The Pepe’s pizzeria in New Haven is known for its thin-crust pies and long lines.
Jon Chesto
Managing Editor, Print- Boston Business Journal
Brookline residents will soon be getting a taste of New Haven.
Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana has picked Brookline — going from Wooster Square to Washington Square — to expand into Massachusetts for the first time and find new customers for its signature thin-crust pizza.
Jim Solomon, the chef and owner of The Fireplace restaurant, announced today that he plans to close his restaurant at 1634 Beacon St. at the end of this year to focus on his catering business, The Fireplace Catering. He has reached an agreement to transfer the restaurant’s lease and liquor license to Pepe’s, and he’s looking for a new location in the Boston area for his catering business.
A spokesman says Solomon was born in New Haven and raised in the Boston area, and he still has relatives in New Haven and business contacts who work for Pepe’s. They have a purchase-and-sale-agreement in place to transfer the lease.
The original Pepe’s pizzeria was founded in New Haven in 1925 by Italian immigrant Frank Pepe, and has become a magnet for tourists and locals, regularly drawing long lines along Wooster Street at peak dinner times. In recent years, the company has expanded, primarily into other locations in Connecticut: There are Pepe’s pizzerias in Fairfield, Manchester, West Hartford, and Danbury and at the Mohegan Sun casino in Uncasville, as well as in Yonkers, N.Y.
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