Anatolia Mediterranean Grill

 At a reader's suggestion, I decided to check out Anatolia Mediterranean Grill, a Turkish restaurant across the street from Seabreeze Amusement Park. Not because they serve pizza, exactly, but something akin to pizza. 

The idea of flatbread with toppings is an ancient one that's found in many countries, especially around the Mediterranean, where wheat is the staple grain. In my highly subjective opinion, that concept reached its apotheosis with the development of what we know today as pizza. But in addition to the myriad forms that pizza itself has taken over the years, it also has many close relatives that are well worth exploring. 

Some of those can be found in Turkey. Lying at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, Turkey boasts a national cuisine as delicious as it is diverse, as I've written about in this blog, first in 2011, and again in 2016. 

On those occasions, I had tried lahmacun, which is sometimes referred to as "Turkish pizza," although in my opinion that's neither particularly accurate nor fair. It's a thin flatbread, usually topped with well-seasoned ground or minced meat, most commonly lamb.

I'm no lahmacun connoisseur, but Anatolia's was quite enjoyable. The crust (strictly speaking, I'm not sure if "crust" is the correct term for it, but for lack of a better term I'll go with that) was thin, chewy, and on the line between pliable and crunchy:  not as foldable as a wrap, but not brittle or crackly either. It provided a good base for the tasty lamb mixture on top, which was packed with flavor. 

 We also ordered another dish, pide ("pee-deh"), which is a closer relative of pizza, both etymologically and culinarily. We chose the "mixed" pide, topped with cheese, pastrami, Turkish sausage, and ground beef. 

The crust was thicker and chewier, and far more pizza-like than the lahmacun. The biggest differences between this and traditional pizza were the shape (sometimes described as a boat shape) and the toppings. I particularly enjoyed the pastrami, which added a burst of salty meaty flavor that made me wonder why it's not a more common pizza topping. I think I will try it next time I make pizza at home.

Oh yeah, the other food was good too. We got a chicken plate, with fried chicken, rice, bell peppers and salad. It was flavorful yet simple and there was a lot of it. We ended up taking some home, which made for a very nice lunch the next day.

Oh, and the dessert bar. That's a blog post in itself, but I'll just say that no trip to Anatolia should be considered complete without a visit to the dessert bar. 

 So ... to whoever recommended Anatolia, thank you.

To my readers, if you want pizza, this is not a pizzeria. They don't serve pizza, as such.

But if you like pizza and are interested in exploring the many variations and cousins of pizza, you should check out Anatolia. I don't think you will be disappointed.

For me, I intend to return and try some of their other dishes. If they are this good, there's a lot more worth exploring. 

 Anatolia Mediterranean Grill

4671 Culver Rd., Irondequoit, NY 14622 

585-226-7578 

Sun., Mon. Wed., Thu. 11 am - 9 pm

Fri., Sat. 11 am - 10 pm

Closed Tue. 

Pizza Stop Pub and Bistro, Pulteneyville

 On March 5, 2009, I posted a review of the Pizza Stop on State Street in Rochester.

A lot of water has passed over the bridge and under the dam since then. The Pizza Stop is still on State Street, despite suffering through a lengthy construction project, but it's also opened and closed some other locations.

One of which is in Pultneyville, a hamlet in the town of Williamson, on Lake Ontario about halfway between Webster and Sodus Point. I have an aversion to the term "underrated," but Pultneyville may be underrated. It's an off-the-beaten-path hamlet with a small inlet and a few historic buildings, and it was the site of a battle in the War of 1812, in 1814 (the result of which is disputed, but as far as I'm concerned, we won, dammit).

The Pizza Stop opened its first full-scale restaurant and bar in Pultneyville in 2020. You can read the story here. It also seems to go by the name of the Local on the Lake. I think they're trying to be known as more than just a pizza place. 

After many years of it being on my to-do list, I made it there recently,
with wife and 22-year-old in tow. 

It's in what I assume must be a very old building next to the inlet. There was a takeout counter on the first floor. We were dining in, so we made our way upstairs. We passed the small bar area, which was populated by what seemed like a few regulars, and got seated at a table near a window looking over the inlet and the lake in the distance.

We ordered three pizzas:  a small chicken/bacon/ranch, a medium Grandma's, and a medium NY style cheese pie. 

All were good; all tasty. But they were, I'm sorry to say, not as good as the original, i.e., the State Street location.

Why? The crust. To be fair, this pizza came to us straight out of the oven. When I've been to the Pizza Stop, it's often been for a slice, which gets a brief reheating, which crisps up the crust. New York "slice joints" do it that way on purpose--take the pie out a little short of doneness, so you can put slices back in for a quick heat-up.

But if you're serving a whole pie, maybe give it an extra minute or two. That would've helped here. With a thin crust, you're not going to get a lot of interior, so you really need that external crunch and char, and that was lacking here. Also, even a thin crust can have some complexity from a long, slow rise, and I didn't get that either. 

Now--we did take the leftovers home, and I reheated them in the oven, on a well-heated steel, and they were much better. So the potential was there. But that's the thing with pizza. Timing can be everything. 

It was an enjoyable experience and the pizza was good. I'd go back, but next time I might ask for the pizza "well done."

The Pizza Stop & The Local on the Lake

4135 Lake Rd., Williamson, NY  

 315-904-4407

Wednesday    4–10 PM
Thursday    4–10 PM
Friday    4 PM–midnight
Saturday    11 AM–midnight

 Read more about them here.  

Fire on the Lake, Canandaigua

I didn't think when I resumed this blog that I'd be falling behind so soon, but here I am. Before I get back to my road trips, let me get to something closer to home.

My wife and I recently went to Fire on the Lake in Canandaigua.  It opened in September 2024, and it's been on my to-do list since then.

Fire on the Lake is housed in a modern building near the lake with high ceilings and tall windows facing the lake. Nice space.

We ordered  at the counter and found a table, where the food was delivered. I guess that makes it "fast casual." 

We decided to split one "Canandaigua" pizza, described as topped with basil. Stracciatella cheese, red sauce, extra virgin olive oil, cherry tomatoes, roasted garlic, and flaky salt. 

(We also split a Caprese salad, which was very good, but I'm not here to write about salad. But trust me, it was good.)

While waiting for our pizza, we were able to watch it being baked on a video screen in the dining area, showing the pizza oven, which was pretty cool and is something I'd like to see adopted by more pizza restaurants. 

The pizza was quite good. I had a few quibbles with it, though. Well, one quibble, which I'll get to in a moment.

Upon arrival at our table, the pizza looked great. A bit heavy on the toppings perhaps, for a thin-crust pie, but it's hard to complain about "too many" toppings.

Those toppings were indeed tasty. You could've put them in a bowl and I would've happily made a meal of them. The cheese was soft and creamy, the tomatoes were sweet, and the basil was cooked just enough to be wilted. Add the olive oil, garlic and salt, and what's not to love?

Which brings me to the crust. It had some charring underneath, but it wasn't crisp, and it wasn't particularly flavorful or texturally interesting. To me, for a pizza to cross the line from good to great, the crust has to be good enough to stand on its own, sans toppings, and this didn't do it for me. It wasn't bad; it just fell a little short.

I think the chef may have taken note of my interest in the pizza-making operations, or maybe he just does this, but he came to our table to see how we liked the pizza and to answer any questions. 

I learned that the oven is kept at 750 degrees, that it uses a revolving deck, and that he keeps a close eye on the pizza to know when it's done. It typically takes about two and a half minutes for the pizza to be ready to come out. 

He also told me that the dough they use is not made in house, but comes from a supplier in Rome (New York, not Italy). I asked him if he thought that worked well, and he said that it's a matter of getting to know the dough: how to work with it and how it will bake depend on a lot of factors and the pizza maker needs to know from experience how to bring it to its best.

This was good pizza, baked by someone with an obvious passion for pizza. Given my tastes, the pizza fell a little short of greatness, but I don't mean to damn it by faint praise. I've stopped assigning letter grades but Fire on the Lake certainly falls on the side of the line that says, "Go. Check it out." 

Fire on the Lake

58 Lakeshore Drive, Canandaigua 14424 

 (585) 412-6116

Wed. - Sun. 1–9 PM