Sorry, Wooster Street: This New New Havener Has His Eye On Whalley Pie

Jack Ocken has been in town long enough to have a favorite pizza spot — and he has bad news for the Big Three. 

Ocken’s pick? Not Sally’s. Not Pepe’s. Not Modern. Not even Bar or Ernie’s or DeLegna.

Try … the Papa John’s on Whalley.

Ocken offered that unconventional view — and others about his adopted new hometown — while gassing up his girlfriend’s Grand Cherokee at the Whalley BP station Tuesday and participating in a conversation on the ​“Word on the Street” segment on WNHH FM’s ​“LoveBabz LoveTalk” program.

Here’s his Papa John’s pitch:

“When you want pizza, it’s usually around 3 a.m. and you want something that’s got a lot of crust, and a lot of gross cheese. The thin crust like at Modern — it doesn’t really scratch the itch late at night.”

Plus, it’s nearby: Ocken, a Yale junior English major who plays on the lacrosse team, lives on Lake Place.

Ocken was born in Bedford, N.Y. He moved his family to the Bay area in California for five years before returning back east for high school. Since he began attending Yale, his family has moved to Stamford.

Despite all of the other places that Ocken has explored throughout moving, he loves the Elm City. Before moving to New Haven, he was told to be cautious about living here. Instead, he has fallen in love with the city. He especially enjoys exploring it on foot.

“I feel safe in New Haven,” Ocken said. ​“I don’t ever feel in danger in New Haven. I think my parents’ generation had some sort of stigma surrounding New Haven, and they would always kind of warn me about it. But then I got here, and it’s a lot different than you think.”

He said that he’ has never had a ​“single problem” with anyone he has encountered in New Haven. People here are respectful to one another, in his observation. He considers New Haven to be more of his home compared to any of the other cities that he has lived in.

“The residents of New Haven try really hard to support each other, and I really respect that,” Ocken said. ​“I love New Haven because it has grit and flavor. I don’t think I could ask for anything else in the city where I go to school.”

He called out Yale University, though, for not being a better neighbor. Ocken said that it’s unacceptable that Yale has ​“almost more money than basically any country in the world” but can’t find more money to help its home city.

“I think that they could do a lot better,” Ocken said. ​“You can definitely see a difference in the campus and the surrounding areas. It’s not fair.”

“The second I got here, I could tell. You go from one street and walk a block, and see these buildings that Yale built that look amazing,” Ocken said. ​“Like giant, gothic cathedral-type buildings. and then you go one more block over and see houses with no windows.”

Ocken said that students often discuss these issues with one another and have protested throughout the years.

Ocken also works in the Department of Neurosurgery at the Yale School of Medicine. That planted a seed about pursuing a career in medicine, but he isn’t completely sure as of yet with what direction he wants to go.

For now, Ocken has been focusing on his studies, sleeping, and playing lacrosse. He starts his homework every night around 8 p.m. and completes it around 2 a.m.

“Then I wake up early and try to eat, and then go to class,” Ocken said.

Once the interview came to an end and Cherokee was filled up, he headed off to grab breakfast, finish some homework, then gear up for lacrosse practice.

“Being this busy has definitely helped me to manage my time,” Ocken said. ​“I don’t really have a chance to rest ever, but that’s OK, because I’m not here to mess around.”