Make pizza Connecticut's state food? NY, NJ say 'no way'
CONNECTICUT - For many people, pizza is a great uniter, but it's also causing some major divide in the New York City region.
Connecticut is perhaps most famous for its thin, New Haven-style pizza. It's also home to Colony Grill, which for 85 years has been serving up a much-loved hot oil pie.
"Hands down Connecticut definitely does have the best pizza," says general manager Jodi Sanchioni.
Now the Constitution State wants to lay claim to the fan-favorite food, with two state legislators introducing a bill to officially anoint pizza the state food.
But New Yorkers are not having it.
"You have some good pizza for sure but your state's food? It's in our water," John Luke from A&E's Storage War tweeted.
Patricio Curillo, General Manager of Patsy's East 69th Street outpost on the Upper East Side of Manhattan agrees, New York takes the crown.
"[We] definitely have earned that distinction to be the...capital of pizza, especially Patsy's, we've been making pizza since 1933," he said.
And then New Jersey chimed in, with the official @NJGov government account tweeting out a sharp "no" in response to the Connecticut proposal.
The fight for slice supremacy, a familiar one to the Governors of New Jersey and Connecticut, who have sparred before on the topic.
When one year ago Governor Phil Murphy declared New Jersey the pizza capital of the world, Governor Lamont tweeted back:
"I will proudly proclaim crimped hair day, wearing socks with sandals day, and don't pump your own gas day in your honor. but Connecticut is clearly the pizza capital of the world."
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Sanchioni says, sure the banter over the best pizza is fun, but, she'd like to see the officials address the real issues in the ailing restaurant industry.
"We'd love them to focus on definitely just getting everyone back to work, too many places are closing down," she said.
In the meantime, supporters of the legislation have started a petition, urging lawmakers to vote pizza as the state food, officially into law.