According to DoorDash, a cheeseburger in Dallas is lower than the national average.
Hank Vaughn
More than a decade after launching its network of delivery services, DoorDash’s analytics team released its first-ever State of Local Commerce report, offering a unique look at how local economies are performing in 100 U.S. cities.
Millions of transactions across restaurants, grocery stores and retail locations nationwide were compared, and according to the report, Dallas is leading the nation in affordability, downtown recovery and business growth. Oh. OK.
Some of the main takeaways from the report are that local businesses are absorbing the ebbs and flows of the economy, downtown districts are seeing a revival after return-to-office trends grow and prices for everyday essentials are starting to steady.
Restaurant Resilience?
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We’ve been reporting for months now that veteran local restaurants and bars have been closing across Dallas. Even the Texas Restaurant Association has sounded an alarm: “Our data, combined with reports we’re reading from Black Box Intelligence and others, suggests that the slowdown we’ve all feared has materialized. I say this not to create panic but to prepare you,” Knight wrote in the industry-wide newsletter.
However, the report from DoorDash says that Dallas has one of the highest restaurant resilience rates nationwide, with 93.5% of local restaurants that were active on the platform from September 2024 remaining open a year later.
It’s not rocket science that this is a small drop of data in the world of takeaway dining. Many local restaurants avoid using third-party apps like DoorDash to avoid fees (that they can’t afford), and other local restaurants are likely not on the app at all. Those on the app, though, are thriving according to the data (which seems dubious).
More than half of the major cities in the U.S. are seeing more return to office compared to last year, and Dallas ranks among some of the top cities. Our weekday lunch orders are up 6.1% compared to 2.5% nationally year-over-year.
The Cheeseburger Metric
The defining factors of a city’s affordability are the cost of a classic cheeseburger meal and “breakfast basics,” which, according to DoorDash, are three eggs, an avocado, a bagel and a glass of milk.
A classic cheeseburger meal in Dallas is $14.34, which is below the national average of $18.58. Anchorage, Alaska, plus many other cities in California, are raising the average with their cheeseburger meals trending above $22.
Dallas, and six other cities in Texas, had the lowest cost of breakfast basics, with everything costing less than $5. Despite affordable claims, though, another section of their report shows that price trends across 15 different categories are higher in 2025 than in 2024.
The White House even posted a snippet from the report that the cost of breakfast has decreased by 14% in the last six months. And, yes, since the price of eggs hit a high of $6.23 per dozen in March, and is now just $3.49 according to the Fed, the cost of a three-egg breakfast is certainly down.
Things like batteries, dairy creamers and snack combos broke even, but staple items like meat and baby formula are trending higher. Also, eggs? Are they forgetting that the price of eggs skyrocketed this year?
Maybe our inflation is just “less” than places like Alaska and Hawaii. That. Or, Dallasites have a major budgeting hack— breakfast for dinner.
Either way, good data points and affordable cheeseburgers aren’t a testament to our city’s changing landscapes and shifting fortunes. Maybe they’re just a snapshot of how we’re all managing to stay ahead, one toasted bagel at a time.