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Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Truck's Oven, Sodus Point

I don't get out to Sodus Point very often, but I always like going there. It's a nice setting, and even though I'm not a boater I enjoy strolling down Greig Street, visiting the lighthouse, or just relaxing in the park out at the tip of the Point.
A few days ago I had to drive out that way on a personal errand, so I decided that this would be a good time to check out the pizza in Sodus Point. Which pretty much means Truck's Oven.
There may be a convenience store or two where you can get pizza in Sodus Point, but to my knowledge, Truck's is the only full-fledged pizzeria in town.
I was going out to dinner a short time later, so I just got  a couple of pepperoni slices, one of which I saved for later. I don't know if this is how it always works there, but apparently they took two cheese slices, added pepperoni, and popped them back in the oven. But I could imagine them not getting enough customer traffic at this time of year to keep multiple kinds of slices on hand, so that makes some sense I guess. The pie from which these slices were cut came out of the oven while I was waiting, though, so these were very fresh.
The first thing I noticed about these was the addition of extra cheese on top of the pepperoni. Lots of places give the pizza a light dusting of grated Romano or Parmesan, but this was the first time I'd seen a pizzeria sprinkle extra shredded mozzarella on a slice before reheating it.
The next thing I noticed was the crust, which was rather interesting. The slices were thin, and the bottoms were dry, but with a very unusual appearance. Golden brown areas, where the dough had been in contact with the cooking surface, were interspersed with large pale areas, presumably where the dough had bubbled up a bit. (The deep, yellowish colors you see in the photos are due to my taking these pictures in the late afternoon sun.)
The texture was unusual as well. The crust was somewhat crisp, yet it had an almost biscuitlike feel to it, with a bit of crunch.
So intrigued was I by the crust that I hardly noticed the toppings. But there was an ample layer of sauce, with a straightforward tomatoey flavor, a slightly browned, uniform layer of cheese, and then the pepperoni and added cheese on top. Since the slices only went back into the oven for a brief time after the addition of the latter two ingredients, the pepperoni was just cooked to the point of softening, and the cheese was nicely melted but not browned. I imagine if I'd ordered a pepperoni pie, the pepperoni would've gone on at the beginning, and turned crisper.
Truck's Oven - which, by the way, beat out ten other pizzierias to take top honors in a Wayne County pizza contest earlier this year - offers pizza pies in 14" and 18" sizes, as well as "personal" size pizzas (not sure of the diameter of those). Sixteen toppings are available, and four specialty pizzas, including "ABE's Big Dog," a double-crusted pizzas stuffed with garlic butter, mozzarella, and your choice of toppings, and a sundried-tomato pesto pizza that's described as a house favorite, with garlic, ricotta, the aforementioned pesto, sauce, cheese, sausage, mushrooms and onions (wow!).
If you like wings at all, don't miss Truck's wings, which are available with over a dozen sauces. The "Stunners" sauce, described as "hot and spicy nacho cheese," sounds tempting, but the most unusual has to be the "Spicy P B & J" sauce. According to the menu, it is exactly what the name implies - peanut butter, jelly, and spice.
The rest of Truck's menu includes hot and cold sandwiches, "tunnels" (stuffed-bread subs), lobster rolls (which are apparently only available on Saturdays), calzones, fries, and soups. Truck's daily specials go beyond the commonplace, chicken French and eggplant parm variety. Truck's Facebook page shows, for example, that a recent day's special was garlic, beef, chicken and spinach enchiladas with a side of cilantro lime cole slaw, and lobster and crab chowder was the soup du jour.
Getting back to the pizza, this is a tough one to rate. The crust was unusual, and in some ways rather different from my ideal pizza crust. And yet I couldn't help liking it for its distinctiveness. I can see how some people could really dig this, and others find it not to their liking, so inasmuch as my ratings constitute an implied recommendation, it's difficult to know where to put this one. I'll just go with my gut, and my gut says a B-minus feels about right, but with the added advice that if you get a chance, check out Truck's pizza yourself. Love it, hate it, or fall somewhere in between, it's something you should try.
As for me, I'm not sure when I'll next find myself in Sodus Point. But when I do, I'm pretty sure I'll be making a return visit to Truck's. And no knock on the pizza, but next time around might be a wingfest instead. There's just something so culinarily perverse sounding about PB&J wings that I don't think I can resist.
Truck's Oven, 8487 Greig St., Sodus Point
Tel.: (585) 967-8787 (967-TRUX)
Truck's will be open Friday through Monday during the winter season. I believe they're open from noon till 9:00 on Fridays and Saturdays, noon till 8 on Sundays, and 4:30 to 8 on Mondays, but call ahead to confirm.

1 comment:

  1. We really like the "unusual" crust. But I agree- it isn't for some people

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