Pizza

Somehow this weekend has been all about pizza. It all started when my roommates and I decided to have a movie marathon. Since every good event involves food, we chose to order a pizza. We ordered an Amore Special from Pizza Amore on Green Street and had it delivered. To be honest, the pizza was fine; there was nothing wrong with it. But despite all of the delicious eggplant, cheese, garlic, and basil, I wasn't really satisfied with it. On the other hand my roommates couldn't stop raving about how amazing it was, how they should have ordered a bigger pie, how we should get pizza more often. Sigh. If only I hadn't been raised in a city where the pizza is so good, I can't enjoy pizza from anywhere else. I silently wished that I wasn't such a pizza-snob, and left it at that.

By Sunday, having forgotten all about my disappointment, I started doing my homework only to stumble upon a reading (for this class) which briefly mentioned New Haven pizza. Being from New Haven, I realized, of course, that the universe was telling me to write a blog post about Pepe's.

Pepe's makes the best pizza. People regularly wait for hours in a line reaching all the way down Wooster street in the middle of July during a heat wave or in subzero temperatures in the middle of January. This is not an exaggeration. Pepe's serves pizza just the way it's supposed to be: with crust so thin that it's practically burnt and cheese so hot that it burns the roof of your mouth. When I was growing up, my father had perfected the route from Pepe's to our house so that whenever he picked up a pizza after work, he could make it home as fast as possible without having to stop for any traffic lights. He would also insist that we slice the pizza at home, since a sliced pizza cools faster.

My favorite kind of pizza is sausage and onion. They use sausage made right in New Haven, and the onions are cut into big, sweet chunks. I usually order it with no mozzarella, since the ingredients are so fresh and delicious on their own. To someone who has never been to Pepe's before, I would recommend that they order the white clam pie. It has only the freshest of clams and plenty of garlic. Do not order it with cheese. Trust me.

There is only one problem with Pepe's: it ruins all other pizza. When New Haveners move away, they usually miss pizza most of all. When my uncle went away to college, my father and grandfather ordered a pizza, ate the whole thing, and cut off the portion of the box with the Pepe's logo. They mailed the grease-stained cardboard, still smelling of pepperoni, to my uncle as a cruel reminder of what he was missing. Even without such reminders, I know exactly the first thing I will eat when I get home for spring break.