‘Original cast-iron bar pie’ pizzas coming to Milford
New Haven pizza may have to make room for a new type of pie crust and pizza “experience.”
It’s 12 inches, cooked in a cast-iron pan, thin, firm and stays hot longer.
There’s no caving under the weight of pepperoni, no flopping with multiple toppings, and those who have tried it say the flavor pops like no other and leaves them feeling healthy.
“I don’t think it’s better — it’s a different experience,” Attilio Marini said of comparing his pies to others in the New Haven area, ranked the U.S. pizza capital by Barstool Sports. “It’s not a New Havenstyle abeetz. It’s not designed to be better.”
Marini, owner/executive chef at Cast Iron Chef Chop House & Oyster Bar, 600 State St., has created what he says is the “original” cast-iron bar pie and it will be the star of his new businesses in the Connecticut Post Mall.
His new endeavor, Cast Iron Chef Kitchen and Bar, to open in April, will be located at the mall in the old site of “World of Beer,” which closed. The space is accessible from outside the mall.
The bar and restaurant will offer about 15 different pies, with vegan choices, as well as salads, desserts and craft beer from local breweries. It will be “family friendly,” he said.
Marini said it will be billed as “the original cast-iron bar pie,” and he already has people in New Jersey and Florida who want to expand the brand in those states.
The invention of the pie that customers rave about at the Chop House wasn’t as easy to develop as it sounds. It took more than a year to create the perfect dough — with lots of help from his mother, Marisa Marini, longtime owner of the former Marisa’s Restaurant in Trumbull.
While Marini says the cast iron cooked pies aren’t meant to be “better,” some folks who have tried them may beg to disagree.
Chop House customer and friend Don Riccio, a selfdescribed foodie who said he’s not afraid to be critical of food and often is in Instagram reviews, was one of the taste testers on the journey.
“He’s taken a long time to perfect his crust and it’s not like anything I’ve had,” Riccio said. “If you bite into one of his pizzas, he creates a taste like no other.”
Riccio said he tastes more of the fresh ingredients and less of the crust. “You feel healthy” after eating it, he said.
Marini, who has been cooking with cast iron for 15 years, started experimenting with pizza from leftover bread dough his mother made, using it to make pizza for employees. They liked it, so he and his mother worked a year to perfect the dough, largely by adjusting moisture.
But it’s such a secret, employees in the Milford location will have to sign a nondisclosure agreement.
His bar pies on are on the menu at the Chop House —on the less busy days of Sunday through Thursday. Among them there’s a beef braciole pizza, porchetta, Tartufi — and the employees who tastetested plenty give the bar pies five stars.
“It’s a whole other realm,” bartender and server Jared Ward said of his favorite, the sausage-topped cast-iron pie. “Usually sausage falls off, but with his crust it just supports it. It’s like deep dish but thin.”
Ward said he’s “excited” for Marini and his upcoming opportunity.
“When people like something, you have to run with it,” he said.
Another employee, Tom “Red” Adinolfi, a lifelong veteran of Wooster Street pizza, said the clam chowder pie is “the best pizza I’ve had in my life.”
The pie is topped with 18 whole fresh clams, caramelized onions, diced potatoes and slab bacon, with a béchamel or cream base.
“I’ve never pizza like that — it’s delicious,” Adinolfi said.
Assistant Manager Luigi Papuano, whose girlfriend works at a New Haven pizza restaurant, Pepe’s, said he grew up in the area loving the Elm City’s famous pies, but Marini’s “cast-iron” crust pizza is “the best I’ve had in a very long time.”
Papuano said he can’t say it’s “the best,” because he doesn’t “want to offend anyone.”
Papuano said he will never forget a fresh tomato pizza Marini made for him in summer with tomatoes freshpicked from Cecarelli Farms in North Branford.
“I’m thinking about it now and my jowls are starting to salivate,” he said, touching the sides of his masked face. “It was hot, crispy, nice crunch,” and when he bit into the tomato it was heaven.
Marini said the cast-iron pan of 500 degrees cooks differently than a regular brick oven. The higher heat, with the right dough, creates a crispy crust that isn’t burnt. And because of the cast-iron pan, the pizza stays hot for “a good 20 minutes,” he said.
On traditional pizza, the cheese congeals after a while, but Marini said that doesn’t happen on his bar pies because he uses low-moisture, fresh mozzarella that’s not oily and is low in sodium.
Marini said people often ask him about the ingredients in his trademark popcorn served in the Chop House at every table, but he never gives away the secret.
If people say they want to know because they have allergies, he responds with, “Tell me what you’re allergic to and I’ll say if it’s in there.”
Marini said he wasn’t actively looking to market his bar pies at another venue, but he was approached about leasing the space and decided to give it a try.
Marini said he has a slogan: “All bar pies are pizza, but not all pizzas are bar pies.”