Daniela Brighenti Photo
Pepe’s? Shrug.
Veteran pizza lovers may spend hours waiting on line for the famous Wooster Street pie.
But some newer New Haven taste buds found alternatives more to their liking in America’s Pizza City.
The occasion was an annual “pizza fest” held on the Green Friday in conjunction with the International Festival of Arts & Ideas, as a fundraiser for The Connection. Three Independent summer interns, Emily Patton, David Yaffe-Bellany, and Qi Xu, set out to sample pizzas from 11 different establishments: Star Pizza, Pepe’s Pizza, Abate Pizza and Restaurant, Cappetta’s Pizza & Catering, Tolli’s Apizza, Lo Monaco’s, Modern Apizza, Da Legna, P&M Fine Foods & Pizzeria, and Yorkside Pizza . The pizzas were judged primarily on their looks, holdability, crust quality, divisibility and seasoning taste. (You can eat all the New Haven pizza you can stomach, and come up with your own conclusions, when the pizza fest re-commences on the Green at noon this Thursday and Friday.)
The results didn’t conform to the popular New Haven script.
Connection staffer Claire Bien.
The interns began by cutting each piece into three with puny plastic knives from the nearby Chipotle — a task that already spoke a lot toeach pizza’s divisibility.
Star Pizza was the interns’ first go. Though Patton said the pizza’s “nice, firm crust” could support its weight well, Xu disagreed as she dropped her very first slice of pizza.
“I don’t like its holdability,” Xu said. “I don’t like it because I dropped it.”
But all three interns agreed on the quality of the pizza’s sauce, as well as the tastiness of its crispy crust.
The remains of Yorkside Pizza.
Up next was the classic Pepe’s Apizza. Yaffe-Bellany said though the pie was “well-crafted,” it had a lot to live up to given that it’s from the powerhouse Wooster Street establshment credited with inventing pizza. Patton was more direct, calling the pizza “overrated.” Xu also did not approve, adding that the pizza “was not very chewable.” (This recent story offers a more more conventional newcomer’s paean to Pepe’s.)
Abate came up next, and did not fare much better than Pepe’s. Xu called the pizza “a little bitter,” and Patton only liked that it had a lot of sauce, though she did not speak to the actual quality of the sauce. As for Yaffe-Bellany, he claimed he was afraid he was too hungry to be objectively rating the pizza.
“I just ate that entire slice without thinking how it tasted,” Yaffe-Bellany said after gulping down slice number four from Cappetta’s.
Meanwhile, Patton struggled with her cheese, which slid entirely from the pizza’s crust. Though she commended the sauce, Xu said it was much too salty for her taste.
As for Tolli’s, the only comment from the interns came from Patton: It’s good for what it is, a pizza with no sauce.
The interns moved on to Wall Street Pizza. As Patton and Xu discussed the quality of the crust — Patton said it was “good,” and Xu noted it was much thinner than others — Yaffe-Bellany was instead reminiscing about the time he went to Sally’s Apizza. Sally’s was not, in fact, one of the 11 pizzas tasted on Friday.
Yaffe-Bellany, Patton, and Xu debate holdability.
Seven slices in, Xu took out her water bottle.
“I’m starting to get really full,” she said, before taking a bite of her Lo Monaco’s slice. “I’ve never eaten this many pizzas in my life!”
Patton chuckled, “I disagree.”
Modern Apizza, which came up next, was “not very durable,” but very flexible, if that is what someone is looking for in a pizza, Patton noted. Yaffe-Bellany continued to scarf down his pieces, and had no comment for this particular piece.
Da Legna received positive reviews from the interns, or at least from those who could still taste the pizza.
“I just can’t tell anymore,” Xu said, after struggling to finish piece number nine.
Reaching the end of the tasting, Patton deemed P&M’s flavor particularly well seasoned.
“It also looks like a good crust, but I don’t think I’m going to reach the crust,” Patton said. At this point, Yaffe-Bellany was the only one finishing the entire portion of pizza.
The 11th and final pizza slice was from Yorkside.
P&M Fine Foods & Pizzera crust comes off.
“And Yorkside Pizza, as usual, is the last resort,” Patton noted.
Yaffe-Bellany was the only one to taste this pizza. “Pretty oily, as one would expect,” he reported.
After nearly one hour and 11 one-third slices of pizza, which Patton carefully calculated to be “less than four entire slices, not bad!”, the interns set out to determine their top three favorite pizzas.
For Yaffe-Bellany, Star Pizza came in first, followed by Modern Apizza and Da Legna.
Xu had similar pizza choices: She ranked Star Pizza first, and followed with Wall Street Pizza and Da Legna.
For Patton, the number-one slice came from Wall Street Pizza, followed by P&M Fine Foods & Pizzeria and Star Pizza.
Star Pizza is the only pizzeria featured on all three interns’ list. But, Yaffe-Bellany noted, that might be because of a certain bias.
“This might not be a good ranking,” he said. “That’s the first pizza we tasted, so maybe that’s why we remember it.”
Evaluating pizza doesn't need to be anymore complicated than this simple question:
Is the pizza from Sally's Apizza?
If yes, then you're eating good pizza, if no, then you're eating bad pizza.