The Rochester NY Pizza Blog

A Bit of Brooklyn in Belmont - Billy G's

2012-02-22T12:41:00.000-05:00

I'm an avid hiker, and I tend to favor forests in the Southern Tier, which are bigger, more numerous, and more hilly than those around Rochester. Sometimes I use my excursions as an opportunity to check out far-flung pizza places in the small towns and villages along the Southern Tier Expressway, a/k/a Rt. 17, a/k/a I-86.
After a recent hike in Coyle Hill State Forest in the Southern Tier, I ventured into the village of Belmont in Allegany County. I couldn't recall having been there before, but I assumed that Belmont, like any other small town, would have at least one pizzeria. (I think that's a constitutional requirement, in fact. Or if it's not, it should be.)
Sure enough, right on the corner, across from the stately, neoclassical Village Hall, there was Billy G's Pizzeria, in a two-story brick building that could've come out of an Edward Hopper painting. I wasn't sure if they'd have slices - small-town places are less apt to, as they tend not to get a lot of walk-in traffic - but I figured if they didn't, I'd get a sub instead.
On going in, though, I was pleased to see a sliced pie, half pepperoni, half cheese, behind the counter. I asked for a couple of pepperoni slices to go.
After a brief reheating, my slices were slipped into a paper sleeve and handed to me. I took them out to the car, where I photographed them. They were thinner than I'd expected, but otherwise pretty unremarkable in their appearance.
I started the car, took a bite and drove away, left hand on the wheel, right hand holding a slice. I made it down to the end of the block before thinking, hmm, this is pretty good. I turned the corner and took another bite. Actually, this is very good. A little farther. Man, this is really good! I've got to write this up on the blog. ... No - I've got to turn around and go back and talk to this guy.
So what grabbed my attention, and my taste buds, this way? Partly, just the confounding of my expectations. Or should I say my lack of expectations? What I mean is, generally, when I've had pizza in small towns, it's, well, "eh." Nothing special. Actually, I don't know if it's truly a small-town thing, maybe that's just my perception, but I've come not to expect much from small-town pizzerias. Usually they run to the thick side, with kind of a soft crust, maybe a little oily underneath, a lot of gooey cheese on top - a good "value," if you equate value with the weight of your food, but rather generic. It might be good, but usually it's just mediocre.
The one thing I don't expect to find in a small town in a mostly rural area is good thin-crust pizza. I mean, I know you can find it, theoretically, but the fact is you rarely do. When I have had really good pizza in small towns, it's typically been pizza that's distinctive (it may have a unique sauce, for example), but more often that not it's on the thick side.
But this pizza was decidedly thin, with a crackly exterior and a bready interior. It was foldable, and when I folded one slice completely, the crust cracked open, but the gluteny interior stretched and held together. The crust had a faintly sweet, bready flavor, with subtle toasty notes. It wasn't far off, stylistically, from New York style pizza, although it wasn't advertised as such.
That crust is what got my attention. The toppings? Well, they were OK, if purely secondary to me. The sauce was slightly sweet and flavorful, with some herbs noticeable. The mozzarella was well melted, if a bit dry from being out of the oven for a while. But the components were well balanced, and the slice as a whole was very - surprisingly - good. A fresh pie might rate an A, but this was good enough for an A-minus.
So to get back to my story: Right turn, right turn, right turn, and back. I don't know what the proprietor thought when he saw me walk in the door just minutes after leaving, but I told him about my blog, that I was impressed by his pizza. and that I was curious to know more about his background.
Billy G, a/k/a William Giovanniello, proceeded to tell me that his father owns Giovanni's Pizza in Hornell. Before that, he ran another Hornell pizzeria, Pizza King (which is still in business under different ownership), and before that, he was making pizza in Brooklyn and Long Island.
Now why did all that ring a bell with me? Because of an interview I did with with Jim Staffieri of the Pizza Stop over two years ago. Jim - whose place is a mainstay of New York style pizza in Rochester - told me that his brother Joe, who owns Joe's Brooklyn Pizza, another local favorite of mine, had learned his craft from a pizza maker in Long Island, who subsequently relocated to Hornell and opened a pizzeria there. Joe later moved upstate, again worked for the guy in Hornell, and eventually opened his own place in Rochester, as did Jim.
Yup, Billy's dad, Bill Giovanniello, is that guy. (You can read a bit of his story here.)
That certainly explained why I liked this pizza so much. It shares a close connection - a common ancestor, if you will - with both the Pizza Stop and Joe's Brooklyn Pizza.
Now I have to admit, this made me feel rather good about myself for recognizing something special, or at least reminiscent, about this pizza, enough to warrant going back to talk to the owner. More than that, though, this convinced me that I need to get down to Hornell and pay a visit to Giovanni's (and Pizza King). If this one guy has spawned three good pizzerias in Western New York, in addition to his own, he's already built quite a legacy. He deserves some serious recognition.
Billy, by the way, told me that he will be moving his shop to Dansville in the not-too-distant future. He'll have some competition up there, and I hope they all can survive, but I also hope, for the sake of Belmonters (Belmontians? Belmontese?), that somebody can move into the Belmont space and pick up where Billy left off. That would add yet another fine pizzeria to Bill Giovanniello's pizza progeny.

A Visit to 2 Ton Tony's

2012-02-17T09:55:00.008-05:00

I found myself in Irondequoit the other day around lunchtime, which made a good excuse for a visit to 2 Ton Tony's. I've reviewed Tony's before, and have always liked both his pizza and his dedication to his craft. I won't recite the whole history again, but Tony's commitment to the pizzaiolo's art come as a surprise, since the roots of his pizza go back decades, to the long-gone Proietti's on North Goodman Street. In short, there's a lot of family heritage here. (And at Tony's uncle's place, Proietti's in Webster.)
I had a couple of pepperoni and banana pepper slices - actually, one giant slice, which is how they come, cut in half. They were thin and foldable, with a firm crust, somewhat herbal tomato sauce, nicely melted mozzarella, and meaty, spicy pepperoni. Fresh out of the oven, the aroma of the vinegary hot peppers and the meaty pepperoni was reminiscent of Buffalo wings, which is about as intoxicating as it gets, for my money.
Pizzas at Tony's spend some time on a screen, but are finished off on the oven's stone deck. I've never been a huge fan of pizza screens, but though a lot of screen pizzas that I've tried have a very soft, oily crust (which is the exact opposite of what the screen is supposed to accomplish), Tony's slices have a dry, firm, crisp bottom, with some surface crackling, especially nearer the edge. These weren't charred, or as crackly-crisp, as a New York style slice, but this is not New York style pizza. Tony's pizza falls more into the tradition of Rochester's indigenous style, which tends to have a somewhat thicker, softer crust than its downstate cousin. These were also well balanced slices, with a thin to medium thick crust, and a commensurate level of sauce, cheese, and added toppings, and I found the overall flavor quite good.
This corner of Irondequoit remains a hotbed of pizza competition, with Mark's, Cam's, Bay Goodman, and Little Caesar's - and Wegmans - within a block or two of each other. (I've reviewed several of those, and I will get around to the others eventually.) Apparently Tony likes it that way, because he'll soon be opening a second location in another pizza hotspot, near the intersection of Rts. 59 and 531 in Spencerport, where he'll be squaring off against Cam's (again) and Pontillo's, as well as several other places within a mile or two up the road. But from what I saw, 2 Ton Tony's is up to the challenge, and with competition, the consumer is the winner. If you live nearby, check 'em all out and decide for yourself.
On my prior post about 2 Ton Tony's (I'm not counting the post about his Ring of Fire pizza, which I didn't assign a grade to), I gave my slices on that occasion a B, for pizza that was well made, but lacking a bit of crispness underneath. This one was very similar, but a bit crisper, so they get a boost up a notch, to a B+.
2 Ton Tony's, 545 Titus Ave. (same building as the DMV), Irondequoit
Tel.: 266-TONY (8669)
Hours: Mon. - Thu. 11 a.m. - 9 p.m., Fri. & Sat. 11 a.m. - 10 p.m., Sun. noon - 9 p.m.

Joe's NY Style Pizza, Buffalo

2012-02-14T07:36:00.001-05:00

It's back to Buffalo today, for a quick sample of Joe's, which has gotten high marks on the web for its take on New York style pizza. They also do deep-dish (they're clearly taking a broad approach), but it was the NY style that I was after.
I got a couple of cheese slices, which is the best way, generally, to sample this style - both because the lack of other toppings means you can concentrate on the essentials - crust, sauce, and cheese - and because we're talking here not just about New York style, but New York slice-joint style. Most places that strive to emulate NY style pizza are not after the fancy-schmancy "artisanal" (which too often means overhyped and overpriced) pizza that people in NYC wait two hours in line for the privilege of eating. We're talking the kind of pizza that you can get, for a reasonable price, at countless small pizzerias throughout the five boroughs: thin yet bready, crisp, typically reheated for a minute or two, with a good balance of sauce (which shouldn't be overly seasoned with herbs, sugar or anything else) and well-melted, low-moisture, whole-milk mozzarella cheese.
Joe's slices were appropriately thin, with an underside that was more brown than charred, but nice and crisp, with some light surface crackling. The crust was also foldable, meaning that it could be folded down the middle without cracking in two, but not so floppy as to have the tip drop downward.
The slices were topped by a thin layer of sauce, which had a straightforward, tomatoey flavor, and an even blanket of mozzarella. The three components were well balanced.
Lots of places claim to make New York style pizza, when all they do is make thin-crust pizza. Sorry, but it ain't the same thing. This, though, was a pretty good example of the style. I can't say that it was a truly outstanding example, primarily because the crust didn't quite have that slight charring that I would expect.
Not to digress, but I guess I should explain - what I'm looking for, specifically, with NY style pizza is a crust that's mostly fairly light in color, but with significant blackened, but not burned, areas. If it's uniformly browned, that's not quite right, for the style. The former gives you a crisp but chewy crust, with toasty overtones, while the latter gives you, well, a browned crust, kind of like the outside of a loaf of bread. Still good, perhaps, but without the subtle contrasts of flavor, aroma and texture that you'll find in a great NY style slice.
Having said all that, the bottom line is how much I like the pizza, not whether it conforms to some preconceived notions of mine. As for these, well, if I had gotten them in a slice joint in the City, I'd be happy with them, but I would only consider them average.
But even average pizza in New York City is pretty good, as far as I'm concerned. And true New York style pizza is not always easy to find in Western New York. Not that I would ever want New York style pizza to supplant our native regional styles (and Buffalo has its own style, which I think is subtly different from Rochester's pizza), but it's still nice to find good New York style pizza in these parts. This pizza was among the better, if not the best, examples that I've tried around here.
I haven't been rating the Buffalo pizzerias that I report on, because I know most readers, if they're searching for a place on this site, are looking for something in the Rochester area, and because I know that I'll never come close to covering the full Buffalo pizza scene, so it's tough for me to rate them, since my ratings are based in part on how pizzerias stack up against their area competitors. So I won't assign a grade to this pizza either. But I will say that I liked it, and that if you're looking for New York style pizza in Buffalo, this would be a good place to go.
Joe's NY Style Pizza, 345 Amherst St., Buffalo
Tel. (716) 447-0165
Hours: Mon. - Thu. 10 a.m. - 11 p.m., Fri. - Sat. 10 a.m. - midnight, Sun. 10 a.m. - 10 p.m.

Product Review: Campo Viejo Rioja Crianza Wine

2012-02-12T11:09:00.000-05:00

I was recently sent a bottle of wine from Campo Viejo, for review purposes. Campo Viejo is a half-century-old Spanish winery that produces a full range of wines.
With a name that's a mouthful in itself, Campo Viejo Rioja Crianza is a medium-bodied red wine that's aged in oak barrels for 12 months before being bottled, after which it's aged for several more months before being sold. It's a blended wine made mostly from Tempranillo grapes,
I shared a bottle with some friends recently, over pizza. The consensus was that this wine made a good pizza partner. It had some fruitiness, balanced by tannic notes, a faint spiciness, and a background oakiness. And it was generally agreed that this was a versatile wine. It made a good companion for both the tomato sauce and the cheese on our pizza, so it would be a natural for other tomato- and cheese-based dishes, with a cheese sampler, or with both red and white meats. At about $10 a bottle, this would make a nice addition to your wine rack, or a gift for your dinner host.
Campo Viejo Riojo Crianza
Alcohol: 13.5%
Price: $10.00 (approx.)

And the Winner Is ...

2012-02-10T13:10:00.000-05:00

Meg! After assigning each comment a number, I went to random.org, and Meg@A Dash of Nutmeg is the winner of a $25 gift certificate from Sully's Brickyard Pub.
Meg, I don't think I have your address, so please email me at rochesternypizzaguy@gmail.com, and send me your mailing address. I'll get your certificate out to you. Congratulations and thank you to all who participated. I will try to continue to make these contests a regular feature on the blog.

Pizza D's, Mendon

2012-02-10T07:56:00.006-05:00

Thanks to a reader, I learned about the recent opening of a new pizzeria in Mendon, Pizza D's. (I try to keep up with pizza openings and closings, but I do rely a lot on readers to keep me up to date, so please let me know of recent discoveries.) Pizza D's occupies the former site of a Pontillo's pizzeria.
I ordered an 18-inch large pie, half pepperoni, half sweet peppers and onions, along with some wings.
The crust on my pie was thin to medium, with a dry, firm bottom that I would call "nearly" charred. It had some dark brown areas that weren't quite blackened. I'm guessing Pizza D's individual slices would be good, as a reheating would give the underside a little more of a charred, toasty flavor and aroma. But it was pretty good as it was. The bottom was lightly dusted with corn meal, not much, but just enough to help slide it off the peel.
The crust was topped with a moderately flavored sauce. It was the type I call "middle of the road" - tomatoey, not too salty, not too sweet, not too "herbal". If you like an assertively flavored sauce, you might consider this on the bland side, but I liked it, and it also had a good texture, neither dried out nor watery.
The cheese was just a bit browned. Pizza D's uses whole milk mozzarella, with a pinch of Romano. I can't say that I tasted the Romano, but the mozzarella was pretty good, not stringy or gooey, but also not dried out or oily. The three parts of the pizza trinity here - crust, sauce, and cheese - were well balanced and blended well.
The extra toppings were good too, nothing remarkable, but good. The pepperoni slices were thin, with a slightly crisp texture and meaty flavor, and the veggies were fresh.
The edge of the crust was medium thick, and displayed some nice breadiness, as seen in the bottom photo. All in all, a good pie.

No photos, I'm afraid, but the wings were pretty good too, with a reasonable amount of meat on their bones and a true-to-style medium Buffalo sauce. I ordered mine regular, but Pizza D's also offers "Char-B-Q" wings, which are fried and then grilled for some extra crunch and grilled flavor. I plan to try those next time. Oh, and they serve celery sticks with their wings, which you don't always get anymore, but which I still like (and they were crisp, not bendy).
Which means I think there will be a next time. I often feel like "so many pizzerias, so little time," so I don't always get back to places as soon as I'd like, but Pizza D's will be on my go-to list. This was good pizza, a bit generic, perhaps, but well made. And considering that they'd only been open a short time when I went, that's pretty promising for the future.
If you go, you should know that Pizza D's offers a very wide range of toppings, including - and this may be a first around here - black truffle oil. By my count, there are 13 specialty pizzas available. I'll give a special mention to "The Godfather," which comes with red sauce, chopped garlic, mozzarella, and ... are you ready? pepperoni, capicola, salami, meatballs, pastrami and Italian sausage. I don't think that's for me, but it deserves note for the sheer abundance of meat on one pizza.
Pizza D's wings also come with several varieties of sauce, and they serve hot and cold subs, calzones, pasta, finger foods and salads. There is some seating, and they deliver for a $2 charge.
So - I liked this pizza. I won't give it a top rating, not because I didn't like it, but only because, as good as it was, it wasn't particularly distinctive, and so it wasn't something I would drive many miles out of my way for. If I lived on the other side of the county, I could probably find something roughly equivalent closer to home.
But, having said that, this was a well made, tasty pizza, and certainly a good option for folks in the Mendon area. That's good enough to rate a B+ from me.
Pizza D's, 1350 Pittsford Mendon Rd. (Mendon Commons), Mendon, NY 14506
Tel.: 582-6087
Hours: Mon. - Thu. 11 a.m. - 10 p.m., Fri. & Sat. 11 a.m. - 11 p.m., Sun. noon - 9 p.m.

Russo's Clubhouse Pizza, Revisited

2012-02-08T08:03:00.000-05:00

It's been some two and a half years since my last visit to Russo's Clubhouse Pizza on Long Pond Road. It's way up by the Parkway and I don't get up that way too often.
But it was past time to go back, so I took advantage of having to run an errand up that way and stopped in for a slice.
This was as fresh a slice as you could get, having literally just come out of the oven. So as is often the case with hot, fresh slices, it was a little sloppy looking, since the cheese hadn't had much time to set.
This slice had a thin to medium crust, which had clearly spent some time on a screen, but unlike a lot of screen-baked crusts, this one was reasonably crisp (it's always seemed odd to me that the ostensible purpose of a pizza screen is to produce a crisp crust, and yet screen-baked crusts are usually anything but crisp). There were a few small spots where the bottom had charred or blackened just a bit. The interior of the crust also showed a nice rise, with an airy texture or "crumb," in breadspeak.
There was a good amount of sauce on this slice. Again, because the slice had just come out of the oven, it may have seemed more "wet" than usual, but it was on the saucy side. The sauce had a cooked-tomato flavor that was more sweet than salty, but not overly sweet.
The cheese seemed to be straight low-moisture, or processed mozzarella (which is not a bad thing - if you're unfamiliar with the different kinds of mozzarella, go here). It was a little gooey, but good. And the slice as a whole was pretty well balanced between the crust, sauce and cheese. And the pepperoni, which was crisp along the edges but not dried out.
I liked this slice. It was pretty similar to the one I had before (which I gave a B-minus), but - maybe because it was so fresh - I do think it deserves to get bumped up one notch. It was well balanced, tasty and reasonably crisp underneath, so I'm giving it a B.
Russo's Clubhouse Pizza, 496 Long Pond Road, Greece, NY 14612
Tel.: 225-3570
Hours (call ahead to confirm): Sun. - Thu. 11 a.m. - 10:30 p.m., Fri. & Sat. 11 a.m. - midnight

Friday Giveaway: $25 Gift Certificate to Sully's Brickyard Pub

2012-02-03T09:09:00.000-05:00

I had lunch yesterday at Sully's on South Avenue downtown (I didn't have pizza - sometimes it's nice to take a break - but one of my companions did, as seen in the photo), and they very graciously agreed to give me a $25 gift certificate, to give away to one lucky reader. I've always enjoyed Sully's wood-fired pizza, and if you haven't tried it yet, you'll be in for a treat if you win (even if you don't win, you should check out their pizza sometime). And of course the gift certificate is good for anything on Sully's menu, not just pizza (their burgers are really good too).
To be eligible to win, all you have to do is leave a comment at the end of this post. I will need some way of contacting you if you win, though, including a postal mailing address, so just leaving an anonymous comment will not do. If your Google profile contains contact information, that'll work. Otherwise, you can put an email address directly into your comment, or you can email me with your information, but you must leave a comment at the end of this post to be eligible. Just sending me an email is not enough. Once you win, I can get your postal address and mail it to you.
I'd like you to check out Sully's menu and include in your comment what you think you'd like to try there, or leave some other comment about Sully's, but it's not a strict requirement. Any comment will do. You can leave as many comments as you wish, but leaving more comments will not increase your chances of winning.
I will pick a winner, at random, in one week, next Friday, February 10. The deadline for entering is noon on that day, although I may not announce a winner until sometime that afternoon. But if you want to be sure to get in, do it by noon on the 10th.
Sully’s Pub, 242 South Ave.
(877) 805-3570

Otto Tomotto's, Victor

2012-02-02T13:07:00.004-05:00

There are a number of restaurants around town that offer pizza, but that aren't the kind of places you go to to get a pizza to go. Those tend to take me longer to get to, since I can't just get one at lunchtime or on the way home. But I do try to get to them when I can.
One such place is Otto Tommoto's in Victor. When I first heard about it, I assumed it was a chain restaurant. Something about the cutesy name, I guess. But it's not. It's an independent Italian restaurant, in a strip plaza on Rt. 96, a little east of Victor.
I had dinner there recently with my wife. Pizzas were listed as an appetizer, so I got one as such, although I could've easily made it my entree. With a pasta entree, another shared appetizer that my wife ordered, and a salad (which also proved to be superfluous, given the greens on my pizza), I had way too much food, and ended up taking some of the pizza home.
Otto's has five grilled pizzas on the menu - the original (basically a red-sauce pizza with four cheeses), a mushroom pizza, a "Tuscan Grill" pizza with olives, veggies, herbs and truffle oil, a clam pie, and a zucchini-crusted pie with veggie toppings.
Ordinarily I'd go for the most basic option, but the zucchini-crusted pie was the winner of Otto's 2011 Wooden Spoon Scholarship competition, submitted by Michael Piccone of the Finger Lakes Technical Career Center. Every purchase of this pizza adds another dollar to next year's scholarship fund. And it sounded pretty good, with a grilled pizza crust infused with shredded zucchini, and topped with sun-dried tomato pesto, Kalamata olives, Roma tomatoes (which are somewhat annoyingly, to me, spelled "tomottos" throughout the menu), Feta cheese and roasted peppers. So that's what I got.
The crust was soft, and reminiscent of pita bread. But it was enjoyable - I have nothing against pita bread - and had some added flavor imparted by the grilling, which was evident from the marks underneath. I didn't particularly notice any presence of the zucchini "infused" into the crust, but that's kind of how it is with zuccini. I mean, zucchini bread doesn't sound that great to me, but it's OK because it doesn't really taste like zucchini. Zucchini just seems to blend into dough without adding a lot of flavor or texture. It did leave me wondering, though, what Otto's regular, non-zucchini-infused crust is like.
With all the toppings on this pizza, it was a pretty "busy" pie, but the toppings worked well together, even if the total effect wasn't quite as flavorful as I'd expected. It was almost like a salad atop a grilled flatbread, but I enjoyed it well enough.
And I did like the restaurant in general. I should mention that our other appetizer, "Otto chips" (bottom photo) were downright addictive. These were homemade potato chips topped with roasted red peppers, scallions, Alfredo sauce, bacon, olives and Asiago cheese. As the menu says, they're essentially "Italian nachos." Not exactly diet food, but delicious.
And I must also mention that the service was good. It was good throughout our meal, but what stood out was that at the end of our meal, our server asked if my wife's entree was all right, since she left a lot of it on the plate. When my wife said that she wasn't thrilled with it, our server took it back to the kitchen, and emerged to say that it had been taken off our bill. That's good service, and I appreciated that.
This is one of those places I'd go back to, but probably not for the pizza. I am kind of curious about their regular pizza crust, but there are other things on the menu I'd like to try, and overall I was well pleased with the restaurant. This pizza was so different from conventional pizza - and it was pretty accurately described on the menu - that I don't think it would be fair to rate it. I will say that it's not a bad option, but there are other items on the menu that I'd probably opt for next time.
Otto Tomotto's, 300 Phoenix Mills Plaza, Route 96, Victor, NY
Tel.: 585-742-2070Hours: Tue. - Thu. 11:30 - 9 p.m., Fri. 11:30 - 10 p.m., Sat. 4 - 10 p.m., Sun. noon - 8 p.m.

Caraglio's, Gates

2012-01-30T13:05:00.001-05:00

I recently paid a visit to the Caraglio's in Gates, at the corner of Elmgrove and Lyell, where DiRosato's had been. I got a pepperoni slice.
Usually the first thing I check is the underside of the crust. But the first thing I noticed on this oversized slice was that it was a little skimpy on the pepperoni. You can see for yourself in the photo. It was good pepperoni, nice and crisp, but four little slices? Come on.
But on to the crust - it was pretty thin, with prominent screen marks on its browned bottom. I picked up a faint aroma of cooking oil.
This wasn't a particularly saucy slice. Given the thinness of the crust it was reasonably well balanced in that regard, but it was perhaps a bit over-evaporated. The sauce was pretty middle-of-the-road, with a mild tomatoey, if a bit bland, flavor. The mozzarella was well browned, a bit more than I like, and it too was on the dry side. Maybe this slice had been sitting out for a while. (And to those who tell me I shouldn't judge a pizzeria based on a slice, I repeat my usual rejoinder: I'm not rating the pizzeria, I'm rating this slice. Take it for what it's worth. And if a pizzeria sells slices, they should see to it that they don't sell stale slices.)
This marks my third visit to a local Caraglio's. Generally, this slice fit the profile - big, screen-baked, a little floppy - but it differed in some ways from both the other two visits (on Dewey Ave. and in Hilton). The crust was OK, perhaps the best of the three, but it was rather dry and skimpy on the toppings, even for a thin slice. I'll give it a C-minus.
Caraglio's, 3869 Lyell Rd. 14606
Tel. 426-0270
Sun. - Thu. 11 a.m. - 9 p.m., Fri. & Sat. 11 a.m. - 10 p.m.

Romeo's, Greece: Pepperoni Pie

2012-01-27T15:05:00.001-05:00

Two years ago (wow - has it been that long?) I did a post on Romeo's in Greece, where I tried a Margherita pizza. The crust wasn't quite as crisp as I would've liked from a wood-fired oven, but it was good enough to rate a B.
I've been back since, with friends, one of whom got a pepperoni pizza. I opted for pasta, but I got to sample the pizza.
This had a surprisingly thick crust for a wood-fired pizza, although that was partly owing to my companion who ordered it. She could've opted for a thinner crust, but went with a "regular" thick crust, which is probably more in line with what people are used to on Rochester's West side, which is a bastion of traditional Italian-American food.
In a nutshell, the flavor was good, but, for my taste, the crust was a little soft. There was a generous amount of sauce, which had a very tomatoey, slightly herbal flavor. It was topped by well-melted, slightly gooey mozzarella, and tasty, crisp slices of pepperoni.
So far, so good. But the crust - to go with Romeo's golf-themed menu terminology, a holdover from its former incarnation as Bogey's Woodfired Grill - was not quite up to par. It tasted all right, but it was rather soft underneath. Now that might be fine with some people, but it was also slightly gummy where the dough met the sauce, and to me that's a no-no. It wasn't terribly gummy, mind you, but a little.
This was a well-balanced pizza, with crust, sauce and cheese in good proportion to each other, but I think this was a case were less might've been more. If they had simply scaled back on everything, the crust might've been crisper, without that gumminess that results when liquid from the sauce strts to dissolve the dough before it gets a chance to cook.
Still, that was the only real flaw here, it was, as I said, attributable in part to what was ordered, and otherwise the pizza was pretty good. I don't see any reason to depart from my previous "B" grade for Romeo's.
Romeo’s Restaurant & Bistro, 2500 Ridgeway Ave.
Tel. 342-9340
Mon.-Wed. 11 a.m. - 10 p.m., Thu. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 11 p.m., Sun. 4 p.m. - 8 p.m. (Bar opens at noon on Sundays, stays open every night till ?)

Cam's, Mt. Hope

2012-01-25T13:36:00.016-05:00

A couple of people have asked me to review the Cam's on Mt. Hope Avenue near Elmwood. I've made a couple of stops there, so here's a report.
I have found Cam's to be pretty consistently good. As regular readers know, I'm no fan of chain pizzerias, but I have been impressed with the job that Cam's does of turning out reasonably good, New York style pizza, at numerous locations. And this was, generally, no exception.
On one visit, I got a cheese slice and a stuffed slice, something I don't remember seeing before at Cam's. It may have been there all along, I just never noticed.
The cheese slice was decent, with some spotty, light charring underneath. It did seem unusually thin, so much so that the crust lacked any bready interior, except along the edge. Maybe it was just me, that day, but although there was a bit of toastiness underneath, the crust also seemed a tad bland, as if there wasn't enough salt in the dough.
A good New York style slice should strike a balance between crispness and pliability. This came close, but the needle seemed to be tilting a little more toward the "pliable" end of the scale. So while the crust was OK, it mostly served as a platform for the sauce and the cheese.
Speaking of which, the sauce and cheese were pretty good. The sauce was slightly sweet, with some herbs in the background, and the slightly browned cheese had a slight tanginess that balanced it out well. (Cam's menu says that they use Grande® mozzarella, which many pizza connoisseurs consider among the best.)
Next up was a slice topped with cheese and pepperoni, and stuffed with sausage and pepperoni. As you can see from the cross-section photo, it wasn't as heavy, or thick, as it sounds. The bottom, and top, crusts were paper-thin, almost as if they'd managed to take the thin crust from my cheese slice and slice it in half horizontally. And the stuffing, while certainly noticeable, wasn't, well, overabundant. Don't get me wrong - it was a tasty, well-balanced slice. I'm just saying, don't confuse this with a deep-dish or casserole-type pizza.
That said, this was a heavier slice than the cheese slice, since it was mostly meat. The cheese layer was also thin but solid, covering the entire slice. Neither it nor the underside were as browned as on the cheese slice. The pepperoni slices on top were hardly necessary, but added some additional flavor.
On a separate visit, I got a Buffalo chicken slice, and a white-pizza veggie slice, which made for a more nutritionally balaced duo than on my other visit. The former came with finely diced chicken, tossed in a medium-hot Buffalo sauce, along with Ken's blue cheese dressing and mozzarella. A smattering of banana pepper rings added a vinegary edge and a bit more heat, although the overall flavor profile still hovered around medium. If you're tolerant enough of spicy food to be ordering one of these, then I'm sure you'd have no problem with the heat level on this one.
At first, I thought the veggie slice was Cam's take on a Margherita, but no, that's not basil, that's spinach, and that's feta, not fresh mozzarella.
Cam's veggie pizza is described as being topped with "fresh spinach on a bed of garlic butter & Grande mozzarella with your choice of tomatoes or artichokes, finished off with feta cheese crumbled over the top" (obviously this one had tomatoes). Those made for an enjoyable combination.
When I was a kid, I loved Popeye cartoons, but they never convinced me to eat spinach. In fact, I've long thought that Popeye cartoons were pro-spinach propaganda, but now I realize that they probably did more to turn me off spinach than anything else. I knew that if ate spinach (canned spinach, no less), my biceps wouldn't really blow up like a balloon, nor would I be able to turn an alligator into a matching set of luggage with one punch from my cinderblock-size fists, but I did get the impression from those cartoons that kids were expected to hate spinach, so I refused to touch the stuff.
Of course, the spinach on my family's dinner table at that time was usually the frozen kind, which is about as appetizing as the stuff you clean out of your gutter in late fall. So it was a revelation for me to discover, as an adult, that fresh spinach leaves are actually not bad. Not on my favorite-foods list, but not bad, and they contributed a nice flavor here, which was well complemented by the sharp, salty feta, garlic butter and tomatoes. Even the tomatoes were reasonably good - they looked to be Roma tomatoes, which in the off-season especially, are often a better choice than so-called "slicing" tomatoes.
I'm not going to individually rate all these pizza slices. I will say that in general, they were typical of Cam's - reliably good, if not quite top-tier, thin-crust pizza. The crusts were decent, reasonably crisp, with some light charring, and the toppings were of good quality and tasty. I'd say these average out to about a B-plus.
Cam's Pizzeria, 1290 Mt. Hope Ave., Rochester 14620
Tel.: 256-7437 (PIES)
Hours: Mon. - Sat. 10 a.m. - 11 p.m., Sun. noon - 10 p.m.

Sinbad's "Pitza"

2012-01-20T14:35:00.001-05:00

It's not uncommon at Greek or Near Eastern restaurants to see some variant of pizza on the menu, usually involving pita bread. Despite - in fact, because of - my love for pizza, I typically don't order those. If I want pizza, I'll go to a pizzeria. If I'm at a Greek restaurant, then I generally want more traditional fare like souvlaki or a gyro. (Now for all I know, the Greeks may have been eating pizza-like flatbreads for thousands of years, but I'm talking about traditional American-style Greek food, or what most Americans think of when they think of Greek food.)
But on a recent visit to Sinbad's on Park Avenue, I decided to break from my usual routine and try one of their "pitzas." There are eight on the menu, and several of them did sound tempting. Hot sauce or peppers are usually the clincher for me, though, so I went with the "Ganbari" pitza, which the menu described as topped with "our hot sauce as a base, with shrimp, spinach leaves, roasted pepper, artichoke hearts and parmesan cheese."
It was a good choice. Not terribly spicy (though I've built up quite a tolerance for spicy-hot foods over the years), but very tasty indeed. The mélange of flavors worked quite well, as the toppings complemented rather than clashed with each other. And while the toppings were laid on pretty generously, there wasn't so much going on here as to overwhelm my taste buds or to turn into a mismatched mishmash (try saying that three times fast). The savory, peppery shrimp played off the tart artichoke hearts (kudos for the absence of hard, unchewable artichoke leaves) and the sharp grated Parmesan, with the roasted red pepper slices and wilted spinach leaves adding some welcome, subtle background flavor.
And I must say that I liked the crust as well. I was afraid that it might either be brittle and crackerlike, or simply like an ordinary pita, soft and chewy. This was crisp but not brittle, and a bit bready as well. Judged purely as a pizza crust, I might not give it exceptionally high marks, but for what this was - a flatbread-like hybrid between a pita and a pizza crust - it was pretty good.
The fact remains, this wasn't a traditional pizza, so I'm not going to give it a rating. If you really want pizza, I don't think you'd go to Sinbad's to get it. But it was pretty good. And you may want to check out some of the other "pitzas," like the "Sultan's," with tahini, charbroiled beef and lamb, onions, pepper rings, tomatoes, feta and parsley, or the "Ali Baba," with garlic sauce, tomatoes, charbroiled eggplant, feta, olives and parsley. And there are plenty of other dishes to choose from - I've been going to Sinbad's for years, as I've always enjoyed their various Mediterranean dishes.
Sinbad's, 719 Park Ave, Rochester NY 14607
Tel.: 473-8270
Hours: 11 a.m. - 10 p.m. daily

Rubino's, Webster

2012-01-18T08:22:00.000-05:00

I've long been familiar with Rubino's, going back to when they had a location at the Midtown Plaza food court. I always thought they made pretty good subs, but Midtown's only a memory, and in recent years I kind of stopped paying attention to Rubino's. I think they also had a small place on State Street across from Kodak for a while, but that's gone too, and since I started this blog my sub consumption has declined precipitously.
So I owe some thanks to the reader who recently informed me that Rubino's has a place in Webster that serves pizza. Come to find out, their other locations do too, according to the menu on their website, but Webster's the one that I checked out.
I ordered a medium pepperoni pizza to go (the photos were taken immediately after I got it, so it was still fresh and hot). It had a thin to medium crust, with a soft pale bottom. It was a little doughy, and just a bit crisp along the edge. As is often the case with soft-crusted pizzas, I liked the crisp edge better than the soft middle.
The crust was topped by a thin layer of sauce, which had some herbal flavor, but was nonetheless on the bland side. The melted mozzarella was a little chewy and easily separated from the crust.
I haven't been to any of the other Rubino's, but the one in Webster is, I believe, unique among them in that it includes a sports bar. The atmosphere, at lunch anyway, was more deli than bar, and they close at 8 p.m., so it's not a place to go hang out all night, but the bar and numerous HDTVs make it a good option for watching a daytime or late-afternoon game over a cold pint and a pizza.
Or more likely, a sub. Rubino's is still primarily a deli, not a pizzeria, as one look at their menu confirms. It's dominated by the subs, which are far too numerous to list here, but they've got as wide a variety of hot and cold subs as you'll find in the area. And prices include up to seven toppings of your choice. I'm particularly intrigued by the "garlic subs" - which I guess means on a toasted, garlic-bread style roll. They also offer panini, pasta and salads.
The pizza? Well, it was OK. Not great, but good enough. But the subs are a better option here, and for pizza I'd probably go elsewhere. I'll give the pizza a C-minus.
Rubino's Italian Submarines and Sports Pub, 44 E. Main St., Webster
Tel.: 265-0870
Mon. - Sat. 10 a.m. -8 p.m.
Other locations at 343 East Ave. and 1659 Mt. Hope Ave. in Rochester, and 349 W. Commercial St. in East Rochester

Vinny's Twofer

2012-01-13T15:08:00.000-05:00

I've posted about Vinny's Bakery & Deli in Fairport twice before, in August 2010 and in March 2011. I've consistently been pleased and impressed with their pizza, particularly the Sicilian pizza. That's no great surprise, considering that the owners are from Sicily.
And I frankly just love these kinds of places. If the pizza was bad, I'd say so, but in my experience, pizzerias that are run by Italian immigrants, or that have stayed in the families of Italian immigrants, make good pizza. And Vinny's is no exception.
I recently split a Sicilian sheet pizza with someone, which gave me more than enough to feed my family of three.
Unfortunately, thick-crust pizza with no mozzarella is a tough sell in my house, so I also got a "regular" pizza, half plain, half pepper and onions. And I got half of my Sicilian with mozzarella, again to please my family (what can I say - they're not pizza purists). The other half was the "true" Sicilian pizza, with just tomato sauce, garlic and grated Romano (there are two slices in the upper right of the top photo with no cheese - that's due to the mozzarella sticking to the inside cover of the box, which probably has more to do with my driving than anything else.
So let's get right to the star of the show, the Sicilian pizza. A reader who's a big fan of Vinny's urged me to try a traditional Sicilian, partly because the use of grated cheese, rather than a blanket of sliced or shredded cheese, allows the moisture in the dough to evaporate, resulting in a crisper crust.
This is one that I've had to think about. Now it stands to reason that a thicker layer of dough will contain more moisture than a thin crust. And some of that moisture has to evaporate in order to get a crisp crust.
A solid blanket of cheese would certainly seem to impede the evaporation of moisture from inside the crust. Does that mean that a pizza with a sprinkling of grated cheese will have a crisper crust?
At first blush, that might seem to make some sense, but I'm not so sure, even after eating this pizza. I didn't see any big difference between the slices with the sliced mozzarella and those without. In thinkinig about it, I also think that the sauce itself would be the primary impediment to moisture evaporating from the crust. And this was saucy pizza. I think where the cheese matters most is probably on the top side - if the sauce is exposed to the hot air inside the oven, some of its water will evaporate, concentrating the flavor of the sauce, and avoiding the gumminess that can result when water from the sauce leaches back into the top layer of the crust. But I don't think it probably makes much difference as to the underside, especially if you eat the pizza while it's still hot.
Having said all that, I really liked this pizza. The underside of Vinny's pizza is not quite like that of any other pizzeria around here that I've tried (and I've tried nearly all of them). It literally shines, with a glossy surface that's crisp and smooth, yet not at all greasy. The interior of the crust is light and airy but not overly soft. It doesn't quite have the complexity of flavor that I would expect from a slow-rising dough - but it makes a very good base for the toppings.
Ah yes, the toppings. I love a good plate of spaghetti and meatballs, but sometimes the best part is mopping up the sauce with a thick slice of Italian bread. This was very much like that experience, only a few notches higher. Each slice was topped with a thick, tomatoey sauce, infused with chunks of garlic, and a generous sprinkling of pungent, grated Romano cheese. There are lots of good food combinations out there, but none better than tomatoes, garlic, and Romano.
Given the relative lack of cheese, as compared with a typical, mozzarella-topped American pizza, the sauce was added in good balance with the thick crust, enough to provide moisture and flavor without overwhelming the crust or making it soggy. The slices with mozzarella (thin sliced, not shredded - this was clearly good mozzarella, hand-sliced off a block) were equally good, although the mozzarella seemed superfluous to me, even if it did make the pizza more acceptable to my young daughter, as it conformed more to her conception of what pizza should look like.
But both she and my wife were more interested in the "regular" pizza - a standard pie, with tomato sauce and mozzarella, which I got half-topped with peppers and onions. What can I say? It was very good, though to me it took a back seat to the Sicilian. The thin-to-medium crust was lightly charred underneath, with a dry, firm underside. What I noticed most about this pizza was the cheese, which was very nicely melted, and which was clearly top-shelf stuff - no dried-out shreds here, or orangey oil exuding from the cheese, just a smooth, creamy blanket of mozzarella.
If you really prefer standard, American-style pizza, then you should be more than happy with Vinny's version. It's got a nice crust and tasty toppings, and easily rates a B+. But it would be a shame to go to Vinny's for a pizza and not get a Sicilian. I've never been to Sicily, but I have to think this is as close as it gets, in these parts. It gets an A from me.

Mama's Pizza Kitchen, Revisited

2012-01-10T13:34:00.002-05:00

After I gave a C-minus to Mama's Pizza Kitchen on Lake Avenue back in 2010, some readers urged me to go back there and give them another try. It's taken me a while, but I did.
I would've liked to try a full pie, but I just didn't need or want that much pizza to deal with, so I got two cheese slices, which had just emerged from the oven, so I figured they'd be pretty representative of a fresh pie. And Mama's does seem to be kind of a slice joint, with big, floppy slices that are made for walk-in traffic around Charlotte.
These were big, thin slices, with a medium-brown, screen-baked underside. They were just a bit oily to the touch, and had a faint aroma of cooking oil. The crust was quite pliable, making the slices easy to fold, but they were not crisp at all.
The toppings were added in pretty good proportion to the crust, but the cheese was more prominent than the sauce. It was on the salty side and just a little browned. It had congealed into a solid blanket, and was more chewy than smooth or stringy.
Between the cheese and crust was a thin layer of tomatoey, slightly tangy sauce. A sprinkling of dried herbs on top rounded out the flavor profile.
I thought this pizza was OK. I didn't mind it. And it had some things going for it. Any big, floppy, cheesy slice of pizza will usually be sort of good, at some level.
But it was only marginally better than last time. There was a little more sauce, and the cheese had a better texture than last time, when it was overcooked. And though this doesn't affect the grade, the service was good, friendly, and accommodating. So I guess it does deserve to get bumped up a notch, but that's all, I'm afraid. This one comes in at a C.

Mama's Pizza Kitchen, 4410 Lake Ave., Rochester 14612

Tel.: 581-0222

Tue. - Thu. 11 a.m. - 10 p.m., Fri. 11 a.m. - 2 a.m., Sat. noon - 2 a.m., Sun. noon - 10 p.m. Closed Mon.

Pontillo's, Hudson Ave. & East Ridge

2012-01-05T08:27:00.001-05:00

Some time ago, somebody asked for a review of the Pontillo's in Irondequoit. I'm sorry it's taken so long, but I finally made it there.
Often, I like to get a plain cheese slice, or maybe a pepperoni slice, as they serve as useful benchmarks for pizza. But on this occasion, confronted with a wide variety of slices to choose from at lunchtime, I went with a Buffalo chicken slice and a pepperoni Sicilian slice. Next time I'm up that way, I'll get a regular cheese slice.
The Buffalo chicken slice was very thin and easy to fold, with a lightly browned bottom. It was not at all charred, unlike most Pontillo's pizzas I've had. (As has been pointed out before, Pontillo's is a very loosely knit chain, with different locations often sharing no more than a name, so what you get at one may not be much of an indicator of what you'll get at another.) But there was no greasiness, either; the underside was dry and a bit floury, with some surface crackling, a good sign of a crisp crust. The edge was nice and bready, with the texture and flavor of Italian bread.
Buffalo chicken pizza may be one of the most variable styles, with options including tomato sauce, hot sauce, breaded or unbreaded chicken (which might be ground or cubed), mozzarella or blue cheese, celery, carrots, and various permutations of all of those. This one was topped with a thin layer of wing sauce. It was fairly mild, but packed some punch, as it more flavor than physical substance, as compared with a typical tomato-based pizza sauce.
Atop that, small chunks of diced, unbreaded white meat provided the protein. They were a little on the dry side (wouldn't dark meat be closer to real wings?), but you may prefer that to right-out-of-the-fryer, breaded chicken coated with grease that spreads oil all over the pizza.
The cheese here seemed to be all mozzarella. It was about as thick as the crust itself, but since the crust was thin, this wasn't overly cheesy pizza. If there was any blue cheese in there, it was well in the background, as I didn't taste any. The overall flavor of this slice was of chicken, overlaid with mild Buffalo-style spices, with the thin but bready crust as a base, and the mozzarella cheese as a condiment. In some ways, this was almost like a Buffalo chicken wrap - a cup of blue cheese dipping sauce would've been nice.
I don't recall having seen Sicilian slices at any Pontillo's before, not that I'm any expert on Pontillo's, but that's why I opted for one here. These were available with either cup-and-char or "regular" pepperoni, and I chose the former.
This slice was about an inch thick, and roughly six by six inches. The underside was well browned, and just slightly oily to the touch, which is not uncommon for a pan-baked pizza. It was firm underneath, with a bit of crunch on the surface, and dotted with bubble holes and craters of various sizes. As I have generally found to be true of Pontillo's crusts, this one was chewy and bready, with a well-risen interior marked by numerous air pockets.
The tomato sauce also seemed very similar to what I've had at other Pontillo's locations, with a medium-thick consistency and a touch of sweetness. The mozzarella cheese didn't blanket the entire slice, but seemed to have settled into some low spots on the surface as it melted. The pepperoni was more evenly distributed and was good and crisp along the edges, with a nice crunch followed by a meaty chewiness. All in all, the slice was on the heavy side, a bit dense, but more from the substantial, thick, chewy crust than in an overloaded or oil-soaked way, as is the case with some pan-baked pizzas.
The Irondequoit Pontillo's has a little seating, and a basic menu consisting of pizza, calzones and wings. Service was friendly, despite the lunchtime crush. Oh, and despite the official address, the entrance is on Hudson Ave., just north of East Ridge.
These were both pretty good slices, further confirming that despite its loose-knit organizational structure, Pontillo's generally turns out reliably good pizza. I'll give the Buffalo chicken slice a B, on the strength of its good crust and tasty toppings. The Sicilian gets a B as well, for a crust with nice crunch, appropriate density and chew, and overall good balance.
Pontillo's,702 E. Ridge Rd. (Hudson Plaza), Rochester 14621
Tel.: (585) 467-6900
Hours: Mon. - Wed. 3 p.m. - 10 p.m., Thu. - Sun. 11 a.m. - 10 p.m.

Book Review: Make the Bread, Buy the Butter

2011-12-30T16:06:00.001-05:00

There are plenty of reasons why a person might choose to prepare or grow food at home rather than buy it at a store or restaurant: to save money; because homemade or homegrown tastes better, or is better for you, or is better for the environment; or because you simply enjoy it. I, for one, regularly bake my own bread, mostly because I like doing it, but also because it tastes great, if you'll pardon my saying so.
But there are things that I'd rather buy than make myself. Some are obvious. I like a good hamburger or steak now and then, but I'm not about to raise and slaughter my own cattle.
Others are less so. After trying and failing several times to make perfect french fries at home, I've decided to leave that to the experts at Mickey D's and elsewhere. I'm sure there are reasons why that's a bad idea, but the bottom line is, theirs taste better, and it's a pain in the butt to make them at home.
Now comes a book that breaks it all down for you. At least that's the premise of Make the Bread, Buy the Butter, by Jennifer Reese. According to the book-jacket blurb, after losing her job, Reese "began a series of kitchen-related experiments, taking into account the competing demands of everyday contemporary American family life," seeking to answer such questions as "When is homemade better? Cheaper? Are backyard eggs a more ethical choice than store-bought? Will grinding and stuffing your own sausage ruin your week? Is it possible to make an edible maraschino cherry?"
This makes for interesting reading, although it will be a rare reader who agrees with all of Reese's suggestions. I take issue with two of her verdicts, on pizza and baguettes. She recommends making the former, and buying the latter. I've nothing against making pizza at home - I do it myself, with some regularity - but there are times when you want to pick up a pizza, for the sake of convenience or variety. I mean, I think I make some pretty good pizza, but sometimes I want pizza from a particular pizzeria, that I just can't duplicate at home.
As for baguettes, I don't find them much trouble at all. Sure, I'm always tweaking my recipes and methods, in an endless quest for la baguette parfaite, but there's really not all that much work involved in producing excellent loaves at home. I'm not sure why Reese's attempts have met with such disappointing results, but that points up one of the flaws in this book. Reese tends to extrapolate too much from her own personal experiences. Regarding baguettes, for instance, she confesses that "after years of experimenting," she has come to the conclusion that she is not a "serious bread hobbyist." But I'm equally convinced, from my own experience, that you needn't be a "serious" baker to make terrific bread - in fact, in some ways I find baguettes easier than sandwich loaves, which Reese recommends making, not buying.
Likewise, Reese relates a horror story of her failed attempt to raise egg-laying ducks, but half way through, she admits to having figured out that she and her family are simply not "duck people." We have ducks at my house, and though my wife and daughter are their primary caretakers, I pitch in, and I think they would agree with me that the ducks really aren't much trouble. Of course they're not for everybody, but if you've done your homework, then once you're set up, you shouldn't have nearly as difficult a time of it as Reese apparently did.
Having said all that, there's still a lot to recommend about this book. Reese breaks down the relative costs and hassle of homemade vs. store-bought, and though I haven't done my own calculations, her numbers mostly sound about right.
The best part of the book, for me, was the recipes. At least for those items that she does recommend making at home, Reese provides simple how-tos that walk you through the process. Now it's easy enough to find recipes for just about anything today, but until I'd leafed through this book, I'd never seriously considered making my own caramel corn or Worcestershire sauce, much less the Korean condiment kimchi. But after reading Reese's recipes, they do sound easy enough, and as I write this I'm in the middle of making homemade mustard from Reese's recipe.
I only wish that Reese had included similar recipes for the items she doesn't recommend making yourself, just so I could judge for myself whether it might be worth trying. What she typically does instead is again to relate her own ill-fated attempts to make a dish, and based on that, to advise against trying it yourself. (She does give recipes for a few things, like onion rings and bacon, about which she doesn't take a hard, make-it-or-buy-it position, leaving it up to you to decide.)
On the plus side, I should add that I have made some things in here, like hot sauce and barbecue sauce, and I completely agree with Reese that they're easy and cheap to make at home, with results that are at least as good as anything you'll buy at a supermarket.
So while I don't agree with all of Reese's verdicts, I still enjoyed, and do enjoy, thumbing through this book. It's more valuable for what she does recommend preparing at home than for what she doesn't, but it's generally a fun read. Even when I find myself disagreeing with Reese, she's at least gotten me thinking, which in itself is one mark of a good book, particularly when the subject is one about which people are as opinionated and passionate as they are about food.
Make the Bread, Buy the Butter: What You Should and Shouldn't Cook from Scratch -- Over 120 Recipes for the Best Homemade Foods. Jennifer Reese (author). 304 pages. Free Press (Oct. 18, 2011).

Mario's

2011-12-30T14:05:00.003-05:00

Rochester has an embarrassment of riches where Italian restaurants are concerned, with everything from old school, "red sauce" places to higher-end establishments that aim to take Italian food to the level of high art.
Mario's on Monroe Avenue falls somewhere in the middle, with items ranging from spaghetti and meatballs to pricier fare like osso bucco and cioppino, with a touch of steakhouse on the menu as well.
And pizza, which is what drew me here on a recent weeknight for dinner. Although it's listed under antipasti on the menu, I made an entree out of Mario's Margherita pizza, which is described as a "crispy thin crust stone oven style, [with] fresh tomatoes [and] fresh buffalo mozzarella."
The thin-to-medium crust was pale on the bottom, with some faint markings that could've been from a grill or other cooking surface. The edge was dry and crunchy, but the rest of the crust was lifeless, with little evidence of yeast activity, and a doughy flavor. I wondered if Mario's uses frozen crusts.
The slices of fresh mozzarella were evenly distributed, spoke-fashion, around the pizza, and were nicely melted, with a smooth, creamy texture. Although not mentioned on the menu, there was also a layer of what appeared to be low-moisture, processed mozzarella underneath. It was rather dry and didn't add a whole lot of flavor or texture.
Between the two layers of cheese were some thick slices of fresh tomato. Unfortunately these were quite bland, contributing little other than color. Some shredded basil, which appeared to have been added after the pizza came out of the often, added some complexity to the overall flavor profile, though most of it had been piled onto one side of the pie.
Overall, this pizza tasted all right, though it was a bit on the bland side. I was glad that I accepted my server's offer of some grated Parmesan.
But the biggest problem was the crust. It just had nothing going for it, in terms of flavor, texture or otherwise. That was disappointing, given the menu's reference to the crust being "stone oven style" (I'm not sure what stone oven "style" means, but it sounded promising.)
It was doubly disappointing because Mario's other food seemed pretty good. I only had a salad, in addition to my pizza, but I couldn't help stealing a few glances at my neighbors' plates, which looked quite appetizing, and for much of my meal I was treated to a wonderful aroma that I'm guessing came from Mario's grilled steaks (I meant to ask my server if she could identify it for me, but I forgot).
So while I would put Mario's on my mental list of places to revisit, I can't recommend it for the pizza alone. If they are using frozen crusts, well, not much you can do to improve those. But if they are using fresh dough, it seems to me it needs to rise a little longer, and be baked at higher temperatures, because this wasn't that great. I'll give it a C-minus.
Mario's Italian Steakhouse and Catering, 2740 Monroe Ave.
Tel.: 271-1111
Winter hours (Nov. 1 - April 30): Mon. - Thu. 5 p.m. - 9:30 p.m., Fri. 5 p.m. - 10:30 p.m., Sat. 4 p.m. - 10:30 p.m., Sun. brunch 10 a.m. - 3 p.m., dinner 4:30 p.m. - 9 p.m.
Summer hours (May 1 - Oct. 31): Mon. - Thu. 5 p.m. - 10 p.m., Fri. 5 p.m. - 11 p.m., Sat. 4 p.m. - 11 p.m., Sun. brunch 10 a.m. - 3 p.m., dinner 4:30 p.m. - 9 p.m.

Head to Head in Dansville: Tony's vs. Leaning Tower

2011-12-28T11:08:00.009-05:00

I was recently driving through Dansville, and the sight of two pizzerias just a few doors from each other was more than I could resist.
The first one to catch my eye, and the first one I stopped at, was Tony's Pizzeria.
When I arrived, I saw a large pie behind the counter, half cheese, half pepperoni, cut into slices. When I asked for a cheese slice, the person behind the counter lifted one of them up to show me that it was enormous - about a quarter of a large pie - and asked if I wanted one of those, or a regular slice.
I still intended to check out Tony's competitor down the street, so I asked for a regular slice.
That oversized slice was quite thin, and I think that the employee did mention that it was Tony's "huge thin slice," but I was more focused on the surface area, so I was surprised to find that my regular slice was not only smaller, but much thicker.
But more about that slice in a moment. After getting my slice to go, I walked down the block to my second stop, The Leaning Tower. This slice took a little longer to come up, but I was not surprised, as a sign above the counter warned that they do not serve fast food - everything is made to order - although they do their best to serve your food fast. Fair enough.
This slice was quite thick as well. It was also a little bit bigger than the slice I got at Tony's (although in terms of surface area it still would've been dwarfed by Tony's "huge thin slice." (In the top photo, the LT slice is on the left, Tony's on the right.)
Although the Tony's and Leaning Tower slices were both about the same thickness, that's where the similarities ended. The Tony's slice was quite pale underneath, with just a little light browning. It was on the soft side, with a light, airy texture. In contrast, the Leaning Tower slice had a very dark brown underside, and was crunchy, though not oily, with a more substantial feel to it. The exterior was so crunchy, in fact, that the slice cracked and nearly broke in two when I bent it a little (don't even think about folding these - they're too thick for that).
The differences extended to the sauce and cheese. The LT slice was topped with considerably more sauce, which had a thicker consistency as well. It also seemed to have a more assertive, herbal flavor than Tony's sauce, but it's hard to tell if the flavor was really that much different, or if I simply noticed it more because there was more of it.
If you like smooth, creamy-textured cheese on your pizza, then the edge on that score goes to Tony's. Its cheese was nicely melted, if a little bland. The cheese on the LT slice was not so well melted, although it did have a bit of a tang, flavorwise.
Both Tony's and Leaning Tower have similar setups and menus, with counter service, some seating, and a more or less standard lineup of food offerings, including subs, wings, and sides. As for the pizza, well, I would like to go back to Tony's sometime and try a "Huge Thin Slice," but putting these two slices up against each other, I'd give the edge to Leaning Tower. Although the crust was a tad brittle, it was crisper, and had a little more flavor underneath. It also seemed better balanced, with a thick layer of sauce to match the thickness of the crust. Tony's cheese was more pleasingly melted, nice and smooth, but lacked flavor. Leaning Tower's cheese didn't have a great texture, but it did have more flavor, as did the sauce. In general the Leaning Tower slice was more flavorful overall, and more distinctive too. I'm scoring this one B-minus for Leaning Tower, C for Tony's.

Tony's Pizzeria, 140 Main St., Dansville
Tel.: (585) 335-8984, 335-5035
Hours: Mon., Wed., & Thu. 11 a.m. - 9 p.m., Tue., Fri. & Sat. 11 a.m. - 10 p.m., Sun. noon - 9 p.m.

The Leaning Tower, 124 Main St., Dansville
Tel.: (585) 335-2740
Hours: Mon. - Thu. 11 a.m. - 10 p.m., Fri. 11 a.m. - midnight, Sat. 11 a.m. - 11 p.m., Sun. noon - 10 p.m.

Ken's Pizza Corner, Brighton

2011-12-23T11:57:00.000-05:00

Just a quick review of the second location of Ken's Pizza Corner, a Henrietta establishment that opened a new shop in Brighton earlier this year, on the former site of Pizziera Americana Ohana.
I reviewed Ken's original location last February, giving it a B-minus for pizza that was enjoyable overall, if a bit soft-crusted and a little light on the sauce.
On a recent stop at Ken's Brighton location, I picked up one cheese and one pepperoni slice. Both were reasonably fresh. They'd cooled by the time I took these photos, which is why the cheese may appear a little dried out, but I'll try to take that into consideration in reviewing them.
The screen-baked, medium-thick crust on these was not all that crisp, though it had some breadiness. (I did inspect them right after I got them so I don't think that the delay in photographing and actually eating them was a factor as far as the lack of crispness in the crust is concerned.) The relative softness of the crust has been fairly typical of the screen-baked pizza I've tried, though at least these weren't oily underneath, like some screen-baked pizza.
The sauce was slightly sweet, and seemed to be a little more noticeable this time than on the pie I had in February. The components were pretty well balanced. The cheese was unremarkable, a basic layer of melted, low-moisture mozzarella, but well melted.
Sometimes when a pizzeria has more than one location, the pizza can vary widely from one place to another. This was very similar to the pie I got at the Henrietta location (although I'm still not sure what was up with the slices I got there back in July 2009).
All in all, a well balanced, pretty good, typical Rochester slice. Since I gave Ken's a B-minus last time, and this was very similar, I'll stick with that.
Ken's Pizza Corner, 1860 Monroe Ave.
Tel.: 271-5860
Hours: Sun. 11 a.m. - 10 p.m., Mon. - Thu. 11 a.m. - 11 p.m., Fri. & Sat. 11 a.m. - midnight

When and Why Did Pizza Take Off in the U.S.?

2011-12-21T08:15:00.002-05:00

I did a post the other day about Veltre's, a defunct bakery that sold bread and pizza from the 1930s up to about 2000. That got me thinking about the conventional wisdom holding that pizza took off in this country in the late 1940s, as soldiers returning from Italy wanted the "pizza pies" they'd developed a taste for overseas. Typical is the statement I found on this website that "The post-WWII years exposed millions of American GI's to pizza in Italy."
Now beyond the fact that it doesn't make any sense to say that the post-WWII years exposed American soldiers to pizza in Italy, I have some doubts about that, for a few reasons, but first let me mention two things that came out in my conversations with the Veltres.
Angelo stated that pizza sales began increasing in the early 1940s. Now we're talking about things that happened, gradually, some 70 years ago, so his memory might be off by a few years, but I think in the case of Veltre's, he's probably about right. Veltre's was selling "tomato pies" in the 1930s, and they began to catch on in a relatively short time, thanks to walk-in traffic from customers coming to buy bread, and from sales to the patrons of nearby bars on Lyell Avenue.
There's also evidence, corroborated by Dave Veltre, that pizza in general changed later than the 1940s, and - not coincidentally - that those changes were accompanied by a more dramatic increase in pizza sales. The 1950s and '60s were when "modern" American pizza evolved and became standardized. Part of that was due to marketers spreading the word among pizzeria and bakery owners that if they wanted to keep up with the times, they had to switch to low-moisture, processed mozzarella, and offer various toppings, especially sliced pepperoni. The 1960s also saw the birth of national pizza chains like Pizza Hut and Domino's, although it would take some years for them to achieve national prominence.
There's also this article from the Wall Street Journal showing that pizzerias were barely a blip on the radar screen in our nation's pizza capital as late as 1958, and that the real quantum leap came over the next two decades.
None of this supports the theory that WWII vets were what drove the growth of pizza sales, either in Rochester or in the U.S. generally. First, if Angelo Veltre is correct that sales were increasing in the early 1940s, that wasn't from returning soldiers. We invaded Sicily and mainland Italy in June and September 1943, respectively. Not many soldiers would've been returning from Italy before 1944, with most returning beginning in mid-1945, after the war was over. The total number of troops sent to Italy, though large, was still relatively low as a percentage of all U.S. military deployments, and certainly not in the millions. And even among soldiers who were sent to Italy (who probably got far more meals out of a can, or in a mess tent, than in a ristorante), many, maybe most, would not have run across pizza, which was still very much a purely regional dish in Italy at that time. The WSJ article quotes one NYC pizzeria owner as stating that during his great-grandmother’s day, “in certain regions of Italy they didn’t know what pizza was.” And I recall a WWII vet who served in Italy telling me that he never ran across pizza during his time there, and that he never heard of pizza until years later, in this country. So if pizza sales were increasing in the 1940s, it was probably more from word of mouth among customers of Italian-American bakeries.
The explosion of pizza sales later, in the 1950s and '60s, is probably attributable to several factors. Again, the Journal article notes that it was in the late 1950s that affordable gas pizza ovens became widely available, obviating the need for wood- or coal-fired ovens, and making it a lot easier to bake pizza on a commercial scale.
Beyond that, the '50s and '60s witnessed a broader transformation of American eating habits, particularly the birth of fast food, fueled by the rise of mass media and advertising, a consumerist culture that emphasized convenience, and an emerging new youth culture. It's no accident that burger chains started growing at around that same time.
So - did veterans returning from Italy give rise to pizza's popularity in the U.S.? I doubt it. Some G.I.s no doubt developed a taste for Italian food, but that would hardly explain pizza's phenomenal rise in popularity from the late 1950s on. No, I think pizza took off because it got easier to make, and because Americans realized that it's just flat-out good.

Crispy Green Freeze-Dried Fruits

2011-12-20T13:53:00.003-05:00

I was recently sent a sample of Crispy Green 100% freeze-dried fruits, which are available in several varieties, including banana, pineapple, Fuji apple, mango, cantaloupe, and Asian pear.
What are they like? Well, as a kid, I would've called these "astronaut food." They taste exactly like the fruits they're made from. In one sense, it's a concentrated flavor, as the water is entirely gone, but the flavor takes a few seconds to come through, as you chew them and they moisten in your mouth. The texture is lighter and airier than typical dried fruit, but not unpleasant (and I say that as a "texture person" where food's concerned).
With fresh fruit so readily available in the supermarket year round, why buy these? They'd be good for hikers, or for inclusion in an emergency food supply, and they'd make an easy, nutritious addition to a brown-bag lunch.
Currently these aren't available in the Rochester area (Green Hills Farms in Syracuse is the nearest retail outlet at the moment), but you can order them online on Crispy Green's website. They run about a dollar per 0.36 ounce bag.

Rochester's Pizza History, Continued: Veltre Bakery

2011-12-19T08:36:00.002-05:00

In 2009, I did a post on Rochester's pizza history, discussing several of the old timers among Rochester-area pizzerias. But there's anothe place that's intrigued me for a while, even though - or because - it's no longer around.
If you happen to drive down Lyell Avenue in the city, you may have noticed the sign on the side of the building that houses Roncone's restaurant, advertising the Veltre Bakery, just around the corner at 26 Parkway St..
If you've ever followed that arrow, then you've discovered that alas, Veltre Bakery is no more. Only the sign remains. But it's long piqued my curiosity, especially after I found this discussion of Veltre's history (on the linked page, scroll down to the bottom).
It took some digging, but I finally tracked down the last owner of the bakery, Dave Veltre, who's now a Monroe County Sheriff's Deputy. I spent some time chatting with him on the phone, as well as with his father, Angelo "Sonny" Veltre, who ran the bakery before Dave. They filled me in on some of the history of the Veltre Bakery.
Angelo's father, John Veltre, an Italian immigrant who learned his trade at the long-gone Bond Bakery on North Street, bought, and renamed, the Zazzara's bakery - which was then located on Lyell Avenue, at the opposite corner of Roncone's today - in 1932. Apparently Bond (which was part of the General Baking Company) was something of a breeding ground for Rochester bakers, as another Bond employee went on to found Petrillo's Bakery, which is still going strong after 90-plus years.
What was very interesting to me was that Veltre's used a massive coal fired oven, which was capable of turning out bread loaves by the hundreds. Today, the handful of pizzerias in New York City that still use coal fired ovens are looked upon with reverence by pizza aficionados. Due mostly to modern air pollution regulations (most pizzerias with existing coal ovens were grandfathered), new coal fired ovens are a rarity these days, although some high-tech, often coal-gas hybrids can be found, as at Tony D's in Corn Hill.
Zazzara's was already making pizzas when John Veltre bought the bakery, although at that time they were still something of a novelty item. Angelo, who started helping out when he was a young boy, shortly after his father bought the business, recalled that many evenings he'd be given the job of taking "tomato pies," as they were then called, around to nearby bars and saloons, where they'd be sold to hungry patrons for five cents apiece.
Veltre's main product, of course, was bread, and customers coming in to buy loaves would also notice, and ask about, these curious tomato pies. Gradually, pizza started to catch on, with sales steadily increasing through the 1940s, '50s and '60s.
But as pizza gained in popularity, eventually becoming a staple of the American diet, it also changed. Early on, Veltre's tomato pies had been small - maybe 8 inches in diameter - and topped with nothing but tomato sauce, grated cheese, and oregano, though some customers would ask for anchovies too. But at some point beginning roughly around the early '50s, pizza began to evolve into the product we're all familiar with today, big, cheese-laden pies loaded with toppings. .
Veltre's changed with the times, too - up to a point. To meet customer demand, their pizza became more mainstream - processed mozzarella and pepperoni mostly supplanted grated Romano and anchovies - but the dough recipe (the same dough was used for the bread and the pizza) remained the same, and Veltre's continued to use fresh ingredients whenever possible, right down to the home-grown herbs.
Veltre's enjoyed some success, though, so much so that they opened several satellite locations around the Rochester area, including Henrietta, Churchville and Greece. For different reasons, all were eventually sold, and it was back to the one bakery on Parkway Street.
But other forces were at work too, that in the end spelled the end of Veltre's. Neighborhood crime was on the rise, for one thing. Changes in the business climate also led Veltre's to return to its roots, in a sense, focusing more on bread than pizza.
There was also a generational shift going on within the Veltre family. The bakery had always been very much a family affair. Dave's grandmother continued to watch over the baking into her nineties, and Angelo, like his father, devoted several decades of his life to the business.
But as Angelo reached his mid sixties, the reins passed increasingly to Dave, who was being tugged in another direction. He was interested in pursuing a career in law enforcement, and when in 1999 Dave was accepted into the Monroe County Deputy Sheriff Academy, it was time to make a choice. As Dave wrote in 2000, "the lure of a secure job, benefits, and more time with [his] family outweighed the challenges of running the bakery," and so the bakery was closed and put up for sale.
Alas, while the building was eventually sold, the business was not. Some of the original fixtures, including the oven, remain there to this day, but for what I imagine to be a combination of reasons, no buyer ever came along to revive the bakery.
Which would be a sad ending, but life goes on. It's gone on for Dave, who remains with the Sheriff's Office, and it's gone on for Angelo, who at age 84 still reports for work daily at a local YMCA, where he serves as a lifeguard. And that's no mere honorary position - Angelo once saved a swimmer's life at the Y, although he's quick to add that he was "only" 78 years old at the time.
My own regret in all this is that I never tried Veltre's pizza while it was still around. I asked Dave if there's any local pizza that comes close to what Veltre's used to make, but he couldn't come up with any. Matter-of-factly, but with a touch of understandable familial pride, he summed up his memories of Veltre's pizza by saying, "It was a work of art."
I don't think he was being boastful, or even merely nostalgic, by saying that. I think what he meant was that each Veltre's pizza was a unique product, made by individuals, in a particular setting, based on a craft that had been handed down within his family over several generations. It can no more be re-created today, by someone else, than could a lost 17th-century painting, or a legendary ancient sculpture.
So here's to lost works of art, culinary and otherwise. We may not be able to bring them back, but we can be glad they existed, and that they gave joy while they were here. Meanwhile, we can try to better appreciate the art that remains, and that's still being created today, whether in a painter's studio or in a local pizzeria. Something to think about next time you see that slightly faded sign at the corner of Lyell and Parkway.

Chester Cab, Thin Cracker Crust

2011-12-14T12:35:00.011-05:00

If I were to give out awards to pizzerias for having the greatest variety of styles to choose from, Chester Cab on Park Avenue would certainly be on the list. They're known for their Chicago-style stuffed pizza, but they also offer "regular" pizza, "crispy New York style" slices, "thick Sicilian style," and "thin cracker crust," as well as low-fat pizza, and calzones. Oh, and the "Poor Man's Pizza," which is a regular pie topped with sauce, Parmesan, and herbs.
That wide variety has led me to make several visits to Chester Cab, and so far I've reported on one of their slices and on their stuffed pizza. On my most recent visit I gave the thin cracker crust a try.
I ordered my pizza - plain cheese - in person, and I was a bit dismayed when I heard they had to "go get one" of the crusts. The obvious implication was that the crusts were premade, and sitting in a storeroom, refrigerator, or freezer.
But - keep an open mind. The end result is what matters, and I'm not prepared to say that a premade crust can't be good.
The pizza that I got was, well, accurately described. The crust was thin, dry, and, indeed, crackerlike. It was crunchy, and a bit flaky, with a very thin, slightly charred edge.
The pie was more saucy than cheesy, which was probably a good thing. The sauce helped add some moisture to the dry crust, whereas a lot of cheese would've just made the whole thing chewier. The sauce had a straightforward, canned-tomato flavor (with sauce, by the way, canned tomatoes are often better than fresh, so no problem there). The cheese was a little sparse but well melted.
I ended up eating some of this sandwich style, with two slices put together, crust side out. That was actually pretty good.
This reminded me of what is sometimes called "bar pizza," meaning very thin pizza that you get in a bar, either off the bar menu or for free at happy hour. The idea is that it's so thin that it will make you more thirsty than full. But bar pizza is typically greasy and this wasn't (which would probably make it even less filling).I'm not going to rate this pizza, because it was exactly what the menu said it was, and I really can't compare it to anything else around here. You either like it this way or you don't. So even if I didn't like it, I couldn't complain, since I knew what I was ordering all along.
I thought it was OK, though I don't think it's something I'd be apt to order again. I like a more pliable crust with more of an interior. But no real complaints, and it's an interesting alternative to most other pizzas you'll find in our area.
Chester Cab Pizza, 707 Park Ave., Rochester 14607
Tel.: 244-8211
Hours: Mon. - Tue. 11 a.m. - 9:30 p.m., Wed. - Thu. 11 a.m. - 10 p.m., Fri. & Sat. 11 a.m. - 11:30 p.m., Sun. noon - 9 p.m.