There’s mushroom for improvement.
Connecticut’s desperate attempts to make people think they are the pizza capital of the nation — which included a laughable taxpayer-funded ad blitz — have dried up like a gas-station slice, as a new poll has named New York the real US pizza champion.
The Nutmeg State made a floppy landing at No. 16 in the nation, leaving reps fuming after the Google Reviews-based survey by Maine Lobster Now placed them behind non-pizza-focused regions like Texas, Oregon and Missouri.
“Eat our words? Not a chance. We’ll be eating another slice of Connecticut pizza,” Morgan Nyerick, Director of Connecticut Statewide Marketing & Tourism, told The Post in response to the survey snub.
“We have tremendous respect for Maine Lobster Now when it comes to lobster, but we’ll keep the pizza title right here in Connecticut. After all, we did put ‘Welcome to Connecticut, Home of the Pizza Capital of the US’ on our highway signs. So, we’re pretty committed at this point,” she continued.
“New York can celebrate its ranking, and we’ll happily keep celebrating our pizza. And if anyone at Maine Lobster Now wants to come down and enjoy a slice, we’d be delighted to show them around.”
Unfortunately for Connecticut, the proof is in the dough.
The Empire State came out on top, with 43.05% of its statewide Google reviews coming in positive.
New Jersey came in second with 39%, and Rhode Island in third with 36.26%, the numbers, curated by Maine Lobster Now, show.
Even Missouri landed on the top 10 list — and Wisconsin and Utah ranked higher than Connecticut.
The state, home of New Haven’s beloved apizza, managed a measly 29.20% customer satisfaction rate — despite launching a rivalry battle in 2024 claiming to have better slices than New York.
A series of billboards popped up in Manhattan and Brooklyn with rage-inducing messages like, “Connecticut Pizza Wins. NYC Takes The L” and “The Nation’s Best Pizza. Not You, New York,” as part of a campaign from the Connecticut Office of State Marketing and Tourism.
But the state shouldn’t be too hard on itself — Illinois, home of Chicago deep dish, also performed poorly after landing in 19th place with just 27.23%.
And it was never a question as to who would have taken the top spot, Big Apple pie slingers say.
“It’s 100% true and 100% accurate. I don’t think any other state is even close to messing with us when it comes to pizza. We’re the top dogs,” said Michael Vendome, the owner of Fermento in the West Village.
New York is home to the “most innovative pizza guys,” Vendome said, with different shops serving up different styles, shapes and flavors.
Fermento specializes in a 72-hour fermentation period, for example — but customers can also walk down the block to grab a classic New York slice.
“There’s no other state that you could go to where you could find all these styles done well — done great –compared to what we are doing in New York,” Vendome said.
“And I think we have the best people making it personally, the most passionate and the best. There’s a reason why most of the best pizzas come from New York.”
The variety of styles — and the sheer amount of pizza shops — has cultivated a competitive spirit that has pushed New York pizza chefs to keep getting better and better, theorized Michael Ayoub, the chef and owner of Fornino in Brooklyn.
“We are the best in the country. I could have told you that — They didn’t have to do all this type of investigation if they had called me up first. I would have saved somebody a lot of trouble,” said Ayoub, who is celebrating 24 years of his business Tuesday.
When it comes to Connecticut trying to get in on the cheese, Ayoub cheekily said: “My mother always said: if you have nothing nice to say, don’t say anything at all.
“But I’ll just say this: Tsk, tsk, tsk.”
