The Little Rendezvous: 130+ Year Old Brick Oven-Pizza Nirvana in Meriden

The year was 1888. The Civil War was twenty-three years in the past and the Model A was fifteen years in the future, the Statue of Liberty and Washington Monuments were recently dedicated, the US population stood at 50 million, the Standard Oil Company and AT&T were new companies, the Brooklyn Bridge was opened, and newly created Coca Cola was the talk of the south.

In the small town of Matteawan, NY, overlooking the Hudson River, Oven Number 312 was manufactured by the Dutchess Tool Company and sold to F Duhrkop of Meriden, CT. Until the late 1930s, the oven-baked bread at the Pratt Street location, and in 1938 the Verdolini family, forced to relocate its downtown business to Pratt Street, started baking pizza. In 1946, the business was sold to Tony Pascucci who changed the name to the Little Rendezvous. Over seventy-five years later, under the tutelage of its seventh owner, Steve Chehotsky, the Little Rendezvous is now producing one of the best, if not the best, pizza in CT, in one of the state’s longest, continuous-running coal ovens.

Little Rendezvous is still located on Pratt Street in Meriden, a very cute town southeast of Waterbury off Route 691. The small, white building is remarkably quaint, with two large 3 over 3 paned windows, a single center door a large sign above the door with "120 year old coal-fired brick oven" and a second sign "Brick Oven Pizza." They are very proud of their heritage and the oven.

Little Rendezvous is probably the least heralded pizza restaurant in Connecticut, yet at times, the wait can be over three hours, yes, over three hours from order to delivery. The regulars, who have enjoyed these pies for decades, understand that if they do not follow the "Pro Tips," they will miss the chance of grabbing one of the more than 100 pies created daily.

I wanted to time my arrival before the lunch rush, and I felt comfortable when I arrived at 1145 with only two cars parked in front. My hopes were heightened when I entered and there were only two people in the dining room. Then I saw the first sign, "FUN FACT #32 AN EMPTY DINING ROOM DOES NOT MEAN WE ARE SLOW!!!" Now I was a little nervous. I approached the ordering counter and was greeted with, "Did you call ahead?" Oh no, did I screw up? When I asked how long, I was happily told that it would be a 35 to 40-minute wait, whew, not a big deal at all. I ordered a small half sausage, half pepperoni. Now to relax and wait.

Little Rendezvous has three rooms. The front area includes a long bench attached to the wall behind four 4-tops, with basic folding chairs facing the wall, a single round table that seats an additional three guests, and a shelf table with two chairs. The middle room is a connecting hallway (put in place to connect the two buildings in 1938) with shelves stocked with hundreds of pizza boxes. The back room is the epicenter. There is an ordering counter with one person manning the phones, taking face-to-face orders, slicing the pizza, bringing pizza to the dining area, and settling the bills. His ordering system consists of a spiral notebook divided into 15-minute increments. When an order is received, he places it in the outbound time slot. Upon my order at 1150, I was assigned the 1230 box.

Behind the ordering counter is where the magic is made. Steve, the owner-pizzaiola-master, calmly creates one pie at a time. First, he stretches the dough very thin, then he carefully swirls two ladles of sauce, a few pinches of grated Parmesan cheese, and a couple of handfuls of shredded cheese. He carefully finishes the pie with layers of the requested toppings atop the shredded cheese and into the oven for 10-12 minutes.

The oven is cavernous, at least 10-12 feet deep. On the floor in front of the oven is a pile of coal. The coal chamber sits to the right and when they opened it for me it was blazing hot with a mound of burning coal.

I waited in the dining area, and promptly as promised the pizza arrived. It looked great. I waited a few minutes to allow the pie to cool a bit. I decided to first try a sausage slice. I slowly slid one to check the bottom. With the edges charred, I thought I would see lots of black below. Nope, it was a consistent, dark beige. Now the lift. It held perfectly with a slight droop at the edge, and all the toppings stayed intact. Excellent construction.

My first bite was teeny-weeny out of respect for the roof of my mouth. Even with the tiniest of bites, I was impressed. Steve mentioned that he spends a lot of time with the sausage, and it showed. There was an enormous amount of flavor, not too spicy, just enough to take notice and the spiciness lingered after the bite. As the slice cooled and my bites became larger, I was more and more impressed. The balance definitely leaned towards sausage, if I were to divide, it would be 60% sausage, 15% sauce, 15% cheese, and 10% crust. As I have mentioned before, I am a chunk versus crumbled person, but I absolutely loved this slice.

With the sausage side in the record book, I moved to the pepperoni. The slices of pepperoni were 50% cupped, with just a dollop of oil in each, this is what I always look for, and this was the proper amount. My first bite was a full try since the pizza was now cooled. Wow, this was another great slice of pizza. The pepperoni was on the same spice profile as the sausage, just a nice level that kicked in and then trailed off. Different from the full coverage of sausage, the amount of pepperoni was more genteel, it allowed the cheese and sauce to participate more. The balance was perfect. The taste divide was 40% pepperoni, 25% cheese, 25% sauce and 10% crust. It was a slice of cheese pizza with pepperoni versus a slice of sausage pizza.

After enjoying my lunch, I spent a little time with Steve as he filled other orders. He started as a 15-year-old in the late 1980s and purchased the business about fifteen years ago. While he would not tell me the exact number of pies produced daily, he alluded to more than 100 and less than 200. The dough and sauce are made in-house, and he takes great pain in preparing the sausage. He was super friendly, and not only do you feel great about eating his great pizza, but he is the kind of friendly and customer-focused business owner that you want to give your hard-earned money to.

Overall, this is one of the best pizzas of my life. I do not want to get into the comparisons with other great pizzas in CT, we are all really lucky to have great options. Suffice it to say, Little Rendezvous definitely occupies one of my five fingers in the best of the best.

The Little Rendezvous

256 Pratt St.

Meriden, CT 06451

203.235.0110

https://thelittlevous.com