My destination: Papa's Tomato Pies on Chambers St. This restaurant was opened in 1912, and is, according to its owners, the oldest continually operating pizzeria in the country. Lombardi's in Manhattan (which I still have to go to) opened in 1905, but was closed for ten years between 1984-1994, which technically makes Papa's the oldest still running.
Excited, I got into my car and drove, in the rain, on the US-1 South to the not-so-pleasant town of Trenton. About 30 miles of driving, but hey what's the fun if it's too easy to get? Had trouble finding parking, but managed. Then it was pizza time. My first glance:
Entering, I saw a quite interesting sign on the door, claiming these guys take their pizza history seriously:
Trenton isn't exactly the most polished, clean, safe city in the world, so I wasn't expecting a fancy restaurant. I was expecting fairly standard, unimpressive decor inside. In fact, I was hoping for it; I have generally found that the less stuffy, more hole-in-the-wall the place, the better the pizza. There are exceptions, of course.
My waitress was nice and friendly. It was mostly locals, and they had quite a few customers, but surprisingly I could still find seating immediately. I ordered a large garlic tomato pie. While seated down, I saw even more evidence that these guys were really serious about pizza. Their menus included this tidbit of history:
In case you cannot read, this is a timeline of some famous historical American pizzzerias. The ones listed are: Lombardi's in Manhattan (opened in 1905), Papa's (1912), Totonno's in Coney Island, Brooklyn (1924), Pepe's in New Haven, CT (1925), Pizzeria Regina in Boston (1925) and John's on Bleecker in Manhattan (1929). Of these listed, I've only been to Totonno's (which is a GREAT story, but that is for another blog post). I intend to visit all these places at sometime, of course.
The pie arrived, it looked delicious:
And then, it was eaten. Foldable, like any decent thin-crust pizza:
My thoughts: they definitely aren't kidding when they say the most noticeable feature is the chunky tomato sauce. It's definitely excellent and the best part of the pizza. The crust and cheese are good as well, but definitely not as spectacular as the sauce. All in all, it's a slightly different style from the New York Neapolitan and New York classic pizzas, which have a bit more evenness between the cheese and sauce. I guess it depends on your personal tastes. Me, I am a crust person, so I prefer places which emphasize that, but it's a matter of taste.
Had a great meal, and the prices were very reasonable (16 dollars for the large pizza). On the way back, I stopped at Princeton and had ice cream in Palmer Square to seal the deal.
A fun night!