Methodology
The Patty Index tracks what independent restaurants charge for a burger and sets it against public beef prices. Here's exactly how the numbers are made.
Burger prices
- Which restaurants: independent restaurants only. National and regional chains are excluded. A few small local groups with two to six locations are included and flagged in the data.
- Which burger: the cheapest standard, full-size beef burger on the main lunch or dinner menu. We skip kids, happy-hour, late-night, slider and limited-time prices.
- Which sources: only the restaurant's own website, menu PDF or official ordering page. We don't use third-party delivery apps or menu aggregators. If a page wouldn't load or the price was ambiguous or out of date, we left that restaurant out.
- Dates: each price records when we first saw it and when we last checked it. The current prices were checked Oct 16, 2026 to Oct 17, 2026.
- Medians: each metro shows the median (middle) price, which a single luxury burger can't skew.
Status badges
- Up $1.00 · 2 wks ago Down $0.50 · 3 days ago A later check found a different price than the one before it. Shown for 60 days after the check that found it.
- Holding · 4 wks The same price on at least two checks. The time shown is only the span we verified, from the first check at this price to the latest. We never assume a price held between checks.
- Fresh · checked today First checked today, so there's nothing to compare against yet.
- New this week Added in the last 7 days, one check so far.
- Checked 3 wks ago One check, older than a week. Stale · checked 2 mos ago Not re-checked in 45+ days.
Badges are worked out from each price's first-seen and last-checked dates, then recalculated in your browser against today's date. Hover over or tap a badge to see the exact dates.
Beef prices
- Retail: BLS Average Price Data, 100% ground beef per pound: U.S. city average (APU0000703112), Northeast (APU0100703112), Midwest (APU0200703112), South (APU0300703112) and West (APU0400703112). BLS doesn't publish average prices for individual metros, so each metro is paired with its region.
- Local index: where BLS publishes a metro CPI for "meats, poultry, fish, and eggs", we show it as % change since January 2019. It's an index, not dollars, and it isn't beef-only.
| Metro | Retail beef $/lb series | Local meat CPI |
|---|---|---|
| Providence | Northeast region (APU0100703112) | None published |
| Boston | Northeast region (APU0100703112) | Boston-Cambridge-Newton (CUURS11ASAF112) |
| Sarasota–Tampa | South region (APU0300703112) | Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater (CUURS35DSAF112) |
| New York | Northeast region (APU0100703112) | New York-Newark-Jersey City (CUURS12ASAF112) |
| Los Angeles | West region (APU0400703112) | Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim (CUURS49ASAF112) |
| Chicago | Midwest region (APU0200703112) | Chicago-Naperville-Elgin (CUURS23ASAF112) |
| Dallas–Fort Worth | South region (APU0300703112) | Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington (CUURS37ASAF112) |
| Houston | South region (APU0300703112) | Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land (CUURS37BSAF112) |
| Miami | South region (APU0300703112) | Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach (CUURS35BSAF112) |
| Washington, DC | South region (APU0300703112) | Washington-Arlington-Alexandria (CUURS35ASAF112) |
| Atlanta | South region (APU0300703112) | Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell (CUURS35CSAF112) |
| Philadelphia | Northeast region (APU0100703112) | Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington (CUURS12BSAF112) |
| Seattle | West region (APU0400703112) | Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue (CUURS49DSAF112) |
- Wholesale: USDA AMS Livestock Mandatory Reporting, National Daily Boxed Beef (LM_XB403), 81% lean ground beef, averaged by month and converted from $/cwt to $/lb.
Downloads
All burger data is free to reuse under CC BY 4.0: all metros, Providence, Boston, Sarasota–Tampa, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas–Fort Worth, Houston, Miami, Washington, DC, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Seattle.
Corrections
Restaurant owners: if a price is wrong or out of date, the next monthly check will pick up whatever your menu shows.