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How does a couple from Northeast Ohio end up in New Haven, Conn., touring one of the oldest pizzerias in the country? It starts with a passion for pizza and email. Let me explain.
It’s inevitable that when you marry an Italian you will eat a lot of pizza. Did I say a lot? I mean a lot. We’ve had pizza in New York City at Lombardi’s (considered America’s first pizzeria, see photo below), Pizzeria Regina in Boston, Randy’s Wooster St. Pizza in Naples, Maine, and Luigi’s in Akron, Ohio, to name a few.
What I didn’t expect was my husband, Bobby, becoming fascinated with pizza to the point of just shy of obsession. Who am I to complain about it though? I get to enjoy the fruit of his labor by trying his many different pizza creations.
I don’t know when he decided to start his blog and YouTube Channel, Playing with Pizza, but he launched them in January 2023.
The blog and YouTube channel seemed like the next natural step for him. Not only does Bobby love pizza, but he enjoys cooking and teaching. Marry those two together and you get a growing YouTube channel about pizza and more.
Scheduling the tour of Frank Pepe’s in New Haven
When we decided to take a road trip to visit his family near Boston this summer, Bobby asked if we could detour through New Haven because he wanted to try New Haven-style pizza. It didn’t seem like that big of a detour, so I agreed.
Bobby reached out to Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana about taking a tour of their restaurant. When they agreed, I could tell Bobby was excited.
The difference between this trip and any other road trip we have ever taken is this trip Bobby did the planning. He mapped out how we would get to New Haven and when. He made arrangements to meet with a manager and film the kitchen, the making of the pizzas, the dining room and whatever else struck his fancy.
We planned to get to Frank Pepe’s around 11 a.m. on a Saturday. As we traveled, we sent the manager texts to let him know where we were and when we would be arriving. We pulled into the parking lot around 11:15 a.m.
I had expected to remain in the car as Bobby toured the place. Imagine my surprise when he said that I would have to participate. He would be recording it on his pocket video camera, a DJI Pocket 2, but he wanted me to take pictures of “whatever you think looks good.”
Ugh! I’m not half the photographer that Bobby is. But I didn’t want to disappoint him, so I took his phone.
Witnessing the magic
General Manager Paul Hahn and Manager Dan Parillo came out to meet us. They started telling us the history of Frank Pepe and how the restaurant got its start.
Paul left us in Dan’s capable hands for the tour, which began in the original building. He told us how it started as a bakery, where Frank Pepe, an Italian immigrant, baked bread in a coal-fired oven. Later, he started making pizza.
Dan ushered back into the kitchen to show us the original oven in the building next door to the pizzeria. Like the bread, Frank Pepe’s pizza is made in a coal-fired oven.
Frank Pepe’s original building is now used for takeout services and as an overflow for the restaurant on busy days, like it appeared this day would become. I’m sure our presence made their work a little harder!
After we saw the original building, we walked to the restaurant at 157 Wooster Street. Dan took us through a back door. We saw a walk-in cooler filled with stacks and stacks of wooden boxes which hold the dough balls that will become pizzas, along with other toppings, dressings, and ingredients.
Bobby asked how many pizzas the restaurant makes a day. Dan said between 1200-1500 a day. What!? That’s a lot of pizza!
As we walked through to the back of the restaurant, we could see workers prepping food in the back. Then we made our way to a second pizza-making station and a second coal-fired oven.
And, there were more stacks of wooden boxes. Dan lifted one up so we could see what the dough looked like. He said the wooden dough boxes pulled moisture out of the dough. Then Bobby and Dan talked about dough’s hydration.
We hung around the second station to watch the guy form a few dough balls into pizza crusts and then a “pizza decorator” put toppings on the pizza dough. She made two pepperoni pizzas and one clam pizza. (Frank Pepe’s is famous for their white clam pie.)
An experienced crew
The next step is truly amazing – as if the rest isn’t – but a guy takes the pizza peel, which is 14 feet long, slides the pizzas into the oven, and then launches them. Not one at a time, but all three at one time.
He just slides the peel into the back of the oven, does a sort of flick of the peel and all three pies slide onto the oven. In a matter of about 10 minutes, the pizzas are done and then moved to the cutting station.
One thing I can say about Frank Pepe’s is that it is a well-oiled machine. Everyone knows the part they play and they do it well.
In fact, one of the fascinating things I discovered as Bobby was talking with Dan, is how long people have worked at Frank Pepe’s. One man had been there 8 years.
I thought that was long until I met another man who had been there 24 years. He was wearing a Frank Pepe hat with “16 years” embroidered on the side. I asked him if he had been there 16 years. He shook his head, and I could tell he was calculating numbers in his head. Then he said he had been there 24 years.
But the guy who prepared the clams, Eric, has been with the company for nearly 40 years! Eric goes through a lot of clams. They go through “a ton” of clams daily, though I’m not sure if that is figuratively or literally.
You know an organization must be good to maintain a workforce like that for so many years. Director of Marketing Victoria Ohegyi had written to Bobby in an email, “We try to treat everyone from co-workers to guests to complete strangers like family. It’s what we do.”
Ordering pizza for the family
Bobby ordered three pizzas. We were heading to his sister’s house about 2.5 hours away just outside of Boston. We watched them make our pizzas, flick them into the oven, and then cut them in their crazy Frank Pepe slices.
The way they slice the pizza slices is called a “family cut” allowing for large, medium, and small slices (for kids). If you have OCD, this might be the thing that would drive you over the edge. Thank goodness their pizza is pretty good!
I could tell the whole experience would be one that would go down in our history as one of the best trips we have ever done. A man who loves pizza as much as Bobby was truly in his element at Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana.
Reviewing Frank Pepe’s pizza
After the tour Bobby did his pizza review along the line of Dave Portnoy’s One Bite Pizza reviews. As for how he liked the pizza, well you will have to wait for his review to be published.
Note: This is part of a six-part series: Pursuing Pepe: The Frank Pepe Experience