Get ready for what promises to be a hot new pizza place: Haven Pizzeria Napoletana, which is breaking ground at 7137 Wisconsin Avenue, in the former Hadji Oriental Rugs space (next to Gaffney’s restaurant). The restaurant, owned by Tiger Mullen and New Haven-born chef Marco Stefanelli, will offer pies baked in two 2,200-degree ovens fired by anthracite coal, resulting in an “exceptionally crispy pizza crust with that signature ‘char’ flavor,” according to the restaurant’s website.
The menu looks very similar to the one at the legendary Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana in New Haven, established in 1925, and still going strong. Like Pepe’s, Haven’s menu includes a tomato pie, tomato pie with mozzarella, a white pizza with spinach and mushrooms, a white pizza with fresh clams, and a fresh tomato pie.
Haven will also feature Italian wines, and sport a bar with a marble top that the website claims was once part of the floor in Independence Hall. Can’t wait to see what they’re talking about on that one.
No word on an opening date yet, but you can check out the restaurant’s progress on a photo blog on its website.
