Pin Stop at Pepe's

Line outside for Saturday lunch

If you've ever stopped by New Haven, Connecticut, you may have heard of "Frank Pepe."  This little pizzeria in the Wooster Square neighborhood has been around over 85 years and has become a local institution for its original tomato pies baked in a coal fired oven.  On a trip up to Boston, I stopped here to not surprisingly find a lunch line out the door on a Saturday.  After about a half hour wait, we snagged a booth and was able to order a sausage pie along with some white birch soda from Connecticut-based Foxon Park.  Supposedly, Pepe's white clam pizza (fresh clams, olive oil, garlic and oregano) is his specialty, but my lunch company were not the adventurous types, so we stuck with something more familiar.

The Pepe's atmosphere was simple - the booths were pretty standard, and the walls were decorated with a few pictures and articles on Frank Pepe, who established the place in 1925. Really, there wasn't much

to the decor.  However, as you walk in, you can't miss the opportunity to see them slide the pizzas right into the coal fired ovens using a long pizza paddle designed to shove the pizza deep into the oven.  They leave this area wide open for customers to salivate over watching them bake their pies to perfection (or perhaps imperfection as I'll explain in a moment).  I have heard stories that people claim the oven has been used so long that it now brings in extra flavor to the pizzas.

Now, I love New York-style pizza, and I'm a big fan of places like Grimaldi's, but I found this pizza to be different.  It came out thick, misshapen and burnt in spots.  It wasn't perfectly rounded or evenly symmetrical, and it wasn't thin and crunchy or over-the-top cheesy.  However, it was extremely delicious!  The imperfections gave this pie lots of character without any fancy presentation - what the locals call, "real pizza."  The sausage was hearty and the slices were generous.  It definitely hit the spot, leaving the four of us at our table very satisfied. As one of the oldest pizzerias in the country, it's certainly worth a stop for a meal if you get a chance to drop by this side of CT.