#80 Coalhouse Pizza

March 3rd, 2019

Stamford, CT

To be honest, we wanted to get Pepe’s Pizza this day. We were on our way back from New Haven, and we didn’t feel like waiting at the Pepe’s New Haven location, so we decided that we’d make a stop in Fairfield at the (not-as-good) location there. We were going to be a bit on the early side for dinner, so we thought we’d be OK. It was packed. We didn’t feel like waiting with a tired baby in the car, so we decided to change our plans and drove a few more miles down I-95 to Stamford.

Coalhouse Pizza was a new addition to the list in 2018. We weren’t sure that we were in the right place at first because the restaurant is in a strip mall, but it definitely doesn’t have a “strip mall” vibe when you go in and sit down.

It was opened in 2008 as a place to serve great pizzas and craft beer in a family-friendly environment. Today, they also have the Whisky Bar, which has the largest selection of tap craft beers in Connecticut, and over 250 varieties of whisky. Since we still had over an hour to drive home, we didn’t get to sample any of these, although neither one of us is a big whisky drinker.

The pizzas here are Neapolitan-style, made with the “00” flour and their oven can burn gas, wood, coal, or all of the above. It can apparently cook 20 pizzas at once, in 2-3 minutes (according to their website). Their pizza menu is almost too expansive. We had such a hard time deciding what pizza to go for.

We ended up choosing the ‘Blue Skies’, which was just a regular cheese and tomato. We also tried a sausage, mushroom, and pesto pie. We did end up with leftovers. While the crust was reminiscent of a Neapolitan style (airy and fluffy), the size was definitely larger, even for a small.

James got to nibble on the crust here and seemed to really enjoy it. We’d come back if we end up driving through again and needed a pizza stop. Although we’d ideally be able to make a stop and be able to try one of their unique beers on tap while we’re there.

To visit:

Coalhouse Pizza
85 High Ridge Rd
Stamford, CT 06905

#51 Colony Grill

December 6, 2015

Stamford, CT

Eric and I drove through Stamford for five years, but we never thought to stop there for pizza. This was mainly because New Haven would only be another half hour or so up I-95, and that pizza was always worth waiting for. We were a little surprised to find that Stamford does have one pizza place on the list, though – Colony Grill.

In our last post on Margot’s, we mentioned that the bar pizza there reminded us of the pizza here at Colony Grill. Colony Grill is entirely unique from New Haven pizzas, probably because it started out as an Irish tavern in 1925. Now, it only serves pizza, and is known primarily for its hot oil bar pie and super thin, crispy crust.

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So of course we had to get the hot oil pie, with sausage. That’s a hot pepper on top, which Eric did NOT eat. I should also mention that we stopped in Stamford on our way back from New Haven (and BAR, which I posted on a few days ago). Luckily, they also had a salad pie on the menu. Eric wasn’t a huge fan of the salad pie, but he seems to be a bit wary of any pizza without cheese (unless its a tomato pie from Pepe’s). I thought that the salad pizza was dressed perfectly, and I felt a bit more healthy eating some veggies on my second pizza of the day.

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This was the first day (of many to come) where we hit two pizza places in one day. We were definitely full after these two stops. I think our stomachs expanded as we continued eating all this pizza, though, because we didn’t seem to have any issues doing two-a-days in the later months of our journey.

While we didn’t LOVE the pizza here, it is good to know that there is decent pizza in Stamford for all of those times we are stuck in traffic getting through Connecticut on the horrible I-95. And don’t even get us started on Connecticut drivers…

 

To visit:

Colony Grill
172 Myrtle Ave
Stamford, CT 06902