Colin Caplan: Ready to set a new Guinness World Record.
DATTCO Pizza bus, at Friday’s shindig.
The effort to canonize pizza as the heart of Connecticut’s cultural life continued apace Friday morning, with local connoisseurs and state politicos in attendance on Crown Street to announce a host of ah-beetz events in the works — including a pizza party of world record-setting proportions.
You might remember last May’s pizza delegation that flew to Washington, D.C. to declare New Haven the Pizza Capital of America and Connecticut the “Pizza State.”
Well, organizers Colin Caplan of Taste of New Haven and Mary Coursey of communications firm Coursey & Co were back at it Friday with a press conference at BAR Pizza downtown.
An impressive lineup of speakers, including Frank Patrick (owner of BAR); Caplan; Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (via Zoom); Mayor Justin Elicker; Connecticut’s Chief Marketing Officer Anthony Anthony (aka Tony Tony); CEO of the bus company DATTCO Don DeVivo; Avelo comms head Jim Olson; President and CEO of the CT Restaurant Association Scott Dolch; state Comptroller Sean Scanlon; Newhallville Alder Troy Streater; artist Michael Pollack, the brain behind New Haven Pizza Club; and Lieutenant Governor Susan Bysiewicz stood behind the Lieutenant Governor’s podium to proclaim the importance of ah-beetz.
“2025 is the year of New Haven pizza,” said Caplan.
National Pizza Day is in two days on Super Bowl Sunday, but “we all know who has already won the pizza bowl: New Haven, Connecticut,” Mayor Elicker added.
The speakers announced various pizza-related initiatives to be rolled out in the coming year. Tony Tony announced a “Pizza Capital Trail,” marking the 100 best pizzerias in the state, as determined by public voting (opening on Pi(e) Day, March 14) and a panel of experts.
A host of new “experiential marketing” and pizza-related art will adorn the walls of Tweed airport, including a large sign welcoming travelers to the Pizza Capital of the United States. A large Connecticut-shaped interactive artwork designed from several “pizza state” highway signs by Pollack hung in BAR, but will be moved to the airport in a few months’ time.
To celebrate pizza, Avelo Airlines is offering discounts – “a huge slice of affordability” to various “savory destinations.” In June, a pizza-themed-fashion-show-cum-charity-fundraiser featuring the work of Pollack and Enfield-based designer Jus10H (Justin Hayes) will raise money for Feeding Families Foundation.
Why all this ado about ah-beetz?
For one thing, as DeLauro reminded the room, “pizza is not just a food. It’s an economic engine, a cultural touchstone.” Scanlon had prepared a “pizza audit” estimating that Connecticut’s 1,376 pizza restaurants bring in $600,000,000 in sales each year, which somehow works out to “$3.5 billion in overall economic activity,” including $45.66 million in tax revenue for the state, in addition to drawing an estimated 2 million pizza tourists annually.
Jason Bischoff-Wurstle, the Director of Photo Archives at the New Haven Museum, which is putting on an exhibit about New Haven pizza in the fall, told the Independent that “every corner you can pick from in New Haven connects” to pizza.
But wait, there’s more. Caplan announced that at the city’s 10th annual Apizza Feast in September, New Haven will be attempting a Guinness World Record for biggest pizza party. The current record is 3,600 people, set last year in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
The problem is that it turns out certifying a world record costs quite a bit of money: $35,000, not including the costs to bring in an adjudicator, staff, etc. Caplan estimated that the costs would be around $50,000. A good amount, he said, is coming from the city and the state. Part of Friday’s press conference was announcing more fundraisers to solicit contributions to the pursuit of the Biggest Pizza Party in History, including a Pollack/DeLauro crossover event at Modern on Sunday morning at 11.
Other politicians in attendance were Senator Richard Blumenthal, ranking Democrat on the Senate Investigations Committee, East Rock/Downtown Alder Eli Sabin, and New Haven State Rep. Steve Winter.
Michael Pollack's interactive highway sign art -- coming soon to Tweed.
Sean Scanlon, self-described state "nerd," revealing his office's pizza audit.