Sally’s Apizza
Some places almost feel too iconic to review. It’s kinda like giving the Mona Lisa a 9.1/10. But then you get in front of it and notice the smile is nuanced and the mountains are detailed and artfully charred (Leonardo deserves some credit!)
New Haven might be - per capita - the best pizza city in the world. Its pizza culture is old and predates “New York Style” being a thing. @sallysapizza opened on Wooster Street (New Haven’s Little Italy) in 1938 and along with the also legendary @frankpepepizza (opened 1925), defined the distinct New Haven apizza (“ah-beetz”) style. New Haven pies are very thin, heavily charred, relatively light on cheese, and much more tomato-forward than a typical New York pizza. They also tend to be oblong/irregular shaped and cut into 12 or more slices (as opposed to the canonical 8 for NY style). The pizza is baked intensely, traditionally in a coal fired oven, which results in a well charred crust - with spots as dark as the words in your tattoo.
We ordered the classic mozzarella & tomato sauce pie. The first thing you notice is the sauce. It is abundant and notably sweet. But sweet in a good way (In contrast to some lesser sweet-sauced pizzerias I’m familiar with). My first thought was that there might be carrot or something else naturally sweetening it, but I suspect it is actually just very sweet concentrated tomatoes (their recipe is confidential). Either way, this is a pizza where the tomato is a dominant flavor and it is to the pizza’s credit.
The crust itself is extremely thin and crisp. The combination of very thin crust and heavy sauce made for slices with some sag to them, but still capable of being folded. The underside had excellent char, and the edge still showed some nice open fermentation pockets. Just excellent.
Sally’s feels like a place that has spent 90 years refining a very specific style. It’s a basic pizza executed at an exceptionally high level and a defining example of coal-fired New Haven apizza.
A work of art and one of the reference points for an entire American pizza style.
Highly recommended.
