Clam Pizza

On the corner of Wooster Street and Brown Street in New Haven, Connecticut, there is a small Italian enclave that feels like it is out of the old world. This is the kind of area where retired Italian Americans sit out in front of Italian cafes and pastry shops and talk about the world and what’s happening at Yale over coffee. On this intersection a block off of I 95 North, there are 6-8 different establishments and they are all Italian. There are small restaurants, pastry shops selling everything from Italian cookies and pastries to gelato and Italian ice, a deli making sandwiches with a variety of meats and cheeses and a couple of pizzerias. In particular, there is one pizzeria named Frank Pepe’s and it is because of Frank Pepe’s that I am in New Haven on this beautiful Friday morning in late May.

Sure, Frank Pepe’s is a so called “institution”. It is full of locals and tourists passing through New Haven that have included a stop for a pizza on their agenda after visiting Yale University, which is less than a mile from the corner of Wooster and Brown. However, it is not one of those tourist traps that you visit and feel let down after the experience. In fact, my fear of overhyping a place only to have it fail to meet my high expectations is exactly why I am weary of places like this. Frank Pepe’s is far from that. In fact, it is where I had the best pizza of my life.

It was Memorial Day weekend and my wife and I were driving from Ridgefield, New Jersey right outside of New York to Newport, Rhode Island with her family over the long weekend. Given all of the charming towns to visit on the East Coast, I thought that we could break up the three and a half hour drive to Newport and check out a town in between. To give full disclosure, I vaguely knew where New Haven was and Frank Pepe’s had been on my radar for over 2 years ever since I read about their famous white clam pizza in the excellent food chronicle written by Jeffrey Steingarten, The Man Who Ate Everything. As we planned our trip months ago, I pulled up Newport, Rhode Island on Google Maps and charted out the route from New Jersey. As I followed the line from Ridgefield to Newport, my eyes zeroed in on New Haven which appeared to be almost halfway between Ridgefield and Newport. It seemed that we would have to pass by it if we didn’t pass through it. After doing a bit of research on New Haven, I came to find out that in addition to Frank Pepe’s, New Haven is also home to a famous University that 5 U.S. Presidents and numerous big name actors have graduated from. New Haven is the home to Yale University. After telling my wife that we could visit Yale and Frank Pepe’s on the way to Newport, a stop here was an easy sell to her Mom and Brother.

Departing at nearly 10 AM from New Jersey, we drove for nearly 90 minutes before pulling off of I-95 and making our way into central New Haven. Using our handy Tom-Tom GPS, we made a couple of turns and pulled right in front of Frank Pepe’s. This was almost too easy and there wasn’t even a line to fight through to get inside which I fully expected. We did have one problem though that was somewhat significant. None of us were hungry. We had a 9 AM Korean breakfast of seaweed soup, vegetables and dumplings and at 11:30 AM, we just weren’t ready for lunch yet. Since we did have another reason for visiting New Haven, we decided to walk around celebrated Yale University for an hour or 2 before getting a pie for lunch. As we began our walk through New Haven Green and approached the entrance to Yale, I still had Frank Pepe’s on my mind as I crossed my fingers hoping that we wouldn’t encounter a line extending down the street that would force us to abandon our plans.

New Haven is a pleasant enough town with some nice parks and the area around Yale has many historic buildings that I am sure have been included or imitated in several films and TV shows. This area simply has too much history for that not to be the case. You can feel the collegiate atmosphere walking through these hallowed grounds. While it doesn’t appear that school is in session, there are numerous students working to greet graduates that are in town for alumni reunion weekend. We stopped at the Visitor Center to get a map and I took a walk around to learn a bit more about Yale. While I knew that this was a famous Ivy League University, I didn’t know that 5 U.S. Presidents attended Yale. In addition to George H. and W. Bush, Bill Clinton, William Howard Taft and Gerald Ford all attended Yale at some point during their educational odyssey. Although the University should probably apologize for the fact that Dick Cheney is also a graduate, this aberration is more than made up by the number of successful actors, writers, architects and artists that are graduates of this prestigious University. In addition to the writer Tom Wolfe, Meryl Streep, Edward Norton, Sigourney Weaver, Jodie Foster, Paul Newman and Angela Bassett are amongst some of the most successful Yale graduates to go onto epic careers on the big screen. The list of notable Yale graduates is too long to list but is extremely impressive.

As we meandered about the quads and among Yale’s buildings, I felt a sense of nostalgia from my university days. There is something you can feel in the air as the classic architecture, blooming spring trees and green quads are inspiring. You could spend an afternoon here just lying on the grass with a book soaking it all in. As we made our way back in the direction of Wooster Street with our stomachs beginning to growl, we stopped by Atticus bookstore and café. I enjoyed perusing the shelves and felt compelled to buy a book from my ever growing ‘must read’ list. I hope it brings me back to this place when I read through it.

Continuing on up Chapel Street, we hung a right on Olive Street before taking a left on Wooster. As we approached our destination, I saw exactly what I feared – a line. As we walked closer, I was relieved to see that the line wasn’t terribly long. The waitress told us it was a 20 minute wait which we definitely had time for. As we stood in the hot sun under a sign featuring a caricature of Frank Pepe dressed in an apron and chef hat with a pizza in hand where they have been serving pizzas since 1945 (it actually opened in 1925 but moved here in 1945), I grew anxious. The line moved quickly though and in no time we were walking inside and being seated. I felt like I was walking through a pizza museum as I looked behind the pickup counter at the massive white brick oven that is so large that the cooks need 20 foot pizza spatula’s to place the pizzas in and pull them out of the oven. To the left of the oven, there are 3 people working in unison putting the pies together. One is rolling out dough onto large rectangular aluminum pans that are then handed to the others who layer the dough with the ingredients. Some pizzas just get a layer of tomato sauce, slices of fresh mozzarella and basil leaves. Others get olive oil, clams and garlic while others get loaded with cheese, peppers, sausage and bacon. There is an outdated bar in the front room that is adjacent to the white linoleum pickup counter with a few beers on tap and a sign hanging above the bar that boasts ‘Tomato Pies Made to Order’. This isn’t just any sign though as it must be 50 years old. It is the kind of sign that you need to press plastic letters into plastic ridges in order to spell out the ingredients that are available.

The place is unquestionably old school with many booths, a few tables and old pictures adorning all the walls in the front room and the back room which contains most of the seating. The pictures on the walls are of Frank Pepe, his family and presumably employees from long ago pictured in aprons preparing, cooking or serving pizza pies to their customers. The décor is all green and white with a green ceiling that looks to be original. The place isn’t run down at all as it has been kept up to date but likely with the same colors and style since 1945. This doesn’t look like the kind of place that wants or needs to change much.

Every pizza I see on the tables around us looks fantastic. After sitting down, we don’t waste any time ordering. I have obviously already thought this through and have little trouble swaying the table towards my suggestion to stick with the basics. We order a medium White Clam pizza, a medium Margherita pizza, water and some soft drinks. We sit and wait anxiously until our drinks come before taking turns using the washroom and further surveying the joint. It has only been 15 minute but I see our waitress come around the corner and I am pretty sure she is headed for our table with 2 pans in her hands. She places both of them on our table covering pretty much the entire surface of the table. Any thought of cutting the pizza up with a fork like I typically do is out the window as there is barely enough room to put a plate in front of each of us. The medium pizzas are large and I wonder how we will finish them. I start with a piece of white clam pizza which is pure bliss. The taste of large chunks of clams with nothing else but fresh garlic and olive oil is heavenly. The crust is firm, thin, a light brown color on the outside and can’t be much more than 1/8th of an inch thick. Not weighed down by cheese and sauce, there is a crunch in every bite and the ends of the crusts are especially crispy. After polishing off one piece, I go for a slice of the margherita which only has 3 simple ingredients. A thin layer of tomato sauce, slices of high quality mozzarella and basil leaves. Surprisingly, the crust holds up well to the tomato sauce and cheese as it is almost as crispy as the clam pizza. The flavors are perfect. There isn’t a lot of talking as we take apart both pies piece by piece. I am the ring leader although I try and make sure everyone is getting their fair share. There is hardly a hint of grease in the crust which is extraordinary.

Finished, we look at the carnage in front of us as there is nothing left except 2 large aluminum pans covered with four plates that are empty except for a few end crusts. This is a lunch well done and that is an understatement. Thanks Frank Pepe! I’ll be back. I don’t know when but I can promise you that I will be back.