Strangebird Brewery

It took a while, but I finally made it to Strangebird Brewery recently.  Strangebird, which focuses on two things I love - pizza and beer - opened in 2021, but it took resuming this blog to get me over there.

 I went with my wife on a Thursday evening at about 5:30. They don't accept reservations, but I was hoping at that relatively early hour it wouldn't be too difficult to get a table.

 That was a false hope. There were a few vacant tables outside, but they were reserved. Inside, the place was pretty close to packed.

Which was fine, I get it, it was happy hour and I was glad they were doing well. But the setup was rather odd - we were told we could order food at the food counter, drinks at the bar, and grab seats when, where and if we could find them. Which presented a bit of a quandary as to what to do first. 

We ended up ordering two pizzas at the pizza/food counter, where they gave us a number. We headed back to the bar, where fortuitously two stools opened up, and got drinks. So it worked out but it was odd and a little inconvenient from my perspective. Surely there's a more orderly way to do this (in fact other restaurants and bars have various means of doing so).

At the bar, I ordered a Gouden Boom, which is described as a Belgian-style golden ale. Quite good. 

 Not too long (20 minutes?) afterwards, our pizzas showed up. In a departure from my usual rule, I didn't order the simplest pizza, which would've been the cheese pizza (from the description, basically a Margherita). Instead, we shared a "Greens" pizza (roasted garlic, kale, pickled chilis, mozzarella, ricotta and Parmesan) and a Mortadella, with its eponymous pork sausage, roasted garlic, pickled onion, salsa verde, and mozzarella and Parmesan cheese. 

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 The only part of me that regrets not sticking to my keep-it-simple-rule is that it was hard to evaluate the crust on its own or to set a benchmark. But both of these were very tasty pizzas.

Let's start with the crust. It was very thin. The cornicione was well formed and chewy, but the rest of the crust, where the toppings were, was so thin as to have almost no interior chew. That was a bit of a shame as the cornicione tasted quite good, and I could tell it was good, well-made dough. I would've liked it a tad thicker.

As I said, the toppings were very good. I'm a pepperhead, and put hot sauce on just about everything but ice cream (hmm ...?). The pickled chilis added a nice kick for me, but weren't too much for my wife, who has a low tolerance for heat. The entire ensemble was very good, with a medley of flavors that worked well together.

 Same for the Mortadella. The salty, thin-sliced sausage, pickled onion (I need to keep "pickled" in mind for pizza toppings) and garlic were terrific together. I love garlic almost as much as I love hot peppers, so it doesn't take much to convince me once you put garlic on a pizza.

Complaints? Well, again I would've liked a bit thicker crust.  To nitpick, a bit more charring underneath would've been welcome. The top side on both was nicely done, but the underside was a bit pale. I know it's a tricky thing to get it just right, but the point of this blog is to record my impressions, and that's one of them. 

I got a photo of the oven, but I couldn't see the interior. I was told that it is gas-fired, not wood-fired, but is clay-lined and heated to 800 degrees, which is certainly comparable to a lot of wood-fired ovens. And though I generally love wood-fired pizza, in the end what matters to me is the product.  Electric, gas, wood, coal, whatever. 

I liked this, a lot.  A bit thicker and a bit more done underneath and I would've loved it. But it was good, and I need to go back and try the cheese pizza. I think I'll try a different night of the week and/or a different time of day, though.

Strangebird  Brewing

62 Marshall Street
Rochester, NY 14607
585-505-8700

Thu. - Mon., 12 p.m. - 11 p.m. (Kitchen closes at 9 p.m.)

Closed Tue. & Wed. 

Gia's Pizza Kitchen, East Rochester

 After checking out one pizza place in East Rochester, which I liked very much, I decided to try another. And I liked this one too.

 I know East Rochester has historically been home to a large Italian-American population, and some very good Italian restaurants. But Gia's Pizza Kitchen, which opened last October, just came up on my radar screen recently.

I ordered a large pie to go, half cup and char pepperoni, half onions and sweet peppers.

I didn't realize until I got there to pick up the pizza that Gia's is a full-service restaurant. There is a small bar near the door and several tables to the right as you enter; the kitchen is in the back and is visible from the bar.

I got it home quickly and was quite pleased with the pizza. The underside, though a bit heavily dusted with cornmeal (or maybe it was rice flour; I should've paid closer attention, but hey, I'm out of practice), was slightly charred, and firm though not crackly crisp. The crust had a chewy texture, with a well-formed cornicione and bread-like flavor. It was on the thinner side. Quite nice overall.

It all starts with the crust, but that's not to discount the importance of the toppings. They need to be good, and applied in balance with each other. And these were good.

 The sauce was a tad sweet, but not in a sugary way, more tomatoey. The cheese was nicely melted. And both were applied in good proportion to the crust. I'm not a fan of heavily laden pizza, with a lot of sauce and cheese, especially with a thin crust, and this was just about right.

The pepperoni was done right: browned and crisp along the edges, chewy in the middle. On the other half, the use of yellow bell peppers was unusual but not unwelcome. They have a milder, slightly sweeter flavor that the usual green variety. Both the peppers and the onions were softened but not browned.

I came away rather happy with this pizza. I'm not sure how I would classify it, not that I need to, but it worked for me. Good job, in my opinion.Gia's Pizza Kitchen

211 Main St., East Rochester

Wed. - Fri. 11:30 am - 9 pm
Sat. 4 - 9 pm
Sun 12 - 7 pm

Closed Mon. & Tue. 

 

 

GG's, East Rochester

During my long hiatus from updating this blog, I never stopped wanting to try new pizzerias around Rochester, and I maintained a to-do list, which I updated any time I found out about a place I hadn't tried before. Although I would occasionally manage to cross one off the list, it wasn't often enough to prevent the list from getting longer and longer.

Now that I'm back to blog writing, I'm hoping to whittle down the list. My current goal is to visit at least one establishment a week. Last week, I got to work on that goal by ordering takeout from GG's Pizza in East Rochester, which came highly recommended by a friend and former coworker. 

Deciding what to order was a bit daunting, as they offer various specialty pizzas and 26 different toppings, as well as several options like well done, par bake (for reheating at home), square cut, thick crust, thin crust, etc.  

My first time trying a place, I try to keep it relatively simple, so I went with a large, half cup 'n' char pepperoni, half onions and green peppers. I did not specify any other options, and as to crust thickness the first time around I always want to try their default crust. 

Got it home in about 20 minutes, for family dinner. The three of us polished off eleven of the twelve slices (I'm not sure which of us was the slacker who only ate three.) 

As I mentioned, GG's offers thin and thick crust options, and this was indeed medium. Thick around the edge, quarter inch maybe inside the perimeter. 

I was a bit disappointed at the underside, which was heavily screen marked and a splotchy brown. It was firm but not particularly crisp underneath. But that was a relatively minor matter as the crust was quite good. 

My litmus test for pizza crust is, is it good enough to eat on its own? And this was. It was bready (which my autocorrect insists is not a word, but it is in my vocabulary), meaning it had the texture, aroma and flavor of freshly baked bread. 

The sauce was slightly sweet and applied in good balance with the crust. Another test that pizza has to meet is the balance test. The crust and whatever is on top of the crust, be it sauce, cheese, or other toppings, need to stay in balance. Now if you want to pile on the toppings and get five kinds of meat and extra cheese, go right ahead. I'm not about to tell you you're wrong. But that's not how I evaluate a basic pizza. 

The cheese was also good, nothing but processed mozzarella as far as I could tell, but it seemed to be a good quality cheese as it was nicely melted, without a lot of exuded fat. Pepperoni was crisp, and the onions and peppers were nicely done, and would have been quite at home on an Italian sausage sandwich.  

My takeaway was that this was a great example of Rochester-style pizza. Not that we have a particularly unique style of pizza; by "Rochester style" I mean, the style that came to be predominant around Rochester. A little thick on the crust, a little sweet on the sauce, a bit heavy on the cheese. In many ways, it's the template for what became American pizza. 

I'd certainly like to go back to GG's, to explore their other options, but as I said at the start I have a long list to get to, so it may be a while. Next time I might ask for the pie to be baked directly on the oven deck, to crisp up the bottom. A slice I reheated at home on a cast iron skillet was nicely crisp. I could also go with the par-baked option but generally I don't want to have to finish baking an entire pizza after I get home.

That, however, is a minor quibble in light of how enjoyable this was. For classic Rochester style pizza, I can well recommend GG's.

 GG's Pizzeria, 326 W. Commercial St., East Rochester

585-360-2050

Mon. - Thu.11:00 AM - 7:45 PM

Fri. & Sat. 11:00 AM - 8:45 PM

Sun. 12:00 PM - 7:45 PM