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Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Clawson's Deli, Ayrault Rd., Fairport

Clawson's Grocery & Deli on Urbanspoon
Although the Clawsons themselves are no longer around - at least in an ownership sense - Clawson's Deli is still going strong after 40 years in business at the corner of Ayrault and Hogan Roads in Fairport. For that, you have to give it credit for surviving as an independent convenience store in the age of cookie-cutter mini-marts on every corner.
The pizza, I'm afraid, is not so great, at least in my opinion. Pies are made in the back, and slices are available up front near the cash register. I got a cheese slice.
The crust was barely browned underneath, and was very soft, with a somewhat spongy texture. It was what I would call medium thick.
The sauce, which was applied a little sparsely, had a slightly orangeish tint, and faintly reminded me of SpaghettiOs sauce. I don't say that to be critical, mean, sarcastic, etc., that's just what popped into my head as I was eating it. And I like SpaghettiOs, by the way. But this sauce had a tangy, cheesy flavor - was there some Romano in there? - that made me think of SpaghettiOs.
The cheese was well browned, and the flavor of slightly burnt cheese was quite prominent, maybe the dominant player here flavorwise. From the looks of the available slices, the degree of doneness of the cheese seemed to bear an inverse relationship to the number of toppings; pepperoni slices were slightly browned, and the cheese on some multi-topping (sweet peppers, black olives, and more) slices was not browned at all, and looked to be a little stringy.
Besides pizza, Clawson's offers subs, and maybe some other deli-type items; I neglected to see if they had a printed menu. And of course it is a convenience store, so they also have the usual snack foods, drinks, etc., as well as videos for rent.
Props, then, for sticking around and adding to the sense of community in the area. But to me, the pizza was, well, the kind of pizza I'd expect to get from a convenience store. Which is to say, it was OK, but nothing special. I'll give it a C-.

2 comments:

  1. Have you tried the breakfast pizza at Clawson's? It's fantastic.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks. I'm not a fan of breakfast pizza but readers who are might want to give it a try.

    ReplyDelete