I recently learned that Old Italy Pizza opened on Latta Road in Greece. This spot in a small strip plaza has seen several pizzerias come and go over the years, including Paulie's, Grande Amore, and apparently one that I missed entirely, Fosterino's. When a certain type of business keeps failing in the same place, I start to wonder if it's just a bad location, but we'll see. I stopped into Old Italy recently at lunchtime for a couple of slices. It was a good deal - two slices and a can of pop for $4.50.
The slices were decent, if unspectacular. The crust was medium thick, with an underside that was lightly browned and crisscrossed by screen marks. The edge was formed into a thin cornicione, and its texture seemed a bit "tough," suggesting that it was made from high-gluten flour. That's commonly used in pizza, and it has its advantages, but it can yield a somewhat tough, chewy texture.
The slices were well balanced, with a layer of melted, just-browned mozzarella, and some small cheeseless spots. The moderately applied sauce was pretty basic, with some tomatoey sweetness, a bit of salt, and a faint herbal background. The thin, wide slices of pepperoni were average.
To quote from its menu, Old Italy "take[s] pride in [its] daily made fresh dough, house made sauces, hand battered chicken fingers, fresh cut French fries and [its] fresh ingredients." They offer ten specialty pizzas, and all their regular comes in small, medium, large and sheet sizes. They also do wings, available in no less than 15 varieties (!), calzones, hot subs, "plates," salads and sides. A reader reported that a pizza he got from Old Italy was one of the best he's had in the area. I don't doubt it, although I'm not prepared to put these slices in that category. They were reasonably good, basic, Rochester-style pizza slices, but I wasn't bowled over by them. I remain intrigued enough to go back, but for now I'll hold off on assigning a grade, and leave this post as just a report on what I had at this still-new pizzeria. But please, if you're in the area, check it out for yourself and share your experience with me and other readers, either in the "Comments" section after this post, or on my Facebook page.
Old Italy Pizza, 1250 Latta Road
(585) 445-8782
Mon. - Thu. 11 a.m. - 11 p.m.
Fri. & Sat. 11 a.m. - midnight
Sun. 11 a.m. - 10 p.m.
Fosterino's was actually pretty good. And the service there was incredible - the owner was often behind the counter working, was always friendly, and would often throw in a freebie or two.
ReplyDeleteThere's such a HUGE amount of housing in the area - homes, apartments, apartment complexes - for the life of me I can't figure out why a pizza place can't stay open in any of the four corners at Dewey/Latta. There were two in the SW corner that've closed, and three in the SE corner that folded as well. And now as you say, this is the 4th or maybe even 5th shot at this plaza on the NE corner.
Granted, there are still a lot of other really good options around the area - Tony's Birdland, Caraglio's, Carbone's, Sylvio's to name a few - but one has to wonder if those Dewey/Latta corners are cursed.
I'm sure there's a reason, maybe a combination of reasons, but I don't know what it is. I do think, if you're going to go into a spot where several others have failed, you'd better do your research and, if you take the plunge, do it right. Not much margin for error.
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