Two new pizza spots, one Trenton-style and one New Haven-inspired, are making pies with a side of nostalgia

The Philadelphia pizza scene has evolved in recent years as artisans, baking in a variety of styles, have found all sorts of outlets for their work, such as pop-ups and home-based businesses. Some have gone the brick-and-mortar route.

Neapolitan pizza, with its thin crusts and floppy, saucy centers, was the darling for a time, followed by the rise, so to speak, of thick-crusted, cheese-enrobed Detroit style. Now, everything goes.

September has seen the debut of two pizzerias — coincidentally, located inside existing businesses — offering two styles seldom found in Philadelphia.

CJ&D’s Trenton Tomato Pies, inside Cartesian Brewing in South Philadelphia, is the passion project of Chris (CJ) Volk and Daria Silvestro. As the name says, they’re re-creating Trenton’s gift to the culinary world: the crispy, cheese-on-the-bottom-crust/sauce-on-top pizza, perfected in their home oven during the pandemic. (Trenton tomato pie is markedly different from the focaccia-like creation from Philly-area Italian bakeries that is also known hereabouts as “tomato pie.”)

Eda’s Pizzeria, one of several food businesses operating from Lucky’s Trading Co. in Roxborough, is inspired by New Haven pizza, baking the char-crusted pies in a gas oven (not the traditional coal).

Volk and Silvestro said they “put a big asterisk” on their “Trenton” bona fides. “We’re from Hamilton,” said Silvestro, “but our family is from [Trenton’s] Chambersburg neighborhood.”

If the Silvestro name rings a bell to pizza historians, that’s because in 1910, her great-grandfather Pietro Silvestro cofounded Joe’s Tomato Pies, widely regarded as the first Trenton tomato pie shop. (It closed in 1999.) The namesake, Joe, was her grandfather.

Volk and Silvestro moved out west for 10 years before returning in 2017. Trenton-style pizza remained a thing in Trenton’s suburbs — De Lorenzo’s and PaPa’s, for example, are in Robbinsville, while there’s a De Lorenzo’s branch in nearby Yardley, Bucks County — but the couple said they were surprised that they couldn’t find it closer to Philadelphia.

Volk, who worked at Essen Bakery and was part of the original crew at Korshak Bagels, began experimenting with Trenton-style pizza at home and by January 2020 thought he had nailed the recipe. The couple was planning to start a pop-up business — mainly involving Volk, since Silvestro’s day job is director of teacher coaches for the School District of Philadelphia.

Then the pandemic happened. They sold pizzas out of their house, to the delight of neighbors. Chris D’Emilio of D’Emilio’s Old World Ice Treats in South Philadelphia offered to host a pop-up, and that put CJ&D’s Trenton Tomato Pies on the radar of Evan Roth, owner of Cartesian. A year and a half ago, Roth offered them a residency — much as Poe’s Sandwich Shop operates out of Human Robot brewing in Kensington — in a bid to help draw a dinnertime crowd to Cartesian’s picnic tables and garage setting. (It’s also just down the block from Pat’s and Geno’s.)

“This felt like a perfect intermediate step to having our own shop,” Silvestro said. “It would be a good move for us because it didn’t require a huge investment or risk.” At the same time, they learned that they were expecting a baby.

CJ&D’s operates Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, avoiding Cartesian’s Thursday night trivia games. In October, CJ&D’s will be open Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday. They want one weekend day to spend with Francesca, 10 months old. The goal is to be open five days.

The menu is simple: the classic tomato pie ($17), with a customary bed of mozzarella and blobs of sweet tomato sauce on top; the Nonna ($16) with crushed tomatoes, pecorino, oregano, and garlic; a pepperoni ($18) version of the classic; and a white ($19) with mozzarella, ricotta, garlic, and baby spinach. The Nonna can be made vegan.

Count on crispy crusts (no chance of flop), lots of garlic, and a hint of char around the edges.

CJ&D’s Trenton Tomato Pies inside Cartesian Brewing, 1326 E. Passyunk Ave. Hours: 5-9 p.m. Wednesday and Friday, 3-9 p.m. Sunday. Sellouts are probable.

Chris Barnes, born in New Haven, Conn., moved to the Philadelphia area 20 years ago, building himself a business with the Lucky’s Last Chance bars in Queen Village and Manayunk, and noted for their burgers. Last year, he took over an Italian restaurant on Ridge Avenue in Roxborough to open Lucky’s Trading Co., a takeout/delivery spot that also sells burgers and hot dogs as Sunshine Sandwich Shop and is the home of the Biscuit Lady.

Nostalgia for New Haven pizza — superthin 18-inchers with toppings almost reaching the bubbly, charred outer crust — got the best of Barnes. He developed a recipe at home, had his staff scale it and tweak it over four months, and fired up the shop’s gas deck oven.

Eda’s Pizzeria, after Barnes’ nonna, is not New Haven-style pizza, he said. Purists familiar with New Haven’s famed “apizza” shops, such as Frank Pepe and Sally’s, will insist that a coal-fired oven is essential to give the pies the distinctive char. Not all the shops, though. Zuppardi’s oven is gas-fired.

Eda’s, he said, is New Haven-inspired. The menu includes a plain red and plain white ($18); a white with Italian sausage and broccoli rabe ($24); a bacon and garlic pie ($23); and a New Haven-style tomato pie ($18). The tomato pie I got last week was generously sauced with a bold, garlicky sauce and decently dusted with Pecorino Romano, and had a beautifully charred outer ring. It could have baked a couple extra minutes to firm up the bottom. Barnes absolutely nailed the sausage and broccoli rabe, with a crispy crust, lots of garlic, and Pecorino Romano that added a smoky crunch to the mozzarella. Pizzas are available by call-in or walk-in.

Now how about some hot lobster rolls …

Eda’s Pizzeria inside Lucky’s Trading Co., 5154 Ridge Ave. Hours: 5-9 p.m. Thursday-Sunday.