Frank Pepe Pizzeria 1.2

Frank Pepe Pizzeria (established in 1925) is renowned as one of the oldest and most well-known pizzerias in the country. Located in the Wooster St. neighborhood of New Haven, CT, this legendary establishment is famous for its white clam pizza. Affectionately known as Pepe's (pronounced pep-eez) by locals, it has expanded to multiple locations across CT, MA, RI, NY, MD, VA, and FL.

Frank Pepe recognized in 1925 that coal fires burn hot and dry without releasing steam like wood fires do. This knowledge led him to choose coal fire as the method to give his "tomato pies" their signature crispy, charred, and chewy crust.

A lot has changed since Frank Pepe first started baking "ah-beets" nearly a century ago. Pizza has evolved from an obscure ethnic dish to a beloved staple of American cuisine. However, the dedication to food quality and community that Frank Pepe envisioned in 1925 remains unchanged at Pepe's.

The reputation of Pepe's as one of the nation's top pizzerias spread far and wide as local residents, university students, and tourists passed through New Haven. In the early 1990s, Elizabeth and Serafina Pepe retired, passing on the pizza business to their children Anthony, Francis, Lisa, Bernadette, Genevieve, Jennifer, and Gary. This generation of Pepe family members continues to oversee the business and has successfully expanded its reach. Today, Frank Pepe's Pizzeria Napoletana thrives and grows.

The foundation of every Pepe's pie is its crust. Frank Pepe's early experience working in a bakery honed his skills in the art of baking. Pizza, or "apizza" as it is called in New Haven, is a humble meal with the crust serving as its core. Topped with crushed tomatoes and simple, fresh ingredients, Pepe's dough recipe remains identical to Frank Pepe's original creation. This wetter dough ferments for an extended period, resulting in a richer flavor compared to ordinary pizza dough. The unique coal oven's hot, dry air works its magic on the higher water content dough, resulting in a bubbly crust with a thin, crispy, airy texture—akin to a ciabatta-style bread. The crust is crisp on the outside and moist and chewy on the inside—an experience of true pizza crust bliss.

Pepe's pizzas utilize only the freshest and highest quality ingredients. The tomatoes are sourced from a meticulously hand-picked field at the foothills of Mount Vesuvius in Naples, Italy, imported annually under the direction of Gary Bimonte and Francis Rosselli. The clams for the renowned clam pizza are harvested daily from the Long Island Sound shoreline in Massachusetts by dedicated Pepe teammate Eric Preston. The finishing touch of beautifully salty pecorino cheese on a Pepe's pie is hand-selected from the finest producers in Sardinia, Italy—pecorino cheese's birthplace. Moreover, our olive oil and cheese are specially crafted for Pepe's using recipes and processes that work best in the coal-fired brick ovens' higher heat and drier baking environment. At Pepe's, utmost care is taken to guarantee that every ingredient atop our pizzas is of the highest caliber.

An essential element of the Pepe's pizza lies in the unique chemistry created by our custom 14 feet by 14 feet, 100,000-pound brick oven combined with our longer fermenting dough. These ovens are not your average pizza ovens—they are truly bread ovens. At each of our establishments, we meticulously recreate replicas of the original Wooster Street oven, ensuring every detail is faithfully reproduced. We even reuse the mold originally used to construct the oven mouth and coal chambers' cast iron doors. At Pepe's, we take tremendous pride in and are deeply passionate about the artisanal tradition of perfecting the baking process for mouth-watering pizzas. Every single day, we strive to enhance our craft.