“Pronounced Ah-Beetz” Exhibit Opening at New Haven Museum
From Frank Pepe’s original hat to celebrity-signed pizza boxes (including Gwyneth Paltrow and Yogi Berra!), if you love the crust, the crunch and the char of New Haven apizza, or simply have strong views on what comprises a good pie, you’ll find something to feed your personal pizza passion in the new exhibit “Pronounced Ah-Beetz,” which will open at the New Haven Museum (NHM) at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, October 9, 2025. Slices from Pepe’s, Sally’s, and Modern will be included. Free admission. Register here.
“Pronounced Ah-Beetz” will examine the fun, the flavor and the history of pizza, including its origin as an affordable means of feeding workers in the fields of Italy, and how it became the food of the poor in the U.S. The Italian migration to New Haven gave way to Frank Pepe’s Pizzeria Napoletana, which gave birth to Sally’s Apizza, while a mile away Tony’s Apizza became Modern. How these three establishments became among the most iconically loved pizza restaurants in the country will be a major focus.
While the exhibit will highlight the “Big 3”original apizza spots in New Haven, it will also extend through the family tree of New Haven pizzerias to present a picture of family, food and community that includes a host of other local pizzerias, including: Ernie’s, Zuppardi’s, BAR, Zeneli’s, Olde World, and the Big Green Pizza Truck, among others.
“Pronounced Ah-Beetz” is co-curated by Jason Bischoff-Wurstle, director of photo archives at the New Haven Museum, and Gorman Bechard, Dean Falcone, and Colin M. Caplan, the producing team behind the documentary, ”Pizza A Love Story.” Bechard is a filmmaker who has directed over 20 feature films and written five novels. Falcone is a musician/composer who lured many of his famous friends to appear in the film. He has scored numerous films and played with the likes of Aimee Mann, Norah Jones, Neko Case, Eddie Vedder, and countless others. Caplan is the author of “Pizza in New Haven,” owner of Taste of New Haven and organizer of the yearly Apizza Feast.
Bechard notes that the exhibit evolved as interest in the local pies has grown dramatically over the past decade. He describes Caplan as the “brain trust” for the history of pizza in the Elm City. “The seeds for this exhibit took root back in 2009, when Dean and I began work on the documentary,” Bechard said, “Once we brought Colin into the mix everything came together.”
Fresh from a Caplan-arranged trip to D.C. where New Haven was proclaimed “Pizza Capital of the U.S.” by Representative Rosa DeLauro, he, Bechard, and Falcone obtained first-hand oral histories and apizza-related artifacts from personal collections. Combining video footage adapted from the documentary with vintage artifacts and photographs, “We plan to fully immerse viewers into replicas of the ‘Big 3’ pizzerias, complete with a very realistic brick oven,” says Bechard. “We’ll also incorporate short histories of Foxon Park Soda, and some of the beer served locally.”
The exhibit’s title, “Pronounced Ah-Beetz,” comes from the way many people mispronounce the word apizza, which originally grew out of the Italian la pizza. The exhibit will remain on view through October 2027.