new haven style | Barb and Eric's Pizza Adventures

July 24th, 2017

Washington, D.C.

Now that our pizza road trip posts are over, we’re picking back up with reviews of the last few pizza places that we visited on the original 2015 list back in the summer 2016. Wow, that was almost 2 years ago now. It still feels crazy that we’ve been doing this so long. We can still remember each pizza pretty vividly. (Well, I can. I think some of them are starting to blend together for Eric.)

We made it over to the last pizza place that was in Washington, D.C. on the last day of a long weekend there (see this post where we last left off). The final pizzeria in DC was Pete’s New Haven Apizza. You probably know by now that we LOVE New Haven pizza, so our expectations were pretty high. Even more, Pete’s ranked in pretty high on the list.

We ended up ordering two pizzas because there were three of us splitting these. The specialty pizzas here are all named after places in New Haven, so we ordered one of “The Green” which was topped with artichokes, spinach, and roasted tomatoes (hold the olives), and one of the “Elm City”, which had caramelized onions, wild mushrooms, and roasted chicken.

The story is that one of the co-founder’s fathers is from East Haven, right on the New Haven line, so the co-founders all are familiar with the New Haven style. BUT these pizzas aren’t really true New Haven style. The crust is a little thicker and round. There’s none of that classic New Haven char. The toppings were great, though, so we aren’t complaining. You could really tell how fresh the toppings were (none of that frozen spinach going on here!).

This was probably our favorite pizza in DC, even though it wasn’t really a “New Haven Apizza”. We can see why 2Amys could get the slight edge from the critics and we do like a good Neapolitan pie, but honestly, if we had to choose we’d go for something a bit more substantial that could hold more toppings.

We went to their original location, but they also have a few locations now around the city.

To visit:

Pete’s New Haven Apizza
1400 Irving St NW
Washington, DC 20010

May 26th, 2016

Chicago, IL

We spent our second day in Chicago riding rented bikes around the Lakefront Trail. We had to make sure to have room for our second pizza of the day, and we were pretty full from that deep dish at Gino’s East.

Luckily, our second pizza of the day was at Piece, which serves New Haven style pizzas!

We were so surprised to see a New Haven style pizza outside of Connecticut! Even better, the pizzas at Piece actually look like New Haven pizza. They are the same oblong shape and are served on metal trays. Their “Traditional” pizza comes with thin crust, red sauce, and no mozz, so it is pretty much the COMPLETE opposite of a deep dish. The restaurant itself reminds us a little bit of BAR in New Haven. It has the same open space and the same brewery-type feel. Both places have an excellent selection of beers, some of which are produced in-house.

As it turns out, the restaurant was started by a native New Haven-er (New Haven-ite?) back in 1999. They learned how to make pies from someone who worked at Sally’s. This place is legit.

The one difference between Piece and a real New Haven pie is how it is cooked. Piece uses a rotating gas oven instead of the coal ovens found around New Haven. This was done partly for environmental reasons, but also because the owner originally worked making bagels, and he had some high quality gas ovens already available. So, you don’t get the really awesome char at Piece that you do at the New Haven greats.

The pizza is good though, and so is the beer. We got a pie with banana peppers (as recommended) and spinach (no cheese). The banana peppers are unique – we’ve never seen them on a New Haven pie before. We liked the addition. The crust is a little more firm than the crust at Pepe’s or Sally’s, so it holds the toppings nicely. We polished off a medium size pie between the two of us easily.

They have mashed potatoes listed as a premium topping, but I wonder how many people order that here? Only someone who has tried it in New Haven, probably. I think they should advertise that more. Same with the clams. I can’t imagine their clam pie living up to the clam at Pepe’s, but they should add this to their main menu if they really wanted to be authentic.

The place was pretty empty when we showed up for dinner, but we had to make it an early night because we were heading to a comedy show. We can see this place being a giant pizza party on the weekend, with the extensive bar and the open atmosphere. We’re just so glad to see New Haven pizza spreading around the country!

To visit:

Piece Brewery and Pizzeria
1927 W. North Ave
Chicago, IL 60622

Tag: new haven style

#38 Pete’s New Haven Apizza

#99 Piece