Native

 On October 3, my wife and I had dinner at Native on South Clinton Avenue in downtown Rochester. They describe themselves as offering "a casual upscale dining experience," and they do pizza, so here we go.

I quite liked the place, which is in 3 City Center, at the corner of South Clinton and Woodbury Boulevard. It was a warmish late afternoon and the patio doors were open. We ate inside, which had a very relaxed feel. Dark walls but not dim, high ceilings. Very nice.

The pizza options were limited, but I understand this is not a pizzeria, just a restaurant that offers pizza. We passed on the "Blu Mela" (apple compote, bacon, mozzarella, blue cheese and pearl onions), which sounds unappealing for a number of reasons that I may get into on my Facebook page, but the more options the better.

 We decided to split a "Rossa" with house red sauce, mozzarella and pepperoni, and a "Senza Nome" (which translates to nameless or literally "without a name"), topped with white bean puree, leeks, NYS cheddar, shredded mozzarella, fried Brussels sprouts, and Gochujang sauce. I confess to having had to look up the latter, which AI tells me is a Korean chili sauce made from the fermented gochujang chili paste. "Chili sauce" on the description would've sufficed for me (or an explanation of what it means), but OK.

 Both pies had a thick, puffy corncione. The undersides were noticeably dusted with what I believe was cornmeal. 

The crust was chewy, and had some flavor; it wasn't just a vehicle for the toppings. For me, though, the graininess underneath diminished its impact somewhat. The Senza Nome was quite darkened, well beyond "spotting," but was still enjoyable. It also seemed puffy underneath, with visible dough bubbles.

The Rossa was, shall I say flatter underneath, had some dark spots and was crisp but more evenly browned.

 The cheese on both was melted quite nicely. Getting the cheese and the crust to come out right at the same time may be one of the trickiest aspects of making pizza, as so many variables are involved, but the cheese on both of these was right where I wanted it: melted just shy of being overdone.

I was also impressed with the toppings as a whole. The cheese melted beautifully and the tomato sauce was nicely balanced, with tomatoey sweetness and a hint of acidity. And although it would never occur to me to put a white bean puree on a pizza, this particular combination worked surprisingly well. It's not often I run across a pizza I prefer to a pepperoni pie, but I liked this one better. Kudos!

If I have a complaint, it would be about the crust.  The crusts were good but I'd like to see more consistency. And although I understand the use of cornmeal (or rice flour or whatever it was) underneath, there was a graininess on the bottom of this crust that got in the way of my enjoyment of it.

But I shouldn't end this on a bad note. It was good pizza and a good experience. Recommended.