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Adam out of respect for the Wooster St legacy I kept Pepe's at #3 because of the respect issue and because there are other pies Like the Clam which are out of this world. But I observed other people cutting into their pies and everyone was having the same issue and looked upset that it was taking so much work to eat their pies.....

the slice when you would pick it up would stay straight that's how tough the actual crust has been coming out of the oven lately at both locations.

I've eaten Pizza in quite a few cities and I've followed the GQ Pizza Article on a few of the Detroit pizzeria's since I have family on my wife's side who live out that way.

I really enjoyed buddy's pizza and actually found photos on my cell phone that I sent in. Way different pizza squares and such....

But back to New Haven, for the health conscious Pizza eater up the road about 4 miles up on Whitney ave in Hamden there is Olde World Pizza they do lo carb and even wheat pizza. It's not coal oven but it's pretty good stuff as well.

I haven't eaten yet at the new Yonkers location or the Mohegan Sun for Pepe's but once they went to 7 days a week and opening up at 11:30am something has changed, you need more staff, different people making the pizza and it's just different at Pepe's right now...

I should send them an email because I'm asked all the time 6'3 300lbs which of the big 5 is the best and I tell anyone depends on what you like on it. Sausage hands down is Zupps...... Modern is bigger in seating capacity, very thin Apizza...But they have won best pizza in the Advocate for the past 7 years....Ballot stuffing who knows..... But everyone I know loves Modern. The one thing I do love in regards to the peperoni used at Sallys and Pepe's is that it's cut off the stick.....It doesn't get any better than that......

Then you have to go down the block on Wooster for Italian Ice at Libby's.
Libby's has a new location in North Haven right down the street from me.
Homemade just awesomeness is all I can say. You want any Italian Cookie or Angel Wings, expresso , etc.....It doesn't get any better than Libby's after throwing down.....

Anyone ever wants to do a Pizza throwdown with a Former/Transplanted New Yorker.....

Just drop me a line.....

Enjoy the weekend and holidays everyone...

Wow. Thanks for the great intel, offthemeter. Interesting that Pepe's still comes in at No. 3 even from what you say above. Before I got to your ranking, I expected it to be somewhere after Bar or Zuppardi's. It's now clear we'll have to go back and do Bar and Zuppardi's (and re-try Pepe's).

"My experience is also that Pepe's is much more variable than it was when the previous generation was running it and before its expansion, but I have had some remarkably good pizza there recently...."

IMO, I strongly feel that product AND consistency is what makes a great pizzeria. Most pizzerias, either because of lack of ingredient quality, lack of skill sets by the pizzamakers and/or lack of passion are not even capable of making a great pizza to begin with.

A "great" pizzeria is capable of making a great pizza and is driven to get as close to that greatness as often as possible.....which is most of the time.

It sounds like Pepe's is in the process of falling, or has already fallen from greatness, even if it can still crank out a great pizza from time to time. That's really sad to this pizza lover and a situation that hopefully will right itself sooner than later.

Adam, the pic of the Sally's pizzas look delicious BTW. I need to get to New Haven ASAP! --K

As a New Haven whose exposure goes back 47 years and who simply won't put up with the treatment at Sally's, I have mainly frequented Pepe's with occasional detours at Modern (as well as other places not as good and some really great ones, alas no longer with us). My experience is also that Pepe's is much more variable than it was when the previous generation was running it and before its expansion, but I have had some remarkably good pizza there recently and disagree with Ed's verdict (of course, I didn't have the pies he had). You get superb pizza more often than not and I haven't had a BAD one. My experience with the Fairfield location has actually been quite good, but I haven't tried the others.

I'll have to try Zuppardi's in West Havenm. Do they have a coal oven?

@jwardell: Went to the Pepe's on Wooster. The big one, not The Spot. We ordered a clam pie and a sausage/mozzarella pie. My main complaint was with the ABSOLUTE TOUGHNESS of the crust. OMG. Jawache after trying a slice of each. Even if it had the most flavorful plain sauce/grated cheese, I'd still have an issue with the crust. Tell me how ordering a plain pie is going to change the crust situation and I may reconsider my assessment on further review.

I tried my George Foreman after I saw this show and had high hopes, but either it didn't get hot enough, or there was not enough contact between the grills and the slice of bacon. It just seemed to "steam" and get pink, but never crisp. Back to the frying pan for me.

A few weeks ago, I stopped at Sally's while driving back from Boston to NYC, around 8pm on a Wednesday night. It was about half-full. The service was friendly, and not unpleasant. But the pizza... was superb. For two of us, we got a medium pie with mozzarella, and a medium eggplant parmesan pie (it was a special). Both were exceptionally delicious--if they have the eggplant pie, definitely get it--it's the best eggplant pizza you'll ever eat.

Man, I really dont like sliced tomatoes on my pizza...but the "plain" and sausage look gooood! Used to go to Ricky's Clam House often back in the daze of yore..so funny its a Frank Pepe's now. Hope its good.

With 20/20 hindsight, we should have hit Bar instead of Pepe's. Even then, we would have been cutting it close. We were told by a New Havenite who joined us at Modern that Bar would likely have a long wait but that we could probably do a Pepe's take-out pie in between Modern and Sally's. And so that's what we did.

Another vote for Bar Pizza in New Haven!

THANKS! I will let you know!

Kenji, this whole post just reeks of AMAZING. The part that has me just DROOLING is the bun. You went over the "basically", but would you be able to post an actual recipe for the bun? Thanks!

@NYC Food Guy Believe me, I want Mark to succeed as much as anyone (well maybe not as much as the owners) and I hope that my review will help improve things. However, I think it is fair to hold them to the standard set by White Manna, especially because the restaurants reps go out of their way to reference Manna: http://newyork.grubstreet.com/2009/10/burger_battle_steak_n_shake_st.html

I will also give Mark a second try.

@raven37457 You are right, I should have clarified the burgers to order,I actually meant to link to my original WD of Clark review which would have done so. Here it is:

http://aht.seriouseats.com/archives/2009/07/clark-white-diamond-sliders-hamburgers-new-jersey-nj.html

@tasty trekker Thanks - it is on the radar.

@guttergouret With all due respect, you told us that they rival Kenny's but you didn't tell us why. Is the beef juicier? The bun steamed better? I don't think the fancy ketchup adds much - a properly cooked slider requires nothing in the way of condiments. Regarding the picture of the slider on Always Hungry - the cheese doesn't look melted and the onions look too charred. But to each his own.

I will return to Mark and I hope that they can approach the standard set by the great slider institutions of NJ that I have spent so much time documenting as of late.