Amid all the angry confrontations and bitter feelings over the city of New Haven’s removal of the Christopher Columbus statue from Wooster Square Park, there is something that has the power to bring us back together: Frank Pepe’s pizza.

When my wife, Jennifer Kaylin, and I recently were brainstorming at our kitchen table about a suitable replacement for the Columbus statue, we tossed around the names of some of the many prominent Italian Americans with ties to New Haven. It didn’t take us long to get around to Frank Pepe.