New Haven is famous for pizza—but not for pizza slices. The city’s apizza landmarks deal in whole pies, which leaves a somewhat less gourmet crew to handle the single-slice work. Late night, that number drops. With students back in the city, we tried five spots where just a few dollars can still buy you something hot and cheesy after 10 p.m.
Aladdin Crown Pizza
260 Crown Street | $3.50 | Open until 3 a.m. Fri–Sat
Aladdin Crown is Middle Eastern, not Italian, and its halal stickers make that clear from the sidewalk. Inside, you’ll find Middle Eastern music and a flying carpet mural contrasting with the modern storefront while the worn and wavy table edges suggest they've seen it all. The $3.50 cheese slice is unfussy: light sauce, just enough cheese and a thin, cracker-like crust cooked to a crisp. Chili flakes help. It isn’t apizza and it isn’t trying to be. At $3.50 after midnight, it gets the job done.
Marco Polo
55 Crown Street | $4 | Open until 3 a.m. Fri–Sat
Marco Polo is closer to the standard American pizzeria: full Italian menu, Formica tables and, on our visit, Van Halen and Guns N’ Roses on the speakers. The slice comes out piping hot on a paper plate, with another sheet of paper underneath already absorbing some grease. It’s thin-crusted but heavier than Aladdin’s, with bubbling cheese, a thin layer of sauce. Hot, crisp and satisfying enough.
Alpha Delta Pizza
371 Elm Street · $3 · Open until 3 a.m. Sun–Wed, 4 a.m. Thurs–Sat
Alpha Delta’s $3 slice is the cheapest of the bunch and also one of the heaviest: chewy, doughy, loaded with cheese, a little greasy, and tasty. It has more heft than finesse, but late at night that works in its favor. The room almost deliberately lacks all ambiance: anything that could be thrown, broken or pinched appears to have been removed from the equation. Even the tables are branded “Alpha Delta,” maybe to show up in Instagram photos, maybe to make them harder to walk off with.
Brick Oven Pizza
122 Howe Street | $5.50 | Open until 3 a.m. Sun–Thurs, 4 a.m. Fri–Sat
At Brick Oven Pizza, the first thing you notice is the fuel for the wood-fired oven: a large pile of logs in the parking lot and the smell of smoke inside and out. Their cheese slice is the most expensive of the bunch but also by far the largest, arriving across two paper plates. It comes piping hot, with a thin crust, slight char and wood-fired character. It’s the closest of the five to feeling a little gourmet, though the setting remains casual.
Est Est Est Pizza
1176 Chapel Street | $3.50 | Open until 1 a.m. Sun–Thurs, 3 a.m. Fri–Sat
Est Est Est opened in 1973, which in most places would make it the granddaddy of local pizza. In New Haven, Pepe’s, Sally’s, and Modern had already been around for decades. Still, 53 years is plenty of time to become an institution in your own right, and Est has long been a late-night go-to. Slices come out quickly, with a thin crust and enough cheese and sauce for grease to pool here and there. There are seats inside and a few small tables out on the sidewalk. It may not exactly be part of the city’s core apizza mythology, but after midnight, it’s plenty popular—and delicious.
Written and photographed by Daily Nutmeg Staff.
