“Next Door” Reimagines The Neighborhood Bar

In a town where getting a good slice is a given, Robin Bodak and Doug Coffin thought adding one more place to the apizza landscape couldn’t hurt, especially when in a place where people have good memories.

On Thursday, with snow threatening, Bodak and Coffin welcomed city officials and the press into their new restaurant, Next Door New Haven at 175 Humphrey Street.

The restaurant is in the former home of the restaurant Humphrey’s (which has a storied history dating back to a Prohibition-era speakeasy) at the corner of Humphrey and East Street. A little over a year after getting its final zoning and building approvals from the city, Next Door officially opened to the public on June 6. On Thursday city officials gathered to celebrate that opening with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Next Door New Haven is the brick and mortar brainchild of Bodak and Coffin, who are most known for the Big Green Truck Pizza, a fleet of six wood-fired pizza trucks based out of an adjacent building at 530 East St.

Mayor Toni Harp said she was happy to be inside and near a hot pizza oven where it was warm. She was even happier to recognize the marriage of a city well-known for its pizza with business owners who know a thing or two about making pies.

“It seems like a marriage made in heaven, or in New Haven anyway, for the Big Green Truck Pizza makers to launch a new brick and mortar pizza restaurant in the pizza capital of the world,” Harp said. ​“Like so many city residents, it is my firm belief that when it comes to pizza there is no such thing as too much of a good thing.”

Wooster Square Alder Aaron Greenberg said he had the opportunity to be at Next Door for the soft opening, where he learned that the place has more than just great pizza.

“They have really great appetizers and drinks and whole wonderful menu,” he said.

Greenberg noted that the Jocelyn Square spot has hosted a variety of venues over the years — ​“some great, some less great.”

“I’m very confident that this is going to be an incredible amenity to this neighborhood and to this whole part of New Haven,” Greenberg added. ​“If you come here any night of the week, you will see people in all three rooms enjoying themselves. Come for the pizza, stay for the dessert and the whole menu.”

Coffin said opening Next Door is his and Bodak’s attempt to breathe some new life into the corner and that part of the neighborhood.

“People have a lot of memories of Humphrey’s, and I’m honored to try to bring that back,” he said.

He credited Bodak, who has managed the catering end of the Big Green Truck Pizza and is now a co-owner and executive chef for Next Door.

“I would not have undertaken doing a pizzeria if I didn’t think we could also have Robin’s wonderful food to go with that,” Coffin said. ​“It’s a pizzeria but also a phenomenal restaurant that has some of the best food anywhere.

“I would put her food up against anybody’s in the state, any day of the week.”

Bodak said she grew up being able to hang out ​“next door” in her neighborhood, She wanted to infuse the restaurant with the same concept of being a safe place to play, grab something to eat, and be entertained. She said the beyond-the-pizza-pie menu skews toward an eclectic mix of Mediterranean entrees to ice cream made in-house.

“We’re trying to reimagine the neighborhood bar,” she said.

Next Door also is reimagining the face of the restaurant business, with several women running the show. Bodak is joined by chef Chelsea Peterson and General Manager Maria Corina.

“There are a lot of working moms here, and that makes it special to me,” she said.