Who makes the best pizza in Connecticut? Modern? Sally's? Domenic's & Vinnie's? Yeah, they all do, and everyone has their favorite. Who makes the best calzone? Up until yesterday my answer was Spartan Restaurant in Waterbury.

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I've eaten them all, every pizza from everywhere in Connecticut, and when I mention Spartan or D&V's pizza among the Pepe's/Modern/Sally's/Bar hardcore New Haven devotees, I get mocked. How could a Waterbury restaurant make a pizza that tastes better than World-Champ New Haven? Spartan has, since the 80's, it's tasted the same, and damn it's good. The Spartan calzone is even better.

On Monday, I had dinner at Giovanni's Ristorante & Pizzeria in Torrington, and ordered the large calzone that you see in the photo above. It's a bacon and mushroom, and it was $22.

First impression was wow, it's massive. The dough was perfectly crisped on the outside, and soft and yielding in. Rustic taste overall, and oh man, the ingredients were incredible. The bacon they use reminded me more of a pancetta, it was cubed and perfectly cooked. Definitely not the sloppy, greasy chunks of cheap stuff that I was used to. (Not at Spartan, but plenty of other local pizza joints).

But the cheese, oh the beautiful ricotta. I started cutting into the gooey filling, and the stream of oil, bacon, and cheese rippling out was so delicious. Before I knew it, I had inhaled 3/4 of the whole thing. What a superior calzone. Absolutely the best that I've had in recent memory.

One thing that I want to mention, Giovanni's has rebranded, up until recently it was known as Bachi's. I was about 3 minutes into a conversation with my neighbor before she realized that I was talking about the place that she knew as Bachi's.

My new favorite Connecticut calzone is made in Torrington, sorry Waterbury.

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