Considering I went to college in Hartford, CT it is crazy that it took 10 years and a wedding on the CT coast to get me to try some real New Haven pizza. I wish I had tried to sooner, when it would have been a short road trip away.

New Haven style pizza, refereed to as apizza (pronounced /əˈbiːts/ ah-Beetz) if you actually from there, is similar to Neapolitan style pizza and reflects the areas Italian heritage. The pizza is baked in brick, coal fired oven resulting in crisp crust and slightly charred on top.

While there are lots good places to get pizza… sorry, apizza, there are two places that are considered to be the originals, atleast by tourists: Pepe’s and Sally’s. We gave Pepe’s a try and ended up getting two pies. One was a pepperoni and the other is a style popular up there, a white pizza with clams and lots of garlic. Clams on a pizza may sound a little crazy, but they were nice and fresh, and cooked perfectly so they were tender. There is no tomatoes or mozzarella cheese, instead just a grating of cheese. The story behind the pizza is that it came to be because Frank Pepe was allergic to both cheese and tomatoes… that story comes from Wikipedia, so take it with a grain of salt.

Needless to say, the pizza was amazingly good. The pies were not perfect circles, but instead nice, bubbly ovals, with a random protuberance or two. As you can tell, we did a good job of eating and earned desert privileges… cannolis from the Italian pastry shop down the street.

Another great place we tried while up there was The Place in Guilford, CT. It is an open-air clambake. You can sit on tree stump or picnic tables under a tent. We tried BBQ Chicken, corn on the cob, and shrimp… all of it cooked over a large grill a couple feet away.

Luckily for us there is a great “New Haven Style” apizza place around the corner, Pete’s Apizza. They turn out a great pie, not quite as good as the originals, but some of the best in DC. I think the originals use a lot more olive oil, either in the dough or drizzled on top. As you can see from the photos way up above, they are pretty greasy, in a good way of course! Another part of the charm of the originals is that they have been doing this for such a long time. The history is literally baked into the walls. Pete’s is in a condo building, and is clean. Cleanliness is a good thing in a restaurant, but a gently worn restaurant has character.

Pete’s has a great tip for reheating pizza right on the box. Heat the pizza in a pan over medium heat, with a lid on. I used my cast iron pan and a random lid and it worked great. The crust stayed crisp and the cheese got melty. My tip is to make sure you keep an eye on it or else the crust with get really charred. Trust me.