Eating Pizza With a Cool Person
Volume Eight - Emily Kaplan
Emily Kaplan is a sports reporter who covers the National Hockey League for ESPN. You can typically find her interviewing players and coaches rinkside, and if you’ve been paying attention to the NHL playoffs at all this spring you’ve seen her multiple times by now.
While Emily’s reporting takes her all over the world, she grew up in New Jersey (and has strong opinions on East Coast food), and currently calls Chicago home. I first spoke with Emily last summer for Second City Hockey, and she was kind enough to agree to find some time to chat about pizza late last fall.
Emily and I talked about growing up in New Jersey, why NJ natives view it as two complete different states, New York vs New Jersey pizza, whether she believes in the New York water myth, some of her favorite pizzas, why she moved to Chicago, how she decides what to eat while she’s on the road, surprisingly good food cities, what it’s like to sit in-between the benches during an NHL game, her favorite hockey chirps, why it’s good to be a “respectful pest” in sports reporting, and so much more!
CPN: As a self-professed bagel snob, do you also consider yourself a pizza snob?
Emily: Not as much. I did grow up in New Jersey, and I think people associate New Jersey with pizza and bagels, and we obviously have great pizza there. But I'm pretty nondiscriminatory. I'm totally fine with a spot that's open at 2 am if it serves a purpose at that time. I'm versatile. I don't mind deep dish. I like tavern-style. Obviously I'm nostalgic for what I grew up with, but I'm not as snobby about pizza.
CPN: What part of New Jersey did you grow up in?
Emily: A town called Montclair in North Jersey. Anyone from Jersey will tell you we think it's two states. There's a Mason Dixon line, and Central Jersey does not exist. So it was a suburb of New York. A lot of parents from my school worked in the city and commuted. It was a really great place to grow up.
CPN: Do you remember your first favorite pizza in Montclair?
Emily: I went to a funky public middle school called Renaissance. Fridays were elective days and one of our teachers had this, you know, you'd write some kind of take on science in a journal, and whoever was the winner that week he would take out to pizza. Like three or four students. The spot was Villa Victoria. It was great. What I love about New Jersey and New York is there's so many places like that where you can get two slices and a drink, and it's five bucks. I mean inflation is probably a bit more now, but those were the young pizza memories I had growing up.
CPN: Is it still there?
Emily: Villa Victoria is still there, I believe. There were lots of good places in my town. There was Nauna's. And Mr. Dino's. All old, Italian families. What I love about New Jersey is it's super densely populated, super diverse, all different ethnicities, and really, really good food.
CPN: What do you consider to be the main difference between New York and New Jersey pizza? Is there one?
Emily: I'm sure if you're from New York, you have an opinion. I never say I'm from New York, even though it was 12 miles west. New Jersey is its own distinct place, and it's wonderful, and I'm super proud of being from New Jersey. But I do feel just because we are so close in proximity that there's not any distinguishing features between the two pizzas. Or the bagels.
CPN: Do you believe the water myth?
Emily: I do believe it, especially when it comes to bagels. Pizza I feel like you can kind of recreate it. My favorite place in New Jersey is a place called Star Tavern. It's super thin and crispy, and a lot of tavern-styles here can achieve that same consistency. But when it comes to bagels, everyone has sent me left right and center. You've got to try this place. You've got to try New York Bagel and Bialy. Or Gotham. All these places that are trying evoke New York, but they just can't match it. The only conclusion I can come to is that it has to be the key ingredient, which is water.
CPN: So your favorite pizza in Jersey is Star Tavern. Do you have a favorite in New York?
Emily: When I lived in New York, I was in the West Village, so I was pretty partial to Joe's. It's a classic. It's kind of a tourist trap in some ways, but also locals really love it. I think it's really good.
CPN: I like Joe's, too. It’s always solid. Do you have a favorite East Coast pizza that's not located on the East Coast? Maybe like a New York-style restaurant, but in a different part of the country?
Emily: That's a great question. My boyfriend's family has a house in Saugatuck, Michigan, and there's a place there, but I'm totally blanking on it. It's an Italian restaurant, and their tavern is so crispy it really feels like Star Tavern to me. Kevin Weekes is always talking about it in our NHL broadcast. So I would say that spot, even though I'm giving them the total disrespect of not thinking of their name.
(Emily followed up to let me know she was thinking about Marro’s Italian Restaurant.)
CPN: How do you feel about the pizza in Chicago?
Emily: It's a great, diverse pizza scene. Obviously, when people come to visit me, or if they're from the East Coast, they always want to try deep dish. I don't mind deep dish. I think there's a time and a place for it. Pequod’s is obviously my favorite. I like the way they put the cheese over the crust and caramelize it. I don't think you can go wrong with a Lou Malnati’s, either. So deep dish is cool. If it’s a Friday night and I'm ordering pizza and I just want to watch sports, I'd lean more towards tavern-style. Or there's a bunch of East Coast-style places I’ve found as well. Jet’s Pizza I really like. I’m trying to think of what I've ordered recently? Piece in Wicker Park is New Haven-style. They do a really good job. And then, yeah, just tavern-style as well.
CPN: Do you have a favorite pizza restaurant in Chicago?
Emily: I don't know if I have an overall favorite or a go to. What's the place right by me in Logan? I'm blanking. It's from Brooklyn?
CPN: Paulie Gee’s?
Emily: Paulie Gee's! That's the spot. I remember going in Brooklyn before I moved to New York. But that's probably a cop out answer, because it's a New York inspired place.
CPN: Have you ever had their Detroit pizza?
Emily: I have! I used to live in Ukrainian Village, and there's that place in the alley? You're gonna save me on all of my pizza misses. It's Detroit-style…
CPN: Pizza Friendly Pizza!
Emily: You are a complete expert here. I really enjoy their pizza also.
CPN: How did you end up moving to Chicago?
Emily: As I mentioned, I grew up in a suburb of New Jersey. After college I felt like, everyone believes you need to move to New York, and that's what I did. And all my high school friends did. And it was great. I loved my time there. I was working for Sports Illustrated at the time, and they're based in New York. I was covering the NFL, and there were like six NFL writers in New York. Then the writer from Chicago moved, and I saw it as an opportunity to try a different city — one that was probably about as similar to New York as you can find in the US, but also distinctly different. I figured it'd be a couple of years, and then I would move back. Lo and behold, that was 2016, and I'm still here.
CPN: What do you love about Chicago?
Emily: The community aspect. It's a place where everyone's really warm and welcoming. There's so many distinct neighborhoods, and everyone's proud of where they're from. And there's so many things to do in your neighborhood. When you're a tourist, you come here and you stay in The Loop. The Loop is beautiful. It's a gorgeous city, and the architecture, and all the things to do downtown, but none of us really live downtown. We all have our own communities, and I think that's really cool. The sports scene is great. The food is great. The nightlife, there's enough to do. You can find a concert, a comedy show. The comedy scene, obviously, is pretty bustling here, and so all of those reasons are why I've stayed since 2016.
CPN: What could make it better?
Emily: More pizza by the slice places! I miss that from growing up. If we're keeping on the food scene, obviously the bagels. My freezer is filled with New Jersey or New York bagels that I've pre-cut and will bring out when the time is right. I don't think the bagels are very good here.
CPN: We’ve talked about that before, and I absolutely agree with you. As someone who travels a lot for your job, how do you eat when you're on the road?
Emily: Great question. Sometimes I just eat for comfort. Many times, especially when I covered college football and I was in smaller towns or cities, you just want to eat what you know. A lot of times I'll look up like the closest Whole Foods or Sweetgreen if I need to try to stay healthy. But I also do try to find something that's local to that city, or unique to that city, especially on the NHL beat. We go to so many great places, so I'll try to do a little bit of research, whether it's on Yelp, or Google Maps, or probably Instagram these days. I'll make it a point to try to eat something good in every city that I'm in. But again, when there's so much travel, sometimes you just gotta default to old favorites or see what's on Uber Eats.
CPN: I know from talking to some of the Blackhawks beat writers that there's certain places that are kind of evergreen and passed down from person to person. How often do you find yourself going to those places? Is that something you pay attention to when someone recommends something to you?
Emily: For sure. And there's definitely haunts that feel very specific to the hockey beat. For example, when you go to Edmonton, you're like, what do you eat in Edmonton? It's Alberta. It’s beef. And of course it is. But they actually have a huge Czech population, and there's this legendary Eastern European restaurant called Bistro Praha. When I was covering the NHL pandemic bubble, and was living in Edmonton for like a month, I ate there often. So that's one of those type of places that gets institutionalized. And you're like, we gotta go here because this is where the locals eat.
CPN: When you find a place like that, and you go to Edmonton, are you always going there? Or are you the type of person who's like, I know this is here, I want to check around and see if there's anything else, too?
Emily: It's interesting, I was in Edmonton again last spring and I think I got takeout from Praha once. And I was there many nights for the Stanley Cup Final. But, you know, you discover like this bougie little coffee shop that opened up across the street from the hotel that has a great lunch. And then you're like, okay, this is my spot now.
CPN: Are there cities that have surprised you with how good the food is?
Emily: For sure. I'm trying to think. And I was just listening to a podcast about this, so it's kind of funny. When I went to Russia for work that really surprised me. I went in 2020, before the invasion of Ukraine. I don't think anyone's going there for tourism anymore. Nor should they. But I was really blown away by the food in Moscow. I thought the quality was excellent. Raleigh has some really good spots that aren’t just barbecue. You think, oh, Raleigh, it's the South. But there's this amazing dim sum place we go to in downtown Raleigh. Fort Lauderdale. You think of it as classic bougie seafood and new American, but the Cuban food there is excellent. So yeah, you can find gems anywhere.
CPN: Any sneaky good pizza cities people might not necessarily expect?
Emily: Again, when we were in Fort Lauderdale/Sunrise for the Stanley Cup Final, my colleague who's a huge foodie — I don't work directly with him, he's from Finland — he identified that there was a Frank Pepe’s, which is an iconic Connecticut spot, in Florida, and really wanted to go there. I didn't end up making it there with him, but that would have been a great spot. Hmm. I probably wouldn't touch St. Louis. Detroit, you know you can get some great Detroit-style pizza. LA has a really good pizza scene. It's definitely more artisanal-style. I'm not good at my pizza terminology. You're the expert, here.
CPN: You have this incredibly unique job where, when you’re between the benches, you’re experiencing something that literally very few other people ever get to experience. What’s the coolest thing about what you do?
Emily: Being as close to the action as possible. Like, I'm a sports fan, first and foremost. I'm constantly watching sports. When something happens, like when a coach makes a decision, or a quarterback misses a throw, or someone makes an unbelievable play, the first thing I want to know is, how did they do that? Or why? Take me behind the scenes. How did that develop? So it's such a privilege that I get to be the one as close to the action as possible, and the first person to talk to these people, and try to find out those answers for the viewers at home. That's super unique. And why I love my job.
CPN: What’s your advice for anybody who’s interested in pursuing that career path, or doing something in the vein of what you do?
Emily: Passion is at the forefront of any job in sports. It's a grind. You've gotta hustle. The pay is not good. And the hours are terrible, until suddenly they aren’t. But a lot of it, you're just working for the love of the game. So as long as you have the passion, you're on the right track. And then my mantra has always been to be a respectful pest. I think it was a quote from Dave Anderson, the legendary New York Times columnist. If you're a reporter, it's all about gathering information and inherently, it's really annoying, like what we do is very annoying. So there's only two things you can control; how you treat other people, and how hard you work. And so because of that, if you're a respectful pest, you know you've got to annoy people. You've got to be pesty. But if you're respectful about it, and you build relationships, and you go about it the right way, typically you can be successful.
CPN: I love that. That's a fantastic answer. Last one. We’ll do a fun one. As someone who spends a lot of time between benches and around the players, you get to hear a lot of things other people don't. Do you have an all-time favorite hockey chirp? Or a favorite hockey chirper?
Emily: There's so many legendary chirpers! I think Matthew Tkachuk is elite at it, because it's really funny. He'll say some things that are just as clever as you'd expect from someone who grew up around the game. One of my favorite moments ever — this one's probably coming to me because we were just talking about Detroit — but when you're between the benches in Detroit you're essentially on the Red Wings bench, like there's not a designated area. So you're really close to it. And this was a couple years ago. It might have been Mo Seider’s rookie season, or his second season, but they were playing the Ducks. I don't remember which player exactly, but they were claiming that he dove, and so Mo Seider started just flapping his arms like a chicken, and bawking like a chicken, and then the entire bench joined in. It was super juvenile, like they literally were taunting him with something you'd see on the playground in first grade, but it made me laugh and I thought it was really funny.
CPN: Thank you so much, Emily!
Emily: I appreciate it, and I will eat some pizza in your honor in the next week or so!
(Some great ones in there, but “pick which hand” is my all-time favorite hockey chirp).