by Dylan Huberman | Fri, July 5th 2024

STUART, Fla. (CBS12) — When you think of the best places to get pizza, South Florida probably isn’t the first region on that list.

However, one Treasure Coast restaurant is changing that narrative, with pizza so good…it’s making it to the big screen.

Jimmy Fantin, who owns ‘Fantini’s New Haven Style Apizza,’ learned the art of New Haven Apizza in one of the most heralded pizza places on earth: Frank Pepe’s, in New Haven itself.

If you haven’t had new haven style before, Jimmy says you’ll know the difference when you taste it.

“It’s the crunch, it’s the bake and the crunch that’s in the actual pieyou produce the specific char on the pizza,” Fantin remarked. “Some people will say it’s burnt but we don’t use the ‘b-word’ here at Fantini’s.”

The restaurant has garnered rave reviews since opening along US-1 in Stuart.

“I think it’s the ingredients in the quality of the pizza, definitely and that, again, takes me right back up to Connecticut, back home,” said Tess Drieu, a Connecticut native who visited Fantini’s Friday.

“We have been in search for a good pizza and this was really up there; nice and crispy, the sauce was very flavorful and the crust was delicious,” said Jocelyn Rush, who tried Fantini’s for the first time Friday.

One of the notable visitors: Barstool’s Dave Portnoy.

“David Portnoy comes and gives us an 8.1 rating and really blew us up as far as exposure,” Fantin recalled of Portnoy’s visit. “People came and said ‘we just came from the airport and we heard about you so we had to try it out.”

The impact this place has had on South Florida is big enough for the silver screen; a movie centered on Fantini’s is set to premiere locally next week.

According to the film’s director and writer, Gorman Bechard, Fantini’s changed the pizza game in the Sunshine State.

“Before Jimmy, Florida was kind of a pizza wasteland,” Bechard told CBS12 News. “Jimmy actually brought authentic, New Haven Apizza to Florida and somehow is making it work. I don’t know (how), maybe he’s, I think he’s got some connection with the pizza gods or something.”

High praise that Jimmy, who has called South Florida home for 20 years, says properly honors New Haven…a thousand miles away.

“It’s really humbling Dylan this was my bucket list item. This restaurant, recreating this, it was a dream that I’ve had since I was 15,” Fantin told CBS12 Reporter Dylan Huberman.

The movie, titled ‘Slice of America: Charred in the Florida Sun,’ premieres over at the Lyric Theatre in Downtown Stuart on July 11.

You can watch the trailer for the film here.