The topic of this article may not meet Wikipedia's general notability guideline. Please help to demonstrate the notability of the topic by citing reliable secondary sources that are independent of the topic and provide significant coverage of it beyond a mere trivial mention. If notability cannot be shown, the article is likely to be merged, redirected, or deleted.
Find sources: "New Haven–style pizza" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (December 2007) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this articlebyadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
Find sources: "New Haven–style pizza" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (October 2007) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Apizza (pronounced ah-BEETS) is a style of Neapolitan pizza common in and around New Haven, Connecticut. It originated at the Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana[citation needed] and is now served in many other pizza restaurants in the area, most notably, Sally's Apizza.
Apizza has a thin crust that varies between chewy and tender, depending on the particular establishment.[citation needed] The default version is a "white" pizza topped with only garlic and hard cheeses; customers who want tomato sauceormozzarella cheese have to ask for them explicitly.[citation needed] Apizza has a very dark, "scorched" crisp crust that offers a distinctive bitter flavor, which can be offset by the sweetness of tomatoes or other toppings.[citation needed]
Apizza is traditionally baked in a coal- or wood-fired brick oven.[citation needed]
Unlike pizzas from other areas, including New York City, apizza is typically sold whole rather than by the slice.[citation needed] Regular pizzas cooked to be reheated and sold as slices tend to have a chewier crust, whereas apizza crust tends to be very crisp.[citation needed] The differences in texture are significant.[who?]
Use of the term "apizza" is mostly confined to the Italian-American enclaves of southern Connecticut, and is likely derived from the local Italian-American dialect.[citation needed] The dish is more widely known[citation needed] throughout the region as simply "New Haven-style pizza", as opposed to "New York-style pizza" which remains the dominant style of pizza-making throughout the rest of New England as well as the Mid-Atlantic states.
Although most commonly available in the New Haven area, apizza has begun to spread to other parts of Connecticut.[citation needed] It is now commonly available in the Italian American areas of Bridgeport and other shoreline communities.
Apizza is also beginning to be served in areas typically not known for large Italian American populations, including Manchester in the northeastern part of the state. Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana announced plans in early 2007 to open a a location in the more historically Irish American Manchester, around the same time Randy's Wooster St. Pizza opened its location there.[1] DePalma's Apizza in neighboring East Haven also serves New Haven-style apizza, as well as McBride's in Wolcott, and also Apizza in Stayton, Oregon [2]and Apizza Scholls in Portland, Oregon.[citation needed]