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Just visited Pepe's again...and Modern. Agree that the clam pie at Pepe's is great. The others, though.....aren't. In fact, they're way down the list on my criteria. Sort of tasteless....and laboriously chewy.

Though Modern's crust is floppier, the taste of their "red" pies is quite memorable, and delicious. Their clam pie suffers by comparison (the fresh clams at Pepe's are unbeatable on a pie.) IMO.

dd

I disagreed with this post the moment I saw it, and had some real-world experiences over Memorial Day weekend that only confirmed these feelings. First off, some history - I have been visiting Pepe's for more than 20 years, and while it isn't always "perfect" it is consistently the best pizza I've ever had in my life, bar none. And we eat a lot of pizza... Totonno's was on auto-dial when we lived in the city... Nick's in Forest Hills (and, more recently, Rockville Centre), Mario's on Arthur Avenue (a close second to Pepe's I have to say), Una Pizza Napoletana, we've been all over the place and there is nothing like Pepe's.

We drive between New York and Vermont at least four or five times a year and always hit Pepe's on the way up, and usually on the way back. Sometimes we get lucky and hit it right and there's no line, more often there is a line - and we wait. We tried to get into Sally's one freezing night, probably 15 years ago, just out of curiosity. Stood there for probably an hour and kept watching "regulars" come up behind us and wander in sit down at waiting tables. That's the way they roll, apparently, the tourist schlubs can stand out there until their fingers and toes fall off, Sally's is going to take care of their regulars. Fine for them, we never went back.

We were headed up to Vermont Thursday night and got stuck in terrible traffic south of New Haven, it was clear we weren't going to make Pepe's by the time they closed at 10, but there was another place I'd heard good things about, Modern Apizza... no lines, a full menu including salads, etc., open until 11 p.m. on Thursdays. So we went there instead, hit the place at 10:40 and maybe they stopped feeding the oven at that hour or something but all I can say is the pizzas we got (one regular red sauce/mozz, one red sauce, mozz and mushroom/onions) were both soupy messes. Almost inedible. Literally the first 2/3 of every slice, on both pies, could not be eaten without a fork, you couldn't pick the thing up, the "crust" was the approximate consistency of yogurt. And the flavor of the part of the piece you could actually hold in your hand was a sharp and unpleasant saltiness. In short, it was terrible. I asked the waiter if this was normal and he said yeah, that's the way the pies come out. Found that a little hard to believe for a place that had been in business so long. Needless to say, I heard about my bright dinner idea from my wife and two young daughters all the way up to our destination (until they fell asleep) and over the course of the weekend.

Ride home came Sunday afternoon, and we hit Wooster Street around 7 p.m. Graduation weekend at Yale and one of the longest lines we've seen outside Pepe's in a while. We waited. Took about 45 minutes to get to our table and we ordered a red pie with mozz and our favorite combination at Pepe's, red sauce, spinach/onion and just grated cheese. Both pies were perfect, phenomenal char, even the spinach/onion slices could be picked up and eaten by hand, no soupy mess.

Tastes vary and people have every right to like what they like... but I have to tell you, we know pizza, we eat a lot of pizza, we've been all over the place and we've hit all the bright spots and there is nothing like Pepe's... there's a reason people have been waiting in line outside that door for more than 80 years, and it's going to take a lot more than a 30-second video of someone making chippy comments and banging some crust against a pan to lay a glove on the place.

Maybe her benchmark pizza is pizza hut deep dish. You can't compare apples to oranges, and you can't compare red apples and green apples as well !

Like anything else, there are two factors at play here:

1. No place has perfect consistency, and

2. Pizza is a religion, and different people practice it differently.

I love Pepe's, and have always gotten a good pizza there. But I've also been to no end of places that people tell me have "the best pizza ever" that were hot circles of garbage. Meanwhile, some places I absolutely love, other people hate (I've got several friends in Phoenix that think that Bianco is terrible pizza). Everyone has different tastes, especially if they are from a different part of the country.

Jillian doesn't like Pepe's? Fine, that's one less person in line. :)

Roberto...my sentiments exactly...

That being said, perhaps each of us got a bad pie? Seems unlikely, but if I'm ever back in the area, I wouldn't be opposed to giving it another shot. I find it hard to believe that so many pizza lovers LOVE this place, and here I am shrugging my shoulders and saying "meh." Know what I mean?

And THAT being said, I'd prefer to try the other New Haven joints that have similar accolades.

What's funny is that one day traveling back to NYC from visiting family, I made the stop to try Frank Pepe's and frankly, I was not impressed. It was a big let down because every single pizza that was coming out of the oven looked beyond delicious and amazing (I waited by the oven since I got mine to go). I took it back to the car to share with my lady (at the time), and neither of us were impressed. Big time let down for me.

My money goes to Modern Apizza.

o hey look at this:
http://www.urbanspoon.com/f/2/146/Chicago/Pizza-places

Lord knows how Lou mal's got that high at least it is below my beloved Pequod's

Lou Malnati's is my family's favorite pizza deep dish pizza. My wife and I started going to the one on North Wells about 15 years ago when we were still dating and now we take our kids there. We've probably been there over 100 times and I don't think we've ever had a bad pizza. We've had pizza from all over the city and suburbs but for us LM's is our favorite. (Side note: the Malnati salad is also excellent. Definately give it a try. I now look forward to that almost as much as the pizza!)
And finally to Timothyrows: Get real.

Adam, I hope you don't mind but I need to borrow the Truth Hammer for a minute.

@Timothyrows: While there are good arguments that can be made that some pizzerias in Chicago offer a better product than Malnati's (though not for a place that uses canned sauce and processed everything like Chicago's Pizza), you are simply dead wrong that Lou Malnati's meets any definition of a tourist trap. Malnati's has 30 locations, 25 of which are located in the suburbs. Last time I checked, tourists were not flocking to places like Mount Prospect. And of the five in Chicago, only 2 are in areas that are even close to major tourist traffic, but even those two (South Loop and River North) are pretty far off the typical tourist's path.

You might not be a fan of Malnati's, but when a chain has 30 restaurants, most of which are never seen by tourists, that's called a Chicago institution, not a tourist trap.

I just ran across this posting and had to comment! I love Lou's pizza!!! It is the best I have ever tasted, bar none. I moved to SC many years ago and one of the one million things they do not have here is anything that resembles a true pizza. Dominos and Pizza Hut rocks for these folks. I used to brag about how great Chicago pizza (and the city itself) is, I finally took some friends up for a week of eye opening fun and food. The first place we ate at was Lou's and they have never been the same since (told 'em!). God, I miss ya'll!!!!

I've always known that a grilled PBH sandwich will be included in my last meal on earth! Lately, (most mornings) I have been fixin' a PB quesadilla...mix chunky Skippy pb with Savannah Bee tupelo honey, spread on half a flour tortilla, top with sliced bananas, fold & gently warm in a covered skillet--yum!