Not to be confused with BAR in New Haven, THE Bar is in North Haven, CT and serves thin crust imitation New Haven style pizza. Pretty close to the real coal-fired pies, the one big tell that it’s a knockoff is the flimsy & floppy body of the dough. Void of crisp, the center of the pie is super soft & spineless with a golden brown undercarriage to go along with reasonable char, despite the total lack of firmness. Sliced in typical New Haven fashion, the dough is moderately tasty but the flavor is fugazy in the absence of coal-fired smokiness. However, the mega crunchy crust is easily the best aspect of the pie, a fantastic combo of terrific taste & tremendous texture. The shredded mozzarella cheese is incredibly pungent with an overly cheesy, almost cheddar-like taste, seemingly more than just mozz, with sharper flavors abound like Parmesan & pecorino romano mixed into the blend, dominating the other ingredients, particularly the sauce. With a substantially creamy consistency as well as a smokey flavor, the cheese is delectable but overpowering & clearly the prevailing flavor of the pizza. Extremely understated, the sauce is neither sweet nor salty, just stuck in neutral. I don’t think it’s a volume issue cause you can see plenty of the red tomato blend near the crust. Perhaps the lack of seasoning is contributing to the subdued presence of flavor; not to mention the sharpness of the cheese & char of the dough could be dulling the savoriness of the sauce. Not a bad blend, just flat, the sauce could use a little sweetening & spice to help punch through the prominent flavor of the dominant cheese taste. Overall, this pie is slightly more pleasing to the eye than it is to the tongue & a tad disappointing texturally as well, particularly in the body of the dough. Somewhat of a “Decepticon Pizza,” it’s not as crispy or tasty as it looks. I’m not saying this is a lousy pie by any means; it’s very good in its own right, just not quite on the level of classic coal-oven pizza. I was hoping for a travel-worthy sleeper pie; but as it stands, this is a solid attempt at imitation thin crust New Haven pizza.
