Amy Rose, Scottsville

Today we head south to Main Street, Scottsville. Not too long ago, the chief dining attraction here would’ve been the Oatka Steak & Seafood restaurant. Named for the nearby creek, it started out as a tavern and inn in the early 19th century. Sadly, the Oatka went out of business a couple of years ago or so. It would be nice to see it reopen.
Until then, you can still grab a slice of pizza, as I recently did, at Amy Rose Pizza, just a few doors away.
These being normal size, not “mega” slices, I got two, one cheese, one pepperoni. They were fairly heavy slices, with a medium thick crust and a soft-textured, light brown underside. The crust was quite dense, and didn’t seem to have risen much, as there were no real air pockets visible.
The cheese on the cheese slice was very well browned, and had congealed into a single, unitary layer. The sauce seemed to be pretty much MIA here, although I thought I detected a slightly sweet flavor in there somewhere. Maybe it was my imagination, but either the sauce or just the slice as a whole seemed to have picked up some of the flavor of that day’s “gourmet” pizza, which was a pulled-pork pizza. They had been sitting on racks in the same enclosed pizza warmer, so it’s not inconceivable, I guess.
The pepperoni slice was quite generously topped with thin, mildly flavored slices of pepperoni. The outer lip of both slices was a bit tough and chewy.
Amy Rose has a long list of pizza toppings, as well as 14 varieties of the aforementioned gourmet pizza. That includes a stuffed pizza and a deep dish pizza, but you can also order a regular pizza with thin or thick crust, and one of four sauces - red, white garlic, pink or pesto. In short, there’s a pizza for everybody here.
Amy Rose also offers wings (described as “jumbo”), calzones, fish fry every day, hot and cold subs, burgers, dogs, soup, salad, sides and desserts as well. If that’s not enough, they serve Hershey’s ice cream (not sure if that’s a seasonal thing or not), cappuccino and chai tea. There’s some seating available, and Amy Rose also delivers all day.
It’s a good menu, certainly, and Amy Rose deserves commendation for a commitment to making its sauce, dough and rolls fresh and on-site. I wouldn’t mind coming back to try a specialty pizza or to take out a pie. But on this occasion, the slices I got didn’t impress me too much. The flavor wasn’t bad, but I have to deduct some points for the dense crust and the overly browned cheese. I also found them a bit out of balance, with the sauce barely noticeable between the chewy cheese and the crust. Next time I’m in the area, I’ll give Amy Rose another try, but for now I’ll give it a C-.
Amy Rose PIzza, 11 Main St., Scottsville 889-7590
Mon. - Thu. 9 a.m. - 10 p.m., Fri. 9 a.m. - 11 p.m., Sat. 10 a.m. - 11 p.m., Sun. 10 a.m. - 9:30 p.m.

Stromboli Express, East Ave.

If you consider downtown Rochester to be the area within the Inner Loop, then by my count there are just four places downtown where you can walk in during the day and grab a slice of pizza. (Whatever finally becomes of the former future Renaissance Square property, I think a pizzeria should be a top priority. Mayor Duffy, are you listening?)
The easternmost of this foursome is Stromboli Express, on East Avenue between Chestnut and Broadway.
As the name implies, they specialize in strombolis, with 26 varieties on the menu. But Stromboli Express also serves pizza, roughly in the New York style, and the times I’ve been there, that seems to be what most of the customers are getting. I recently stopped in at lunchtime for a couple of slices, one cheese and one pepperoni.
It took some minutes for my slices to come up, and while I was standing there, I noticed a number of small signs posted here and there displaying a certain, well, attitude on the part of the management. For example, one of them says something to the effect of (I'm paraphrasing here) “This isn’t Burger King, you don’t get it your way, you get it my way," and there several others in the same vein. Now I know they're just funny little signs, and in fact I've seen the Burger King sign at Pizza Stop, too, but I couldn’t help thinking that while one such sign can be taken mostly as a joke, seeing several like that kind of conveys the message that customer service is not exactly a high priority here. Just a thought.
Well, as I said, after a few minutes, my slices arrived. They were very thin and foldable, and though they were a little charred underneath, they were not especially crisp, except along the very outer edge of the cheese slice, which was dark and crunchy. Mostly, though, they were almost crepe-like in their soft, thin, supple pliability.
Both slices were on the saucy side. They weren’t exactly dripping with sauce, but the sauce was pretty liberally applied relative to the very thin crust. It had a complex flavor, with sweet, herbal, and tomatoey notes. The cheese was pretty basic, moderately applied and a tad browned in spots.
The slices had been dusted with a fair amount of dried herbs and, unusually, what appeared to be red pepper flakes, although not in enough quantity to register much of an effect on my taste buds (which, admittedly, have become rather desensitized over the years where hot peppers are concerned).
The wide and thin slices of pepperoni were soft, oily, and a bit spicy. They had yielded up a good bit of their fat in the form of grease, but the pizza as a whole was not overly greasy.
Despite the more than two dozen strombolis to pick from, the list of pizza toppings here is fairly modest by current standards, with 11 on offer, and there are 11 specialty pizzas on the menu as well. Stromboli Express also serves calzones, which come stuffed with ricotta and mozzarella and your choice of any one of five meats. (I’m frankly still a bit fuzzy on the difference between strombolis and calzones, but my understanding is that a stromboli is more like a baked wrap, while a calzone is essentially a baked pocket sandwich, but both are made with pizza dough.)
Outside of the pizza/stromboli/calzone trinity, Stromboli Express does wings, hot and cold subs, grilled sandwiches, salads and appetizers, pasta dinners, and a few desserts, including apple or cherry “bolis” (which would make 28 varieties altogether). There is some seating, including a couple of sidewalk tables in warm weather, and they deliver too.
I liked this pizza well enough, even if it didn’t (strom)bowl me over. Often as I’m thinking about the pizza that I’m eating, some adjective or phrase comes to mind, and here it occurred to me that this was kind of like a cross between the Piatza’s on Crittenden Rd. and Pizza Stop: thin, like both of those, with an underside that, like Pizza Stop’s, is somewhat charred and not greasy, but, like Piatza’s, floppy and not very crisp. I gave Pizza Stop an A, and Piatza's a D+. Averaging those two gives me a B-, and that sounds about right for Stromboli Express.
Stromboli Express, 113 East Ave. 546-2121
Mon. - Sat. 10 a.m. - 9 p.m., Sun. noon - 9 p.m.

Big chains and little guys: observations from a reader

I recently got an email from a regular reader with some interesting observations about my statement that it's ironic that national chains with thousands of locations often seem to be better at turning out a uniform product than are much smaller local or regional chains, with far fewer locations to oversee. The reader referenced something I'd never heard of called "Six Sigma," which sounds like something out of a spy thriller, but I checked it out and it's for real.

Anyway, I found the reader's comments interesting enough to be worth sharing. I quote them here in full.

You comment: "A place like Domino's may be able to maintain uniformity throughout its stores, but ironically, smaller chains sometimes seem to have trouble with that"...is accurate. 1. On average, their is a specific reason for disparity, or lack of consistency in regards to local...or small...'owner operated pizzeria chains'. National chains such as Papa John's or Domino's utilize and implement a business methodology know as 'Six Sigma'. Six Sigma is sophisticated, difficult to implement and even more challenging to maintain. Six Sigma was heavily inspired by six preceding decades of quality improvement methodologies such as quality control, TQM, and Zero Defects, based on the work of pioneers such as Shewhart, Deming, Juran, Ishikawa, Taguchi and others. The vast majority of small, owner-operated chains lack the educational background, intellectual capital, or financial resources to implement and/or execute Six Sigma.
Additionally..(and Pizza Guy...what I am about to suggest is an 'observation'..not a 'criticism')..the majority of small chains are either owned or operated by individuals who have been in the 'pizza business' for a number of years, and over that time period have accumulated a great deal of "hands on experience'. Many, if not 'most' of these individuals, think or honestly believe they....'KNOW' and understand the pizza business...they also believe they have a 'system' or 'business model' that works..and therein lies the conundrum. It is very difficult and often near..impossible for these owner-operators to re-calibrate their way of thinking and engage in 'behavier modification'. And the fact that some of these local chains such as Pontillo's, Mark's, Guida's..etc..are financially successful, makes adopting or even experimenting with a new or different business methodology even more daunting.
Unfortunately, many of these small chain operators adhere to the notion, "If it's not broken, why fix it. They often view 'success' as..growth..expansion and profit, yet historically, as the number of units of the small chains grows, consistency and uniform quality do not receive, the time, energy and attention they warrant. And why would they?..I mean if a small chain of 3-5 units is lacking in consistency, why would anyone assume or surmise that by growing to 6-10 units..that would make that small chain more consistent in regards to the quality of their product.
When I go into various Pontillo's, I feel like I'm a 'riverboat gambler'..I have to 'roll-the-dice''..and hope for the best. They are all similar, but very few are the same. This lack of consistency has contributed to Pontillo's achieving zero(0) growth over the last quarter century(25yrs). Twenty five years ago, there were 25 Pontillo's..today there are still...25 Pontillo's. And that fact...'in of itself' is alright..EXCEPT for the fact that their is still noticeable disparity in terms of quality and consistency,among the 25 Pontillo's locations. On a personal note, it's sad and frustrating, because when made correctly, Pontillo's creates what I consider a very good pizza.
As far a Six Sigma is concerned, an interesting paradigm has been achieved. The national chains in the Upstate, NY area..at their very best...CANNOT put out of business the local...quality pizzerias. Yes pizzeria's come and go..and yet in many cases, the good ones, I mean the ones that create a good..very good, or excellent product have weathered..endured , the influx of the national chains and continued to succeed. The strong quality of many of the local pizzeria's..is their...'edge'. This 'edge" provides the local chains and owner-operated pizzerias', arguably, their single most important advantage.
The flip-side to this paradigm is that despite producing(on average) far superior pizzas, the local pizzerias and small chains(on average) CANNOT put out of business the National Chains (Domino's, Papa John's, Pizza Hut etc..) The national chains(on average) have business models that are far superior in regards to efficiency(food costs, labor costs,purchasing power, name branding, advertising...etc...) which enables the national chains to generate much stronger 'gross margins'. This fact, encompassed with the virtually 'unmatched" capital reserves the National Chains have verses the local chain or owner-operated pizzeria, contributes greatly to this paradigm.
I would definitely not call this interesting paradigm detente. I would refer to this paradigm however, as 'co-existence'. EXAMPLE: A Papa John's location that generates $8,500/wk in gross sales can and will, achieve a greater 'net profit' than a local, owner-operated pizzeria, or local chain that generates $10,000/wk in gross sales. It's a classic text-book example of 21st Century business tactics verses 20th Century business tactics.

(Pizza Guy again:) In a nutshell, then, the big guys - and this isn't limited to pizza - can stay in business, very successfully, despite turning out a product that is not the best that consumers can find, because they have certain other advantages working for them, like economies of scale that allow them to price their product very competitively. They also employ an approach that allows them to offer a consistent, uniform product that offers the consumer the benefit of reliability and the comfort of knowing what to expect. (Many times when traveling I've opted for the mom-and-pop local diner over the chain restaurant next door, only to be disappointed by bad food and poor service, and wishing I'd gone to the chain instead.)
A small operation that makes a superior product will be able to stay in business, despite the competition from the big guys (barring other problems such as poor location or sheer business incompetence), because some consumers will always seek out the best product. But when the little guys try to expand, they often run into problems because they lack the resources, knowledge or desire to implement the kinds of methods needed to offer the same level of quality and service at multiple locations.
As a consumer - and in particular a pizza consumer - what all that means to me is that if you value pizza that's not only good but distinctive, try a bunch of local, independent shops until you find one that you love, and then support it. You may hit a few clunkers along the way, but in the end it'll be worth it.