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New Haveners and Yale graduates alike size one another up with a handshake and a single question: What’s your favorite pizza place?
The answer can say a lot about a person.
A traditionalist might go for Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana, the longtime pizza kingpin of New Haven, Conn. A no-frills-straight-shooter opts for Sally’s Apizza, the other staple on Wooster Street, in the heart of New Haven’s Little Italy. A low-key local may choose Modern Apizza, a relative newcomer to the pantheon.
But those are just the Big Three, so famous that they often run together: pepessallysmodern, said in a single word. There are other greats. Slice lovers hype up Ernie’s. Clam lovers praise Zuppardi’s, one city over. The fratty crowd lauds Bar, known for its mashed-potato-and-bacon pie. And farmers’ market folks like Next Door, off the main drag.
All to say, this city is serious about its pizza.
But in the past few years, New Haven’s pizza scene has changed. I noticed it immediately when I moved there in August to cover Connecticut for Wispria. It had been five years since I last lived there, when I was a student at Yale.
In that time, something shifted. The lines seemed longer. The hype felt bigger. Even the Big Three seemed bigger. So a few weeks into the job, I set out to investigate the shift. My article on the city’s pizza scene, which was published last week, is an effort to explain what many people think is a moment of transition for the city.
In September, I took a pizza tour led by Colin Caplan, one of the city’s biggest pizza evangelists. (He seemed pleased to have a Times journalist come along.)