It was announced on the House floor in Washington, D.C. in 2024 that New Haven has the best pizza in the United States; this tends to elicit strong reactions or inspire long trips across state lines to prove or disprove. I had no such intentions during my trip from NYC to visit my mom's new home in Connecticut. But once there, I stumbled upon a rich story about New Haven's distinct apizza, pronounced "ah-beetz."
One day into my stay, I walked into Kaiyden's Cafe, near Wooster Square, and I soon became acquainted with the two people next to me, which led to a brief history lesson of New Haven's apizza and a flyer for a play called Family Business: (A) Pizza Play.
Even though I was born and raised in a coastal village in Guyana, I consider myself a New Yorker. I have lived back and forth between Queens, Brooklyn, and Manhattan for over 25 years, so I'm nostalgic about the dollar slices that I grew up with during high school years in Queens and have had all of my pizza needs met over the years, from the average pizzeria to high-end eateries. I was more interested in exploring the New Haven theatre scene and even told my new friends at the cafe that, as a former restaurant owner, I'm not interested in food these days.
So, I bought a ticket to the play for the narrative experience, but I left the theater planning a pizza tour. The Italian mother on stage, the heart of intergenerational family-run businesses, led me to an ah-beetz journey with my mom.
Created by A Broken Umbrella Theatre, the play is about early New Haven food entrepreneurs, with scenes from the 1920s to the 40s and 80s. The custom-made stage created an experience of traveling through time as the stage rotated between generations of the Carbonizatto family tree.
"When I think about 'the family business,' I think about what those words capture, from an intergenerational pizza shop to the business of being a family. I think about what it takes for each individual that makes up that family, whatever their definition of family is," said Jes Mack, Director and Co-Writer at A Broken Umbrella Theatre.
I called my mom after the play. I needed her help eating pizza because you can’t get a New Haven slice; you have to order a pie. I shared this experience with Ms. Mack on a phone call. “See how pizza brings people together?” she said.
Mom and I started at Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana with two small pies, the Original Tomato Pie and the White Clam Pie. The taste of char from the coal-fired brick oven had us inspecting the pies' bottoms, to which our eyes lit up with excitement. My mom claimed the clam pie was her favorite, with a chewy, thin crust and crispy edge. I liked it as much as she did, but the original had me at the first bite, offering a simple comfort.
It was a special experience to eat at Frank Pepe's, the institution where the famous New Haven-style pizza was invented. The next day, I did something I would normally never do: I stood in line for over an hour at Sally's Apizza. Seated in a booth next to a framed article of Salvatore Consiglio standing in front of his brick oven in 1983, the server noticed my gaze on the wall and confirmed it was indeed the same oven in use today. The staff pick, the Potato Rosemary Pie, had a translucent layer of sliced potatoes that melted into a creaminess, that was reminiscent of my mother's Indian roti recipe, made with a dollop of mashed potato folded into the dough and rolled out.
I needed a long walk after my indulgence, so I stepped out of Wooster Square and into the city near Yale University. I randomly met the relative of a New Haven historian who does a lot for the homeless in the city park. There's more to understand here. This place is a portal, doors are slightly ajar, doors to other worlds. The slightest curiosity about human nature can lead to a deeper understanding of the Italian culture in New Haven.
I need more time to step back into the stories of the first generations of Italians who arrived as immigrants in an unfamiliar world to forge a new home for family and legacy. The ah-beetz journey continues for me, as do more conversations with A Broken Umbrella Theatre and other new friends in New Haven. And more pizza with Mom.
