Connecticut's Best Pizza Restaurant Has Been Serving Slices For 100 Years - Tasting Table

"If you live in or near Connecticut, or if you're even somewhat acquainted with what makes New Haven-style pizza special, you know Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana. The restaurant is an iconic institution: It helped create an entire pizza style, and has been serving up some of that style's best examples for a century. Frank Pepe is often considered one of the best pizza restaurants in the United States."

"Its story begins with Frank Pepe, who came to America from Naples in 1909. He returned to Italy to fight in World War I, then came back to New Haven and worked in a pasta factory and a bakery, where he began making "apizza," a Napoletana-style pizza that's thin, crispy, and kept simple toppings-wise. Pepe's, for example, were tomato pies he'd sell while walking the New Haven streets with them stacked on his head."

"The restaurant served just two types of pie, the original tomato version with grated pecorino cheese, and one that included anchovies. Members of Pepe's family, including his wife Filomena and eventually their daughters Elizabeth and Serafina, all worked at the pizzeria. It has remained a family business, passed down through the generations as it has expanded to include 17 locations in seven states. The original New Haven spot, though, is crucial to not only the restaurant's legacy but that of New Haven pizza as a"

Frank Pepe emigrated from Naples to America in 1909, later returned to fight in World War I, and then settled in New Haven to work in a pasta factory and bakery. He began making apizza, a thin, crispy Napoletana-style pizza with simple toppings, and sold tomato pies on the street before buying the bakery and opening the pizzeria in 1925. The menu originally featured a tomato pie with grated pecorino and an anchovy pie. The business remained family-run with wife Filomena and daughters Elizabeth and Serafina, expanded to 17 locations in seven states, and anchored the New Haven apizza tradition born from Southern Italian bakery workers.

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