My friend Bob is here in Connecticut on vacation with his wife Mary. Bob’s originally from New Haven. Mary’s a North Carolina girl. This was her first trip here. We needed to take her somewhere iconic and chose Pepe’s on Wooster Street.
In case you’ve just parachuted in from Venus, Pepe’s is a New Haven pizza restaurant. It’s on Wooster Street, ground zero for Italian cuisine.
I suspect if you went to Pepe’s at 4:00 AM during a blinding snowstorm there’d be a line out-the-door stretching down Wooster St.
The secret to Pepe’s (and its down-the-block competitor “Sally’s”) is the oven! Pizzas are baked hot and these coal fired brick ovens remain hot and temperature stable. Except for a week of yearly maintenance they are always hot 24/7!
We ordered two pies: one clam and one tomato. The tomato pizza is seasonal with tomatoes replacing tomato sauce. They’ve only been available since Friday. Both were superb.
To make things even better our friend Sue was the waitress. She collects souvenir pens. I brought two for her from last November’s Las Vegas trip¹. She brought me beautiful notecards with her flower photography.
Sue’s great because she’s both a Pepe’s historian and willing to dish on celebs.
We finished the night with dessert just down the block at Libby’s. Mary had never had a cannoli before!!! It boggles the mind. The Carolina’s should be ashamed of themselves.
Mary left New Haven impressed by real Italian cuisine.
My thanks to those of you who sought me out to say hello. She was probably impressed by that too.
¹ – Note to me: We need to go to Wooster Street more often.