When I started to plan my trip to New England, I decided to fly into Hartford, CT and start from there. My first meeting was going to be a breakfast meeting with an account that I had just outside of New Haven, CT. One of the places that I've always heard about and really wanted to try was a famous pizza place in New Haven that many people think is one of the best - if not the best - pizza place in all the United States. I drove from Hartford to New Haven in a driving rain storm to experience the Original Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana - or simply known as Frank Pepe's.
Frank Pepe was born in Maiori, Italy in April of 1893. The foothills around Maiori - located along the Amalfi Coast - featured some of the best land for growing grapes, tomatoes and other produce. Pepe's family eventually moved to nearby Naples and lived by modest means.
In 1909, Frank Pepe immigrated to America entering through Ellis Island with no money and no understanding of the English language. The young Pepe was sent to New Haven, CT to work in factories alongside other Italian immigrants in New Haven's Wooster Square neighborhood which eventually became the city's "Little Italy" section.
When Italy entered World War I against Austria-Hungary in 1915, Frank Pepe went back home to Italy to fight in the war. When the war ended in 1918, Pepe went back to Maiori and met a young lady by the name of Filomena Volpi. The two married in September of 1919 and it wasn't long after that when the young married couple made their way back to America to work and raise a family.
Back in New Haven at the start of 1920, Frank started to work in a pasta factory before moving on to work at a bakery on Wooster Street in Wooster Square. It was during his time at the bakery that he started to make his version of a homeland staple of baked thin-crust bread topped with tomato sauce, grated pecorino romano cheese, garlic, oregano and olive oil, and - at times - anchovies that was baked in a large coal oven at the bakery. Known as "apizza", but pronounced "Ah-Beets", Frank began to sell the baked tomato pies at the nearby Wooster Market walking among the vendors and crowd with a special headdress that held several pizzas on his head. He eventually bought a wagon where he could walk the streets of New Haven selling his pizzas.
Pictured right - Frank Pepe. Photo courtesy Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana website.
By 1925, Frank had saved enough money to buy the bakery from the Boccamiello family and established "Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana" selling his tomato pies. Frank still didn't know how to read or speak English, but Filomena did. She stepped in to do most of the administrative work at the pizza place while Frank started the coal oven every morning like clockwork.
And it was truly a family business as Frank hired a number of relatives who had come over from Italy to work in the bakery including his half-brother Alessio and Alessio's son, Mac. Also working in the bakery was his cousin Tommy, and two nephews, Salvatore and Tony Consiglio. In 1938, Salvatore Consiglio left Frank Pepe's and started his own apizza place just down the street - Sally's Apizza. To this day, there are people who have their favorite between the two family competitors.
In 1936, the Boccamiello family came back and said they wanted the building back from Frank. Frank only bought the bakery business from the Boccamiello's, but the Boccamiello's still owned the building. Undeterred, Frank bought the building next door, a two-story building where he put his pizzeria on the ground floor and the Pepe family lived on the second floor. The Boocamiello's then opened their own pizza place and named it "The Spot".
Frank Pepe's new location was huge. It was said that the seating capacity of his pizzeria made it the largest restaurant in the United States. Eventually his daughters, Elizabeth and Serafina, his younger sister Rachel, and Elizabeth's husband Ralph Rosselli joined the family business. The word of Frank's pizza reached far and wide with famous faces showing up to have a Frank Pepe's pizza when they were in New Haven. Frank's famous White Clam Pizza - made with fresh clams that were shucked at Frank Pepe's, along with olive oil, garlic, oregano and grated Pecorino Romano cheese - quickly became the go-to for pizza aficionados who came from near and far to try Frank Pepe's signature pizza.
Frank was known as a giving person, helping out the neighborhood when needed with monetary donations or free pizzas. He continued to work in his pizza place daily up until he passed away in 1969. His daughters took over the business and they brought in their children to help out at the restaurant. In 1977, Elizabeth and Serafina bought the Spot next door from the Boccamiello family and decided to renovate the place. In 1981, the original Frank Pepe's location was opened as "Frank Pepe's - The Spot", basically an annex to Frank Pepe's pizzeria that had the same menu as the main restaurant next door.
Frank's daughters retired in the early 1990's and passed the business along to their sons and daughters. The seven Frank and Filomena Pepe grandchildren continued with the pizza place with an eye on expansion. In 2006, the first Frank Pepe's location outside of New Haven opened in Fairfield, CT and a second one opened in Manchester, CT - a suburb of Hartford - a year later. Expansion continued into the 2010's and early 2020's. Today, there are 16 Frank Pepe's locations - mainly in Connecticut with two locations in the Washington D.C area, two in Florida and three in Massachusetts.
Each of the Frank Pepe's locations has a 14' X 14' custom made brick oven that is similar to the original bread oven Frank Pepe used in the small bakery back over 100 years ago. The mold for the original cast iron doors on the ovens is used to forge the large doors for the front of the oven and the coal chambers. The pizzaiolos who man the ovens at each Frank Pepe's location are extensively trained to cook the pizzas properly to make sure that the pizza you may be eating at the Frank Pepe's in Yonkers, NY is the same as the one you're having in New Haven.
After getting my rental car at the airport in Hartford, I took off south out of the city to head to New Haven. It was raining hard at times with the car hydroplaning on Interstate 91 on a couple occasions. By the time I got to New Haven, the rain had let up to a light shower, but it was cold with a temperature in the upper 50's. I pulled up to Frank Pepe's on Wooster Street and saw that there was a line - even around 3 p.m. on a Sunday afternoon. (see map) Parking is definitely tight in the neighborhood as there are a number of restaurants up and down Wooster Street. However, I was extremely lucky as there was a car pulling out of the first spot in the parking lot just to the west of Frank Pepe's. I quickly took a left turn and pulled into the open spot.
I didn't pack a coat with me on my trip out to New England because the weather forecast was to be sunny and warm most of the week. Well, with the exception of Sunday when I flew in and drove down to New Haven. In a short-sleeved polo shirt standing in line at Frank Pepe's, I was a bit chilled. And I was getting a little wet from the light rain. Luckily, the line moved quick enough after a few minutes where I found myself under an awning in front of Frank Pepe's.
A young lady was canvassing the crowd standing in front of the pizzeria checking to see how many were in their respective groups. When she came to me and I told her that it was just me, she said, "I may have a solution for you. Hang on."
She went inside and came back out to call for a group of 4. Then she came up to me and said, "I have a table in the building next door that you can have. It's a table for two." She told me to go around the corner of the building and through the parking lot next door to the building in the back. I lucked out again as I was going to be dining in the original building where Frank Pepe started his pizzeria almost 100 years ago.
Just inside the door, I was directed to a small table in a small room near the kitchen. A larger dining room had been added off to the side of the restaurant a number of years ago. It featured white-washed brick walls with historical pictures on the wall, a sky-light and about a dozen tables in the dining room. The small area between the big dining room and the kitchen where I was seated had - if I remember correctly - five or six tables.
A cute young lady by the name of Ashley was my server that day. I have to say right off the bat, she was great. She was patient with a first timer at Frank Pepe's, she had a good sense of humor and she gave me some good recommendations. The first good recommendation she gave me was the Fuzzy Baby Ducks New England IPA from the New England Brewing Company from the New Haven suburb of Woodbridge.
The menu was printed on a laminated sheet that was on the table when I sat down. All they do at Frank Pepe's is pizza. And the pizzas are all 12" in diameter. They do have salads available, but that's it. Now, my former co-worker who traveled New England for our company for a number of years told me a long time ago that Frank Pepe's signature pizza - the white clam pizza - was just to die for. I was texting him while I was at Frank Pepe's and told him that I was here. "The clam pizza is legendary," he texted back.
I was apprehensive about getting the white clam pizza on my first visit, so I turned to Ashley's expertise in the matter. "We do sell a lot of the white clam pizzas," she told me after bringing me back another beer. "But I'm sort of partial to our tomato pie pizzas." After she left me to continue to go back and forth as to what pizza I would get, I began to notice that a lot of pizzas coming out of the kitchen were with tomato sauce. I'm not certain I saw a white clam pizza come out of the kitchen while I was there.
And because of that, I went with my standard sausage, pepperoni and mushroom with mozzarella cheese. It was presented resting on wax paper on a cookie sheet - not a fancy presentation, but it worked fine. The outer crust had char marks and the pizza had that great charred taste to it. The mozzarella was sort of runny - like Provel cheese on St. Louis-style pizza - and not stringy. But the pizza was very good. Was it the best pizza I've ever had? No, I don't know if I can say that. But it would have been in my Top 10.
And because the pizza crust was so thin, I had no problem finishing the whole 12" pizza. Ashley came over to check on me when I had one piece left to eat and asked if I wanted a box. "No, I think I'm going to finish it off," I said. "This will be my lunch and dinner in one meal."
As I was getting ready to leave to head out to my hotel, I went toward the front of the original Frank Pepe's building to see if I could get a look at the big brick oven. A lady standing up at the front said, "Sure, if you want to get a picture of the oven, come on in!" She escorted me into the kitchen on the far side and I was able to snap some photos of the original brick oven that has been working for over 100 years. It was pretty cool to see.
Walking back to my car, I was walking past the main building at Frank Pepe's. I decided to take a couple steps back and walk in. The lady at the pick-up counter asked if she could help me and I said I wanted to take a couple shots of the inside of the restaurant. She was more than happy to allow me to do so. I didn't go back and around the corner into the main dining area at the restaurant, but I got a shot of the original dining room from the second "main" location for Frank Pepe's.
I detest the notion of a "Bucket List". But Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana has long been on my list of places to visit since I started a list on my Google Maps a number of years ago. The history - alone - is worth the visit to Frank Pepe's, but the pizza was excellent. It was not disappointing in the least. I had great service from Ashley and they had a nice list of craft beers to go along with their famous pizza. I'll probably head back to New Haven at some point as I have an account in the area. I don't know if I'll try Frank Pepe's again, or maybe I'll head down the street to Sally's is see which of the two are better. Given the history and the length both have been in business, I have a feeling that you couldn't go wrong with either one.
Mugs for sale?
Posted by: Boyd Fulton | December 07, 2024 at 12:18 PM