Especially in case you’re a fan of David Portnoy, the globe-trotting pizza aficionado who lately selected a Palm Beach County restaurant as certainly one of his favourite spots to search out genuine apizza outdoors New Haven, Connecticut — a metropolis oft thought of floor zero for a few of the finest Neapolitan-inspired pies within the nation.
Those acquainted with Portnoy’s Barstool Sports “One Bite Pizza Reviews” — additionally posted to a YouTube channel with greater than 900,000 subscribers — look to Portnoy for his evaluations on pizzerias and their potential to fulfill his pie-approval requirements made with simply “one chunk.”
For Portnoy, that now consists of Ah-Beetz, a Delray Beach pizzeria he gave an 8.4 rating for what he says is a primary for a restaurant positioned outdoors the Connecticut metropolis. He admits he is struggled to search out New Haven-style pizza outdoors New Haven.
New Haven is dwelling to a number of of the nation’s most lauded pizzerias, together with Sally’s, Modern, and Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana, which opened its first Florida outpost earlier this yr in Plantation. They every supply their tackle the normal pizza cooked in coal fired ovens which boasts a skinny, smoky charred crust paired with a lightweight layer of tomato sauce and a sprinkling of Parmesan and Pecorino Romano or mozzarella cheeses.
To date, Portnoy has rated dozens of South Florida pizza eating places above an 8.0, providing prime rankings to eating places together with Miami’s Mister 01, Lucali, Eleventh Street Pizza, and Block’s Pizza Deli, in addition to Palm Beach- and Broward-based Tucci’s Fire N’ Coal Pizza, Heritage, and Pizza Craft Artisan Pizzeria.
None, nonetheless, have delivered a New Haven-style apizza apart from Ah-Beetz, which opened final May at 15200 Jog Road, in response to Portnoy.
In his March assessment, Portnoy shares: “If you see apizza, which means drop your drawers, drop your drink, drop your balls, and run — as a result of they’ve one of the best pizza on the planet. I’ve been to Italy — and one of the best pizza is in New Haven, interval. This is the best-feeling New Haven pizza I’ve had outdoors New Haven, or no less than within the Florida space.”
Since Portnoy’s go to, the restaurant’s house owners say the enterprise has obtained an inflow of shoppers which have compelled them to briefly disable their supply and ordering app, and droop phone-in orders past what the restaurant’s small employees can deal with every day.
According to the Ah-Beetz staff — house owners Cassandra Frantz and father-and-son founders Nick Laudano senior and Nick Laudano junior — Portnoy’s assessment has turn out to be a blessing for his or her small enterprise that goals to supply an genuine style of New Haven-style pizza in South Florida.
On a latest Wednesday afternoon, as employees labored diligently to prep for a 4:30 p.m. opening, a gradual stream of inquisitive clients stopped by in an try to position orders and go searching.
“This is all day, day by day since Portnoy posted his video. People have pushed so far as Fort Myers — even Georgia,” Laudano junior tells New Times. “We’ve been doing about 300 to 360 pies an evening.”
“Business has elevated massively, and we’re past grateful. We’ve at all times been massive followers of Portnoy, and to get his stamp of approval has been a blessing,” provides Frantz.
Ah-Beetz is the household’s latest endeavor, at the moment operated by Laudano junior, additionally the restaurant’s lead pizza chef who has been crafting New Haven-style pies for almost 30 years, and Frantz, a member of the family who additionally hails from the New Haven space.
The Ah-Beetz pies are made utilizing a easy, proprietary recipe. One factor Laudano is certain to say: there is no fancy water. His course of yields a supple dough that’s hand formed and pulled, and chars to perfection at temperatures as excessive as 780 levels.
The brief and candy menu presents the gamut of conventional appiza choices. They embody a traditional tomato pie topped with tomato sauce, Pecorino Romano, recent oregano, and olive oil; the “Mootz,” ready with tomato sauce, Pecorino Romano, oregano, and mozzarella; and the white clam, a sauceless pie topped with oregano, garlic, olive oil, Pecorino Romano, mozzarella, and New England-sourced clams that arrive recent a number of occasions every week and shucked in-house every day.
More than a dozen toppings permits clients to construct their very own pies with meats like pepperoni, sausage, bacon, and rooster, alongside greens like broccolini, cherry peppers, mushrooms, and spinach.
“What units us aside [is that] the general public that work listed below are from New Haven,” sums up Frantz. “Making one of these pizza is a craft. This is a household enterprise, and quite a lot of work has gone into creating the pies you style right here. These are their recipes, their ovens, and their design. This is true New Haven apizza.”
Ah-Beetz. 15200 Jog Rd., Delray Beach; 561-908-2466; ah-beetz.com. Open 4:30 to 9 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday via Saturday, and 1 to eight p.m. Sunday.