For 14 months, Lenny’s Apizza at The Bedford Tavern in Finsbury Park served up some of the best pizza in the city. In October 2025 it closed (and Lenny’s is soon to open a standalone pizzeria in Covent Garden) but now New Haven-style pies are returning to the north London pub that helped popularise them in the city. Ozzy’s Apizza will begin its long-term residency on Friday, October 2.
Ozzy’s was founded in Los Angeles in 2021 by Chris Wallace, who is originally from the New Haven area in Connecticut, and began making New Haven-style pizza at home during the pandemic. In 2022, he was joined by fellow New Havener Craig Taylor, who had moved to LA to further his career as a stand-up comedian just before the pandemic hit. After successful pop-ups they opened at a sports bar. “We were the first New Haven pizza in LA,” Taylor tells Broadsheet.
Rave reviews followed, and Ozzy’s now has two branches in LA. In 2024, they opened their first in New Haven. “Culturally, pizza is everything,” Taylor says of his hometown. “It’s our most famous export. Dave Portnoy [founder of media company Barstool Sports] brought a lot of attention to it, and since then there has been a lot of pizza tourism. In New Haven everyone does pizza every Friday night, everyone has a lot of pride in our pizza. Everyone considers themselves a pizza expert.”
Taylor’s relationship with The Bedford Tavern goes back over a decade, and is centred on Arsenal Football Club. Taylor founded the New Haven Gooners, a supporters club, whose members often visit the pub when in London for a match. He soon became friends with its owner, Can Bektas, and even introduced Bektas to Max Lewis of Lenny’s.
London’s recent pizza boom has seen all manner of styles emerge, including New Haven – thin, crispy, well-charred, maintaining a certain chew and pronounced ah-beetz – largely thanks to Lewis. But now Ozzy’s is taking on the mantle at The Bedford Tavern. “It just seemed like a really good opportunity,” Taylor says. “The New Haven and LA shops are running themselves, I figured it was time for a new challenge.”
The menu, led by Archway-born head chef Milo Oddi, will feature New Haven staples like tomato pie, potato pie, and pepperoni. But Oddi will also be given room to experiment. The opening menu, for example, includes a British take on the clam pie, a New Haven classic: the “fish’n’chip” pizza will feature clams, potato scallops, tartare sauce and malt vinegar. “We always try to make our pizzerias cater a bit to the locals, we’re not just trying to copy another New Haven pizzeria,” Taylor says.
The ingredients will be British including charcuterie from Islington-based Cobble Lane Cured and Italian-style cheeses from Sole E Latte in Essex. Bektas adds that there will be regularly rotating specials and collaborations with top London restaurants.
Ozzy’s Apizza will open at The Bedford Tavern, 160 Seven Sisters Road, N7 7PT on October 2.
