😴SLEEPER SPOT ALERT😴 Opened in June of 2021, this joint is a little slice of New Haven north of the Connecticut Pizza Capital. Cooked at over 800° in a coal-fired oven, they serve medium sized pies that are somewhat bigger than personal size pizzas with remarkable char & crunch. With a beautifully blackened & firm semolina-seed-covered undercarriage, the dough is crispy & crunchy to go along with a sensationally smokey flavor from the all-around outstanding char. Although not quite as tasty as New Haven dough, the terrific texture & crunchy consistency of the crust in particular comes really close to New Haven style. A marvelously melty shredded mozzarella blend, the cheese is deliciously creamy with fabulous flavor aided by some Parmigiano Reggiano. The only drawback is the orange-tinged center of the pie harboring a substantial amount of grease caused by the melted butterfat from the mozz. Mostly manageable, the excess oil doesn’t overwhelm the flavor of the cheese or sauce. In fact, the pungent smell & taste of garlic emanating from the heavily seasoned sauce overpowers the savory flavor from the grease, yielding a smidge of saltiness but mostly minimized by the super sweet San Marzano tomatoes. The combination of seasoning & sweetness produces a sauce filled with zest, zing, zip, kick & punch. Overall, this pie is an outstanding microcosm of coal-fired New Haven style pizza; not an imitation but more like an homage to the signature taste & texture. This is definitely a travel-worthy pie, especially for those living north of Middletown. If they dialed back the grease & made larger sizes, this rating could skyrocket into the upper 8s. As it stands, this is a true sleeper spot & potential rising star in the pizza game.
