Sally's Apizza

Fare

Sally's serves New Haven-style thin-crust apizza, which is baked in coal-fired brick pizza ovens. By default, a New Haven pizza is a "plain" pizza topped with only tomato sauce and Parmesan. Sally's is a small restaurant, and patrons must often wait in line, sometimes for hours.

History

The restaurant was purchased for $500 in 1938 by Filomena Consiglio, sister of Frank Pepe, who was the owner of Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana, another Wooster Street pizza restaurant. Sal Consiglio, a son of Filomena, ran it until his death in May 1989. His wife Flo died in September 2012. While their children Richard and Robert still operate the restaurant, they sold it to an unnamed buyer in 2017. In 2021, a second location was opened in Stamford, Connecticut. In 2022, a third location was opened in Fairfield, Connecticut. In December 2023, a fourth location was opened in Woburn, Massachusetts. Additional locations are planned in Connecticut and Massachusetts.

Sally's is one of three pizza restaurants featured in the documentary film Pizza: A Love Story, directed by Gorman Bechard. The love story to New Haven's holy trinity of pizza restaurants, Pepe's, Sally's, and Modern, had its world premiere at IFFBoston in April 2019. The film was released on DVD and pay-per-view on September 29, 2020. In reviewing the film, Deborah Brown of The Swellesley Report called it "An important film of staggering genius that needed to be made."

Sally's is also featured in an exhibit at the New Haven Museum called Pronounced Ah-Beetz which celebrates the history of New Haven apizza. The exhibit, which opened on October 9, 2025 and will be on display until October 2027, features the history of New Haven's three iconic Pizza restaurants: Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana, Sally's Apizza, and Modern Apizza, as well as other beloved pizza restaurants throughout the New Haven area. Co-curated by Gorman Bechard, Jason Bischoff-Wurstle, Dean Falcone, and Colin M. Caplan, the idea grew out of Bechard's documentary Pizza: A Love Story and his visiting the now-shuttered Pizza Museum in Chicago. He felt a pizza museum belonged in New Haven. It was made possible by the connections the filmmaker and his producing team of Falcone and Caplan had made with the families of local pizza restaurants during the making of the documentary. Numerous holy grails of pizza history are on display, including the oldest known pizza box from 1936, Frank Pepe's original baking hat, and pizza boxes signed by Yogi Berra and Gwyneth Paltrow.

Dave Portnoy, the founder of Barstool Sports, reviewed the restaurant in 2018 during his "One Bite" pizza reviews and gave the pizza a 9.2 score.{{cite web |access-date=January 6, 2026 |archive-date=January 5, 2026 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20260105090850/https://onebite.app/restaurant/sallys-apizza-new-haven-connecticut-3b6dab16 |url-status=live

References

References

1. (11 Dec 2017). "Iconic Sally's Apizza in New Haven sold to unnamed buyer;". Hearst Media Services Connecticut, LLC.
2. Shelton, Jim. (21 July 2002). "You say Sally's, I say Pepe's Wooster street legends deliver to die-hard crowds". New Haven Register.
3. Ravo, Nick. (12 May 1989). "Our Towns; Near Yale, Grief Over a Big Man Off Campus". New York Times.
4. Kaempffer, William. (25 September 2012). "New Haven's Sally's Apizza matriarch, 'Flo' Consiglio, dies". New Haven Register.
5. Levine, Ed. (9 March 2005). "The Sacred Art of Pizza Making, and Secrets to Perfect Pies". New York Times.
6. (7 Dec 2017). "Sally's Apizza Sold In New Haven". The Hartford Courant.
7. "New Haven favorite Sally's Apizza bursts onto Stamford's food scene 'like something out of a movie'". Stamford Advocate.
8. (December 2, 2022). "Sally's Apizza celebrates grand opening in Fairfield".
9. (17 December 2023). "Sally's Apizza draws huge crowd at opening in Woburn". The Boston Globe.
10. (12 February 2018). "Randall Beach: An upcoming film celebrates New Haven's holy trio of pizza". The New Haven Register.
11. (14 January 2016). "Uncertain Future for Pizzeria That Gave New Haven a Special Flavor". The New York Times.
12. "Pizza, A Love Story".
13. (2020-09-24). ""Pizza" Party Planned For Parking Lot {{!}} New Haven Independent".
14. (2019-07-30). "Beyond Wellesley: the Woods Hole Film Festival on Cape Cod, Massachusetts".
15. (2025-09-17). ""Pronounced Ah-Beetz" Exhibit to Open at New Haven Museum October 9".
16. "New Exhibit Serves Up New Haven's Pizza Legacy, "Ah-Beetz" Style".
17. FOX 61. (2025-10-06). "'Pronounced Ah-Beetz' exhibit celebrates 150 years of New Haven pizza culture".
18. Selvam, Ashok. (2018-08-10). "The U.S. Pizza Museum Gives Chicago a Pizza Party Sans Divisiveness".
19. Holtermann, Gabriele. (2023-09-25). "Thousands of pizza lovers flock to inaugural One Bite Pizza Festival in Coney Island • Brooklyn Paper".
20. Gustafson, Spencer. (August 12, 2025). "Dave Portnoy's One Bite Pizza Festival returns to NYC in September".