Artist Creates Greeting Cards Celebrating Famed Pizzerias

Perhaps no small city has more iconic pizzerias than New Haven, Connecticut. An artist is now capitalizing on that fame by creating greeting cards that celebrate various New Haven pizzerias, reports WTNH.

Bryan Madden, of Danbury, Connecticut, is a self-described lover of pizza who posted watercolor paintings of his favorite local eateries to Reddit. Madden sells his greetings cards on his Etsy shop, too.

Modern Apizza.

Frank Pepe, Sally’s Apizza, Modern Apizza and neighboring Zuppardi’s Apizza are four of the pizzerias now featured in Madden’s inventory of greeting cards. Madden offers a version of each pizzeria in wintry light to celebrate the Christmas season.

Frank Pepe.

Madden’s passion for the pizzerias bleeds through in his artwork—and his writing, too. It turns out Madden’s work is hardly relegated to New Haven-style pizzerias. He has created greetings cards that depict pizzerias and other eateries throughout the Northeast.

“Over the past several years I’ve visited many great pizza places around the Tri-State area and across the country looking for the best pizzerias to add to my art project,” Madden wrote on Reddit. “New Haven-style apizza is at the top of my list and Frank Pepe’s was the first and is one of the best, especially the original location with its 100-year-old coal fired oven.”

Madden has an impressive understanding of the world-class pizzerias that are within a reasonable drive of his Danbury home. When Madden visits the original Frank Pepe’s, for example, he says he likes to order the Margherita-style pie, or even a regular cheese pizza. Either way, he said it pairs nicely with a famous Foxon Park Root Beer.

Madden’s watercoloring is first and foremost a labor of love, he said, but selling the cards no doubt makes for a nice side hustle, too, one that he hopes to take to new heights some day.

“This is a passion project for me, combining my love for pizza with art,” Madden wrote. “Eventually I’d like to publish a book.”