Proof Pizza Truck In Fairfield: If You Don't Know...Now You Know

Beyond the beautiful views, calming sounds, and salty smells of Sasco beach, one may hear the cries and laughs of a baby and delicious smells of pizza. These senses come from Proof Pizza, the food truck stationed at the beach Thursday through Saturday between four and eight pm in the Summer seasons, and out and about in CT spots including Sport Hill Farm and St. Thomas School in the Fall.

In another life, co-owner Jennifer DeGirolomo was in the banking industry, and her husband and co-owner Lenny was in construction. The couple has had a love for pizza since they started dating 16 years ago. In 2019, they made this love into a career. 

“We had the opportunity to kind of restart and reinvent ourselves. He’s always wanted to do a food truck and we’ve always done pizza together and so it was kind of a no brainer. We said, we’re never going to have this chance again so we took everything we had, threw it into getting this little pizza oven from Italy and we did farmers markets and little pop up stuff,” Jennifer said. 

“We love being down here, this has been kind of life changing for us. Like I said we love it, even on bad days that’s your view. We were driving down and my younger son was like, ‘Mom, there’s our office.’”

This oven from Italy was the perfect find for the DeGirolomo’s specific needs. They wanted a wood fire oven that was portable so it would fit in the truck, but was also high quality and could cook enough pizzas at once to keep up with demand. Once the oven was secured, they were able to develop the other key component of what makes Proof Pizza unique: the dough. 

“We used to do a beer dough that was really good for a home oven. So when we first started we were like, oh this dough is going to be great, it’s so different then what’s around here, and it’s just such a good flavor. Then we tried to do it in the pizza oven and it just didn’t work at all,” Jennifer said. “It was a lot of trial and error, it was a lot of figuring out what methods really worked for us, especially being on the truck. You might do something in a restaurant that makes a really good product but it’s not going to last on a truck because it’s so hot… With ours, he’s really taken a little bit of this, a little bit of that… I wouldn’t even be able to explain, it’s not a specific method that’s used, it’s just so much of what he’s found that works for our dough to make that flavor… Our dough is like our fifth baby at this point.”

“We do catering and things like that, and we operate year round which is nice. I think a lot of times people think food trucks and they think just spring and summer but we’re here year round.”

Operating a food truck is a different ball game than a traditional restaurant that comes with a unique set of challenges. Weather limits business and often the uncertainty of the forecast brings the most difficulties. 

“It’s tough because especially with our dough, we have to make the call kind of earlier on in the day because we can get all the dough ready and if we have to cancel it would all be gone… Prepping food for the next day is fine but the dough’s only going to last, on a good day, 12 hours, before it’s really hard to work with,” Jennifer said.

Hot weather can also affect the dough.

“Where he’s cooking, where he’s got the dough will get up to be, I think one time last year it went up to 118 … that’s going to affect the dough more so than being in a restaurant would.”

Despite these difficulties, Proof Pizza is Jennifer and Lenny’s passion, and this love is what makes their business special.

“There’s so many different variants to being on a truck… I think what makes us unique is rolling with those variants but I mean we love what we do.”

“If he has a dish that he likes to eat, he tries to figure out how he can put it on a pizza. Everything we eat I feel like he’s always like, how can I make this into a pizza, and some of our best ones have been that.”

Proof’s cooking process in the wood fire oven eliminates much of the grease that makes many other kinds of pizza feel messy and heavy. The dough is the perfect base, soft, chewy, and a bit smokey, that pulls together all of their pies.

Proof has the classic flavors like margarita and pepperoni, as well as some more creative pies like the Locked and Loaded Potato (mashed potato base, caramelized onion, bacon, cheddar, mozzarella, and chives) and the Honey Boy (tomato sauce, pepperoni, sliced onion, honey, and mozzarella). We tried some of the most popular pies including the honey boy, which was my favorite. The sweetness of the honey and spicy pepperoni make the perfect pair. We also tried the Truffle Shuffle (mushrooms, caramelized onions, truffle cheese, and mozzarella) and the Uncle Dave (smoked scamorza, broccoli rabe, sausage and mozzarella). Both delicious white pizzas with amazing flavor.

Fridays are Proof’s busy day and they make anywhere between 100-150 pizzas at Sasco. For dessert, Proof has woodfire s’mores and a special, Super S’mores, with a coconut macaroon and burnt caramel.

In addition to their dough baby, the DeGirolomo’s have four kids. Since the truck’s opening, it has been a family affair. “We started May 17th [2019] and then my second son was born May 26th. We were on the truck, stopped what we were doing, and he made his entrance the next day… It’s chaotic sometimes, you can hear if they miss nap time… I had a baby on June 26th [2023]... She’s the third baby that’s been on the truck… Joey was out at like two and a half weeks old, so she’s not the youngest that's been on the truck.”

Looking ahead, the DeGirolomo’s are looking to expand beyond their one truck.

“We would love to have a brick and mortar one day. We’re looking for the right location obviously we don’t want to jump into something that opens up. We love Fairfield, I grew up here, so I would love to have something in Fairfield, especially in the Sasco area. So if the right storefront opens up we would definitely jump into it but no matter where we go we’re always going to have the truck here,” Jennifer said. “We’re looking at maybe developing a second truck so we can go further out in Connecticut because it’s an older truck, it takes a little more care. With the oven in the back it’s about five to six thousand pounds, so we don’t take it as far as we’d like to or as other people would like us to.”

The truck operates year round from April to October at Sasco (if the weather is good they stay longer- let’s hope for a warm fall!), and then they station around Fairfield on Post Road throughout the rest of the year. They also do catering, parties, and other events all year round.

You can check out their website for menus and more information on booking private events, or their Instagram @proofpizzatruck for more information.

The proof is in the pudding, or in this case, the pizza. People love Proof!