We tasted tomato pies that mimicked the halcyon days before pizza became an international phenomenon. Friends Matt and Marie joined our New Haven pizza research endeavor. Together, we ate pizza for both lunch and dinner and even chowed down on historic burgers. Our trip was a two-day pizza extravaganza that we shared with our friends Matt and Marie. We observed pizzaiolos, armed with pizza peels that seem more appropriate for a pole vault competition than a pizza parlor, fire up exquisite pies with charred caramelized edges using coal that glows bright orange. We got a front row view to the action during our trip to New Haven. We spotted a Modern Pizza pizzaiolo using athletic skill and a Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana pizzaiolo removing finished pies from an orange-hot, coal-fired oven. Watching pizzaiolos at work is a highlight of visiting the best New Haven pizzerias. And why not? Those 14-foot deep ovens, some fired by blazing coal furnaces, can accommodate dozens of wide pies that are cooked with dark crisp edges and crunchy bottoms as is the pizza style in New Haven. The best New Haven pizzerias still use old-school pizza ovens. Pizza lovers who travel to New Haven, Connecticut are transported to a time when America was a raging industrial center – a time when coal fired ovens the size of small trucks churned out pizzas by the hundreds to the hungry working masses.
