Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana is known as the place that invented New Haven apizza. Its famous storefront on Wooster Street has become a destination for pizza lovers, but now the brand is trying to continue to scale the product up and down the east coast.
On Monday, June 17, the newest Frank Pepe Pizzeria will open, this one in Stamford, Connecticut, about an hour down I-95 from the original location. It will be the 17th Frank Pepe location.
On Thursday, the company’s Facebook account announced the news. “You’ve asked, we [have] listened. Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana opening in Stamford, CT at 64 High Ridge Road. Grand opening events start at 10:30 am Monday, June 17th and we will begin serving pizzas at 11 a.m. Hope to see you there.”
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The new Pepe’s location is closer to home than others that have opened in the past few years. There are now Frank Pepe restaurants in Florida, Virginia, Maryland, New York, Rhode Island and Massachusetts.
The legendary pizzeria first opened in New Haven in 1925, meaning it will turn 100 years old next year. The pizzeria was founded by Frank Pepe, an Italian immigrant who fought in World War I. Working in a bakery on Wooster Street after the war, Pepe perfected his apizza recipe, adopted from the pizza found in his hometown of Naples, Italy. He sold his tomato pies on the streets of New Haven prior to taking over the bakery and establishing Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana on Wooster Street.
Pepe’s pizza has many imitators these days, and not all of them are in New Haven or even Connecticut. The expansion of the Frank Pepe brand outside of the area has been a piece of the puzzle when it comes to proving apizza has legs far beyond the friendly confines of Wooster Street.
