🪵🔥BEST WOOD-FIRED ALERT🔥🪵 Opened in 2000, this New Haven joint is serving brick oven wood-fired pizza in the land of coal oven pies; and they’re proud of it, as evidenced by the piles of chopped wood in the parking lot. This is a modern pizzeria with an old school feel, flying under the radar in the shadows of “The Big 3.” A premier Yale student spot, this place is open til 3am every night & 4am on Fridays & Saturdays! Like most wood-fired pizza, the dough is rather soft, but not unbearably like typical cookie-cutter Neapolitan pies. Very thin & terrifically tasty, the dough is a little floppy, lacking backbone & firmness despite a moderately charred undercarriage. Thin, light & incredibly crunchy, the crust has minimal char but possesses a deliciously smokey flavor to go along with sensational texture. Rich & delectable, with a smooth & silky consistency, the cheese is a mega melty molten lava mozzarella. Oozy & gooey with a marvelously creamy & velvety texture, the mozz has a fantastic flow, melted perfectly in the intensely high heat of the wood oven. Bursting with super sweet tomato flavor, the sauce comes out swinging, despite the deceptively low volume, smacking me right in the mouth. Mildly seasoned with scant spices, the sauce is fairly simple; though it still shines with zest, tang & splendid sweetness complimenting the dough & cheese beautifully. The soft wood oven texture of the dough is the only aspect holding this pie back from entering elite territory. If this pizza was cooked in a coal oven, a strong char & crisp could carry this score into the high 8s, approaching 9s. As it stands, this is thin & delicious pizza, absolutely worth traveling for, particularly if you enjoy wood oven pies; cause this is one of the best brick oven wood-fired pizzas in the “Capitol of Coal Ovens.”
