heel State residents.
The definition of “supreme” depends on where you get it, but it will usually involve some combination of a few meats and a couple of vegies, often peppers and onions.
A website called 50toppizza.it ranks the best pizzerias in the world and in various regions, with reviews in Italian and English. On their list of America’s top 50 pizzerias, one North Carolina restaurant makes the cut: Mission Pizza Napoletana in Winston-Salem.
So the next time you’re hankering for a hot slice as you peruse our North Carolina sports betting coverage, just know that the list of options is almost endless.
USA Today Network photo by Ken Blevins/Starnews
Author
Jim Tomlin has more than 30 years of experience at such publications as the Tampa Bay Times, FanRag, Saturday Down South and Saturday Tradition. He now lends his expertise in sports, betting and the intersection of those two industries to BetCarolina.com, among other sites.
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