This Is The 'Can't-Miss Food' In Connecticut: The Daily Meal

CONNECTICUT — The coronavirus numbers are fractions, the sun is shining, the masks are off, and your table is waiting.

The Automobile Association of America is expecting a record-breaking 46.9 million of your fellow countrymen to travel 50 or miles away from home this 4th of July weekend, and all of them need to eat. Many will seek out the cuisine for which the place they're visiting is best known. For the thousands that will be streaming into Connecticut during the long holiday weekend, that's white clam apizza, according to The Daily Meal.

Every year, the staff at the foodie website compiles their list of the one can't-miss food in each state, and every year they select the New Haven-style white clam pie to represent the Nutmeg State. It's almost become too predictable.

But if The Daily Meal is still writing about white clam apizza it's only because food lovers in Connecticut continue to obsess over its oddly oblong goodness. The editors looked through local and regional publications, focusing on discussions of food and restaurant recommendations. They also combed through restaurant reviews to narrow down contenders according to deliciousness, how beloved the food is by locals and its availability outside the state.

That last criterion may be the key to apizza's longevity on the Food Icon List. It's not just that Connecticut serves up the best white clam apizza, it's not likely you'll find it anyplace else. Like Knoephla soup in North Dakota or Wisconsin fried cheese curds, white clam apizza hasn't travelled much beyond its native state, and the residents seem to prefer it that way.

It's also not the easiest pizza to bake, either. Crafting apizza's coal-fired smokiness and crisp, chewy and slightly charred crust is a specialized skill set beyond the schooling of your average neighborhood dough-tosser.

Unlike the Knoephla and curds, however, Connecticut's favorite dish also routinely makes it to the top of its class nationwide. The Daily Meal consistently ranks the apizza cooked up at Frank Pepe's in New Haven, which is topped with chopped clams, garlic, olive oil, oregano and grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, at the top of its list of the best pizzas in America.

If the line is too long at Frank Pepe's, the Daily Meal also highly recommends the white clam apizza at Sally's (237 Wooster Street) and Modern (874 State Street), both in New Haven.

See the full 2021 list of top foods in each state on The Daily Meal’s website.