Tomatoes
Campania, Italy
Plum tomatoes from a growers’ co-op near Salerno, crushed by hand in the kitchen every morning.
Our story
A dough company that happens to make pizza
Crust Club started in 2016 with a borrowed horse trailer, a second-hand oven and a jar of sourdough starter. Ten years on, the starter is still going. So are we.
How it started
From horse trailer to Main Street
Nico Ferraro learned to stretch dough at his uncle’s pizzeria in Salerno. Bea Kowalski was a pastry chef who’d never owned a van. They met at a Sunday farmers market in Fair Haven, bought a horse trailer between them and spent a summer burning pizzas until they stopped burning them.
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2016
The horse trailer
Weekend markets across Greater New Haven. One oven, two people, about 140 pizzas on a good Saturday.
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2019
Wooster Square opens
A tiny shop in an old carriage-factory outbuilding, with a window for slices and a waiting list for the dough fridge.
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2023
Westville
Our second shop, with a back patio, a bigger oven and our own riders on electric cargo bikes.
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Today
38 people, one starter
Around 1,900 pizzas a week, still from the same jar of Big Brenda we started with in 2016.
The dough
Four steps, two days, no shortcuts
- 01
Feed Big Brenda
Our starter gets flour and water at 7 AM every day. By lunchtime she’s bubbly and ready.
- 02
Mix
New York stoneground wheat, a little Italian 00, water, salt and Brenda. Mixed slowly, never warm.
- 03
Wait 48 hours
Balled by hand and left in the fridge for two days. Slow fermentation means flavor and an easy-to-digest crust.
- 04
Bake for 90 seconds
Stretched to order and baked at 850°F, so the crust puffs and blisters and the middle stays soft.
Sourcing
Who we buy from
Local where it makes sense, Italian where it really matters. We visit every supplier at least once a year.
Flour
Upstate New York and Naples
Stoneground New York wheat from a family mill, blended with a little Italian 00 for stretch.
Basil & veg
Guilford, Connecticut
Herbs, zucchini and salad greens from a market garden 15 miles away. In winter, mostly from California.
Meat
Connecticut and Brooklyn
Free-range pork pepperoni and fennel sausage from a Connecticut butcher; nduja from a small producer in Brooklyn.
The people
Floury hands, big hearts
Things we won’t budge on
A living wage
For every member of staff, riders included, plus all of the tips.
Compostable boxes
Unbleached cardboard, vegetable inks, no plastic tables in the middle.
Leftover dough
Goes to a food pantry in Fair Haven as focaccia every Monday.