Root 31 Cafe, Pittsford

I stopped the other day for lunch, with a couple friends, at Root 31 Cafe & Eatery in Pittsford Plaza. It's in what used to be a location of Colie's Cafe, whose Park Avenue location I reviewed in 2012. (There's now just one Colie's, in Eastview Mall, which apparently does not offer pizza. Read the details here.)
According to its website, "Root 31 has partnered with farms that feature pasture raised & grass-fed animals that produce premium dairy, meats, cheeses in addition handcrafted sundries, condiments , jams and jellies. Produce, fruits, and berries all from family farms in the countryside Counties of western NY. The finest ice cream, sorbets, chocolates, vanillas, fruit purees available. Whenever possible we use local, organic ingredients guided by principles of sustainability."
All well and good. I applaud them for that. So how's the food?
This is a "fast casual" place, where you order at the counter and have your food delivered to the table. Root 31 is not a pizzeria as such, but it does feature pizza on the menu. Pizzas here come in two sizes, "petite" and "personal." I was hungry, so I got a personal cheese pizza, which was about the size of a dinner plate.
Before getting on to the pizza, I have to say, I found the prices rather curious. A personal cheese pizza was $8.25. Specialty pizzas ranged from $8.95 to $9.95. But individual toppings on a personal pizza were either $2.50 or $2.90. So if I got a white pizza with one veggie topping, that would come to $10.75. But I could get a "Chef's Style" white pizza, with bacon, onions and other toppings for $8.95. Maybe there's some logic behind that, but if so, I'm missing it.
So I got a plain cheese pizza. At first glance, it didn't look too bad. The cheese seemed a little overbrowned, but the pie looked OK overall.
But things went downhill from there. The underside was rather pale, and the crust was thin, limp, and floppy. When I tried to pick up a slice, it flopped over, and the toppings slid off.
I have given great reviews to pizzas whose slices might justly be characterized as floppy. Some are best eaten with a knife and fork, as I ended up doing here.
But those pizzas had crusts that were slightly charred, aromatic and flavorful. The crusts were good enough to eat on their own. This crust was just dull and lifeless. It seemed undercooked, and it didn't have much to recommend it. This was one of the few times that I have left some of the crust on my plate, and discarded it.
Sometimes good toppings can partially save a bad crust, but not this time. The cheese was rather overbrowned, as I've said. It wasn't hard, but neither was it smooth, and the oil that it exuded had settled into a few pools here and there.
I wasn't too thrilled about the sauce, either. I probably notice the sauce mostly when I don't like it.
As here. As I was eating this pizza, "SpaghettiOs" popped into my mind. The sauce reminded me of SpaghettiOs sauce.
Make no mistake, I have fond memories of SpaghettiOs. But I don't necessarily want my pizza sauce to taste like something that came out of a can of Franco American pasta.
I'm not saying this sauce came out of a can. For all I know, it was made from organic, locally produced ingredients. I'm just saying that the flavor reminded me of SpaghettiOs, with that distinctive tanginess of salt and Parmesan cheese, and not much tomato flavor. Maybe if I'd liked the crust, I would have been more predisposed to like the sauce, I don't know. I didn't exactly dislike the sauce, but it just didn't seem to help the pizza much. A little more tomatoey sweetness and some herbal accents would've been welcome.
One of my companions got a pepperoni pizza. To put it briefly, it was about the same, and she wasn't too happy with it.
Not to pile on, but it also took a loong time after I got my pizza, for her pizza to come out, and I think it was pretty obvious when we ordered that we were together. It would've been nice to get our pizzas at around the same time.
I wish I could say that my other companion's hamburger (which arrived with the pepperoni pizza) partially saved the day. But it didn't. He wasn't asked how he wanted it cooked, and this was well done. A thin patty, with no trace of pink inside, and from his account, as dry as it looked. That's why there's ketchup. I know some places won't do burgers less than well done, for health reasons, but if that's Root 31's policy, it should've been disclosed.
I don't enjoy giving bad reviews. But I have to be honest. If I thought we'd just caught Root 31 on a bad day, I'd hold off. But I don't. So I have to be honest and give the pizza a D.

Root 31 Cafe & Eatery
3349 Monroe Ave., Pittsford
(585) 383-5660 - contact@root31.com

Mon-Sat 9am - 9pm, Sun 9am - 8pm

Ken's Pizza Corner, Brighton (Revisited)

I am continuing to ferret out the Rochester area's last remaining untried (by me) pizzerias, but as that list shrinks, it's a good time to revisit some places that I haven't been to in a while.
And one thing I try to do is get to places that readers have asked or urged me to revisit. One such is Ken's Pizza Corner in Brighton. I reported on it in December 2011, and I liked it well enough, giving it a B-minus, but some time ago a reader opined that Ken's deserved even better, so I went back.
I picked up two cheese slices. Apart from the thick, doughy cornicione, they were very thin, with a medium-brown underside that was crosshatched by screen marks.
The crust wasn't exactly crisp, but it wasn't bad. It was dry to the touch, and had some interior breadiness.
(Pizza screens are supposed to help the crust get crisp, but I wonder if they don't prevent crusts from developing natural "fault lines." You know, when you get a slice of pizza that's been baked directly on the oven deck, it often tends to crack along certain lines, at least on the surface. I don't know if I've ever seen a screen-baked pizza do that. Not often, certainly. For some people that might be a good thing, but I like some surface crackling.)
The aforementioned cornicione - the puffy part along the edge - was also pretty good. It wasn't a throwaway, like some, but pleasantly bready, chewy and tasty, with some nice big air holes inside. But it was quite thick and fairly wide for such an otherwise thin slice.
The slices were relatively saucy, though not overly so. The sauce was flavorful but "medium" in terms of the basic parameters of salty/sweet/tomatoey.
Some tanginess was supplied by the cheese. It was pretty uniformly added, with some pockets of sauce poking through, and had a bit of lactic bite. This could've been a blend of mozzarella and a slightly sharper cheese, maybe some Provolone, or maybe there was just some Romano in there.
These were some pretty good slices of pizza. Nothing that blew me away, but well made, with no significant flaws. Definitely worth a stop, and it rates a solid "B."
Ken's Pizza Corner, 1860 Monroe Ave., Brighton 14618
271-5860
11 a.m. - midnight daily

Next Door Bar & Grill, Pittsford

I finally made it to Next Door Bar & Grill, the Wegmans-owned restaurant across from the Pittsford store. What led me to want to go there in particular was, of course, pizza. I'd known for a long time that they offered very thin and crispy pizza, and I was curious to try it.
Next Door has two kinds of pizza, a Margherita and an apple-brie pizza. I chose the former.
Now before I continue, let me apologize for the less than stellar quality of the photos. They were taken with my phone camera, which has no flash, and the lighting was rather dim. I've tried to make them as good as I can, but there's only so much I could do. (You can see a better photo of the apple-brie pizza here, however.)
As expected, from what I'd read prior to going, the pizza was indeed ultrathin and crackly crisp. And I don't just mean crisp on the outside. Or maybe it would be more accurate to say that that's all there was to this pizza - an outside. There really was no interior to speak of, save for a few pockets of air. Imagine a super-thin flatbread baked until it became crackerlike, and you'll get the idea.
There was some darkening on the underside, but I wouldn't call the crust charred. It had a pleasant enough flavor marked by a subtle sweetness.
The main action, by far, was happening up on top. Next Door's Margherita is topped with roasted tomato, basil, and fresh mozzarella, and the toppings were surprisingly heavy for such a thin pizza. Ordinarily, I would complain about a lack of balance between heavy toppings and a thin crust, but this was just a different beast altogether. It was more like Italian nachos, or chips topped with a tomato-mozzarella dip than a traditional pizza.
The finely chopped basil was much less abundant than the tomatoes or cheese, and added only a little flavor. What was more noticeable was the sea salt, which had been sprinkled over the top of everything. It was unusual - as was much else about this pizza - but it provided an interesting contrast to the underlying sweetness of the crust.
To get back to the tomatoes and cheese, they were tasty. I've used Wegmans' roasted tomatoes on my homemade pizza, and they do provide a lot of flavor. They're sweet and moist, without the intensity or chewiness of sun-dried tomatoes. And the fresh mozzarella was nicely melted, neither too liquid nor rubbery.
What to say about this pizza? Well, it went down easy, for sure. The crust is usually the most filling part of a pizza, but it was easy to polish off this pie without feeling stuffed.
And I did like it, although if I'm craving pizza, it's unlikely to fill the bill. It's not classic pizza, but has to be taken on its own terms. So I don't think I'll give it a rating, as it's just too unlike any other conventional pizza around here. I think I've described it reasonably well, and I'll leave it to you to decide whether it's something you might like. But for what it is, I think it was pretty well executed.
Next Door Bar & Grill, 3220 Monroe Ave. 14618
(585) 249-4575
Mon. - Sat. 11:30 am – 2:30 pm, 5:30–10:00 pm
Bar open 4 p.m. - midnight Mon. - Thu., till 1 a.m. Fri. & Sat.
Closed Sun.

Rumi's, Monroe Avenue

 NOTE:  at this writing (2/12/14) this establishment is closed.

I learned recently that a new Turkish restaurant had opened on Monroe Avenue, in a former Pizza Hut. News of a Turkish restaurant was intriguing enough, but I also saw that they serve pizza.
Rumi's Cafe & Grill is billing itself as a Mediterranean restaurant, rather than specifically Turkish, and I can see the reasoning behind that. Rochester's probably not big enough to support a lot of restaurants with a narrow ethnic focus, so better to cast a wide net and say "Mediterranean" than Turkish, or Lebanese, or Greek, or Moroccan. At least that seems to be the thinking behind it.
Now I've had a Turkish variant on pizza before, called Lahmacun, from Istanbul Market, and I loved it. But this was nothing like that. This was pizza, pure and simple. But it was pretty good.
I was with two friends, and, somewhat to my surprise, they both ordered pizza as well. I got a spinach & feta pie, and they got a chicken doner and beef doner pizza. ("Doner," I guess, is the Turkish name for that meat on a spit that they use to make what is generally referred to in the U.S. as a gyro.)
Rumi's makes its own dough, and that showed. The underside bore screen marks, but it was crisp and crackled on the surface. The interior of the thin-to-medium crust was also pleasantly breadlike.
The toppings were moderately applied but tasty, with a thin layer of lightly seasoned, tomatoey sauce and just-browned mozzarella. My spinach and feta were not abundantly applied, but there was enough for good flavor and to accent the rest of the pie. The meat toppings were shaved, again as you would get in a gyro, and worked well as a pizza toppings, although between the two of them I preferred the chicken, as the beef doner (which also contains lamb) seemed a bit too overcooked for my taste - better to just have it put straight onto bread for a sandwich.
So while these weren't particularly Turkish, they were good. And we agreed that we would like to come back to Rumi's to explore some of their non-pizza offerings, which include a wide variety of kabobs, sandwiches, seafood entrees, platters, appetizers, and salads, as well as baklava and kunefe, which is described as layered filo dough with cheese, syrup and pistachios (both the baklava and kunefe are made off premises; in fact the menu describes them as imported from Istanbul and from the Mediterranean region, respectively).They also serve breakfast, with a number of Turkish pastries and more traditionally American choices available.
Partly I want to try those other dishes just because I like trying new things and because I like Mediterranean food. And partly it's because I was pretty impressed with Rumi's pizza. If the rest of their food is up to these standards, it's definitely worth a revisit. I'll give the pizza a B.
Rumi's, 2735 Monroe Avenue 14618
242-7864
Open 9 a.m. - 10 p.m. daily

McQuaid Jesuit

Yes, you read that title right. I'm reviewing school cafeteria pizza.
But not just any high school, or any school cafeteria. Let's cut to the chase - McQuaid Jesuit, a Catholic, male-only school, is not only a fine educational institution, it also has some of the best pizza around.
I discovered this through one of my readers, whose husband David DelGaudio runs the food program at McQuaid. I was skeptical, but figured, OK, why not?
It took a couple of phone calls to make arrangements - I didn't want to just show up one day and start wandering through the hallways, given our sadly necessary concerns these days about security - but I made it without too much trouble, and met both Dave and Director of Communications Sean Mullen, who guided me to the cafeteria.
I got there just before the lunchtime crush, and was very impressed by the wide variety of slices available. There were several thin-crust pies, from plain cheese to pepperoni and more, as well as a Sicilian pizza and something I hadn't run across before, panuozzo. This is basically a folded-over pizza dough with fillings inside.
But let me start with the thin slice. I went with a basic cheese slice, which was thin but not paper thin, nicely charred underneath, and supple, with just a bit of bite on the exterior of the crust. The crust was very good, but I think it was one of those that would be even better with reheating, to really crisp up the bottom.
There was some oil on the top side, from the cheese, but nothing excessive. The mozzarella was added in proportion to the thinness of the crust, and was melt-in-your-mouth creamy. A thin layer of basic, tomatoey sauce rounded things out.
Thin crust remains my go-to pizza, but the Sicilian here was a standout, with a bottom crust marked by a bubbly pattern that revealed its pan-baked character, but with no more than a slight feel of oil on the surface. The interior was chewy and breadlike, and the slice was topped with a generous helping of sauce and blistered dollops of fresh mozzarella.
Next up was the panuozzo. This cousin of a calzone is regularly offered here, but the fillings vary from day to day. On this occasion, the fillings were a basic pepperoni, sauce and cheese. The entire thing was baked as one giant loaf, and then sliced. The crust was nicely browned on top and bottom, and enclosed a steaming-hot interior, with smooth, stretchy cheese oozing out along the sides.
Dave informed me that all three of these offerings were prepared using the same dough and sauce, which made for a fascinating study of how the same ingredients can yield very different results, depending on how they're prepared and baked. And all three were baked in a large commercial pizza oven, with a gas flame in back providing some radiant heat.
My one regret is that I didn't speak to any of the students to get their take on the pizza. I got my slices at just about the time that the students swarmed into the cafeteria, locust-like, but minutes before I finished eating, they vanished just as quickly to go back to class.
But if any McQuaid students are reading this - you've got it good, at least as far as the food is concerned. I hope you know that. Not to sound like an old timer ("Why, when I was a lad ..."), but in my day, school pizza was pretty awful, although I suppose we still looked forward to it, given the alternatives. And I suspect that even today, few schools offer pizza that's even close to this good. If I were a McQuaid student, I might try to keep my grades down, in the hopes of repeating a year, just for the pizza. Something tells me it wouldn't work, but I'd consider it, anyway.
I could pick a nit here and there about this pizza. The thin-crust slice was a little pale along the edge (which also had a large bubble in it), and as I mentioned, it was a bit oily on top. But all in all, this was excellent pizza, well made, with quality ingredients, and it rates an A from me.
If you'd like to try McQuaid's pizza, it can be done. The cafeteria is generally not open to the public, but on school days you can order a 20-inch pizza to go; visit their website for details. A 20-inch pie is a lot of pizza, but I don't think you'll end up with many leftovers.
McQuaid Jesuit, South Clinton Ave. at Elmwood Avenue.
Pizza catering available on school days between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m.

Abba's Pizza, Revisited

Back in December 2010, I did a post about a slice I got at Abba's Pizza, a kosher pizzeria on Winton Road near Monroe Avenue. I gave it a B-minus for pizza that was pretty crisp but a bit bland.
I've meant for some time to go back for a pie, and I finally did so recently.
Abba's pizzas only come in one size, 16 inches, and I got a cheese pie. The proprietor, Eli Pardo, told me that he makes the crusts from scratch, but parbakes them on screens and stacks them up, prior to making the actual pizzas.
The crust on my pizza was very thin - not paper thin, but thin. It was still in the oven when I arrived, and though it appeared to be about done, I asked for it to be baked another minute.
The result was a pie that was well-done underneath, with cheese that was a little browned, especially toward the center of the pie. The underside was dotted with holes that I assume were to keep the crust from bubbling up as it was parbaking.
Though I am generally not favorably disposed toward screen-baked pies, or prebaked crusts, this crust was pretty good. It had a crunchy/crackly bottom surface and a bready interior. The slices cracked when folded, but stayed in one piece, which is a sign of a good crust. Thanks perhaps to that extra minute in the oven, they had some toasty overtones as well.
The sauce was moderately applied, and had a mild flavor. If you like an assertively flavored sauce, you might find this a bit bland. The cheese was pretty good, again very mild, but with a good, creamy texture.
Due to its location, clientele, and virtually one-man staff, Abba's hours are rather limited. But for local pizza lovers, it is well worth visiting. You might want to call or check their Facebook page before going, just to make sure they're open.
I am in the process of simplifying my ratings, to go with a simple, A, B, C, D, F system - no pluses or minuses. So pizzas are either outstanding, above average, average, below average, or inedible. This was very good pizza - not quite top-notch, but very enjoyable, so I give it a B.
Abba's Pizza, 1037 Winton Road S., 14618 (inside the Chabad Center - just walk in, you'll find it)
360-9723
Mon. - Wed. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m., Thu. 11 a.m. - 7 p.m., Sun. noon - 5 p.m.

Mario's

Rochester has an embarrassment of riches where Italian restaurants are concerned, with everything from old school, "red sauce" places to higher-end establishments that aim to take Italian food to the level of high art.
Mario's on Monroe Avenue falls somewhere in the middle, with items ranging from spaghetti and meatballs to pricier fare like osso bucco and cioppino, with a touch of steakhouse on the menu as well.
And pizza, which is what drew me here on a recent weeknight for dinner. Although it's listed under antipasti on the menu, I made an entree out of Mario's Margherita pizza, which is described as a "crispy thin crust stone oven style, [with] fresh tomatoes [and] fresh buffalo mozzarella."
The thin-to-medium crust was pale on the bottom, with some faint markings that could've been from a grill or other cooking surface. The edge was dry and crunchy, but the rest of the crust was lifeless, with little evidence of yeast activity, and a doughy flavor. I wondered if Mario's uses frozen crusts.
The slices of fresh mozzarella were evenly distributed, spoke-fashion, around the pizza, and were nicely melted, with a smooth, creamy texture. Although not mentioned on the menu, there was also a layer of what appeared to be low-moisture, processed mozzarella underneath. It was rather dry and didn't add a whole lot of flavor or texture.
Between the two layers of cheese were some thick slices of fresh tomato. Unfortunately these were quite bland, contributing little other than color. Some shredded basil, which appeared to have been added after the pizza came out of the often, added some complexity to the overall flavor profile, though most of it had been piled onto one side of the pie.
Overall, this pizza tasted all right, though it was a bit on the bland side. I was glad that I accepted my server's offer of some grated Parmesan.
But the biggest problem was the crust. It just had nothing going for it, in terms of flavor, texture or otherwise. That was disappointing, given the menu's reference to the crust being "stone oven style" (I'm not sure what stone oven "style" means, but it sounded promising.)
It was doubly disappointing because Mario's other food seemed pretty good. I only had a salad, in addition to my pizza, but I couldn't help stealing a few glances at my neighbors' plates, which looked quite appetizing, and for much of my meal I was treated to a wonderful aroma that I'm guessing came from Mario's grilled steaks (I meant to ask my server if she could identify it for me, but I forgot).
So while I would put Mario's on my mental list of places to revisit, I can't recommend it for the pizza alone. If they are using frozen crusts, well, not much you can do to improve those. But if they are using fresh dough, it seems to me it needs to rise a little longer, and be baked at higher temperatures, because this wasn't that great. I'll give it a C-minus.
Mario's Italian Steakhouse and Catering, 2740 Monroe Ave.
Tel.: 271-1111
Winter hours (Nov. 1 - April 30): Mon. - Thu. 5 p.m. - 9:30 p.m., Fri. 5 p.m. - 10:30 p.m., Sat. 4 p.m. - 10:30 p.m., Sun. brunch 10 a.m. - 3 p.m., dinner 4:30 p.m. - 9 p.m.
Summer hours (May 1 - Oct. 31): Mon. - Thu. 5 p.m. - 10 p.m., Fri. 5 p.m. - 11 p.m., Sat. 4 p.m. - 11 p.m., Sun. brunch 10 a.m. - 3 p.m., dinner 4:30 p.m. - 9 p.m.

Rookies, Buffalo Road

I've noticed recently that more bars are advertising pizza on their menus. And with March Madness and St. Patrick's Day just around the corner, what better time to check some of them out?
Now before I get to today's establishment, let me just say that bar pizza is a tricky thing; you never know what you're going to get, particularly since not every bar that offers pizza is set up to make pizza from scratch. While a handful of places are equipped to prepare from-scratch, pizzeria-style pizza, others, I think, rely on premade crusts, which can be easily topped with canned sauce and shredded cheese, and popped into the oven for a few minutes.
One of the recent entrants onto the bar-pizza scene is Rookies, a sports bar with locations in Gates and Pittsford. I stopped for lunch recently at the original location in Gates.
Rookies has eight pizzas on the menu.  I went with the pepperoni pizza, figuring that it's one of the most basic, and probably the most popular.
My personal-size pizza wasn't bad looking, with a medium-thick crust, topped with wide, evenly spaced slices of pepperoni, melted cheese and a deep red sauce.
It was a bit disappointing, therefore, when my first bite revealed a dry, rather lifeless crust. It was firm, certainly - the slice stood out as straight as a ruler when I held it by the edge - and it was not greasy, which is also a plus, but it had no breadlike qualities, and precious little moisture. Not that I want my pizza crust to be wet, but this one seemed to have had all the moisture sucked out of it.
The toppings were a little better, at least. The sauce was amply applied, which was fortunate, given the desiccated crust. It had a sweetish flavor that was reminiscent of canned pasta sauce, but it wasn't bad at all.
The cheese was thoroughly melted, not browned, and was very stringy, which you may or may not like, but it seemed like high-quality mozzarella, with a bit of fat oozing out of it, and it also helped add some textural interest. The pepperoni was unremarkable but acceptable. The edge, unsurprisingly, was quite crunchy.
Besides plain cheese and pepperoni, Rookies also offers Buffalo chicken, veggie, and Philly steak pizzas, as well as their "signature" Greek pizza with Greek marinade, charbroiled chicken breast, Kalamata olives, red onions, tomatoes, spinach and feta cheese. The rest of the menu runs toward bar-food staples such as wings, burgers, and quesadillas, all grouped under sports-themed headings (for no reason that I can think of, pizzas are deemed "Second Quarter."
There's ample seating at Rookies, with a long bar facing one wall, booths along the other three walls, and tall tables and barstools in between. The walls are black, which might come off as rather gloomy were it not for the solid ring of TV screens surrounding the entire dining area.
This is definitely a male-oriented place, which is to be expected at a sports bar, I guess. On my visit, the wait and bar staff seemed to be entirely female, and the clientele almost entirely male, though a couple of women did come in for lunch just before I left. I'm guessing that on game days the aroma of chicken wings mixes with that of testosterone, and that you'd better get here early if you want a place to sit.
To borrow some sports terminology, Rookies didn't exactly strike out with this pizza, but it was far from a home run. It has some things going for it - decent sauce, nicely melted cheese, pretty good balance - but the dry crust was reminiscent of a frozen pizza, and not an especially good one at that. An infield hit, perhaps, but that's about it. I'll give this one a C-, and next time I'd opt for some wings instead.
Rookies Sports Bar & Grill, 2351 Buffalo Road, Gates 429-4665, and 3400 Monroe Ave., Pittsford 385-7665
11 a.m. - 2 a.m. daily.

Abba's Pizza

NOTE:  Abba's is no longer in operation. Chabad Lubavitch now offers Gavi's kosher pizza.
Pizza probably isn't the first thing that comes to mind when you think of kosher food, but yes, there is such a thing as kosher pizza, and yes, you can get it in Rochester. Yesterday I made it over to Rochester's first, and I believe only kosher pizzeria, Abba's Pizza, at the Chabad Center on Winton Road, just south of Monroe and Elmwood.
Abba's is open to the public, but don't expect to see any signs for it outside; simply look for the Chabad Center, go in the front door, and follow your nose down the hall to the kitchen.
The operator of Abba's is a Rochester native who spent some time in the photography business in L.A., then moved back here with his wife to raise a family. Despite a lack of experience in the food service industry (rare in L.A., I guess, which is full of actors waiting on tables), he accepted a job taking over the kitchen at Chabad. Since then, he's managed to "reinvent" himself, in his words, as a chef and pizzaiolo.
So what makes a pizza kosher? Well, most obviously, there's no meat. No pepperoni, no sausage, no meatballs. Second, all the ingredients are kosher - the flour, salt, you name it. Where that makes the most noticeable difference is probably the cheese, which is under rabbinical supervision from the milking of the cow to the production of the cheese. More significantly, in terms of taste, texture and appearance, the cheese on Abba's pizza is also made without rennet, which is an animal product commonly used in cheesemaking.
My slice (topped with red bell pepper and onion) had a very thin crust, which is a nod to the tastes of the many transplanted New Yorkers at the Chabad Center. Although Abba's started out with a crust described as a "compromise between thick and thin," that's no longer the case; there are no compromises here, and this is decidedly a thin crust. (And in case your knowledge of Jewish dietary laws is as poor as mine, no, it's not unleavened. Yeast is OK. Most of the time.)
The underside of the crust, which was given a one- or two-minute reheating in Abba's large commercial pizza oven, was firm and crisp on the outside. It wasn't exactly charred, but there were bits of what seemed to be burnt cheese underneath.
The crust was topped with a tomato sauce that was somewhat thick, not so much in a cooked-down way, but just in a not-watery way. It had a good, tomatoey flavor, with a certain background taste of herbs that I couldn't quite pin down.
Atop the sauce lay the cheese, which I found a bit bland, without the tanginess of most pizza cheese, but which partially made up for its relative lack of flavor with a melted, smooth, creamy texture. The vegetable toppings actually worked quite well with this slice, since a strong-flavored topping like pepperoni, even if it were available, would simply have overwhelmed the other components.
Abba's sells pizza by the slice, as well as in whole 16" pies, which might go up to 18" at some point, in response to consumer demand (those NYers love a big, foldable slice). They also offer soups, salads, sandwiches and fries. Prices are a bit above what you might pay elsewhere, largely because of the cost of the kosher ingredients, the cheese in particular, but the pizza is certainly not outrageously expensive, either.
In the months since it opened, Abba's has gotten a very good response from its Chabad clientele, and when school is in session it also does a steady business with students from Brighton High School across the street. Outside business has been slow, but given Abba's low public profile, that's not surprising.
This was pretty good pizza, and certainly distinctive. There was not a single aspect of it that stood out as particularly noteworthy or unusual, but the total blend of flavor and texture made it different from any other pizza I've had around here. I'm looking forward to going back to Abba's sometime for a full, made-to-order pie, but for now I'll give it a B-.
Abba's Pizza, 1037 Winton Road South, 14618  360-9723
Mon. & Wed. 10:30 a.m. - 2 p.m., Tue. & Thu. 10:30 a.m. - 7 p.m., Sat. 7 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.

Kosher Pizzeria Opens in Brighton

Abba's Pizza is now open at the The Kessler Family Chabad Center For Jewish Life, near 12 Corners in Brighton. If my understanding of Jewish dietary laws is correct, that means you won't be finding any meat lovers' pizzas on the menu. But where else can you get corn on your pizza? I'll check it out sometime.
Abba's Pizza, 1037 Winton Road South, 360-9723
Mon - Thurs: 10:30 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.

Pizzeria Americana Ohana, Monroe Ave.

Note: this establishment has closed. As of Dec. 2011, this site is occupied by Ken's Pizza Corner.
Way back in March 2009, I did a post on Kip's Pizzeria Americana in Greece. I also mentioned that there was a second location on Monroe Avenue in Brighton, going by the name Pizzeria Americana Ohana.
According to RocWiki, the two locations are now under completely separate ownership, and indeed their websites don't look at all alike, and make no mention of each other.
The menus at the two P.A.s are still pretty similar, but I still wanted to check out the Ohana location, just to see if it differed much from Kip's. It took me some time to do it, because although their menu and website say that they open at 11 a.m., on several occasions when I tried calling at lunchtime, I got no answer.
Eventually, I succeeded in ordering some pizza later in the day, to take home for dinner. I got two, a small pepperoni pie, and a medium Margherita.

I was a little put off when the person who took my phone order told me rather brusquely, "It's gonna be at least half an hour," before hanging up. I frankly wasn't quite sure what to make of that. Should I show up in half an hour? If I do, should I bring a book or something else to pass the time? Should I phone home and let my family know I might be late bringing home dinner?
Fortunately, when I did arrive about 35 minutes later, my pizzas were ready. They did in fact bear a definite resemblance to the pie that I'd gotten at Kip's, particularly around the edge, which was formed into a thick lip with a knotty, rope-like appearance.
The crusts were medium thick, with a firm, slightly charred underside that bore a light dusting of cornmeal. The crust had a pleasant bready flavor and aroma, and good texture.
The pepperoni pie was well balanced, with a moderate layer of mild-tasting tomato sauce that was neither too sweet nor too strongly flavored with herbs. That was topped by a uniform layer of lightly browned mozzarella, and rather spicy cup & char pepperoni, which was crisp along the edges.
The Margherita (or Margarita, to go by the menu spelling, though that sounds as if it should be topped with a tequila lime sauce, with some salt along the edge) was a little untraditional. The crust on this one is brushed with olive oil, and topped with garlic, fresh tomato, basil and Asiago cheese. It was certanly enjoyable, but the tiny bits of diced tomato contributed very little other than some color, and the basil, while more noticeable, took a back seat to the garlic and cheese. The latter two components, though, worked well together. The pizza had a nostril- and palate-pleasing garlic presence, and the Asiago, while not as stringy as processed mozzarella, gave the pizza a nice, sharp-edged tang. The thin coating of olive oil between the crust and toppings helped bring the various components together.
Pizzeria American has an extensive list of toppings to choose from (the cheese list alone runs to eight different varieties), and no less than 31 gourmet pizzas, which run the gamut from a simple four cheese pizza to the "Garbage Pie," whose name says it all. They also serve hot and cold subs, sandwiches and burgers, wings, appetizers and salad. It's stricly takeout and delivery ($2.00 delivery charge).
Both these pizzas were pretty good. I particularly liked the crust, and though this wasn't my favorite Margherita around here, both it and the pepperoni pie were pretty well made. I gave Kip's a B+, and that does seem about right for this too.
Pizzeria Americana Ohana, 1860 Monroe Ave. (near 12 Corners) 271-5860
Mon. - Thu. 11 a.m. - 9 p.m., Fri. & Sat. 11 a.m. - 10 p.m., Sun. noon - 8 p.m.

Wegmans, Pittsford

Yes, you read that right. Wegmans. Wegmans pizza.
Now why would a blog devoted to local pizzerias review supermarket pizza? Well, for one, this isn’t just any supermarket we're talking about here. This is Wegmans. Now I’m not one of those people who takes out-of-town guests to see Wegmans, but let’s face it: though Wegmans may have grown from a local supermarket into a Mid-Atlantic regional chain, it remains a local institution, and it's become a part of our communal identity.
And the fact is, it is a damn fine supermarket, maybe one of the best in the country (which is tantamount to saying one of the best in the world, since nobody does supermarkets better than we do here in the U.S. of A.). I'm sure it has its detractors, but Wegmans undeniably does a lot of things very well.
One of the things I’m always particularly impressed with is their bread. Wegmans makes some really excellent bread, far better than what you find at most other supermarkets, in this area at least.
So, I had to wonder, is their pizza any good? I see it all the time when I go there. It never looked especially good to me, but still, this is Wegmans we’re talking about here. And when I discovered that there’s actually a Facebook page created by and for Wegmans pizza fans, well, I had to see for myself just how good it is.
I chose, of course, the Pittsford Wegmans, the crème de la crème of local Wegmans stores. The pizza station is off on the far left of the store when you come in, over near the steps leading up to where Tastings Restaurant used to be. (Tastings’ replacement, Next Door Bar & Grill, is now open across the street, and advertises “very thin crust” pizza, which doesn’t necessarily sound promising to me, but I’ll reserve judgment until I’ve tried it.)
I was a little surprised to see a very small oven near the counter, until I realized that it’s simply used for rewarming slices. The full-size steel pizza ovens are in back of the counter.
The slices were normal size, so I got a couple, one plain cheese and one with pepperoni and hot peppers. The crusts were thin, though not super thin, with medium brown undersides that had been dusted with cornmeal. The exterior was crisp and crackly, to the point where each slice cracked along a fault line when I tried to fold it. They were also a bit gritty, which I assume was from the cornmeal.
The other components were applied in pretty good proportion to each other and to the crust. The sauce was slightly sweet, and the processed mozzarella cheese was lightly browned.
Oddly, where these slices most fell short, in my estimation, was in the crust. It was not especially bready, in taste or texture. Whereas a great pizza will typically have a crust so good that the outer edge is my favorite part, the edge on these was rather uninteresting. It was similar to a basic breadstick, golden brown and crunchy, but kind of ho-hum. And although I like a nice crisp crust, the best crusts are both crisp and pliable. These were definitely on the brittle side.
All in all, then, this was decent enough pizza, probably better than you’d typically find at a supermarket, but neither was it on a par with Wegmans’ bread in terms of overall quality. It was something like a rough approximation of New York style pizza, but if that’s what they were aiming for, it missed the mark in some respects. It would do in a pinch, but that’s about all. I’ll give it a B-.
Wegmans Pittsford, 3195 Monroe Ave. 586-6680

Max Market

“Max” is a brand name for a local culinary mini-empire founded by chef Tony Gullace. There’s Max of Eastman Place, Max Chop House, Max at the (Memorial Art) Gallery, and Max at High Falls, making the pseudonymous Max something of a Rochester version of Emeril.
Then there’s Max Market in Pittsford, which combines a specialty/gourmet food store with a café and deli. Somewhere I noticed that they serve pizza, so I decided to give it a try.
The sign outside advertising brick oven pizza looked promising. Inside, I walked past shelves of sourdough bread (also promising), imported Italian tomatoes, and Pittsford Dairy ice cream to the counter in back, where I ordered a small Margherita. To me, the Margherita - traditionally, fresh tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, and fresh basil - is to “gourmet” pizza what the basic cheese, or cheese-and-pepperoni pie is to “regular” pizza, kind of a benchmark.
My order came up surprisingly quickly. Now a super-hot pizza oven can bake a pizza in a couple of minutes, but this was still pretty fast, making me think that the pizza had been at least partially premade. That inkling was somewhat confirmed by the relatively thick crust, since I don’t think it would’ve been possible to prepare and fully bake a pizza this thick in the time it took for my order to come up. Not that it’s a big deal, I mean if it’s good, that’s all I really care about, I was just a little surprised that it was ready so soon.
As I said, my pizza, which measured about 9½ inches in diameter, had a fairly thick crust. That was also a bit of a surprise, since a lot of upscale, brick-oven places seem to make a point of stretching their dough nearly to the gluten’s breaking point (which I don’t necessarily like, as it prevents the pizza from developing a chewy, bready interior). The underside was crisp, and baked to a mottled, medium brown. The interior displayed numerous small air holes.
Visually, the most prominent feature of the pizza was the large slices of fresh mozzarella - larger than on many Margheritas I’ve had, where the fresh mozzarella forms more of an island in a sea of crushed tomatoes. Closer inspection revealed that there were actually two cheeses here, as the fresh mozzarella lay atop a second layer of a yellower, more aged cheese, though I couldn’t identify the variety. Whatever it was, it was pretty mild, as there was not much cheese flavor here at all.
What did have a lot of flavor were the slices of fresh (probably Roma) tomato on top of the cheese. I imagine the cooking process, which would have caused some of the water in the tomatoes to evaporate, would have concentrated their flavor somewhat, but even so these were remarkably good tomatoes, especially at this time of year. If, in this age of year-round produce, you’ve gotten accustomed to tomatoes that are more decorative than tasty, these will come as a revelation. The smaller pieces of sundried tomato furnished comparatively less flavor, and seemed to have caramelized a bit in the oven. The shreds of wilted basil added an herbal note to the overall profile, but were not especially prominent on the palate.
That left the outer edge, which had a nice crunch. It seemed to me reminiscent of a good, French bread dough.
Max’s other pizza offerings are a pepperoni pie, roasted vegetable pizza, pizza bianca (white pizza), and rotating daily specials, in small and large sizes. Other food choices include salads, sandwiches, pasta, and various ready-to-go prepared foods, and desserts as well.
And of course, there are the packaged foods. I picked up some rarely seen, imported “00” flour, which supposedly is a necessity if you want to make “authentic” Italian pizza (I’ll let you know how it goes).
As far as my pizza is concerned, well, there were things I liked about it and things I didn’t. It seemed to have been made from good dough, but as my favorite bread guru, Peter Reinhart, writes, baking good bread is all about manipulating time and temperature in order to maximize the flavor and texture of the finished product. This crust lacked the high-heat charring and toasted aroma and flavor that marks the best pizza, so I’m not sure that Max fully realized this dough’s potential.
And though the tomatoes were very good, the tomatoes and cheese had proportionally been applied in reverse to what I would have preferred. I would rather have had those tomatoes used as a flavorful base for some melted, creamy mozzarella, rather than the thick, double layer of relatively bland cheese that I got here, with the tomatoes adding some teasingly good accents that left me wanting more.
Though I say it often, those are, of course, just my opinions. But since this is my blog, those are the only opinions I can offer. To me, this was good pizza, but it lacked a certain complexity, was not as well balanced as it could have been, and the components didn’t seem to mesh all that well. It struck me as more like upscale fast food than as truly great pizza. So I liked it, but not as much as I'd hoped for, and I’ll give it a C+.
Max Market, 2949 Monroe Ave. , 271-1210
Monday - Saturday: 8am -8pm, Sunday: 8am - 6pm