New Haven

This weekend, I traveled to New Haven, Connecticut. New Haven is a city on the Northern shore of the Long Island Sound. It is home to 135,081 residents and over 12,000 Yale University students. Although it’s only considered the “co-capital” of Connecticut, New Haven was one of the first planned cities in America when it was founded in 1638. 

 My mom and I drove 1 hour and 45 minutes North and East out of New York City, in hopes of dining at one of New Haven’s famous pizza restaurants. New Haven is widely believed to be “The Pizza Capital of The United States.”  As a loyal New Yorker and a greasy and cheesy NYC slice enthusiast, I found it completely hard to believe this claim. However, if you are a New Haven local, you’re aware of the long-standing pizza debate: Frank Pepe’s Pizzeria or Sally’s Apizza.

 Although I’m not a New Haven local myself, I’ve grown up visiting my grandparents who have lived in New Haven since 1974. Despite having spent a great deal of time in the past at their home in Hamden, a small town near Yale University, before my visit there this weekend, I only knew that I liked Pepe’s Pizza better than Sally’s Pizza and that Yale’s campus was beautiful. While my mom did not enjoy growing up in New Haven, she still loves to point out places in New Haven that she grew up going to. As a young child, my Grandpa, a recently retired Yale Law School professor, would take me, my sister, and my cousin to visit the Yale art gallery and we would always pick up a pizza and eat it at their house. 

We decided that our first stop in New Haven would be the famous Sally’s Apizza, located at 237 Wooster Street. When we arrived at the restaurant, the first thing we noticed was the huge line going down the block. There were no parking spots in sight and my cousin, Nicolas, had gotten there before us and had already joined the long line. He did not seem hopeful that we would be eating pizza anytime soon. He was told that the wait time was over an hour, and as a New Haven local, he knew it would be even longer than that.

     What I didn’t know at the time was that Frank Pepe’s Pizzeria was only just down the street and located at 157 Wooster Street. We devised a plan and my cousin and I stayed put while my mom went to Pepe’s to check out the line. Since it was a Sunday night and I had experienced the crazy wait times before, I wasn’t hopeful.

      My mom and my cousin, who both grew up eating New Haven pizza, had strong opinions on which pizza place was better. My mom, Caitlin, was a fan of Sally’s, and my cousin prefers Pepe’s. Personally, I didn’t care as long as my night ended with pizza from somewhere! 

After about 5 minutes, I got an urgent text from my mom telling us that we were next “on line” at Pepe’s and had to run from Sally’s.

On our jog to Pepe’s, I noticed that there were signs on the lamp posts that said “Little Italy”. I had no idea that New Haven had a Little Italy, but it makes sense that the two best pizza places would be in that part of the neighborhood. Although I had had Pepe’s takeout before, I had never been to the actual restaurant. I was surprised to see that there were two separate buildings that belonged to the restaurant and that they sat customers at both locations. There was the normal building on the street and then The Spot was a smaller building in the parking lot. The Spot was where we ended up eating. They served the exact same food as the main building but had their own pizza oven and about 15 tables set up. Every single table was taken and the ambiance of the restaurant was very cozy and welcoming. There are pictures and descriptions of the food served hung up on the walls that tell you about the history of Pepe’s. 

Frank Pepe was an Italian immigrant that came to America through Ellis Island in 1909. Despite having to go back to Italy to fight in World War I for the Allies, he eventually returned to New Haven, where he worked at a pasta factory and a bakery on Wooster street. This bakery was located where Pepe’s is now located. At the bakery, Frank started making tomato pizza pies and selling them. Eventually, he saved enough money to buy a wagon that allowed him to sell more pizza, which allowed him to take over the bakery and create Frank Pepe’s Pizzeria in 1925.

Pepe’s was a family-run business at first. Frank’s half-brother, nephews, and cousins made up the team that was working at the pizzeria. Eventually, Franks’ nephew, Salvatore Consiglio, would go on to open Sally’s Apizzeria just down the street. While I was not aware of this, it makes sense that the two best pizza places in New Haven originated from the same family and it’s interesting that they now compete with each other. 

      We sat at a four-person table and ordered a half-mushroom and onion-half pepperoni pizza and a normal cheese pizza. The best part of Pepe’s is that you always leave with leftovers, so we weren’t worried about ordering too much food. We also got Pepe’s classic salad, which is simple but topped with the best balsamic vinaigrette dressing I’ve ever had. The pizza was perfectly cooked (gooey cheese with crunchy crust – but not burnt) and we sat at the table for about an hour, eating slowly and enjoying each other’s company.

After we had paid, my mom was shocked that I had never been to Libby’s Bakery before. I had never even heard of it, so I was surprised when we went next door and entered a bakery that also sold Italian ice and gelato. It was a brightly lit, white building that was extremely crowded. It was around 8 pm and we had to wait in a short line before we could even order and every table in the bakery was filled with families. There were young kids running around on sugar rushes and an older man devouring a piece of cheesecake. My mom insisted that I try the Italian ice, but also ordered an assortment of cookies that were in a display case stretched across the store. There were various types of cookies and pastries – ranging from cookies dipped in chocolate and ones covered in rainbow sprinkles, slices of cake, four different flavors of cannolis, black and white cookies, and my personal favorite: raspberry Linzer tarts. Still feeling very full from the pizza, I ordered their smallest size of blue raspberry-flavored Italian ice. It was bright blue and surprisingly creamy. They served in a paper sample cup and didn’t give me a spoon to eat it with, which led me to believe that I was meant to eat it like soft-serve ice cream. My cousin reported that the black and white cookie was “just okay” and my mom loved the acorn-shaped cookie that was filled with jam. I rated the Linzer tart a 10/10.

After we said goodbye to my cousin, we decided to go see a movie instead of just going back to the hotel. When my mom asked my cousin if he had been to the movie theater where the movie I wanted to see was playing, he simply laughed and said good luck. Apparently, it was a very old movie theater and he predicted that we would be the only people there. As he predicted, we were two of the six people in the theater. From the outside, the Bow Tie Criterion Cinema looked empty, and looked like how I would imagine any other small-town movie theater would look. There was a large white sign outside the theater, and the electronic sign that seemed like it would typically display the movies playing was turned off. The man working the ticket booth looked half asleep, but sold us our two tickets and we entered theater 7. The hallway floor was covered in a bright red carpet and theater 7 was tiny. We were a few minutes late to the movie so we couldn’t see very well, but the seats had brown cushions and there were aisle lights that shined in our eyes the entire movie.

 When the movie finished, we drove back to our hotel. The Study is located at 1157 Chapel Street and is intended to serve people visiting the Yale campus. The lobby was filled with comfortable-looking chairs and tables and decorated with a warm color palette, which gave it a cozy, fall ambiance.

The next morning, we woke up to a gloomy and rainy day. It was pouring, which prevented us from walking around and finding a local cafe to get a coffee. Instead, we opted for a mobile order from Starbucks that we picked up on our way to the Yale University Campus. Once we arrived and had our caffeine, my grandpa led us on a tour of the beautiful campus. There was a student, who we later learned was named Mary Margaret Shroeder, giving a tour. We listened to her explain some of Yale’s history, like a massive statue of Nathan Hale, who was the first US spy and a Yale alum. The statue was positioned outside of Hale’s old dorm room. On this same quad, there was another statue at which students rub the foot of the statue for good luck. During the tour, I approached a student named Brynn, and asked her about her experience at Yale and in particular, her experience with New Haven. Coming from a small town in Massachusetts, she said, “New Haven is a good mix between city life and a small town. The New Haven that I’m familiar with is what’s around campus and I never feel unsafe going places nearby.” New Haven has a reputation for being unsafe in certain parts, but Brynn said she never felt unsafe on campus.

Although it was damp and cold, the beauty of Yale’s campus was still apparent. My grandpa, who has been a law professor at Yale for 48 years, was very excited to walk me through the campus and show me two of the many libraries, pointing out where he would often take naps or sit to read a book. He pointed out hidden gems on the campus, like a detail in the architecture that was a man carved into the wall and holding a book that read “U.R.A.JOKE”. Each room in the library was well-lit and silent. There were students reading, using their laptops to study, and even one person who was online shopping. Each room held different resources. There was a room that held countless pages of sheet music and was designed for the music students and a room filled with magazines. I was shocked to learn that Yale owns over 15 million books and that they’re all housed on the campus.

My favorite stop on our tour was the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript library. My grandpa explained that there were no windows in the library to protect the rare resources from UV rays, and instead, the walls were covered with thin slabs of marble that let light shine through. When you step into the library, you’re immediately met with a glass structure in the center that protects the books. My grandpa and the security guard working the front desk explained that inside the glass, the temperature and air were regulated and set very specifically to keep the books in a pristine condition. 

After we visited the library, my grandpa insisted on taking me to the Yale Commons, which is the main dining hall. Like the other students we were doing, he bought a meal ticket for us so that we would have the full Yale student experience. The dining hall was a massive room, filled with wooden tables and chairs as far as the eye could see. The room was busy with conversations and college-aged students catching up with their friends in between classes. For food options, there were four different ‘restaurants’ in the hall that students could pick from. I opted for Asian cuisine and chose a plate of pork steamed dumplings and sesame noodles. For a school cafeteria, the food was surprisingly good.

My final stop in New Haven was Nica’s Market, located at 603 Orange Street. While I had never been to the market, my mom told me that this was the Italian market that she went to to buy my grandparents groceries while my grandpa was recovering from a surgery a few months ago. Driving past it, the market looks more like a house, but has a large sign outside that advertises the fact that it’s a market. When we walked in, I noticed 5 aisles filled with frozen foods, produce products, other cooking ingredients and a deli/meat counter in the back. It was brightly lit and the entrance was wet and muddy since it was still pouring rain outside. Unlike the New York City markets that I’ve grown used to, the market was tiny in size and also had a cafe area in the front where they sold homemade baked goods and beverages. My mom started to browse the aisles while I went straight to the cafe and register area to order us hot coffee.  My mom, who was shopping for food for our dinner, picked out a loaf of ciabatta bread, cherry tomatoes, and a couple of other things. I waited at the counter for her to finish and when she joined me at the front, I was surprised when the man making the coffee recognized my mom. I was even more shocked when he asked her how my grandpa was doing since the surgery. This told me all I needed to know about Nica’s Market: the people who ran it care deeply about their customers and know exactly how to make an establishment feel like a community.