Frank Pepe’s The Spot On Wooster Street In New Haven Hosts Cape Verdean Classic Pizza Fundraiser

A few minutes before eleven on this past beautiful sleepy Sunday morning, I could be found on lower Wooster Street in the heart of New Haven’s Little Italy. I parked at the bottom of the street and walked back up, taking in Tre Scalini,

this shrine,

Abaté,

Libby’s Pastries,

Tony & Lucille’s,

and Consiglio’s,

all worthy destinations, to be sure. But I was focused on the granddaddy of them all—Pepe’s.

Of course, there are actually two Pepe’s: Frank Pepe’s Pizzeria Napoletana and Frank Pepe’s The Spot. Both appeared deserted when I arrived,

but both were bustling when I left.

On this occasion, I was visiting The Spot, which as you can see was Frank Pepe’s original location from 1925 to 1938.

The occasion? A benefit to raise scholarship money on behalf of the Cape Verdean Classic.

The deal? Twenty dollars bought all of the pizza one could eat and all of the wine, beer and soda one could drink. And remember, that’s not just any pizza but arguably the best pizza in the world!

Since I was early,

I got to hang with some of the nice people organizing the event.

There was a lot of hugging.

There was also a lot of beer,

and soon I had a Peroni in my hands.

And shortly after, there was a nice salad and great pizza for the taking.

And while The Spot would produce and put out large versions of just about any kind of pizza one could suggest, before it got busy my buddies and I were even able to order a couple of small custom pies, like this wonderful white clam pie

and this sausage, roasted red pepper and onion pie.

Here are my aforementioned buddies Jesse and Andrew.

After we finished our salads and custom pies, we found second wind and began to attack all of the other combinations that made their way out of the kitchen.