New England Trip #5
On a side street in New Haven, Connecticut, Frank Pepe opened his Pizzeria Napoletana in 1925 to serve up classic “tomato pies.” And with a coal-fired, brick oven that hit 2200 degrees, he started turning out pizzas quickly famous for their thin blistered crispy-chewy crusts.
Today Frank Pepe’s feels something like a stripped-down food shrine with utilitarian booths identified by number and the faded pictures hung on the walls above.
We ended up in booth 19 after making the pilgrimage to Frank Pepe’s in New Haven for one reason only: the clam pizza. Frank’s clam pizza is widely rumored to be the best on the planet.
Of course it is not unusual for restaurants to claim they have the very best of something, but more often than not these claims go unsubstantiated. Frank Pepe’s clam pie is in a different category. A few pizza fundamentalists might argue that you can find a better clam pie somewhere else, but even they have to admit it is Frank’s Pizzeria Napoletana that set the standard and remains the pie to beat.
I love clams. I love pizza. And Frank’s progeny and staff aren’t stingy. Even the smallest pizza on the menu is substantial and thick with clams. We ordered ours without mozzarella at the advice of our brisk and business-like waitress. She didn’t beat around the bush when asked if a quintessential pie came with cheese or without. “Without,” she said definitively and didn’t bother to explain.
Thirteen minutes later… without cheese… but with the promised thin crispy-chewy blistered crust our pie arrived at the table.
I confess to disappointment. My West Coast pizza sensibilities and taste buds are decidedly New World and apparently assume a pizza isn’t a pizza without tomato sauce and melted cheese. Faced with possibly the country’s best clam pizza, I found myself ogling the massive sausage pizza at Table 18 across the aisle. It sported the same brilliant crust but was slathered with sauce and topped with a thick sheen of melted mozzarella.
Bottom line? I’ll return to Frank Pepe’s next time I’m in New Haven. I bet I’ll even order another classic clam pie on the premise that it might well grow on me. But I’ll also order one of Frank’s original tomato pies and get the version – authentic or not – that includes cheese.
