New Haven is famous for pizza, and the two pizzerias with perhaps the largest reputations and longest lines are Pepe's and Sally's. Both are in a lovely area known as Wooster Square. Some friends and I tried Pepe's last fall and since then had made several attempts to eat at Sally's, its nearby rival. But it seemed like each time we went, it was closed. This began a long-running joke that Sally's was an urban legend, and not a real place. I refused to believe it until I saw it.
My urban-legend theory is now officially debunked.
To eat at Sally's, you need to block off considerable time because you're looking at two absurdly long waits, one in the line outside, and one after you've ordered. I think they are playing up to the power of anticipation. All said, we arrived at about 8 and left at maybe 11. And all we ate were four pretty straightforward small pizzas. They were good, though. The most original was the white potato-and-rosemary pizza. Sally's also distinguishes itself by serving its pizzas without cheese unless you request otherwise, so we tried it that way with the meatball. The idea is to emphasize the sauce, which was good.
But especially now that I'm a bit more business-savvy, and marketing-savvy, I do look at a place like Sally's through a skeptical lens. I wonder if equivalent pizzas delivered by Domino's would even be noticed as anything outside average. Far more importantly, though, is that we had fun. Great conversation and laughs. And we can check Sally's off the ol' New Haven Bucket List.
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