The first shot was fired last September, when two new highway signs went up at the New York-Connecticut state line. Suddenly, drivers entering the Nutmeg State on Interstates 95 and 84 were greeted by this slogan: “Welcome to Connecticut: Home of the Pizza Capital of the United States.”
It was an obvious bid to trigger New Yorkers, who yield to no one in their claim to the best slices and pies — even New Haven, Conn., whose place in the pizza pantheon is (with the possible exception of its clam pizza) widely accepted. But beyond some light mockery by Stephen Colbert, the signs drew no serious pushback.
So last Friday, the Connecticut Office of Statewide Marketing & Tourism doubled down, starting a rollout of 11 billboards around New York City plastered with taunts like: “The Nation’s Best Pizza: Not You, New York” and “There’s No Shame In 2nd Place.” Several are provocatively placed close to the city’s top pizzerias: in Bushwick, Brooklyn (near Roberta’s), in Little Italy (near Lombardi’s) and in Greenwich Village (near John’s of Bleecker Street and Joe’s Pizza). Additional billboards are posted in subway stations and Times Square, and in Chicago, Detroit and New Jersey.
On Tuesday afternoon at Joe’s, which makes a quintessential New York slice, locals and tourists from Salt Lake City, Paris and London alike were perplexed, if not appalled, by the claim.
“That’s obnoxious and completely unfounded and quite frankly ridiculous,” said Ritchie Iwanski, a New York City artist who was having a pepperoni slice with his best friend, Chris Militello. The two have traveled together to eat pizza in Detroit, Chicago and Naples, Italy, but never to New Haven. “Incredibly shocking.”
In a statement, Adam Ostrowski, a spokesman for I Love New York, the tourism wing of the state’s Department of Economic Development, clapped back: “While we wish our neighbors in Connecticut the best in their ongoing search for an identity, we’ll stick to the facts: New York revolutionized the slice, perfected the fold, and established the gold standard for pizza across the globe.”
The Connecticut campaign is led by Anthony Anthony, the state’s first chief marketing officer, who has worked for Gov. Ned Lamont since 2021 and helped engineer a rebrand of the state in 2023. In an interview on Tuesday, he said his mandate was to restore local pride, which had been subdued since the 2008 recession by frequent headlines about the state’s rising taxes and debt burden.
The state’s reputation as a “drive-through state” where people don’t aspire to live or work, was cemented by the conspicuous departure of General Electric’s corporate headquarters from Fairfield to Boston in 2016. The new strategy, Mr. Anthony said, is to focus on the things Connecticut does really well — like basketball, submarines, beaches and lobster rolls.
Pizza, with its combination of broad appeal and intense loyalties, has become the centerpiece of his campaign. “I see pizza as a rising tide,” he said, ultimately benefiting all the places famous for it.
And New Haven-style pizza is certainly on the rise. Over the last two decades, the family that has run Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana since 1925 has opened 17 new pizzerias up and down the East Coast, spreading awareness beyond Connecticut’s borders. (Roughly speaking, the style is defined by its bubbly, charred crust, coating of tomato purée (not sauce) and light dusting of cheese.)
Last year, a fund-raising effort collected enough to charter a jet for more than 100 pizza makers and boosters, who flew to Washington to hear Representative Rosa DeLauro read a statement into the Congressional Record declaring New Haven the nation’s pizza capital. The next effort, coming in October, will be the establishment of a Connecticut Pizza Trail, a list of the 100 best pizzerias in the state, determined by popular vote.
Asked if there was evidence to back up the state’s claim to the “best” pizza, Mr. Anthony resorted to philosophy, saying that such a judgment is inherently subjective.
“I’m a marketer,” he said. “I’m not going to let objective truth spoil a good story.”
Mr. Anthony lived in New York City during his early career; he chose the locations for the billboards that popped up over the weekend.
At Roberta’s in Brooklyn, one of the targeted spots, the owner, Carlo Mirarchi, declined to take the bait.
“It’s great to see the state of Connecticut supporting its restaurants,” he said, adding that, as a fan of Connecticut pizza, he was honored to be included.
One of Roberta’s seasonal pies is the Ursula’s Parade, a clam pie with garlicky breadcrumbs, lemon, chiles and parsley. He said the billboards were a smart move by the tourism agency to reach out to pizza mavens in New York, who might be spurred to drive to (or through) Connecticut on a pizza tour.
At Joe’s, Michelle and Steve Blake of Salt Lake City agreed that Connecticut-style pizza would be a tough sell back home. A couple from Paris had never heard of Connecticut at all.
Bubby Campbell and Ethan Rodriguez of Santa Barbara, Calif., were on their eighth slice of a New York pizza crawl. They had heard that New Haven pizza was “crispier, or something” but had no plans to visit the city. (Mr. Rodriguez gave his Joe’s slice a 9.7.)
Even a resident of Westport, Conn., David Johnson, dismissed his state’s claim. “Connecticut has good pizza,” he said, “but not better than New York.”
“They need to back it up,” said Geena Nariani, a student born and raised in Queens. She said a more effective marketing tool would be bringing New Haven pizza to the city so New Yorkers could try it — until she was rocked by a reporter’s mention of clam pizza.
“You’re joking,” she said. “They need to stop with that.”
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Julia Moskin covers everything related to restaurants, chefs, food and cooking for The Times.
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