Bill Clinton gets a warm welcome at New Haven’s Pepe’s

Former president Bill Clinton, left, with Nicole Brown and her niece Sydney Marsh at Pepe’s Thursday in New Haven. Former president Bill Clinton, left, with Nicole Brown and her niece Sydney Marsh at Pepe’s Thursday in New Haven. Photo: CONTRIBUTED PHOTO — Charles Pilotti Photo: CONTRIBUTED PHOTO — Charles Pilotti Image 1 of / 5 Caption Close Bill Clinton gets a warm welcome at New Haven’s Pepe’s 1 / 5 Back to Gallery

NEW HAVEN >> Charles Pilotti was eating a slice of Pepe’s Pizza Thursday night when he looked up and said, “Oh my God! I can’t believe it!”

But it was true: former President Bill Clinton had walked into the famed restaurant on Wooster Street, flanked by Secret Service agents, and he was shaking hands with everybody in his path.

“First he went into the kitchen,” recalled Pilotti, an East Haven resident. “Then he came into the dining room. He sat at most of the tables where everybody else was eating. He gave everybody a chance to meet him.”

Pilotti said when Clinton got to his table, “I said, ‘Mr. President, God bless you.’ It’s kind of hard to talk to him with the Secret Service all over.”

But he said the agents allowed him to put his hand around Clinton’s shoulder while Pilotti posed with him for a photo. “I was worried the Secret Service wouldn’t like that,” Pilotti admitted.

Pilotti’s friend, Nicole Brown, also of East Haven, who was there with her niece, Sydney Marsh of Madison, said she asked the former president, “Can I take a picture with you?”

“He said, ‘Sure!’” she recalled. “He was very nice.”

“Everybody was trying to get a picture with him,” she added. “Cameras were flashing everywhere.”

“It was very exciting,” Pilotti said. “It was nice to meet Bill Clinton in person and shake his hand. What a night on Wooster Street!”

He added, “This doesn’t happen often.”

Pilotti and Brown didn’t want to discuss their views on next Tuesday’s Connecticut presidential primary, which might have been why Clinton was in the state. (His wife, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, was in Hartford earlier Thursday for a campaign appearance.) Brown said she is registered as an independent.

Clinton is no stranger to Pepe’s and also must know Sally’s Pizza, as he and Hillary Rodham met while they were at Yale Law School in the ’70s.

Brown said she asked one of the Secret Service agents, “Will you get to eat some pizza?” She said he replied: “Probably.”

Clinton, who left Pepe’s quickly, under police and Secret Service vehicles escort, doubtless also got his pizza “to go.”

Call Randall Beach at 203-680-9345.