One of America’s oldest cities, New Haven has two major claims to fame – Yale University and pizza.
Yale is the gritty city’s shining gem. One of eight elite Ivy League schools, its history goes back to 1701, making it the country’s fourth most tenured university, only bested by Harvard University, The College of William & Mary and St. John’s College. And, while the Yale campus is lovely with its pedestrian streets and neo-Gothic buildings, it’s not the reason why food travelers visit New Haven.
That reason is the city’s unique take on a pizza style notable for its thin crust, charred edges and toppings like clams, tomatoes and even mashed potatoes. Italian immigrants imported their love for pizza to New Haven over a century ago. Their descendants are still creating the Italian food favorite using coal ovens today.
Read our New Haven pizza guide.
The three most famous New Haven pizzerias – Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana, Modern Apizza and Sally’s Apizza – all opened their original locations during this era in 1925, 1934 and 1938 respectively. Popular to this day, this pizzeria trio, sometimes referred to as New Haven’s pizza Holy Trinity, even inspired a documentary movie, Pizza A Love Story.
The temptation to exclusively eat pizza at Frank Pepe, Modern and Sally’s as well as at newer spots like BAR is real but that could get really old really fast. The better plan is to start your day with brunch at a spot like The Pantry, end it with dinner at young celebrity chef (and Yale grad) Lucas Sin’s Junzi kitchen and sneak in a hamburger or two at Louis’ Lunch, a historic spot that claims to have invented the hamburger.
While that claim is debatable, there’s no debate that eating tomato and clam pies in New Haven is bucket list worthy for food travelers in general and pizza lovers in particular.
Top Things To Eat In New Haven
Pizza, Pizza and Pizza
