Pursuing Pepe: Should I Visit Frank Pepe’s in New Haven?

/ Frank Pepe / By

I’m not sure when Frank Pepe’s Pizzeria Napoletana first entered my consciousness, but I do know when I knew I had to make a pilgrimage to New Haven, Conn., to try their world-famous, coal-fired pizza.

Why I wanted to visit Frank Pepe’s

I had started watching Dave Portnoy’s One-Bite Pizza Reviews every day on YouTube. Portnoy was a Massachusetts native, like me. We liked a similar style of pizza, which is basically a New York-style pizza. When I watched his review of Frank Pepe’s, I knew I had to make the trip.

I have lived in Ohio since 1993, when I moved to Cincinnati to attend school. It was there that I met my wife, Wendi, and we later moved to Wooster, Ohio. We had been visiting my family in the Boston area every year until Covid. But we returned in 2022. However, on that visit, I faced a dilemma: If I made the two-and-half hour trip to New Haven, I would miss spending time with mom and other family members … and we hadn’t seen them in nearly three years.

So, I would miss out on Frank Pepe’s in 2022. However, on that trip, I did get to try my first New Haven-style pizza.

My first New Haven-style pizza was in Naples … Maine

Wendi and I drove to see family. They were going to be in Naples, Maine, at a campground where my sister Michelle and her husband, Glenn, have a lot. While there, I learned about Randy’s Wooster Street Pizza. Two of the most famous New Haven-style pizzas are on Wooster Street in New Haven: Frank Pepe and Sally’s. The original owner, Randy Price, wanted to preserve the taste of the New Haven-style pizza he knew as a kid.

So, we ordered the pizza, and I was excited about trying it. When we finally got back to the campground, and I tried it, I thought it was OK. The pizza didn’t blow me away. It wasn’t bad by any means. It was a good, solid pie. But there has been a lot of hype about how great New Haven pizza is, so I was anticipating something more.

While I didn’t get my first Frank Pepe pizza on this trip, it turned out for the best, at least for me.

In 2022, I didn’t have my Playing With Pizza blog, and I didn’t my Playing With Pizza YouTube channel. I did in January 2023, but, I’m getting ahead of myself.

I still didn’t know if I would make it to one of the most historic and influential pizzerias in the world during our June 2023 trip.

My mom, Carmen, my sisters Ariel and Michelle, my brother, Carmine, and I have not been together for nearly three decades. Groups of us would be together over the years, but not all of us. But, this year would be different. All of us would be reunited.

Again with the dilemma: Leave family for a pizza?

Why I decided to visit Frank Pepe’s

As Carmine and I talked about our plans, when we would be leaving and arriving, and what we wanted to do while here, he offered this advice: You have a pizza blog and a pizza YouTube channel, Frank Pepe’s is an iconic pizzeria. You want to go, so you must go.

In talking to Carmine, he made a lot of sense. I had to go. That’s it. I was finally going to Frank Pepe’s. At last, I was going to experience for myself what all this passion and praise for Pepe’s was all about.

After knowing I was making the journey to what many consider the center of the pizza universe, only one decision remained.

Wendi and I planned the Boston trip around an already scheduled visit to see her aunt and uncle in Pennsylvania. So, would we visit Frank Pepe’s while in Boston, on the way to Pennsylvania from Boston, or on the way to Boston?

It was decided: We’d stop on the way to Boston. We set a date for June 3, 2023. I was going. And, for now, we wait.

Cue up Tom Petty: The waiting is the hardest part.

Note: This part of a six-part series: Pursuing Pepe: The Frank Pepe Experience

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