Zeneli Celebrates 5 Years on Wooster Street, New Haven

“People said to me ‘You want to open a pizza place on Wooster Street? Are you crazy?’, and I said yes.”

I’m talking to Jeshar Zeneli in March of this year. The first hint of buds are on the trees, and no one is yet brave or hearty enough to seat themselves at the outdoor cafe tables, directly across from Libby’s Italian pastries. I’m at the small bar with a glass of red and a ball of mozzarella which tells his life story. It both explains, and justifies, the crazy idea.

The Zeneli brothers – Aleko, Gazmir, Jeshar, and Jetmir – have a history of bold ventures. When the Iron Curtain fell from the borders of their native Albania in 1991 and friends and neighbors were making their way out of the former Soviet Bloc to countries like Greece or Germany, the brothers wisely decided on Naples instead, where they became cheese makers and pizzaiolos. Jeshar was recruited as a consultant in New Haven, teaching a local shop to make Buffalo mozzarella, ricotta, burrata, scamorza, and first got a taste of the local apizza. 

The brothers by then were living in New York, where Gazmir had won a Caputo Cup for his pies at Rossopomodoro at Eataly. They became convinced there was room for classic Neapolitan pizza in New Haven’s dining scene. On August 1st, Zeneli Pizzeria e cucina Napoletana celebrated its five year anniversary. 

Zeneli’s pies are cooked fast, at 800ish degrees in a gold-tiled Acunto oven imported from Naples, and retain the traditional fluffy, chewy crust of the Neapolitan style. Jeshar still makes all the cheese you see, and Gazmir’s cup is right there, next to the oven. Chances are when you walk in you’ll be greeted by Aleko.

On this warm summer evening we start with antipasti of prosciutto and that mozzarella, with a side of thick, toasted rounds of house made bread topped with honey-drizzled ricotta. Tables, bar stools, and outdoor cafe seats are filled, and there’s a general glow about the place only partially explained by the glass of prosecco I’ve just downed. It’s a far cry from the pizzeria’s first anniversary in August of 2020, when the virtually unknown Zeneli was building name recognition and doing their part by sending trunkfuls of pies to the workers at Yale New Haven Hospital.

Our pizza arrives: a red Napolitano with San Marzano sauce, strips of melted mozzarella, basil, and palate-whacking umami delivery, courtesy of thick sliced garlic, anchovy filets, and whole, pitted black olives. While New Haven pies are baked at a more leisurely pace to achieve that blistery, crunchy, chewy crust, this Neapolitan leaks steam from inside its bready interior when you break off your first slice. My buddy seems personally offended when the whole pie is gone and I lean back in my seat with half a crust still on my plate.

“Are you not going to eat that? Are you crazy?”

There’s a lot of that going around, it seems. Plenty of room for it in New Haven.

Zeneli Pizzeria e Cucia Napolitana

138 Wooster St., New Haven

Zenelipizzeria.com; 203 745 4194