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Every year, hundreds of well-known places are considered in pursuit of the 101 Best Pizzas in America, and locals across America cry foul about pit-stops along the pizza-writer trail getting attention when their local pizzeria is “10 times better” (usually followed by “You don’t know what you’re talking about”). In the case of Domenick and Pia DeRosa’s eponymous spot in Waterbury, they may have a point.
Like another famous Dom about 100 miles south (Dom DeMarco of Brooklyn's Di Fara, No. 2) Domenick and his wife Pia have been making pies their way for a long time. Just three years after marrying in Italy in 1961, they decided to open a pie shop that sold by the slice like New York City pizzerias did, an idea their landlord and carpenter scoffed at. They’ve moved once over the years, but otherwise they’ve proved everyone wrong, using the same mixer, ovens, and recipes all this time.
“It’s a sweet sauce,” the nonagenarian pizzaiolo said in a video last year. Domenick still comes in from time to time to help, although he doesn’t do very much heavy lifting anymore. But his tradition lives on in the pies they make every day.
These are old-school Neapolitan pizzas: super-thin undercarriage and an old-school crunchy cornicione — no doughy chew. There are no fancy toppings here — try the pepperoni — just an approach to pizza that mirrors the couple’s philosophy on how to have a good marriage: adherence to moral values. “We made a vow before God to stick together in sickness and in health,” Domenick explained. And in pizza.
— Arthur Bovino, 101 Best Pizzas in America 2015, 8/6/2015
