Frank Pepe's

Hey kids, the only thing I really have time for on this catch-up post-holiday very-Monday Tuesday is a quick post about Frank Pepe's in New Haven.

It is the best pizza ever. It can make you fly, open the doors of perception, make you invisible, transport you through space and time, basically make you shovel giant delicious mouthfuls of it into your mouth without noticing your immediate surroundings. Until you are so contendedly distended that you roll down Wooster Street in semi-comatose glee. The end.

We didn't wait as long as most do, mainly because this was Yale's commencement weekend and the only upside of that is that no one wants a table for two on such occasions. I've included the menu for Pepe's so you can get an idea of the scene -- pretty much unchanged non-ergonomic restaurant interior, and as the menu indicates, just pizza. You get pizza and soda or beer. Because that's all you need. Ever.

We got a large, half white with clam and the other half red with bacon and onions. I have trouble committing to a favorite topping combination, but not anymore so long as clam pizzas are available. That garlicy cheese bliss is all you really need. I won't bore you with a description of my eyes-rolled-in-the-back-of-my-head reaction. Though after taking down about 6 slices of the clam, I must say the bacon and onion made an impression as well. The fact that I could eat any of it all means it was far superior to all other pizzas previously consumed.

So why so great? I think mostly it has to be the crust- thin but with chewiness that allows you to savor it longer. But of course doing one thing really well means attention to quality and being able to replicate that. So the fact that the bacon was almost whole slices, not just bacos, and that the onion was chopped very finely and cooked beforehand shows you that Pepe's isn't just sliding by on reputation alone.

I must admit that after my no-holds-barred take-down of this pizza (a large with only two slices left to take home) I did go into a bit of a shame spiral. Moments of decadence can unfortunately have that side-effect. And thus I did not make it back over to Little Italy to try out Sally's. So the feud must continue without my weighing in. But we'll be back in New Haven soon. And I'm already training for another pizza.