21 Broadway arrives, pizza shortage solved

As every New Haven school child knows, the Elm City's streets flow with pizza, almost literally. From Wooster Square to the far reaches of Howe and State Streets, the sight and smell is inescapable. Restaurant mogul Kadir Çatalbasoglu, whose holdings include Pizza at the Brick Oven and A-1 Pizza, certainly understands this, yet it hasn't squelched his expansionist impulse: on Sun., Feb. 18, Çatalbasoglu officially opened 21 Broadway, his third crack at New Haven's crowded pizza trade.

REBECCA ROSENTHAL/YH It's 6 a.m.! I need cheese, tomato, and dough! Whatever will I do?!?

Some Yalies question the need for 21 Broadway, even if much of the school is now too young to remember dearly departed Broadway Pizza (which, as the name would suggest, did fill that pizza-on-Broadway niche). Nevertheless, I could hardly contain my excitement for more pizza, so I stopped by for dinner the day the restaurant opened.

As I sat down and scanned the menu, it became evident that 21 Broadway intends to be more than a conventional pizzeria. First, it offers breakfast. Beyond simply advertising this fact on the sign above the door—"Pizzeria and Breakfast"—the whole first page or so of the menu features all sorts of eggs, omelettes, pancakes, french toast, muffins, and breakfast sandwiches. Moreover, the restaurant serves a multitude of deli-style entrees, such as its 21 different burgers and an assortment of grilled cheese sandwiches, each with a different celebrity's first name. The appetizers are standard—Buffalo wings and mozzarella sticks, for instance—but they take up almost as much space on the menu as the pizza, deliberately hidden among a host of other dishes on the second page.

I knew that I couldn't possibly sample everything and make it out alive, so I decided to follow the advice of the sign out front: breakfast and pizza. I ordered a plate of French toast and gol-den pancakes to start, followed by a Mediterranean Pizza. As I waited for my food, I chatted with a woman hanging aro-und, Jasmine, who told me she is "in love with the owner." According to Jasmine, what distinguishes 21 Broadway from Brick Oven or any other of the pizzerias in town is that not only does the restaurant serve a glut of American, Greek, and Italian delicacies, but it also plans to stay open 24 hours a day. And the pizza, she added, barely resembles the thin-crusted sort typical of New Haven. 21 Broadway's pizza is baked "Greek-style" in what she described as "just a pizza oven"—not a brick oven.

Before long, my plate of French toast and pancakes emerged from the kitchen. I wasn't expecting nouveau cuisine, but for a pizzeria that takes breakfast so seriously, it could have been more creative. The French Toast was thin, a bit chewy, and thoroughly run-of-the-mill. Maybe it was the time of day, or perhaps first-day jitters. Though the golden pancakes were mildly tastier, they were similarly uninventive (and at times hard to cut). The plate I ordered was filling and cheap, but nothing more—a positive combination, I suppose, under certain circumstances.

The Mediterranean Pizza arrived nearly an hour after the French toast and pancakes, which provided sufficient time for any remnants of those dishes on my tongue to dissipate. Though no pizza is worth an hour-long wait, the one I ordered was delicious. The combination of Kalamata olives, feta cheese, bell peppers, and fresh tomatoes made for a remarkably complex taste sensation. No single component overpowered another, and with every bite I could taste each flavor in succession. I wouldn't go as far as to compare it to a great wine, but the effect was similar. The crust, I think, was partly responsible for this. Though thicker than that of traditional oven-baked pizza, it didn't drown the delicate toppings. The consistency was perfect: hard on the bottom and soft on top. Each bite cracked in my mouth and then turned to softness. Jasmine was right that 21 Broadway's pizza is indeed different.

The big question for 21 Broadway is whether its audacious plan to remain open 24 hours a day will actually work. The pizza is pretty good, for sure, but that alone can't sustain business all night. Çatalbasoglu seems to think that the restaurant's culinary breadth can keep it afloat, especially late at night. No one has actually tested an all-night restaurant in recent times in New Haven, so that plan could conceivably strike gold. In case it doesn't, however, I recommend swinging by for some pizza (although perhaps not the pancakes) while it lasts.

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