Paul Giamatti has an Emmy Award, three Golden Globes and two Academy Award nominations, but he’s still a New Haven, Connecticut boy at heart. And living in New York hasn’t changed his taste in pizza one bit.
The star of The Holdovers, who is up for a lead-actor Oscar this week, says New Haven-style pizza is the world’s best pizza, period. “I literally have never had better pizza,” he told the host of Jimmy Kimmel Live recently.
With that in mind, one of New Haven’s pizza stalwarts, Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana, has created a limited-time specialty pie named in the actor’s honor. The white clam and bacon pizza, dubbed The Paul Giamatti Pie, will be available for $25 on Sunday, March 10, the night of this year’s Academy Awards presentation.
Related: How Frank Pepe’s makes headlines every summer with one unique pizza
It’s only fitting since Giamatti called out Frank Pepe’s as his favorite pizzeria—and the clam and bacon pie as his go-to order—during the Kimmel interview. He punctuated that declaration with a chef’s kiss.
Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana / Instagram
“We are honored by Paul’s glowing endorsement of Pepe’s,” said Jennifer Bimonti-Kelly, the granddaughter of Frank Pepe himself, in a statement to the Hartford Courant. “We love seeing him when he visits New Haven, and we’ve always admired his good taste. We’ll be rooting for him on March 10—over pizza, of course.”
Giamatti grew up in New Haven and attended Yale University, where his father, Bart, was a professor. Bart Giamatti went on to become the commissioner of Major League Baseball, famously banishing player Pete Rose from the game.
In the interview with Kimmel, Giamatti had to (gently) correct the comedian on his mispronunciation of “apizza,” but that’s OK. Kimmel admitted he’s never tried the New Haven pizza style.
“It’s burnt around the crust a little bit,” Giamatti explained. “It depends on which place you go, but the crust is a little chewy. I like it…it’s thin, it’s really—ooh, man, it’s good.”
Giamatti added that he’s a bit of a pizza snob. “I’ve gone to Italy and been like, ‘Nah, this isn’t good.’ And I live in New York, too, where I get into all kinds of altercations about it.”
