This Pizza-Themed Rental Was the Perfect Complement to Our New Haven Food Trip

Do you know that the average American consumes more than 45 slices of pizza per year? That is a lot of pie! Like many of my fellow citizens, I absolutely adore pizza! It is forever a staple of my diet, and I’m almost certain my yearly slice intake is well above the average. My favorite thing about pizza is its versatility. Even though it is typically created with the same basic ingredients (dough, sauce, and cheese), this delicious dish has a ton of delectable variations.

My travels throughout the country have led me to taste regional specialties such as New York-style, Chicago deep dish, and California-style pizza. Each has been delicious and vastly different from the pies I get back home in Massachusetts. On a family trip to Connecticut, I was recently introduced to the tasty world of New Haven Pizza, and let me tell you that this style is extraordinary!

New Haven-style pizza is special for so many reasons, the first being its name. No, the locals don’t call it pizza here, but rather “apizza" (pronounced “ah-beets”). The name originated from the dialect of Neapolitan immigrants who settled in the area more than a century ago. Second, unlike traditional pizza, apizza is typically made with garlic, tomato sauce, and pecorino romano. Apizza is also served with a bit of a char, the result of being baked in a coal-fired oven.

While there are multiple apizza joints in New Haven, the food scene is dominated by the big three: Frank Pepe’s, Modern Apizza, and Sally’s Apizza. The restaurants have been rivals for decades. Ask a group of locals or New Haven pizza enthusiasts which pies are the best, and you are bound to receive three different answers. 

Many of my friends raved about the pizza in New Haven, and I was dying to try a slice. So over the Thanksgiving holiday, my family and I decided to make a quick overnight stop in this pizza capital, before making our way to New York City. Our vision was to make this trip into an epic pizza journey.

I logged onto my Airbnb app and searched for a suitable one-night rental. It didn’t take long before the perfect property popped up. What better compliment to our trip than an epic stay at a pizza-themed Airbnb called CT Pizza Palace? Best of all, it was available for the night we planned to stay in New Haven.

On the morning of our pizza journey, we arrived in New Haven a little too early for lunch (although, in my book, it is never too early for pizza) and decided to head over to the Yale Peabody Museum. This incredible (and free) natural history collection is definitely worth a visit if you are in town.  

After learning lots of interesting facts about dinosaurs, birds, and minerals, we were ready to try some apizza! We headed over to Modern Apizza (just a few minutes walk from the Airbnb and the museum) and quickly learned that if you want to grab a seat in one of the big pizza joints, you better be prepared to wait in line. Although it was barely 11 am, there was already a line of people anxiously waiting to grab a slice.

Fortunately, it was only about twenty minutes until our name was called. We headed into Modern, where our friendly waitress sat us down at an old-time booth. We ordered three pies to split between the four of us. We choose a mozzarella, a sausage, and a signature New Haven clams casino apizza. I told my husband that I thought three pies were way too much pizza for four people, but they ended up being so good that we just couldn’t stop eating. 

When we finally couldn’t digest another bite, we hoisted our full bodies from the booth and waddled out the door with our tiny box of leftovers. After a quick stop at the seaside Lighthouse Point Park to play and burn off some calories, we ventured over to our Airbnb. As we climbed the steps to the second-floor apartment, I couldn’t wait to see what surprises lay beyond the door. 

The place was incredible! Each room of the unique rental was decked out in pizza-themed decorations. The dining area was like a recreation of an '80s pizza joint. The vintage restaurant booths, Pizza Hut chandelier, and a working jukebox took me right back to my childhood. The adjoining living area had pizza-themed games, books, blankets, and artwork. There was even a pizza-themed mat in the bathroom.

Additionally, every wall and surface of each room had something interesting to look at. There were photos of celebrities like Macaulay Culkin, Steve Martin, and Mike Myers eating pizza, ads from Dominos, pizza memorabilia, and even mug shots of Jim Morrison when he was arrested in New Haven in 1967.

While the pizza in New Haven was delicious, the CT Pizza Palace rental was the highlight of our trip. Not only was it whimsically quirky, but it was cozy and comfortable as well. We spent the night playing games, relaxing on the couch, and dancing to the jukebox tunes.

As it turns out, we may soon make a return trip to New Haven. While three Modern Apizza pies at lunchtime were not too much for pizza for one setting, they turned out to be a lot for one day. Still full by dinnertime, we didn’t even make it over to Frank Pepe’s and Sally’s Apizza. New Haven, we are coming back for more “apizza” and now we have the perfect place to stay! 

If you are interested in taking your own pizza journey to New Haven and want to book a stay at the CT Pizza Palace, you can easily do so through Airbnb. Find out more about the delicious New Haven apizza at the Modern Apizza website.