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 an outside supplier. 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

Road Trips: Part I

Over the past month or so, I've had occasion to go to Buffalo and Cleveland, and as on virtually every road trip I take, I tried some local pizza.  

In early May, my wife and I went to Buffalo for an event at the Hyatt Regency, where I'd booked a room for the night. The event was to include dinner, so at that point pizza was the furthest thing from my mind. (Well actually pizza is never too far from my mind, but I wasn't expecting to have any that night.)

We got to the hotel, checked in, I put on my suit, my wife donned her evening wear, and we headed down to the where the event was taking place, only to discover that they did not have our names on the list. 

Surely there must be some mistake, I thought. I remember ordering the tickets!

But slowly another though crept into my mind. Wait a minute. Did I?

I couldn't find a confirmation email, and neither my credit card nor bank statement reflected a charge for the tickets. I reluctantly came to the realization that although I had indeed booked a room at the hotel, I overlooked the detail of actually purchasing tickets to the event, which at that point was completely sold out.

So all dressed up with nowhere to go, I began a quick search for a nearby restaurant, and came up with a place not too far away, Coco Bar & Bistro.

Initial impressions were good. Soft lighting, exposed brick walls, and high ceilings that gave it a relaxing atmosphere and provided me a chance to stop berating myself for not at that moment sitting at the Hyatt Regency. After ordering drinks we perused the wide-ranging menu. As one might expect in a self-described bistro, the menu is French-inspired, but with a lot of other cuisines in the mix, including Cajun/Creole (shrimp étouffée), Thai (mussels with coconut and red curry), Portuguese (mussels with chorizo and spices), German (sort of) ("Schnitzel de Porc Niçoise"), Swedish (Swedish meatballs, which from what I've read originated in Turkey), and Italian. Including pizza.

Any number of those dishes sounded appealing to me, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to try the pizza. I went with a simple red sauce and cheese pizza. 

That choice is described on the menu as a Margherita, which is a misnomer. A Margherita should include tomatoes in some form, cheese (usually fresh mozzarella), and basil, preferably fresh. But to paraphrase Shakespeare, a cheese pizza by any other name would taste as good. If it's good, that is.

This one was, I'm afraid, a disappointment. It didn't look bad, but upon biting into it, the crust reminded me of a frozen pizza. It was dry and flavorless and was no more than a base for the toppings. Which weren't bad; the sauce was flavorful and there was plenty of cheese, although it was a tad more browned than I prefer, but I couldn't help thinking that I could've found something of similar quality in the frozen section of my local supermarket. 

I don't want to bash Coco, but my wife ended up sending back her lamb Bolognese. Bolognese sauce can include various spices, including nutmeg and cinnamon, but in this case the chef seemed to have a heavy hand with the spice jar. The flavor was reminiscent of Rochester "hot sauce" that you can get on hot dogs. The server was kind enough to take it off the bill and told us that some customers love it, some don't like it at all. I can't say it was badly made, but it might be advisable for them to let customers know in advance that it is a well-spiced sauce.

Afterwards we went out for dessert and coffee, and ended up at Romeo & Juliet's on Hertel Avenue. They offer a range of desserts, but upon arriving we discovered that they also serve pizza. My wife was still hungry, and although I can't say I was hungry I wasn't too full for more pizza, so we ordered another Margherita.

This one did include a smattering of of shredded basil, and overall it wasn't bad, but it was only marginally better than what we got at Coco. The crust was clearly made from fresh dough and it had some flavor but it was rather flabby and lifeless. Its deficiencies, however, were partially offset by the toppings, which were pretty tasty. The basil was barely noticeable, but the sauce and cheese were well balanced and combined for a nice salty/sweet/tangy flavor. I ended up eating more than I probably should have, so that speaks in its favor. 

We also ordered some tiramisu to go, which was excellent. I don't have the biggest sweet tooth, but I do love a good tiramisu, and this was good. Perfect blend of flavors, moist and so light you can easily imagine that it's not high in calories. 

So not the best day for trying some Buffalo pizza, and I know there are waaay more out there, but this was all improvised at the last minute. Next time I'm out that way I will try to plan ahead better.

Coco Bistro & Bar

888 Main St
Buffalo, NY 14202

(716) 885-1885

Sunday
    4:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Monday — Thursday
    11:30 AM – 10:00 PM
Friday
    11:30 AM – 11:00 PM
Saturday
    4:00 PM – 11:00 PM

Romeo & Juliet's

1292 Hertel Ave.
Buffalo, NY 14216
tel:716-873-5730

Hours of Operation:
Tuesday - Thursday 11 AM - 8 PM
Friday and Saturday 11 AM - 9PM
CLOSED SUNDAY AND MONDAY

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rochester Pizza Palooza Report

 Last evening I attended Rochester Pizza Palooza 2025 at Comedy @ The Carlson with my family. We had a fine time, until ... well, I'll get to that later.

The doors opened at 5:00 for Happy Hour in the bar area, and the pizza tasting started at six in the adjacent room where the comedians perform. We arrived around 5:45 to find the barroom pretty crowded; attendance was certainly good.

The doors to the tasting room opened a few minutes after six. Although there were supposed to be nine pizzerias represented, I think there were eight. I could be mistaken, but I don't recall seeing one of the listed participants, Mac's Pizza Shack.

Each of us was given a ballot where we could vote for Best Traditional Pizza, Best Specialty Pizza, and Best Booth. At each booth (table, really), they had at least two and in some cases several pizzas to choose from. Some places opted to do very narrow slices, others did a square cut, but naturally these were just small sample size pieces.

I will confess, I did not try every pizza from every pizzeria. As much as I love pizza, I can only eat so much. And the fuller I got, the more discriminating I became, so I would forgo trying a pizza that didn't look particularly tempting or intriguing to me.

I won't try here to describe or rank all the pizzas I tried, but I will say that my overall favorite was the waaay too-longed-named Tuscan Wood Fired Pizza ~ Tony Tomatoes Italian Take Out & Food Truck Catering (which I reviewed in 2011). They had several varieties of both thin- and thick-crust pizza, all of which that I tried were very good.

They had one advantage over the other pizzerias, in that they use a food truck, with a pizza oven inside. It was parked right out front, so they were able to bring hot pizza in as needed, fresh out of the oven. The other pizzerias, I assume, were bringing in pies from their various locations, and they had no means of reheating or crisping them. But even taking that into consideration, I really liked "Tuscan." The crust was very good, not just in the baking, but in the rising. Chewy, airy, flavorful. They know their stuff.

My wife particularly liked Gia's Pizza Kitchen from East Rochester.  I wish I had tried more than the one bite-size sample I got, which didn't thrill me, but it was too small a sample size to go by.

And my wife's instincts were borne out by the results of the voting. Gia's won for best traditional. I will move Gia's to near the top of my list to try, for a full (and fairer) review. 

Tuscan (Tony) won for best specialty. They had several on offer, which was a smart move because voters didn't have to specify a particular specialty pizza. But I especially liked what I believe was their Roman-style Margherita. It had a thick but airy crust, charred underneath, heavily topped with lightly seasoned tomatoes, fresh mozzarella and basil. Kudos to them also for putting out labels in front of each pizza, so you knew what you were looking at.

Best booth went to Rhino's, which featured their dill pickle pizza. I should've tried it, but the line was long and I was pretty full by the time I thought about it, which meant I couldn't have given it my fairest consideration, as food always tastes better when you're hungry. It's another one for the to-do list. But their booth was nicely decorated and they did a good job in presenting their wares.

So it was a fun event. Really good. And now we get to the until I mentioned earlier.

I have an unfortunate tendency to be a fast eater, so I got done pretty quickly. It was only a little after seven, but I had no particular desire to stick around for the announcement of the winners. My family were done too. So we left. 

I had parked in an open-air lot across the street, among a bunch of other cars. But when we got there, something was amiss. I didn't see my car.

The car was gone. I knew exactly where it had been; it wasn't there. I started questioning myself:  did I lock it? Yes, I did. I'm positive. Called 911, RPD showed up, they had found some inexpensive personal items that had been inside my car a few blocks away near where another stolen car was found. Fortunately one of those items was the registration document with my name on it, so the police officer was able to determine that all that stuff was mine.

I'm told these cars typically show up in a few days, once they've run out of gas. But who knows?

The staff at Comedy @ The Carlson were very nice to us when we told them what happened. I don't want to come down on them. The primary responsibility lies with the scumbags who stole my car. I wish there were some way to make them understand that if they put half that effort into doing something productive with their lives, their lives might turn out better. 

Nevertheless, I would like to advise anyone out there that this particular lot is, from what I was told, hit often by the "Kia Boys." I don't want to discourage anyone from attending events at Comedy @ The Carlson, but you should know that the parking lot across the street is not monitored. Park there at your own risk.

I'll post updates as they become available.

Update, May 22: My car was found, and taken to the RPD impound lot on Colfax St. I had to go sign some papers to get it released to be towed to a garage. I also was able to retrieve any personal items from inside the car. Aside from my umbrella and a couple books, everything was gone. It was sunny when they stole the car, so they had no need for an umbrella, and I guess the thieves aren't much for reading. Perhaps if they had spent more of their formative years reading, they wouldn't be wasting their lives stealing cars now.

 

Rochester Pizzapalooza

 I don't generally promote stuff, but I do like to keep people informed, so for those pizza lovers out there who actually read this blog, there is an event coming up next Tuesday.

Rochester Pizzapalooza will be held at Comedy at the Carlson from 5-8 p.m. Nine local pizzerias will be offering their wares. I'll be there. I think I've tried all the participating pizzerias but one, which I hadn't been aware of, Alpha Street Pizzeria. 

I will fast all day so I can try as much pizza as possible, and post a report.

PizzaPie Pizzeria

After getting a haircut at the barbershop I've been going to for 30+ years, Winton Hair Stylist (I get no remuneration from them, they don't even know about my blog), I decided to stop by a nearby pizzeria that was on my to-do list, PizzaPie Pizzeria.

They opened at noon on this Tuesday, and I got there around 12:10. No slices available just then, but there were some on the way. I got a cheese slice to go.

The first thing I noticed was how thin it was. It passed the fold test (I could fold it without it flopping down), and there was a bit of crackling underneath, but it was so thin that I could easily fold it onto itself. It was fresh out of the oven, so it didn't get a re-crisping, but I think the reason it passed the fold test is that it weighed so little. 

The sauce was so lightly applied it might've been painted on with a brush, but it had a pleasantly tangy flavor, and it was in good proportion to the thin crust.  The cheese, I wasn't so impressed with. It was also lightly applied, which was OK, but instead of melting had dried out and shrunk along the edges of the shreds. I think it was part-skim (not the best choice for pizza, in my opinion), and it did add a bit of flavor but it didn't enhance the slice the way that well-melted, quality mozzarella would.

Having written all this, it seems to me that it comes off as if I didn't like this pizza. That's not the case. For what it was, it wasn't bad. 

The shortcoming, to me, is what it was, which was a bare-bones, dare I say "cheap" slice. Super-thin, to the point that there was no interior to speak of. Not much sauce, and what cheese there was struck me as the budget stuff. It reminded me of the "dollar" slices you can find in New York City. Not bad, really, but not bad for the price. (I don't recall exactly what I paid for this slice but I think it was around $3.50.)

This was just one visit and one slice. Maybe another visit, or an entire pie would yield a different result. And I must re-emphasize that I didn't dislike this pizza. It was OK. But just OK.

PizzaPie Pizzeria, 1827 East Ave., Rochester

585-448-0141

 Monday Closed
Tuesday 12pm - 8pm
Wednesday 12pm - 8pm
Thursday 12pm - 8pm
Friday 12pm - 9pm
Saturday 12pm - 9pm
Sunday 12pm - 8pm

 

Red Zone

This story starts in the first decade of the 20th Century. Well, sort of.

In 1904 or thereabouts, a building was built on East Main Street in Rochester, that became home to Sibley's department store. 

For those who are too young to know, department stores were places where they sold a bunch of stuff--in person, not online--arranged by "departments." They were sort of like Walmart except they had high-end stuff, and nobody was embarrassed to admit they bought their clothes there. And they were often located right in the middle of cities. Where did people park, you might ask? On the street, maybe, but many shoppers didn't have to worry about parking, because there was good, reliable mass transit. 

Eventually Amazon and Walmart drove everyone else out of business, and all the buildings that used to house department stores became vacant or fell into disrepair, everyone who had the means to do so fled to the suburbs, and so on. (OK, I'm oversimplifying, but I'm trying to get to the point, which is to get us back to the Sibley Building.) 

Sibley's was huge for many years, but then declined, got bought by another company, and closed in the 1990s. So now we had this beautiful, historic building in the heart of downtown Rochester with its namesake tenant gone. 

In 2012, the building was bought by Winn Companies, which has since redeveloped the building for multiple uses, including retail, office and residential space. 

Part of that includes "Mercantile on Main," which I suppose could be described as a food court, but that wouldn't really do it justice. Yes, there are a number of walk-up, takeout places, but there's also a bar serving Spanish and Mediterranean dishes, the setting of the Sibley Building atrium is quite pleasant, and you won't find any national chain establishments. I believe they are all local and one of a kind.

To my way of thinking, no food court, high-end, low-end or otherwise, is worth a damn without pizza.  In Mercantile on Main, we have Red Zone, which offers a variety of thin-crust slices.

First time around, I like to stick with the basics, so I got a cheese slice. 

Hmm. There were things I liked, and things I didn't. It resembled a New York-style slice, but judged by that standard it fell short. It passed the fold test, meaning I could fold it and hold it horizontally without it flopping over, and the underside was dry, not oily (a good thing), but it was more browned than charred and it was not at all crackly. I could not only fold it, I could roll it up (not a good thing). Although it's easy to overlook the crust--which is why pizza chains make such a big deal about overloading their pizza with toppings and stuffing the crust, to distract you from how crappy the crust is--the crust is the backbone of every pizza, and this crust didn't wow me.

No complaints about the sauce or cheese. They balanced each other well. The cheese was nicely melted and both were added in good proportions to each other and to the crust. The sauce seemed a bit on the sweet rather than acidic/tangy side.

This is an observation rather than a complaint, but the slice had a prominent flavor of what I will generically call "Italian" herbs. I didn't attempt to dissect them into individual components (oregano, basil, etc.), but it was quite noticeable. At first I thought it was the sauce but there were visible dried herbs on top, so maybe someone just had a heavy hand with the herb shaker. Again, I'm not necessarily complaining, as it didn't overpower the other components and it certainly gave the slice a distinctive flavor. And where pizza is concerned, I appreciate distinctiveness.

I came away from this thinking, this was good, but it could've been a lot better. Red Zone is relatively new, and far be it from me to tell them how to make pizza, but I think a few tweaks would be all it takes to elevate their pizza significantly. 

Just some thoughts, but I wonder about the oven temperature. For thin crust, you generally want high temp, short baking time. Could they crank up the temp a bit? 

I frankly didn't notice what type of oven they use, but for personal reasons I find myself in the Sibley Building occasionally so next time I'll take a look. That may affect what they can do, temperature-wise.

Dough preparation is also a question. Again I will defer to the pros but a long ferment is generally going to result in a better crust. If a pizzeria advertises that they make their dough every day, on the same day that they bake it, that's not a good thing. Dough needs time.

And maybe take it easy on the herbs. If you want to make that a part of your signature, fine. I was good with it. But I'd solicit some opinions from your customers.

I enjoyed my pizza, make no mistake. I just thought, a little bit of adjustment and they can go from pretty good to very good or great.

 Red Zone Pizza, at Mercantile on Main

240 East Main St., Rochester

Mon. - Fri. 11 a.m. - 2 p.m.

Forno Tony

About a month ago, Rochester was named the Best Pizza City in the U.S. This happens every so often, and I'm guessing other cities are similarly so-named occasionally. Somebody somewhere runs some numbers from online reviews, and looks at pizzerias per capita and declares that "[insert name of city] is the Best Pizza City in the country.

 So while I doubt that Rochester truly deserves that distinction, I will say that we are blessed with a lot of good pizzerias, making a wide variety of styles of pizza. 

Part of that is due to a trend that's been happening nationwide for years. You can go to East Fumbuck in the middle of nowhere these days and find a place offering wood-fired, "artisanal" pizza. It might or might not be good, but at least they're trying, and you've got an option besides the local convenience store (and even they've upped their game, as a result).

But part of it locally, I think, is that
Rochester had a pizza culture before the current pizza renaissance began. Pizza took early root here, thanks to the influx of Italian immigrants in the early 20th Century, and some of the old-timers are still around. We've arguably a local style, and now we've got even more choices.

 Which gets us to Forno Tony, which opened in January 2024 on University Avenue in Rochester, and focusing on Roman-style pizza. They started serving pizza from a location on East Avenue in 2022 one or two days a week, and drawing huge crowds. 

I was aware of it, but for several reasons I just put it on my to-do list and never got around to it. It took my resuming this blog to get there. I went on a Friday around 11 a.m. 

Walking in, one finds a takeout counter with a lot of choices, mostly pizza or variations thereof, plus some pastries. There were a few seats for dining in, but it was pretty much takeout. 

The basic choice was between pizza alla pala and pizza in teglia. The names simply refer to how they're made: from a paddle or a pan. The former, also known as Roman-style pizza, is stretched thin into an oblong shape and slid into the oven with a wooden peel, while the latter is a thicker, pan-baked pizza, similar to focaccia. Or maybe it's just focaccia by a different name. If I've learned one thing over the years, it's that Italians have a lot of names for food.

 You don't get slices here exactly, at least in the way most of us are used to, where you walk in and the pizza's already sliced. You get it by the cut, or al taglio, and charged by weight. And as in Rome, they cut it with scissors.

 At this point, I will make one mild criticism of Forno Tony. They have an impressive array of choices, but they weren't labeled, and there was no visible menu. The person behind the counter ran through them for me, and perhaps that's the way it's done in Rome, but if you don't want to have to recite every variety over and over, why not put up today's menu, or small signs identifying each variety? 

I settled on four choices. Two were alla pala and two were in teglia. I asked for pretty big cuts, so it ended up being eight regular-size slices.

 One Roman slice (pizza rossa) was topped with nothing but tomato sauce, which is as basic as it gets. I'd be tempted to say it was close to what ancient Romans might've had, were it not for the fact that tomatoes weren't known in Europe until after Spanish conquistadores brought them back from the New World. (Incidentally, it also took a while for Europeans to realize that tomatoes aren't poisonous.)

It was crisp and crunchy, and despite its thinness, there were visible air pockets inside, which gave it a light but chewy texture. The underside was well browned but not charred, although there were some charred spots on the topside and along the edge, which added that extra bit of flavor. So simple yet so delicious.

 My other Roman slice was similar, but topped with sliced eggplant and mozzarella. Eggplant is one of the few foods I dislike, but my wife loves it, so I got it for her. I tried it and leaving aside my distaste for eggplant, it was good. For one thing, the eggplant was sliced so thin that I wasn't bothered by the texture, which is my primary reason for hating eggplant. The mozzarella didn't hurt either. It appeared to be processed mozzarella but it was silky smooth and creamy.

I don't know if this was just a matter of chance, but this slice was also noticeably more charred underneath and along the edge. Perhaps because of the additional toppings, the pizzaiolo left it in the oven a bit longer to give it a little more time to bake.

(Speaking of the oven, from what I could see it was an electric oven, and I assume the digital display showing "585" referred to the temperature, not the area code.)

Moving on to the pan-baked pizza, I love red pizza with fresh mozzarella, so I got that. It was not all that much different from the alla pala pizza, aside from the thickness. Unlike typical American pan-baked "sheet pizza," it wasn't oily underneath. It had a firm texture and was again airy and light, showing the beneficial effects of a long slow dough rise. The mozzarella was melted just short of browning, which is perfect. The sauce seemed the same as on the other slices, slightly sweet in a tomatoey way, but perhaps a bit more concentrated from staying in the oven longer.

My fourth choice was a white pizza (pizza bianca), baked in the pan. I'm generally not a huge fan of white pizza, for a variety of reasons; they tend to be oily, for one thing. Plus I just prefer red sauce. But if I'm getting several varieties, I usually include at least one white pizza.

This one was topped with thinly sliced zucchini and, I believe, lemon zest. (Yes, the server explained everything. But at some point I lost track of what was what, which is why I wish they had a printed menu.)

There was some oil between the crust and the cheese, although not to an unpleasant degree or as much as with some white pizzas I've had. The yellow squash added more color than flavor, but the lemon zest and oregano sprinkles added some interest.

Forno Tony also sells a few sweets, and although I hadn't planned on getting anything other than pizza, one caught my eye. It looked a bit like a pretzel roll, split down the middle, filled with cream and topped with fresh raspberries. Turns out they are maritozzi, which is Rome's signature pastry. The counter server described it as a brioche bun filled with cream. They looked too good to pass up, so I got one maritozzo. I shared it later that night with my wife. It was a bit messy to try to cut in half, much less eat by hand after being split, but it was delicious and remarkably light (by "light," I mean texturewise, not caloriewise). Sorry I didn't get a photo, but the Democrat and Chronicle posted one here.

I will confess to a tendency to resist liking anything that everyone else is saying is great. If somebody tells me, "You've got to see this movie, you'll love it," I'm already predisposed to hate it. I can hardly say that Forno Tony has hyped itself--their web presence seems limited to an Instagram page--but I was both eager to try it and ready to say, "Overrated." It's not.

However-- 

Not long before I went, I was speaking with someone who'd been there. To paraphrase, they told me, "Yeah, it was good, but I like regular pizza, and it's not regular pizza."

I get it. By way of analogy, and to quote Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, I like beer. And I can appreciate a well-made IPA or stout or bock or whatever. But sometimes you just want a plain old beer. Fizzy and yellow and white and foamy on top.

And sometimes you just want plain old pizza, the kind you grew up with. You won't find that here. But we're blessed to have a panoply of pizza choices around Rochester, and this is a great addition to that array. 

Forno Tony, 1350 University Ave., Rochester

Thu. - Sat. 9 am - 5 pm

closed Sun. - Wed.

Dough Depot (not)

 On a recent weekend I decided to take advantage of the nice weather and go for a hike. I was scanning the map for trails or forests where I could work in a hike and a nearby pizzeria, and settled on Indian Fort Nature Preserve near Geneseo. I chose it partly because it has some very nice trails, for a relatively small place, and partly because I saw on Google Maps that there was a pizzeria in nearby Caledonia, Dough Depot, that I hadn't been aware of. It got good reviews and was in an old railroad depot to boot, which was a bonus for me.

 I called and got no answer but I forged ahead, as there were recent updates online stating that they would be open. OK, I admit, dumb idea. Should've made sure. But it was still worth checking out. 

Got to the depot and saw "DOUGH DEPOT" in large letters along the wall, and I smelled food cooking. 

But the doors on both sides were locked, and the interior looked dark. I started back to my car when I heard someone say, "Anything I can do for you?," or words to that effect. Across the adjacent tracks stood a man in his yard, and after I explained that I was there for pizza he responded that he hadn't known Dough Depot to make pizza for at least several weeks.

 "But I smell something cooking," I said. He answered. "Oh, that's me, I'm doing steaks." "Can I come over?" "Sure, come on over," he replied.

It was a nice offer, and I'm guessing he would've honored it had I taken him up on it, but I declined. He suggested Pizza Land, just down the road. But I saw that I had reviewed it before, and although that was a long time ago, I had stopped there pretty recently and the pizza didn't seem much different from the time of my prior review, so I headed home and made my own lunch.

Subsequent calls to Dough Depot have met without success.  So I can only conclude that it's no longer in business, or at least that it's not making pizza. Too bad, as the reviews that I saw were quite positive, and I had been looking forward to it. I can only hope that it reopens or that someone else moves into the space. But I can't call it a wasted trip, as I was heartened to see that there are still some hospitable folks left in the world, at least in Caledonia.

 Dough Depot, 226 North St., Caledonia

 

 

The Richmond

Way back when, on any given night you might've seen me had you walked into Richmond's, a bar on Richmond Street in Rochester. It was a truly great bar. The neon "SORRY WE'RE OPEN" sign in the window pretty much told you what you needed to know about Richmond's. "Dive" doesn't sound quite right, but anybody and everybody was welcome. I think someone best described it as a neighborhood bar without a neighborhood.

 Sadly, Richmond's closed in 2020, apparently a victim of the COVID restrictions imposed by New York State (don't get me started on that). 

But it re-emerged in 2022, under different ownership, as "The Richmond," with a makeover and the addition of pizza. I put it on my to-do list, but saved it for a later day, when I would start doing blog posts again.

I went back recently with my wife for dinner, on a Saturday night around 6 p.m. The layout was about the same as I remembered it -- bar up front, some booths along the back -- but a bit classier looking, which is either a good or a bad thing, depending on your point of view. Happily, the "SORRY WE'RE OPEN" sign remains, now in blue instead of the old red neon.

We shared an appetizer of cauliflower salad, which
was very good. I highly recommend it.

From there, we got two pizzas, a Margherita and a "Cup N' Char." Pizzas are described on the menu as "Neapolitan style," and while I will leave it to interested readers to do further research on the parameters of that style, I would say these fell within that category: thin, relatively soft, and foldable.

I'll start with the Cup N' Char, which is described as topped with cup n' char pepperoni, mozzarella and house red sauce. It was pretty good, with nearly-burnt pepperoni on top and some charring underneath.  But the crust didn't wow me. One mark of a great pizza, for me, is that when I eat through to the edge (cornicione), I keep on going, because it's that good. I didn't get that here. The crust just didn't have a lot going for it. I don't claim to be an expert but it seemed like a quickly-risen dough that didn't have time to develop the kind of complexity I would expect from a Neapolitan-style pizza. But all in all, not bad.

The Margherita was, sad to say, a disappointment.  As with most things pizza, it started with the crust.

 The underside was quite pale. I wouldn't say that the crust was raw -- given its thinness, it didn't take long to bake -- but it was underdone, for sure.

I suppose we could've sent it back, although I've never done that before with a pizza. Come to think of it, I've never done that before, with any dish, but I can see doing it with meat. Pizza? Maybe, with a slice, if you want the bottom to get crisp, but the problem here was that the top side was already well-baked. A few more minutes and it would've been overdone.

The toppings were not enough to make up the difference. My tastes in pizza differ somewhat from my wife's, but we both commented on the sauce. It was thin and tasted as if it had come out of a jar. I suggested Ragu, and she didn't disagree. I have fond memories of Ragu spaghetti sauce, but it's not what I expect on a Margherita pizza. (I am NOT saying they used Ragu. I'm saying that's what it brought to mind.)

 I took a walk back to the oven area and it appeared to me that though the oven has the appearance of a wood-burning oven, the heat came entirely from a gas flame. (I should point out that they don't claim to do wood-burning pizza; I'm not accusing them of false advertising or anything like that.) Again, I don't claim to be an expert but I wondered if the oven hadn't had long enough to come up to full temperature when we got there. I didn't see a temp on the oven, so I don't know how hot it was, but there seemed to be a disconnect between the ambient temperature, where the toppings cook, and the deck, where the bottom cooks.

It occurred to me during dinner that I and fellow pizza aficionados have gotten spoiled over the years. Some years ago, I would've been amazed to get this pizza in a bar. Today, thankfully, standards have risen and I am a little more demanding.

 I will add that the service was great. We sat  at the bar, in my old spot, and the bartender was attentive. When the pizza came out, the server explained that the chef had mistakenly added hot honey and red pepper flakes, and she offered to take it back and have it redone, but I was fine with it. 

So ... 

It was great to get back to Richmond's. Nice to see that wings are still on the menu, although I don't know if they're up to the old standards; maybe next time I'll find out. (Mike, if you're out there, you made the BEST wings anywhere, anytime.) 

Based on this one visit, I would describe the pizza as a bit of a disappointment, but showing potential. Get better sauce and make better use of that oven (and maybe do a longer, colder dough rise), and they might have something great. That may sound like damning by faint praise, but that's not my intent. Some tweaking is all it needs.

The Richmond

21 Richmond St., Rochester, NY  

Mon., Wed. 4 pm - 10 pm

Thu., Fri. 4 pm - midnight

Sat. 1 pm -  midnight

Sun. 1 pm - 10 pm

 

Cristo's, Buffalo Road

Just twelve and a half short years ago, I published a post about a new wood-fired pizzeria on Buffalo Road, Fiamma. I l loved it, calling it "a great example of the pizzamaker's art."

In 2015, Fiamma opened a second location off University Avenue in Rochester (which I've been to, and it's every bit as good; I highly recommend it).

Eventually Fiamma closed the Buffalo Road location. For a while, the space housed a second location of Veneto, which is one of the first pizzerias I reviewed, in 2009.

In 2023, the Buffalo Road location re-opened as Cristo, under the ownership of a former Veneto chef. 

I added Cristo to my to-do list, but never got around to doing it until recently. I guess re-starting the blog finally gave me the impetus I needed.  I know that maintaining this blog is going to require some effort on my part, but if it got me to check out Cristo, then it's already been worth it.

Among the three of us, we ordered (the descriptions are from the menu) homemade fusilli pasta tossed in a vodka sauce with pancetta and red pepper flakes, and tagliatelle all'Amatriciana, described as homemade tagliatelle tossed in a red sauce with red onion, pancetta, and Calabrian peppers topped with Parmesan, Asiago and Romano cheeses.

And of course, the main reason for our trip:  pizza.

There are eight different pizzas on the menu, and though several of them sounded tempting, my default on a first visit to a place that does wood-fired or Neapolitan-style pizza is to go with a Margherita, as I did here.

When it arrived at our table, it looked good:  charred around the edge, topped with red sauce, fresh mozzarella and chopped basil.

When I took a bite, it got even better. Everything about it seemed right. So I took another bite, and another. I kept looking for something wrong with it, not because I wanted something to be wrong but because I thought, there has to be something wrong here; some flaw.

I didn't find one.

Let's start with the crust. Pliable, bready, chewy, charred. Not crackly like a NYC slice, but not soft or spongy, like, well, too many other places. And the charring was just right, for me. Not burnt, but not the kind of charring I've seen induced at some places for show, where they briefly expose the perimeter of the pizza to a gas flame to blacken it a bit. I confirmed with the pizzaiolo that their oven is 100% wood-fired, and this is how wood-fired pizza should be.

(By the way, I apologize for the relatively poor quality of the photos. The light in the restaurant was somewhat dim, and my attempts to improve the photos by editing them met with limited success. I need to work on that.)

The toppings shone both individually and in concert with each other. The sauce had a bright, fresh flavor, the cheese was melted juuust enough, and the basil, which had wilted a bit in the oven without browning, added the right herbal accent.

All three components worked beautifully together, and with the crust. I hate to overuse the phrase, but to me pizza is first and foremost about balance.  The crust, the sauce, the cheese, etc., everything has to work together in the right proportions and in harmony. And that was true of this pizza. 

Oh, and the pasta dishes? They were good too, or so I was told. I was too busy with the pizza.

As I said, some of the other pizzas on the menu sounded good, and I would like to go back to try them, although given my tastes it's hard to imagine I would like one of them better than this. For me, this was about as good as it gets.

Cristo's Wood Fired Pizza and Pasta

1308 Buffalo Road, Gates, New York 14624

585-622-9000

cristosrestaurant@gmail.com

Mon. - Wed. 4:00 pm – 9:00 pm
    
Thu., Fri. noon – 9:00 pm
    
Sat.  3:30 pm – 9:00 pm
    
Sun. Closed (available for private parties and catering)

 

Pizza Wizard

After being happily surprised to see that some people had fond memories of this blog (hell, I wasn't sure if anybody would remember it at all), I saw that more than one person asked me to do a post about Pizza Wizard on South Clinton Avenue in Rochester.

I'd been there before, more than once, but this made me realize that in addition to my personal to-do list of places I haven't been to, there are a lot of other places I have been to but never blogged about, because I went there during my blog "vacation." So I've got more than enough to keep me busy for a good long while.

In response to readers' requests, then, I went back to Pizza Wizard for lunch with my wife. For those who don't know, Pizza Wizard specializes in Detroit-style pizza. I don't remember exactly when I first heard of that style, but I believe it would've been in the late 20-teens, since that's when it suddenly seemed to catch on nationwide.

I do remember being skeptical when I first heard of Detroit-style pizza. I thought (and to some extent still do) that marketers are perpetually looking for something to turn into the Next Big Thing. Pick a city, call it a style, and run with it. It doesn't help matters that by the time a genuine style reaches the hinterlands, far beyond where it began, it tends to be a faint shadow of the real thing.  

But even when I wasn't blogging, I was keeping up with pizza news and pizza trends. And as I read more about Detroit-style, it seemed to me that yeah, it sounded like a genuine, distinctive style, not just a marketing gimmick. I won't try to describe it in detail here, but if you want a description I'll refer you to this post by one of my favorite food authors.

So when Pizza Wizard opened in October 2020, I was curious, and I went there not long afterwards. I liked it enough to return from time to time. But for purposes of this blog post, I'm going to focus on my most recent visit.

On this occasion, they had about ten pizzas to choose from, all Detroit style. I'm pretty sure that at one time they also offered thin-crust pizza, but that was nowhere to be found and I didn't see it on the menu.

Several of the pizza options intrigued me, but I always like to start with the basics, so I got a plain cheese slice with red sauce. My wife opted for a veggie slice, which was described as topped with tomato, kale, artichoke, onion, and sun-dried tomato. 

I've never been to Detroit, so I can only go by what I've read, but my slice checked all the boxes. Thick but light, airy crust, crisp and slightly fried underneath, with burnt cheese dripping down along the sides. It was topped with a thick layer of brick cheese, and atop that a wide stripe of tomato sauce, which was thickish and more sweet than tangy, reminiscent of one of those sauces you cook all afternoon on the stove.

 So yeah, I was pretty happy with my slice. I remain a New York-style fan, first and foremost, but I get why Detroit-style pizza has gained a solid place in the American pizza pantheon.

However ...

My wife was not nearly as happy with her slice. Her chief complaint was that it was too oily. She only finished about half of it, and gave the rest to me.

I may have somewhat broader tastes in pizza than my wife, so that may account for part of it. She likes thin-crust pizza. And because it's pan-baked, Detroit-style pizza will inevitably have some oil on the bottom. But I could see her point. Her slice was noticeably oilier and a bit denser than mine. 

I suspect that was attributable in part to the toppings.While "veggie" sounds like a "light" slice, it's not necessarily so. The toppings themselves are often sauteed in oil before being added, and the sheer weight of the toppings will tend to compress the crust. 

I also noticed that what I tasted didn't quite align with the description of the slice. I picked up a distinct note of garlic, which was not on the written description, and if there was artichoke on there, I missed it. Maybe it was scattered across the pizza, and this slice, or at least the part that I got
didn't have any. 

So. Thoughts.

I was happy with my cheese/red sauce slice. I remain a thin-crust lover, but this was much better than the typical thick-crust sheet pizza slice:  crisp, light and flavorful. It also reinforced my natural inclination to stick with the basics. Pepperoni probably would've been a good choice too, but I wouldn't overdo it. 

I would also caution readers that a lot depends on what you like. It's good to be open to styles you haven't tried before, but no matter how much others rave about a particular pizzeria or style, if it's not your thing, it's not your thing. In the case of my wife's veggie slice, I think part of her displeasure was attributable to her personal preferences, but again I could understand why she found it heavy and oily.

I'm still debating whether to again assign any sort of grades or ratings to pizzas. For now, no. I think I can better serve readers and the pizzerias by being as accurately descriptive as I can. To sum up this visit to Pizza Wizard, I'll say that they do a creditable job of replicating the Detroit style (again, based on what I know of it), and that unless you're a thin-crust-only diehard, it is well worth checking out. I mentioned earlier that I have stopped in from time to time, and I will continue to do so.

Pizza Wizard

760 South Clinton Ave. Rochester, NY 14620

585.565.4557

Hello again

 It has been a while, hasn't it?

This blog started on February 12, 2009, with an introductory post in which I wrote that it would be "an occasional, idiosyncratic exploration of pizza places in and around Rochester NY." Until just a few days ago, my most recent post was in June 2018, about six years and nine months earlier. I will admit that's a long time, but hey, I did say at the start that it would be "occasional."

So what happened? 

The simple answer is, writing and publishing the blog started to wear on me. It went from being a fun pastime to a chore. I try to avoid clichés in my writing, but "burnout" captures it pretty well.

Now the long answer. I'm writing this down in part just to sort out my thoughts, so feel free to skim over it.

 As a combination of my somewhat obsessive nature and my love of pizza, in 2009 I got it into my head to try every single pizzeria in the Rochester area. Blogging was just beginning to catch on, so I thought, why not blog about it while I'm doing it? I figured it would help me create a personal journal, for future reference, and maybe help other like-minded persons in search of good pizza.

 From the start, it was fun. But at first no one seemed to even be aware of it, which in hindsight is no surprise, given my internet ignorance at the time. I was getting no visits, no views, no nothing. It was like giving a lecture to an empty auditorium.

So I started educating myself on how to drive traffic to my site. Over time, I learned. I added search terms. I swapped links with other bloggers and pizza-related sites. I created a Facebook page tied to the Pizza Blog. Et cetera.

And it worked! I could see my numbers going up. A lot of readers were leaving comments and emailing me and asking for recommendations. For two years running the blog was voted Best Local Blog in City Newspaper's annual readers' poll. I was becoming, although the term didn't even exist yet, an "influencer."

As this was happening, I was enjoying it more in some ways, but the seeds were being planted for that eventual burnout. 

(As I'm writing this I realize I should move on. I'll have more to say in future posts about some stuff that happened over that period, if anyone's interested. But for now let's skip ahead.)

Early on I think I wrote a post in which I said that I would not let the blog become a dead site, un-maintained and un-updated. If I were to quit, I'd delete the whole damn thing. And when I decided to take a break in 2018, I had the intention of coming back to it before long. But I soon lost the motivation to do so. I wasn't ready to formally call it quits, but I also knew that people were still relying on the blog for advice. So I just left it up.

Fast forward: I recently retired, so I have more time on my hands. And I still love pizza, as much as ever. I've kept up with the local pizza scene, and I've maintained a to-do list of places to try. So I'm ready to give it a go again.

As at the beginning, I'm going to be finding my way through this all. I suppose if I want to blow this thing up, I'll have to do a lot of catching up and get onto a bunch of social media sites that didn't exist when I last posted. I would also be well-advised to do video, not just writing and photos.

But I'm not at all sure I want to go down that road. At this point my thinking is, get back to basics, keep it fun, and do it on your own terms, at your own pace. 

So I am going to resume posting about local pizza, both reviews and to pass along local pizza news, but I am not going to do it on any kind of fixed schedule or allow myself to feel pressure to post. I might or might not branch out onto a different social media platform. I don't know yet. I'm going to try to do this in a way that's good for me and good for my readers. Once a week? Sounds about right. But I'll see how it goes. 

As I go through this, though, I would appreciate your feedback, advice, and recommendations. Please email me or leave a comment. Far more than raw numbers, what has always meant the most to me is hearing directly from my readers. Given my relative lack of social media acumen, I would also love it if you could spread the word about the blog on my behalf.

Until next time,

Eat Good Pizza!

- The Rochester Pizza Guy

 

Homemade pizza

Although I bake bread about weekly, making pizza at home is more of a now-and-then kind of thing for me. I hadn't made any for maybe two or three months when I got the urge last week.

Unless I want to try my hand at a specific style (e.g. Detroit), my default recipe for a while now has been the Master Dough with Starter found in The Pizza Bible by Tony Gemignani. It's relatively simple to make and has consistently given me good results. I'm also fortunate enough to have a huge supply of Gold Medal All Trumps high-gluten bromated flour, which is ideal for this dough.

For toppings, I decided to go with what I would call a modified Margherita. Ordinarily for that style I would use crushed San Marzano (or at least plum) tomatoes, but I also had on hand a large quantity of Saporito brand "Super Heavy" concentrated pizza sauce, so I used that. I thinned it out with tap water until it seemed to be about the right consistency, and I also stirred in olive oil that I had used for sautéing some fresh garlic. 

(Quick aside: virtually every recipe that includes olive oil calls for extra-virgin. A few years ago, I decided to try plain old regular olive oil, and I've never gone back to the EVOO, at least for cooking. In some ways it's even better because it has a higher smoke point.)

One of the benefits of using high-gluten flour is that it creates a dough that it can be stretched well without tearing. That said, I have never mastered the art of stretching dough. I can do it well enough, but I am always amazed when I see pizzeria workers stretching and stretching to incredible dimensions. But given the relatively modest dimensions of my oven, I don't need to strive for that.

(Second aside: bromated flour contains potassium bromate, a flour "improver" that strengthens dough and allows for greater oven spring and higher rising in the oven. Potassium bromate has been identified as a possible carcinogen, but it breaks down at high temperatures, so it doesn't worry me to use it in pizza dough.)

Over an hour before baking, I turned on my oven to 500 degrees, as called for in the recipe. I have a half-inch-thick pizza steel, which I had cut at a local metal fabricator, at 15 inches square, which allows for about an inch of space all around in my oven. It weighs a ton--I probably could have gotten by with a quarter-inch thick--but it's great, and in my experience much better than the pizza stones I used to use, which inevitably would crack, and couldn't retain heat nearly as well.

The dough stretched easily, and after moving it to a square of parchment paper (which in my opinion isn't far behind the wheel among the greatest human inventions) on a pizza peel, I topped it with sauce, fresh mozzarella, and the garlic, and slid it onto the steel. 

I didn't keep good track of the time, but after about six or so minutes I took it out, added some basil leaves, and put it back in, rotated 180 degrees. About the same amount of time later, the cheese was showing signs of browning, the basil was wilting, and the underside was darkening, so I removed it and quickly gave it a quick sprinkling of grated Parmesan. 

All in all, it came out pretty well. The crust had risen nicely and showed some signs of charring underneath. If I had gotten this from a pizzeria, I would've had no complaints.

One thing that I both love and am frustrated by about baking, whether it's bread or pizza, is that I almost never am 100% satisfied with the results, and that I always think I could do better next time. And so it was here, in at least two respects.

One: no matter how thinly I stretch pizza dough, it rises to about medium-thick in the oven. That's not necessarily a bad thing, and maybe that's also a function of the flour I use, but I have yet to achieve the thinness of NY-style pizza. (Note to self: next time just cut down on the amount of flour.)

Two:  I'm still trying to figure out the ideal rack for the pizza steel. This time around I put it on the second-highest rack (my oven has four racks), and I would've liked a bit more charring underneath but I had to take it out lest the toppings got overcooked. Last time, I used the second-lowest, and it got too dark underneath. This calls for more consideration, and I have some ideas. (For a great examination of the subject, go here.)

Bottom line, though. I got back into pizza-making. And now here I am again blogging about pizza, for the first time since 2018. 

I don't expect many people to see this or read it. But if you do, check back. I have a lot of 'splainin' to do.