It is a thing where the pizza you grew up on, no matter how bad it is objectively, is still something you long for when you return "home".
Well, for me, in the case of Colony, you'd have to define what period you're talking about being "growing up". So allow me to wax nostalgic for a bit...
The pizza I grew up on was John's, which later became Poseidon. Owned by Greeks. No idea what it is now, but the store across Hope St used to be a small department store called Bongo's and was subdivided decades ago to now include a Dominos. Anyway, John's pizza was a pan pizza - those black pans with 1" rims - that were given to you on a cardboard Chinet-ish plate and wrapped in a paper bag. No boxes. There were a few of those places in Stamford, like Glenbrook Pizza and a couple joints downtown. I think that style has pretty much disappeared, but there might be survivors. It was pizza, it was cheap for mom & dad to buy (buy 5, the 6th is free), it kept us happy, but it's not something I miss.
Hardly anybody actually
went to Colony as a kid, although I imagine plenty of families who lived nearby ordered pickup. It was an Irish cop bar on one side and a bunch of booths with banquettes on the other side that made it, along with the location, perfect for softball teams, bowling leagues and other motley assemblages of working class adulls to enjoy pizza that seemingly never made you full, along with cheap beer served by the pitcher and poured into 7oz juice glasses. Myself and a friend actually did a Colony diet while at the Stamford Branch in '75 - we'd split a pizza and a pitcher of Miller Lite 3x/week. We both lost ~20 lbs That the bartenders were characters added to that enjoyment. I'd never been until I was 18, the drinking age then.
Having played softball for years in numerous SW Ffld Cty leagues, there were other places we frequented when we played in Norwalk or Wilton (Uncle Joes before it went Greek) or the West Side of Stamford (19th Hole) and the pizza was fine, but it wasn't unique, which I guess is the thing about Colony. There was nothing remotely similar until Ridgeway and Riko's started copying Colony 15 years ago or so.
I have a lot of fond memories of the actual place in addition to the pizza. Whatever my friends and I decided to do on a Friday or Saturday night, somehow Colony always fit into those plans as either the starting or finishing point. Different era. The Irish cops are long gone along with Bobo, Fitz, Skeets and the lot. It's become pizza first rather than the convivial "Cheers"-like bar it used to be. But the pizza is still unique. I tried Riko's and Ridgeway when I stayed at my late brother's house for awhile back in 2012. Close, but just not the real deal. Star Tavern in E. Orange NJ is the closest I've had.
I'd love it if Pepe's or Sally's opened in Pittsburgh. But I'd also love it if Colony did too. However, I don't think either would work here as Pittsburghers seem to put cheese first, (sweet) sauce second, and crust (undercooked, never char) third in their pizza priorities. Actual thin crust that's not cracker is hard to find, although I've been lucky to have a couple of places that will do what I want on request (although one of them called in quits during the pandemic).
Anyhoo, it was the defense of Beto's by native Pittsburghers that actually got me to realizing that not everyone enjoys a unique pizza. However, unlike bar/tavern pies which also exist in NY, NJ and MA, there is less than zero chance that anyone in the pizza belt would not be completely appalled at the idea, let alone execution, of a Beto's pizza. Yet they've been in business forever and the parking lot is full. To me it's both objectively AND subjectively horrible. But so is dark roast coffee, flavored coffee, supermarket canned/packaged coffee, Keurig coffee, and pretty much anything else that isn't traceable to a plot of land and was roasted months ago. It sucks, period, objectively and subjectively. Yet I'm 100% positive there are those who say that NH/Wooster St. is the ONLY pizza they deem as "real pizza", yet drink that brown dreck and think it's perfectly fine.
IOW, to each their own, I guess.
