Seven Months In: What's Changed, What's New, and Why We're Just Getting Started
June 24, 2026 · Jay De Natale
Seven months ago I took over Abbot's Pizza. A turnaround is a turnaround, but it's been the most rewarding work of my life and honestly the most fun. The signs we're seeing right now have the whole team fired up.
Everything starts with the dough. We spent months developing a new program from scratch until we got it right. It now runs under everything, the classics, the new pies, the croutons, the breakfast rolls. Most longtime regulars have come around. A few haven't. Missing avocado slices was apparently just too much.
The new pies
Two new additions with a clear relationship to each other. The Vegan New Haven is a fully plant-based pie built in the New Haven tradition, focused, clean, and great on its own terms. The Stracci takes that exact pie and adds stracciatella, the soft cream from inside burrata. Same foundation, one step richer.
Two new salads, available June 30th
I'll be upfront: I'm not interested in building light, virtuous salads. Plenty of places do those. What I wanted were salads worth getting excited about and ones that don't cost $22. The Sloppy Caesar is the Caesar I actually want to eat. Light on lemon, no anchovies, just more cheese, more cream, and croutons made from our pizza dough. Rich and unapologetic. The Spring Stracci was basically an excuse to get more stracciatella on the menu, and I'm not embarrassed about that. Spring greens and romaine, really good olive oil, balsamic, cherry tomatoes, and a big dollop of stracciatella right in the middle. Bright, clean, and feels like a treat.
Breakfast, July 3rd
A bacon, egg and cheese on a pizza dough roll. Bodega style. $5. I've been missing these, so here's my solution. The rolls came from months of figuring out what our dough could do beyond pizza, and they landed exactly right. The American cheese matters too, I found something genuinely delicious, no Velveeta nonsense. A few more additions to the morning program are on the way.
Delivery is what the dough is built for
Built to hold up, arrive right, and taste the way pizza should when you open the box at home. Seven months in. Just getting started.
- Jay