NOYB wrote:

"John Smith" wrote in message
news:X7qxc.63964$eY2.59392@attbi_s02...

LOL, everyone knows the best pizza is in New York City.


Agreed. Connecticut? LOL. That *is* pretty funny, Harry.



Nope. New Haven and Pepe's is The Source of pizza and is known around
the world for being the best. Here's one little article:

New Haven: the birthplace of American pizza
By Matt Wiegle

On July 9, 1988, two stories dominated the front page of the New Haven
Register: first, Oliver North was going on trial for his role in the
Iran-Contra scandal; second, Sally's Pizza on Wooster Street was
celebrating its 50th anniversary. Since then, North has sunk into
relative obscurity, having attempted in vain to gain office in the very
government he tried to subvert. However, Sally's and its slightly older
neighbor Pepe's remain positive icons by continuing their roles as the
progenitors of American pizza and by having nothing whatsoever to do
with foreign policy.

In the early years of the 20th century (the Pizza Legend goes) Frank
Pepe immigrated to New Haven, where he created the first American pizza
by putting tomatoes on top of old bake-shop bread. His creation was so
successful that in 1925 Pepe opened his first pizzeria on Wooster
Street. By 1938, business was booming, the whole family was involved,
and Pepe's nephew Sal Consiglio split off and opened his own pizzeria,
Sally's. Soon, Pepe had moved out of his original store, now called The
Spot, and opened a larger restaurant. Sally's and Pepe's remain locked
in their Wooster Street rivalry today, two blocks apart.

The pizza from both establishments is refreshingly thin and light. While
chains like Pizza Hut have become increasingly obsessed with using
cheese as stomach ballast, packing as much as possible into their pies,
Sally's and Pepe's wisely demur. Pepe's pies look exactly like good
oven-cooked pizza should: cheese sitting on top of but not dominating
the sauce, with a flour-dusted crust framing the affair. They're as
delicious as they look. Pizza from Sally's is even better. Arriving at
the table in shapes that make equal distribution between dinner party
members difficult, these pies have almost no visible crust—the toppings
go to the edge. Their sauce is tangier than Pepe's and the slices are
softer. It's a joy just to hold one and fold it in half. Even the mouth
burns from a Sally's pizza taste good.

A charming sense of tradition inhabits Sally's as well as Pepe's.
Sally's, for example, is furnished with brownish-yellow booths that set
off its brownish-yellow walls, which makes everything inside look a bit
like an old sepia-tone photograph. The Spot is adorned with old photos
of Frank Pepe in a service uniform and in a chef's hat, posing in front
of vast shelves of tomato sauce. He wears the same bemused yet glum
expression in each picture, which suggests something of the guy's
attitude toward either life in general, or the army and pizza-making in
particular.

Wooster Street is a beautiful area that does New Haven proud, but the
section that Yale students have to walk through to get there does not.
Closer to home, there's Naples Pizza; if its tradition of pizza-making
is not as rock-solid, its tradition of serving it within a more
reasonable walking distance is. Cheap slices provide a good way for
friends to pass an evening: talk, order a slice, talk, eat, talk, order
a slice. There's a big TV, there's beer, and if Naples can't muster a
defining personality, at least many personalities have left their mark.
Naples' tables are filled with carved messages of all kinds, from the
initials of couples who have probably since broken up to the scribbled
names of sports teams who now suck. Some of the carvings are so deep
that they may have taken decades to complete.

Modern Apizza is another excellent pizza place; although removed from
both the Wooster Street area and central campus, it features glorious
Sally's-esque pies that have won the New Haven Advocate Reader's Poll
for two years running. Although the great food still means Modern is
crowded at peak hours, it's much easier to get into than either of the
Wooster twins.

While each of these places offers its proud traditions, XandO on Elm
Street offers the tradition of stealing the other guy's idea and
creating a corporate version. The chain coffee shop recently refashioned
itself as a "coffeehouse and pizzeria," hiring a chef away from Pepe's
to create its own brand of New Haven pizza. While it's good, XandO
itself still feels like the set of a bad sitcom and looks uninhabitable.

When Sal Consiglio died, 2,000 people attended his wake and The New York
Times ran a half-page "In Memoriam"; if XandO's guy bit the dust, the
only turnout would be his hyena-like spawn, scrabbling over his corpse
in an effort to get to the will. You can make the food, but you can't
copy the love. Go to Wooster and feel some.

Photo of a Pepe's pie by John Yi.


Havens for pie lovers
Modern
founded 1934
$11.65 a pizza
874 State Street

Naples
founded 1968
$11.65 a pizza
90 Wall Street

Pepe's
founded 1925
$11.65 a pizza
157 Wooster Street

Sally's
founded 1938
$14.00 a pizza
237 Wooster Street

XandO
founded 1996
$12.00 a pizza
338 Elm Street

Yorkside
founded 1977
$9.50 a pizza
228 York Street