There are regional pizza styles across the US, but none is perhaps more storied than New Haven-style pizza. Here now, Connecticut food writer Amy Kundrat breaks down the style and explores the city’s historic pizzerias.
Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana is the granddaddy of New Haven’s pizza scene. From its humble beginnings on Wooster Street in 1925, Pepe’s has recently expanded to five additional locations in Connecticut and New York. Although much time and expense has gone into duplicating the taste and feel of the Pepe’s experience, none come close to the experience of the original Pepe’s location in New Haven.
The original Pepe’s is now called The Spot, located to the left and rear of where Pepe’s stands today on Wooster Street. It is home to a smaller, nearly identical operation with shorter lines, but Pepe’s proper is still the main draw. Two dining rooms are continually filled to the brim, often with long lines trailing down the block. Inside, a massive and deep brick oven with a white-tiled facade stands at attention in the rear, attended by white-aproned men wielding impossibly long peels and pounding out their over-sized oblong pies.
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Pepe’s very first pizzas were tomato pies, and a nod to these modest roots can be found in the constantly-lit “Original Tomato Pie” neon sign hanging above the kitchen’s counter. Its most beloved pizza is the famous original white clam pie. Hundreds of imitators have attempted to match the intoxicating combination of romano cheese, fresh garlic, olive oil, parsley, and clams atop the chewy and charred oblong pies.
Clam pizza pro tip? Add bacon. Pepe’s is known for its intensely smoked bacon, which remains pliable and similar in texture to the clams, making it an excellent partner in crime.
Story From: Eater.com of Vox Media, Inc
