Is New Haven Pizza Better Than New York Pizza?

For me, this is the best advice: you come to New Haven, you go to two or three

pizza

places and then you come here, the Christopher martinis and you have a white Russian with you. Well, when I was a kid we didn't say

pizza

, Abby Abby. Abby, and that's what you're saying anyway, or I'll go out and wear one of these hats and shirts when I get back to Brooklyn, I bet you're watching the pizza show at munchies in New Haven, there's no pizza. just a beat and the locals here who quickly correct me oh I will, beat, beat, uh, beat.

Bobby's a beats is unique to New Haven, there are 6 nationally ranked pizzerias within a 5 square mile radius, so it's no surprise this city is known for its pizza, from tomato pie, traditionally on top of tomatoes fresh, a light coating of aged grated cheese, garlic, olive oil, even white clam cake, popularized by Frank Pepe and made possible by New Haven's proximity to the Long Island Sound, whether you're walking down Wooster Street. The roads, the alleys and Pepe are coexisting with a true New Haven. One thing is clear: this distinctive style tells the city's rich history. There is no

better

place to start my visit than sitting down with New Haven's longest serving mayor, John de Stefano Jr. .

So what is that? Oh no, Haven style is very easy. For me it is flat and thin. It's cooked a little more than someone else's. It doesn't have cheese and it doesn't have next Tuesday night's meatloaf on top. of this, if you wish, is for its simplicity, authentic and real. I've heard a lot about New Haven Ax Hits, but I've never actually tried them. The dough is all fermented. It is nice. It's all crunchy. I must say that it surprises me. This is my first trip to New Haven. I've heard a lot of people talk about it, but being from New York you're skeptical about everything.

Do you think New York has the best pizza? You've been told your whole life. There's no way there can be another city in America that has the kind of culture we have, but they do. The ovens are amazing. You don't see that many ovens in New York, this old style of charcoal ovens and every pizzeria really likes it. The most surprising thing is how long all of these pizzas have been open. It seems that the average age of all these pizzas is 70 years old. The roots are very deep. This is a pizza town, there's no doubt about it.

I think the pizza culture is constant here. Deep down, why does that family bother me? My dad was a police officer in New Haven on Friday nights, so he knew he could stay up when he was little because my dad always came home at 11:30 with a pizza. from Sally's and that was our groove when you say a place like Sally's. I remember Sal and you first, the true measure of achievement in New Haven was having the secret salary number for the majority, until recently there were two phones, there was the phone that appeared in the phone book that was always off the hook and then there was the another line and if you had been around for a long time you got the secret number, now the secret number gave you the right to call Sally when no one else could get through to you. and be able to order your pizza now.

I got the secret number before I became mayor, so I take it as a single standard of achievement in my personal and professional life. There's a guy in town who is the Oracle of New Haven history, especially the optimistic history that Colin has. He dedicated his life to researching and preserving pizza relics from the last century. My house is like a ghost town. He is using these materials for an upcoming book chronicling New Haven and American history through Pizza. These are all actually atlases and maps of New Haven. This is from 1901. There are probably about eight million mold colonies living here.

You can see it here. Here is Wooster Street. The history of Wooster streets is related to Italian immigration. Here is the remnant of old Little Italy. 1892 in New Haven. The Italian ladies worked in the course of a company. that a lot of the men worked at the rubber company, the hardware company and they ended up getting pizza delivered, interesting, so the pizza delivery started first, yeah, instead of people actually going to the bakeries and everyone going to pizza exactly, oh. Yeah, people like Frank Pepe and other guys would go out with their pizza and sell it.

I bought some old matchbooks and this one is from Sally's and this is the menu probably from the early '60s, so if you wanted a small cheese and a tomato, it was just Romano. with sauce or what we call sauce, they call it send tomato, it was good 50 cents for the whole small pie and they wanted a large dollar. The 50's phone books are another resource, this one from the 1947 New Haven directory. Here's the Frank Pepe ad and he was called Old Reliable, that's what he was known as, since you don't visit New Haven, we don't go to Frank Pepe's , almost down the street, the oldest pizzeria in town, this is the home of white clam pie, which has been ranked the best pizza in America, there are eight Pepe's locations in the US, but I went to the original on West Street and met up with Gary, Monty Frank's grandson Pepe, just look at the pizza, don't worry about what's behind you, of course, I want to learn about pizza and I'm also very excited to meet the family behind the legend.

My sister is one of those waitresses here. She's been here. I probably don't know. 25 30 years. Hurricane Gloria came and I was home and the Iowa storm was passing over Connecticut and my mother called me and said, Genevieve, come here and help run this business. Come out. We're open when I came down. I had to help my mother open the business. We didn't have lights. And my brother Gary Monts and my uncle Ralph. We are using a flashlight in the oven, he never stops. I didn't write like Frank Pepe's pie, my grandfather's from the Naples region, so for me a political style thin crust, it just has to be chewy, you know, that's it with the oven. the original plain tomato pizza and this is our nationally acclaimed clam pizza.

I can't wait thanks Gary okay we'll have a minute oh it's my pleasure the family tour budget so in New York we do the fold you guys do the Foley yeah. that's the way to do it now I know what all the fuss is about. This is amazing here with these charcoal ovens. I mean, this is the best pizza in every way. I think I've seen magical things happen in the oven. This is the original. oven, this was from the end of the 19th century, there is the fire, yes, it heats the entire game, the parts, with an open heart, yes.

Wow, how long have you been in the pizza game? and 40 years, yes, my whole life was him, your first half, yes, basically, yes. with my first and only job I went to a technical school and I wanted to be a car mechanic my mother said no I want you to work with your brain not your hands I took electronics I did well I started working so high it's amazing when I really like the Clem's special, you can taste like Brian eNOS, try the garlic oregano, it's really good, these clams have a nice sweet flavor, yes, we shell about 80 to 90 bushels a week at this place alone, so we had We have to get a couple different suppliers, but they all take from the specific beds we want them to take, oh it's like all the local beds, yes that's what I can sell very well, yes, all I need to know.

I'm making a Frank Pepe pizza right now. like a dream come true this pizza made I don't know apparently I need another 20 years this is a frozen pizza 'this is someone maybe I just need a little more Do you have some that come out like this to transplant thank you for making me feel?

better

, oh please, it's this beautiful boy when he was making the pizzas, it was a good feeling. I love turning on the oven and it could make your break. We realized that I was on the bench. We call it being on the bench punching the pies for 12 13 years in a row he died punching 1.2 million pizzas Wow, that's some incredibly good pizza, all those years at the pizzeria making pizzas, yeah, what do you do to blow off some steam?

I belong to a couple of car clubs. I'm a bit of a car speed freak, people are like my pizza people, yeah guys my friends, this motley crew sweat blood and fit into one of the many car clubs they Gary is a member. I spell my orders once, I race cars like Garry's Escape, but the Pizza always finds a way to get into the equation. Can we see the helmets? Yes, absolutely, my friend made this one. I'm going to put something together, whatever you want to do and he came up with this, that's why I call the car pizza time.

Okay, run. to the wall Gary the guys wanted to take me in Gary's car, which is the 600 horsepower 72 Chevy Nova. I won't do it. I'm ready, blood, sweat, years, honey, I love it, I think I want to buy one of these. The New Haven community is tight-knit, whether you're kicking back in blood sweat and gear while heading to the local pizzeria. My next stop is the festivities at the Zoo and West, even run by two sisters, Laurie and Sheryl. Soups are originally a family heirloom. Run by her grandfather and then her mother and father, the sisters have preserved the family tradition of making truly excellent pizza.

This is my sister Cheryl Cheryl and she can probably tell you more of the story than I can because she is much older than excited. Cheryl's oldest son, Craig II, this is a foster family that I have and Omar, so I have family here, Jimmy, I love it, everyone listens to the family, it's like the dynamic, which is like the good cop, the cop bad, our personalities are totally different, ironically Cheryl and I live next door. door to each other it's not that we don't work well together, actually you do want to know what the favorite part is when a customer walks in and says wow, usually when we end up working together it's because I'm in the back making pizza Frank knows that we are ready for you or anything you know that I am making everything fresh you are certainly a regular customer here is the way to do it how old is Miriam your first pizza 10 years 10 years do you remember it in this meeting yes my father would be on one side I I would be on the other and he showed me ovens everything and I made it and it's a sausage pie one of your most requested pies and it's our most popular a little bit heavier it looks good it looks good I just have to get the edges now To get the edges, the first bite has to be as good as the last, no, that's good, now it has to cook a little more and we're going to make it fresh. put your boots on and then put it back on and then you'll eat it, okay, every cutter worker just looks at your finger and sees that.

One day I went straight to my hand. I made pizza, which a lot of people, a lot of people did. I admire it, but I think that was my favorite moment, really yeah, I really would because you see you just grabbed it, it's going to be such a natural light that, what's it like at parties? The rhythms are not noticeably different from the others I've tried. until now, but its roots are classic Italian baking, it's part of Mines, you have a great loaf of bread, this makes a lot of sense because Laurie and Charles' grandfather trained as a classic baker and his father continued the tradition.

I want to continue his legacy. It's what I want to do. He worked very hard for it and so did my mother. I kept his tradition. I did what he did. By the way, he still did it. In fact, one of our buyers two weeks ago told me that it's like talking to your Father, when I talk to you, they use bakers' pride gas ovens here, not coal ovens, and they still make their pizza the same way they Grandpa used to do it, including some modern twists, I hate how when cornmeal burns a little, but you solve that problem with this.

Yeah, I've never seen that before. I know most people think they are pretty unique zoo parties. and we were here, I always remember my mom and dad working with us, making us work, everyone suggests, is there anything else you recommend picking up a customer who comes in here, what do you say, fresh clams, you guys go to the trouble of shelling them clams? your clams - I bet you can. I don't doubt for a second that Laurie could peel them fast enough. New Haven has it going, it's very salty and nice, but you can really taste the freshness of the plans, you guys obviously work very hard. here and you know you've worked well for weeks on Sunday night something special happens here we get together and play games like ours, snacks, what's on the front of the pages is a clue, you can't say a word, you have to act it out before her, don't be a fan of guessing, each page has to guess what is perfect, flawless, consummate exactly, so you place the red card that you think is funniest or most accurate for this card, so this Super Bowl Rihanna I'm going to put that one here Kermit. the Frog a bikini on my parents I had never seen two people more in love they were like fucking Romeo and Juliet my father stayed in his place my mother ran the counter they made it seem so perfect working together very close together we ate together and in the feeling of The pride we have in seeing these kids start to take control now and not need us is great.

I better start having some kids if I want to continue withthe legacy of Pizza, yes, okay, do it yourself, no, it's the truth see you. Guys, I'm inspired, oh well, this will be the next show we're hosting. I love it, the pizza bachelor, exactly, oh he's doing it when you talk to a New Haven, they'll tell you where to get his favorite beet. and who does it is like Gary saying the other man can make you or break you and there's another man in town who is a unique local favorite when Bill Bastardi bought modern beets in 1988, he also inherited the oven man Billy Bucks, well, I just said it.

He's a pizza joke, if you want to hear it, once he's on this guy, he was throwing the dough in the air, so you know one time, you know. The dough came down and landed on his chest, you know, and the guy had his shirt open here on his chest, so one of the customers said to the waitress, they said, "Hey, isn't it a little unhealthy that that guy is throwing out that dough?" on his chest like this and the girl said, "It's nothing, you should be here when he's making donuts and I'll make him pepperoni.

How long have you been working here? 44 years because I just turned 64, you know, in June and I" . I'll tell you you know I work with all these guys that are 30 years old and these guys only have two speeds, it's getting faster and faster and just take this here, look now this is what I do here, I take them, I throw them. in the oven, hey Billy, yeah, can you show the cameraman your hands a lot? That's your hand, just your hands, those are the hands on the pizza maker, right there, yeah, you're going to enjoy this one.

I can not wait. I love watching you make pizza. You're a master, yeah, okay, yeah, it's been cooking well and I'd like to stay with you forever, but man, it's already fired after and you got it, it's taking it home witches, thanks Bill. Okay, history here and community here. Amazing, it's very close knit, that's what I love about pizza and that part of the pizza culture really shines here in New Haven and I think that's what makes the city special when it comes to pizza, everything comes together in this really cool. way and something about it just makes this a pizza town and now I know what all the fuss is about.

I'm telling you it's places like Sally's and Pepe's, the parties that make a town a hometown if anything makes it your place instead of In anyone else's place there are long-time New Haven residents and then there's Helen , a State Street staple who later lived here my entire life. I know every inch of this area. I go up in the morning. I walk to Dunkin Donuts, yes, and I'm doing fine. I look. Wow. swag that's what we say now swag Oh we'll have a white brush to see the young, that's right, yeah, and drinking my white Russian presence, my Neutron friends from New York, news, yeah, cheers, my lips are sweet, Mommy, I should go, oh, you said it right, okay?

Look, it's a New Haven steel, just like the old Italians used to walk well, this is a thin edge, an eventful night, it's my house, huh, I wished my niece was away, so well, I'm going to play the doorbell, maybe she will come in. because we are very proud of it and everyone says this is what we want to be this is what we aspire to be live life to the fullest don't let the spirit grow old it's what counts on the next episode of the pizza show we're on go to Chicago any slice now just uh sure okay oh now you're speaking my language that's the best breakfast I've had all week