Slice
Frank Pepe's: The Ghost of Pizza Past Returns
Ed Levine, of Slice's parent site, Serious Eats, went to New Haven, Connecticut, on Wednesday and files this report. —The Mgmt.
WORDS BY ED LEVINE .::. Two years ago, when I was writing Pizza: A Slice of Heaven
I’ve always loved just about everything about Pepe’s—the huge oven that dominates its interior; the smart, sassy waitresses; the incomparable crust with a crisp exterior and tender interior; the tangy shower of Romano cheese that lends just the right amount of tang and saltiness to the pizza; the meaty locally sourced sausage chunks; and, of course, the incomparable clam pie, which has the perfect ratio of clams to crust. Most of all, I love the fact that Pepe’s fabulous pizza is the legacy of the hard work and perfectionism of Frank Pepe, an illiterate southern Italian immigrant who built Pepe’s with his blood, sweat, and dough. Although Frank Pepe passed away in 1969, his spirit lives on at Pepe’s in the many photographs and paintings of him that adorn the walls at the pizzeria and even the pizza boxes there.
What I discovered in those two days would have taken the smile off the face on the box. His nine descendants who collectively owned the business were at war. Things had gotten so bad they were thinking of selling or closing it. And what’s worse was that the pizza was suffering as a result of this internecine family warfare. The pies were still damn good but maddeningly inconsistent. I ended up feeling not very sanguine about Pepe's future.
So when I traveled to New Haven to Pepe’s this week to shoot an episode of the Roadfood video series for Serious Eats starring Jane and Michael Stern, I expected to find both bad blood and less than exemplary pizza.
Miraculously the bad blood had been replaced with what could only be characterized as good cheer. Gary Bimonte, the family’s managing partner, seemed downright giddy (at least for him). He introduced me to someone who was now managing the business for the Yale graduate hedge-fund type who had become the first outside investor to own a piece of the Pepe’s pie.
The place is actually being run like a business. It’s open Monday through Saturday for lunch, and, get this, Pepe’s now takes credit cards. Gary seemed profoundly relieved and actually seemed to enjoy being at Pepe’s. Which is pretty amazing, because he has been working there since he was 14 and I thought he had definitely overdosed on the place. The vibe was so much better at Pepe’s than it was on my last visit.
Miraculously, so was the pizza. My sausage pie was a paradigm, with its porky sausage, perfectly pliant crust just thick enough to hold the topping. The clam pie had a thinner crust, but the clams were not the overcooked, tough mess they had been the last time I visited. The tomato pie was so fine it had me thinking I really didn’t need mozzarella on my slices. And the new management has even added a new pizza; a shrimp pie that tastes like a shrimp scampi sandwich on great bread.
As I was leaving Pepe’s, I noticed a painting on the wall. It depicted a dapper Frank Pepe in 1949, dressed in a fine Italian suit (albeit with white socks), sitting on the rocks overlooking the Bay of Naples. He had a big, beatific smile on his face, the smile of a man who had overcome tremendous odds making a triumphant homecoming. Now, 58 years later, there’s once again reason for Frank Pepe to smile. His family is again making pizza worthy of the Frank Pepe name and his incandescent smile.
FRANK PEPE PIZZERIA NAPOLETANA
Address: 157 Wooster Street, New Haven CT 06511 [map]
Phone: 203-865-5762
Notes: A second branch, replete with huge coal-fired brick oven, opened two years ago in Fairfield, Connecticut at 238 Commerce Drive 06825 [map]; 203-373 PEPE (7373). Michael Stern told me the pizza in Fairfield is every bit as good as the pizza we had together this week in New Haven. According to Bimonte, the pizzaioli in Fairfield trained for six months at the New Haven mothership. A third Pepe’s is being built in Manchester, Connecticut, as I write this.
Further Reading: We visited Pepe's some time ago as part of a New Haven pizza tour. Here's our take from then. Albert Grande, of PizzaTherapy.com, also has a passionate take on Pepe's, and his Legends of Pizza, Volume 1 CD features an interview with Pepe's Gary Bimonte.