Every Thursday, in the New London Day, there is a Restaurant Review, even though I no longer live in Southeastern CT, I do visit and love to read the reviews, I sometimes agree, and sometimes disagree. I opened the Article today, and was so excited it was about Mystic Pizza, my best friend Claudette works there, so definitely if anyone goes there, please ask for her as your waitress. I have personally, been to Mystic Pizza and love their Pizza.

Of Course, when I did weddings in Mystic, inevitably someone or a few brides would give out the DVD/VCR Tape as a Favor. I personally, have 3 copies of the movie. It is fun to watch Julia Roberts and see how far she has come since this film. Even advertising for the movie in the day, did not mention her at all, now if you watch it on TV they say, "Starring Julia Roberts."

Living in Mystic is the highlight of watching the film, and knowing the places that either exist or made up, but know where it was filmed or the inconsistency of some of the action. Prime Example, When Kat (Annbeth Gill)is on her moped delivering pizza to her mom, how quick she got from Mystic to the Noank area,not possible for it to happen in 2 minutes, just a thought.

Here is the review from the New London Day on Mystic Pizza, It is worth the stop.


"The film “Mystic Pizza” has a running time of 104 minutes. It came out 191/2 years ago. I mention this because, apparently, the movie runs continually on suspended screens inside the actual and original Mystic Pizza restaurant, which of course served as the inspiration and setting and focus for the movie.

Now, Mystic Pizza is open 12 hours a day, seven days a week. That means ... let's see ... that the film has played (very roughly) 82,900 times there. I wonder if the waitresses can guess what's going to happen at any given plot juncture by this point. I'm betting yes.

I figured this out when I went there for lunch recently. And I did so because we have lived here for over 10 years, and it wasn't until a few weeks ago, when we by chance saw part of the movie on television, that my wife and I looked at each other and she said, “Do you realize we've never eaten at Mystic Pizza?”

It's true — and I suppose the original reason was as a point of pride — that it was probably a tourist spot and we longed to be non-touristy in our new home. Later, despite the fact that there are more pizza joints per square mile in this region than McDonald's has sold hamburgers, and we have eaten at many of them, Mystic Pizza just sort of faded from our consciousness.

And we felt bad about it.

So that's when I soloed for lunch on a rainy February day and discovered the movie was showing. I brought a book, but it was sort of unique to think that I was watching a hit movie about the place I was sitting in.

I took stock of my legendary surroundings and was immediately comfortable. For one thing, there was a nice crowd of what appeared to be local regulars. For another, there's just a warm amiability to the place. It's a multi-level construct, with the bipartite main dining room at the lowest depth. A takeout/bar area is up a half-flight of stairs, and there's also a second floor space to handle the overflow weekend or warm-weather crowds.

There's a lot of wood and brass and deep, friendly booths so worn they're patched with tape. Etched glass partitions sit atop the booth-backs to afford a bit of privacy. The walls are cluttered with memorabilia — not just of the movie but also Hollywood and sports photos, beer distributors' clocks and signs, and the attendant seaport minutiae from working fish boats.

Plus, it was only after sitting there for a few minutes that I realized the film wasn't shot inside the real Mystic Pizza. Hollywood's mistake.

During an evening visit, my wife and I briefly considered the dinner menu because it's there. In addition to fish & chips ($11.99) and fried calamari ($14.99), both supplemented with fries and slaw, there are several pasta meals including spaghetti choices and eggplant, chicken and veal Parmesan ($11.99 to $16.99). These come with salad and garlic bread.

But there was no doubt we'd have to have pizza.

As with my lunch experience, we were served by an extremely polite and friendly young woman wearing the same “Slice of Heaven” shirt proudly sported by the movie stars up on the screen. Which I pointed out.

“You're right,” my wife said. “They are showing the movie.”

And, indeed, it's sort of a weird presence. You find yourself compelled to keep glancing up and seeing where they are in the narrative — whether Annabeth Gish has hooked up with the professorial dude with the child, or whether Lili Taylor is screaming at Vincent D'Onofrio again, or if David Coverdale has shown up to demand that Julia Roberts give his hair back.

In the meantime, we settled in. Eileen, who last ate meat on October 14, 1993 — at which point Mystic Pizza was about 21,800 showings into their movie loop — requested a small Grecian Delight ($10.20) and I custom-ordered a small pie with sausage, pepperoni and pepperocini ($8.60).

Very quickly, the legendary pizzas were placed before us — and we were both very pleasantly surprised. Both selections featured a very buttery and toasty crust that gives way to a happy chewy quality. The Grecian included pepperocini, Feta, tomatoes, black olives, garlic and oregano — and, in addition to a generous wisely apportioned toppings, came with a layer of melted brown cheese over the top. A brilliant touch.

My diced pepperocinis were sprinkled like tiny, clever toadstools underneath a battleground of tart sausage coins and slices of playful pepperoni, and that the Mystic Pizza recipe seems to focus on cheese more than tomato sauce gives the whole effort a superb sensory twist. There is a sauce presence, mind you, it's just not overwhelming and modestly takes its place in the litany that creates the whole package.

It made us happy a place that could rest on a built-in and perpetual Hollywoody tourist draw clearly makes an effort to maintain quality and please the regulars that have been there all along.