NYC burns Connecticut over brazen attempt to seize ‘Best Pizza’ crown: ‘Cheesy stunt’

Steven Vago, Aneeta Bhole, Alex Oliveira
·3 min read
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Any way you slice it, this was gonna be a fight.

Connecticut lawmakers are planning to officially declare their state the “Pizza Capital of the U.S.” — prompting New York City pols and locals alike to tell them where they can stuff it.

“What the hell?” said an incredulous Mohamed Ali, a dough-slinger at Joe’s Pizza on Carmine Street in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village.

Connecticut pie joints like Modern Pizza in New Haven may be good — but they’re not even close to New York City’s, critics say. Boston Globe via Getty Images
Connecticut pie joints like Modern Pizza in New Haven may be good — but they’re not even close to New York City’s, critics say. Boston Globe via Getty Images

“Even Italians when they come here, they say the pizza of New York is better than the one in Italy right now,” Ali told The Post on Tuesday. “Connecticut — how many people live there? It’s New York, Manhattan!”

The saucy response came the day before Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) is set to bring a delegation of 100 Connecticut pizzamakers on a chartered jet to the US Capital, symbolically proclaim her state’s supposed slice superiority in the “cheesy stunt” and enter the title into the congressional record.

“New Haven has the best pizza in the country — and it is not even close,” DeLauro told Connecticut Public Radio on Tuesday “Ask anyone from Connecticut, and they will tell you Connecticut pizza, or ‘apizza’ as we call it, is hands down — no contest — the best pizza in America.”

New Yorkers had just one response for DeLauro: Fuggedaboutit!

“New York City doesn’t have to declare itself the ‘Pizza Capital of the United States’ because people across the country already know it to be true,” a City Hall rep sniffed.

“More than a century of satisfied customers, the residents of the five boroughs and nearly 62 million visitors to New York City each year have already settled what was never really a debate.”

A hearty New York City pie awaits discerning customers. Matthew McDermott
A hearty New York City pie awaits discerning customers. Matthew McDermott

Kevin Jackson, general manager at famed pizzeria John’s on the Village’s Bleeker Street, conceded that Connecticut can cook a mean pie — but that anybody who has had a New York City slice knows the truth.

“They’re very good — but they’re not New York,” he said. “Once you come to New York, you won’t go back to New Haven.”

Even foreigners such 43-year Jamie Griffihs visiting from Manchester, England, knows the congresswoman’s claims are bogus.

Connecticut Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro plans to make her pie-in-the-sky claim in DC on Wednesday. Getty Images for Care Can't Wait Action
Connecticut Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro plans to make her pie-in-the-sky claim in DC on Wednesday. Getty Images for Care Can't Wait Action

“She’s clearly never been to Brooklyn. Brooklyn has the best pizza,” he said.

“We’ve been to many pizzerias in Brooklyn, and there, you’re talking authentic, multigenerational and family-owned,” the astute Brit said. “There’s history with it. It’s more than just a restaurant.”

A 68-year-old West Village resident who gave his first name, Salvatore, and who also lives in Puglia, Italy, said he feels DeLauro has no right to make such a declaration without due process of the law.

“She has to justify it. The Italians have to take a vote on it,” he said.

Even New York City Mayor Eric Adams took a moment to weigh in on the debate Tuesday.

“That’s a real cheesy opportunity to take away the real claim,” Hizzoner said during his weekly general press briefing. “Everyone knows who’s the king of pizza.

“It’s alright for them to be No. 2 … but No. 1 is ruled by this, this great, amazing city.”