Matthew L.
Yelp
Big Green Truck Pizza is a fleet of New Haven-style pizza trucks that opened in New Haven, Connecticut in 2003. It was founded by New Haven catering veteran Doug Coffin. The titular "big green truck" is a 1947 International Harvester Kb5. During Labor Day weekend in 2003, Coffin and a small team headed out on their first job. They were unsure if the truck would even work. That first job was a huge success and over time the fleet grew to be five green International Harvester trucks. Each one is restored and customized to fit a top-of-the-line wood fired oven, refrigerator, espresso machine, hand sink, storage space and much more. The sides on the bed of the truck are specially designed to come off and stand as their prep and serving tables; no space is wasted. At the height of each season, the trucks work at about 50 parties a week. In 2018, Coffin opened a brick & mortar pizzeria. Since it was located next door to the garage where the trucks are stored, it was dubbed Next Door Pizzeria. In 2021, Coffin sold Big Green Truck Pizza to longtime operations manager Liane Varipapa Page and her mother Barbara Varipapa. In late 2024, Coffin retired and sold Next Door as well.
My family and I have sampled Big Green Truck's pizza several times over the years. You can say that Coffin and his original crew were pioneers of the pizza truck movement in Connecticut. They were the only pizza trucks in the state back in the early 2000s. Today there are several; many of which were started by former Big Green Truck employees. We recently attended a friend's birthday party and lo and behold he rented Big Green Truck for the party. Some of the pizza choices that guests got to choose from were "New Haven Plain" (tomato sauce, Pecorino Romano, EVOO, oregano, fresh garlic), "Plain Cheese", "Pepperoni", "Fresh Tomato & Basil", Buffalo Chicken", "Mashed Potato & Bacon", "Bacon & Onion", "Spicy Meatball", "Barbecue Chicken", "White Broccoli", "Chicken Fajita" and "Eggplant Rollatini". We never have a bad experience with Big Green Truck Pizza!