Grimm Brewery is now serving New Haven-style ‘apizza’ on the roof 

By Scott Lynch

It’s always been the plan. Ever since Joe and Lauren Grimm opened their namesake brewery in East Williamsburg five years ago, the goal was to do something on the roof.

“We always knew that we wanted to add a rooftop bar component,” Joe tells Brooklyn Magazine. “But we didn’t know when it was going to make sense to close the brewery in order to build stairwells to get up there. So when the pandemic hit in 2020, we were like: ‘Holy moly what are we going to do with this time?! We have to build something!'”

A ‘za with a view (Scott Lynch)

It took a while, but that “something” turned out to be Lala’s Brooklyn Apizza, a spectacular New Haven-style pizzeria (and beer and wine bar, of course) which opened last Friday overlooking an industrial stretch of Metropolitan Avenue.

When I asked why the Grimms, who live in Gowanus with their two kids, decided to sling Connecticut pizza here in Brooklyn, the impetus seems to have been more about personal preference than professional strategy.

“It’s my favorite kind of pizza,” says Joe. “I’m from rural Georgia and never had good pizza in my life until I went to school in New Haven. So that’s what’s burned into my mind. Sally’s and Pepe’s. A lot of pecorino and olive oil. A lot of char. And the whole thing of optional mozzarella. Like just getting cheese automatically on your pizza is kind of annoying to me.”

That said, the Grimms also want to make it clear that Lala’s is its own thing. “We’re calling what we’re doing Brooklyn apizza,” says Joe, “because we are taking a lot of liberties with classic New Haven pies. We wanted to be able to express our own creativity. To reference those Wooster Street places we love, while also giving ourselves permission to change them.”

These changes are subtle. Lauren came up with Lala’s crust, a sourdough based on the cultures that they use in their sour beer, with some house-milled malt wheat mixed in. The pies are oblong and irregular, as they are, to varying degrees, at New Haven’s “Big Four”: Sally’s, Bar, Pepe’s and Modern. But Joe says Lala’s pizza is thinner. And they’re using a hybrid wood and gas oven rather than burning coal. They’re blasting it a little hotter than you find on Wooster Street, too.

The most obvious New Haven homage on the Lala’s menu is what they call the “Cozy Pie,” a salute to Bar’s signature creation and topped with blobs of mashed potato, tomato sauce, a bit of mozzarella, and, if you order an essential upgrade, a scattering of chewy Breton’s bacon.

The ‘cozy’ pie with bacon upgrade, $30 (Scott Lynch)

Lala’s cheesy clam pie is excellent, probably my favorite of our feast, drizzled with butter and covered with tender littlenecks that brought a lovely briny boost to the proceedings. The squash pie could have used about 20 more grinds of the ol’ black pepper mill.

The squash pie, $27 (Scott Lynch)

But the hot pepperoni pie, which in deference to Joe, I ate without the optional mozzarella, had plenty of oomph.

The hot pepperoni pie, $24 (Scott Lynch)

You can also build your own beast at Lala’s, starting with either a white or a red pie as your base. House-fermented pickled vegetables and a green goddess little gem salad fulfill their function as accomplices, and the malted chocolate chip cookie satisfies for dessert.

Obviously there is plenty of beer to be had at Lala’s — I counted 25 varieties on tap — and about a dozen different offerings from Grimm’s natural wine program, Physica. The place itself is welcoming, with lots of picnic-table-type seating both inside and out, the big doors flung open to provide fluid movement throughout the space.

“We’ve been working on Lala’s for a long time,” says Joe. “For years. And all of our regulars at the brewery kept asking about it, so it’s good to finally be here.”

Lala’s Brooklyn Apizza is located at 990 Metropolitan Avenue, between Catherine Street and Morgan Avenue, and is currently open on Friday and Saturday from 3 to 10 p.m., and on Sunday from 1 to 8:00 p.m.