Grappa

 In late April, I had lunch with a friend at Grappa, which opened in 2015 at the Hilton Garden Inn in College Town. Although I have previously reviewed Grappa, that was in 2015, so a revisit was long overdue. 

In my 2015 post, I wrote that Grappa offered six pizzas on the menu; this time there were five. Alas, I did not list all six varieties, so I'm not sure to what extent the menu has changed since then. One change I am sure of is that pepperoni pizza is no longer on the menu. That's too bad, as I rather liked the one I tried back then.

But they do still have Margherita pizza, and as I did in 2015, I ordered one this time around as well. There were some similarities to the 2015 version, but also some significant differences. 

Then as now, the crust was quite thin. Both were browned underneath. The 2026 pie had pronounced screen marks underneath, however, which were absent in 2015. I'm a little leery of screen marks, because I generally prefer the entire underside of the crust to come into direct contact with the hot oven deck, but itself I don't consider that a sine qua non of good pizza.

 Interestingly enough, the crust on this pizza was noticeably crisper than on the 2015 pie. I described that crust as "straddl[ing] the line between crisp and pliable," whereas this crust was crisp to the point of brittleness. Make of that what you will.

Moving on to the toppings, just as in 2015, this Margherita was somewhat unusual in employing both tomato sauce and fresh sliced tomatoes.  And based on what I wrote back then, I'd say the tomatoes were more prominent on this pizza. The sauce was more heavily applied, and judging from the 2015 photo, the tomato slices were thicker, as well as more visually appealing, with a vibrant red hue; the 2015 tomatoes were paler and yellow-white in the center.

The sauce on both pies was smooth, and I honestly couldn't say if or to what extent they tasted the same. In 2015, I wrote that the sauce was "not heavily seasoned," and had a slightly sweet flavor.  That roughly describes the 2025 version, but my friend and I agreed that it tasted like canned sauce. I don't mean that it tasted metallic, and I certainly don't have an issue with using canned sauce. Plenty--I daresay most--pizzerias use canned sauce; I use it myself. But there was a certain flatness to this sauce that I tend to associate with canned sauce. It was OK; it just didn't wow me.

That brings us to the cheese. I was pleased to see the pie dotted with slices of fresh mozzarella, rather than the blanket of processed mozzarella that Grappa used in 2015.

Again, nothing wrong with processed mozzarella, or with a uniform layer of cheese. But if you're calling it a Margherita, I think you should try to stick to the stylistic parameters, and one of those, to my mind, is the use of fresh mozzarella. A Margherita pizza is not simply a sauce and cheese pizza with basil added. So kudos on that score. The cheese was also nicely done, with just a touch of browning, and a smooth, not rubbery texture.

Before I wrap this up, I'll mention that we also shared a plate of garlic Parmesan fries, which were very good. On my list of foods I love, french fries are not far below pizza, and these were crisp, potatoey, and hard to resist.

So as with myself, there have been some changes over the years at Grappa, some for the better. I've stopped handing out grades, for a combination of reasons, but I will say that I would take this pizza over the one I got in 2015 (which I gave a B). The crust was crisper and I liked the use of fresh mozzarella. So while I might prefer the 2015 version of myself, I'll take the 2026 version of Grappa's Margherita pizza.

Grappa 

30 Celebration Drive
Rochester, NY 14620

585.445.5770

Lunch
Monday - Friday 
11:00 AM - 2:00 PM 

Happy Hour
Monday - Saturday 
4:00 PM - 6:00 PM

Dinner
Monday - Sunday: 
5:00 PM - 9:00 PM

Pat's Twice Baked

During my sabbatical from this blog, I tried to keep up on local pizza places that were opening and closing, for future reference.

A place that popped up on my radar recently is Pat's Twice Baked, which opened last year on Mount Hope Avenue. It's in the former location of OTR Woodfire Tavern, which sadly I never tried before its demise.

But I did get to Pat's recently for lunch with a friend. We agreed to share one pizza.

The brisket pizza (BBQ sauce, smoked brisket, onions & jalapenos) sounded interesting, as did the pickle pie (white sauce, dill pickles, chipotle ranch drizzle), but on a first visit I like to keep it simple, so we went with the pepperoni pizza.

The crust was quite thin, chewy but just firm enough to allow it to be picked up, folded and eaten out of hand. The cornicione was considerably thicker, with a bit of crunch and a chewy texture. 

If I'm nitpicking, the outer rim was noticeably more blackened on one side than the other. The underside was pretty uniform, so presumably one side of the pizza was nearer the flame for a little longer than the other. With a wood-fired oven, getting even charring along the edge requires turning and comes down to a matter of seconds. From what I say the pizzaiolo was attentive to his pies, and it didn't diminish my enjoyment of the pizza. At the least, it provided an interesting comparison.

 And yes, there was a wood fire in there. The pizzaiolo occasionally put a cover over the opening (as you can see in the photo), to keep the heat from escaping. But I did see a wood fire in the back, and an ample supply of fuel underneath.

All the toppings were very good, with stretchy, nicely melted, stretchy mozzarella atop a layer of red sauce. The sauce was applied a bit on the light side, but that was appropriate given the thinness of the crust. The cup and char pepperoni was crisp along the edges but not overdone, and quite tasty. Between the cheese and the pepperoni, there was a bit of oil as well, but not so much as to require sopping up. All in all, a very enjoyable pie.

Pat's offers a number of other items, as you can see from the menu, but pizza is the star of the show. On my next visit, though, I may just have to try their Twice Baked potato chips. 

And I expect there to be a next time. As I mentioned, several of the pizzas sounded good, and now that I've gotten a basic pepperoni pie literally under my belt, I'd like to explore some of the other choices.

Pat's Twice Baked Bar & Grill

1551 Mt Hope Ave 
Rochester, NY 14620

(585)-340-6419 

patstwicebaked@gmail.com 

Mon 3:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Wed 3:00 PM - 10:00 PM
Thur, Fri, Sat 11:00 AM - 10:00 PM
Sun 11:00 AM - 8:00 PM 

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Grappa

As the College Town development on Mt Hope continues to grow, pizza continues to be part of the mix.The latest entrant is Grappa, which opened in June.
Grappa which bills itself as "Italian nouveau." My regular-guy inner self recoils a bit at a term like "Italian nouveau," but my pizzaholic self can get over that, if the pizza's good. And on a recent lunch visit with a friend, it was.
Grappa offers six pizzas, although I imagine they could do custom pizza if you asked. I got a Margherita, my friend got a pepperoni, and we shared.
The crusts were thin, with an underside that was crisp, but not crackly, and spottily browned but not quite charred. (These are not wood-fired, by the way.) 
Which is not to say that they weren't good. I don't like limp, soggy pizza, but neither do I think that a thin-crust pizza has to be blackened and shatteringly crisp underneath to be good. These straddled the line between crisp and pliable.
Aside from that, the crust wasn't especially flavorful or aromatic. I had no particular complaints about it, but it was more serviceable than sublime. But the toppings were good enough to pretty much make up for any shortcomings in that regard.
My dining companion and I don't always see eye to eye on pizza, but we both enjoyed these. My Margherita was a little unusual for having both tomato sauce and sliced tomatoes; most places do one or the other. But it was a nice combination. The sauce was lightly applied, and not heavily seasoned, while the sliced tomatoes had an acidic edge that balanced the slight sweetness of the sauce.
With its two-tomato topping, the Margherita was not a minimalist version, and that carried through to the cheese. Some Margheritas are dotted with islands of slightly melted fresh mozzarella. This pie was blanketed by a uniform layer of processed mozzarella, which was slightly browned, with a good balance (there's that word again) between chewy and stringy. The shredded fresh basil added enough flavor and visual appeal to round out the pie nicely. The basil seemed to have been added right after the pizza came out of the oven, as it was still bright green and aromatic.
The pepperoni pie was highlighted by three different types of sausage, which I think is a great idea that I'd like to see more pizzerias adopt. Small, crisp, cupped slices, and meatier, wide, beefy slices were combined with thin strips, adding variety and interest with each bite. A moderate layer of basic red sauce and well melted cheese, which was applied nearly all the way to the thinly formed edge made for a very satisfying pie.
Grappa's additional pizza choices include:  a Mediterranean pie with artichokes, roasted red peppers, cured olives, feta cheese, arugula, and garlic pesto sauce (which I came very close to ordering, but I decided to stick with my usual Margherita); funghi (garlic bechamel sauce, roasted portabello and button mushrooms, and truffle oil); a white pizza with garlic bechamel, fresh herbs, ricotta, mozzarella and shaved Parmesan; and a spicy meatball pie, with house-made meatballs, ricotta and a Roma tomato blush sauce.
Beyond the pizza, Grappa's lunch menu includes several pasta options, panini, and a grab bag of other dishes, including a burger, grilled salmon, chicken cutlet, greens & beans, and "zesty Parmesan" wings. The dinner menu adds several more entrees, such as steak, pork osso buco, and frutti di mare, with a medley of seafood. Pricewise, pizzas run 10 to 12 dollars, entrees are mostly in the 20s, and pasta dishes in the teens.
The layout is partitioned into several dining areas. On this visit, we were given a table on the south side of the restaurant, which afforded plenty of sunlight at lunchtime. Since I had to get back to work, I didn't take the time to look around the rest of the dining area, but if you go, you might want to ask for a table in one area or another, depending on whether you want more privacy or to do more people watching.
I debated whether to give Grappa a grade, considering that it only opened a couple months ago, but unlike at some places, I didn't get the sense that they were still working out the bugs. These were well made pizzas, and it seems fair to rate them. That said, I found these clearly above average, but not quite among the top tier for our area. So I'll give them a B.

Grappa, 30 Celebration Drive (just west of Mt. Hope Ave. between Elmwood and Crittenden)

(585) 445-5750
grappa@delmontehotels.com 

Open for lunch and dinner daily
free parking

The Beer Market

As anybody who's driven along Mt. Hope Avenue in the past year or two knows, there's been a lot of development along the corridor from Crittenden to Elmwood Avenues. The result is College Town, which depending on your point of view is either a great asset to U of R students and Rochester residents, or just a sign of the homogenization of America. Within a two-block stretch, you'll now find a mix of mostly national chains, from bookstores to coffee shops, restaurants and bars. Whether that's a good or a bad thing, you can decide for yourself.
With a name like College Town, you knew pizza and beer would figure into the mix, and you'll find them both at The Beer Market. The Beer Market is apparently a franchise operation, with five locations at this point:  three in Illinois, one in Pittsburgh, and now one in Rochester.
Besides offering a wide variety of beers (I saw the long tap line, but didn't examine it too closely, but I assume they offer a good mix of beers), TBM gives pizza a prominent place on its food menu, which is what brought me here for lunch recently, with two friends.
I ordered "The Queen," an apparent reference to Queen Margherita, the namesake of Margherita pizza. It's topped with fresh mozzarella, Roma tomatoes, and fresh basil. My friends ordered a "Goodfella," with mild sausage, pepperoni, bacon, tomato sauce and herbs, and a simple pepperoni pie.
These companions have accompanied me on past excursions, and we don't always see eye to eye on pizza, but this time we were mostly in agreement. We found the pizzas very tasty (by which I mean they tasted good), thanks mostly to the toppings, but the crust left something to be desired. So I'll start with the latter.
The pizzas arrived at our table on pans, and it appeared they had been baked on those pans. The undersides had the golden-brown, bubbly look of pan-baked pies.
I'm OK with that; I've had many a fine pizza that was baked in a pan. I'm more concerned about the end result.
And the end result here was acceptable, especially given the overall flavor of the pies, but these were not great crusts. They weren't bad; they just weren't particularly good.
Why? Well, the crusts were medium thick and pliable. They didn't have the typical faults --  they weren't greasy, brittle or spongy -- but neither were they crisp or bready.
To me, the crust should be the shining star of the pizza. After all, it's the first thing to hit your tongue.
But these crusts were little more than vehicles to deliver the toppings. As such, they were OK, but it seemed that the preparation and baking had not really maximized the potential flavor and texture of the dough. I hate to resort to trendy linguistic cliches, but my reaction was, "meh." A little chewy, a little firm, but not memorable.
As I said, though, the toppings were good, and they elevated the pizzas overall. My "Queen" was abundantly topped with mozzarella and sliced tomatoes. This certainly wasn't a minimalist, less-is-more pizza, but the toppings were appropriate and in balance with the crust. A little more basil would've been welcome, but there was enough to add some flavor.
I took a slice from each of my friends' pizzas, and again I liked the toppings, as did my friends. The meats were crisp and flavorful, the cheese was stretchy, and the sauce was tomatoey with some mild herbal accents.
That brings me to the rating, which is where things get a little difficult. Without getting into a lengthy discussion, I'll go back to my standards, which involve whether I'd avoid this pizza, or whether I'd go out of my way to get it.
Measured by that standard, I'd put this pizza in the middle. It's OK; it's just not great, in my opinion. It's more about the toppings than the crust, but the toppings are pretty good. So I'll give it a C. 

The Beer Market, 1401 Mt. Hope Ave.

Mon-Wed: 11:00 a.m. - Midnight
Thursday: 11:00 a.m. - 1:00 a.m.
Fri-Sat: 11:00 a.m. - 2:00 a.m.
Sun: Noon - Midnight

Sultan Lebanese Cuisine & Bakery

The other day, I posted about the University of Rochester's Pizza Pi, which I didn't care much for, giving my cheese slice a D.
But U of R students who love pizza need not fear, because there are better alternatives near campus. A short distance away (an easy bike ride, or a long walk) you've got Cam's, Mr. Shoes, and Pontillo's. And on the other side of the river, don't neglect Menezes, a long-established pizzeria that delivers to the U of R.
But besides those pizza places, the Mt. Hope neighborhood has a lot of food options, sparked in part by the ongoing College Town project. One new entrant (which is not directly related to the new College Town construction but is along the Mt. Hope corridor) is Sultan, a Lebanese restaurant in Mt. Hope Plaza.
And though Sultan doesn't offer pizza, exactly, it does serve the pizza-like manakeesh, which is described on the menu as a "flat bread dough, topped with thyme, cheese, or ground meat." Sultan's manakeesh comes in six varieties, and with a couple of friends, I tried two of them recently.
My lahmajin manakeesh was topped with ground beef, onion, tomato, and "sumac spice." The beef predominated, and was generously applied. The onion and tomato were much less noticeable, but if you're looking for a beef topping, you can hardly complain that there was too much beef. The beef was clearly seasoned with some spice mixture, that sort of Middle Eastern spice that's not particularly hot, but very savory, with perhaps some cloves or allspice and other aromatic spices. The flatbread itself was crisp but chewy, and charred in spots underneath.
My companion's egg and sausage manakeesh was noticeably spicier, with a bit of peppery kick, probably from the sausage. Like my lahmajin, this manakeesh was meat-heavy, with crumbled sausage atop a bed of eggs and cheese. It was very tasty, but we both agreed that it was rather dry. It would have benefited greatly from a sauce of some kind, even if just a dipping sauce on the side. I made do with a bottle of hot sauce, which served well enough.
Sultan's other manakeeshes (if that's the correct plural form) are a za'atar with little more than spices and olive oil, a cheese manakeesh, a vegetarian with sweet peppers, onion, tomato and spices (that was my next choice) and a spinach manakeesh. They also offer shawarma, kabab and falafel pita wraps, and some appetizers, including hummus and tabouli. Oddly, french fries come as an ingredient in the chicken shawarma, but cannot be ordered a la carte. On my visit, they were also testing out some stuffed grape leaves, which I hope get added to the menu soon, as a I tried one and found it very good.
When I'm in the mood for pizza, I don't necessarily want flatbread pizza, and Sultan doesn't claim that this is pizza. But it's a close cousin, and it is good. And this is a restaurant I plan to go back to, both for the manakeesh and some of the other dishes. I'm not going to assign this a grade, because it's not really pizza in the conventional sense, but based on this visit I'd say that Sultan is a welcome addition to the Mt. Hope/University of Rochester neighborhood.
Sultan Lebanese Cuisine & Bakery, 1659 Mt. Hope Ave. (Mt. Hope Plaza)
241-0082
Hours not available, but open for breakfast, lunch and dinner

Pontillo's, Mt. Hope

I've never intended to visit every location of every local pizzeria chain, but I have been slowly working my way to the various Pontillo's locations around town. I've heard time and again that different Pontillo's locations have better, or worse, or just different pizza, from others, and I pass by them often enough, and I've generally like their pizza enough, to want to try more.
Recently I stopped at the Mt. Hope Avenue Pontillo's. I got a cheese slice and a broccoli/tomato slice.
The cheese slice had a dry, firm underside that displayed some light charring. A little corn meal was visible underneath, as was a tiny bit of oven soot.
The crust was of thin to medium thickness, but this was a heavy slice. Some of the heft came from the thick, bready cornicione, but there was also a fair amount of cheese. It had migrated a bit away from one corner, due to the dough puffing up in the oven, but this slice was on the cheesy side, though not overly so. The cheese appeared to be all mozzarella, and had just slightly browned.

In contrast, the slice was relatively light on the sauce. It had been applied thinly and some of what was there had either evaporated or soaked into the top layer of the crust.

The broccoli/tomato slice was of comparable thickness, though with a cornicione that was thinner but more hollow and puffy than the cheese slice. The underside was well browned and crackly, though softer near the tip (not unusual, as whatever liquid there is on top tends to gravitate toward the center of the pie).  A little oil also seemed to have seeped in toward the middle of the pie on this one, perhaps after it was sliced, but it wasn't overly greasy.

The tomato slices were pretty flavorless, but I should've expected that. It's rare to get a fresh tomato at any sort of restaurant around here with much flavor. Your best bet is to look for smaller varieties, like plum, grape or cherry tomatoes.

The broccoli added more aroma and flavor. There wasn't a lot of it, but there was enough to notice. The cheese on this white slice was uniformly spread, and though it was a little oily on top, that's typical of a white pizza, which is often given a brushing or drizzle of oil before the toppings are applied. Even without that, melted fat that exudes from the cheese has no tomato sauce to mix with, so it's more noticeable on a white pizza.

To sum up, both slices were pretty good. The cheese slice could've used a tad more sauce, for my taste, and the tomato broccoli slice was a little on the bland side - good, but next time I'd give it a shot or two of grated Romano and red pepper flakes. Or I might go for a spinach and artichoke slice, which also looked good. These were better than average slices of pizza, and I'll give them both a B.
Pontillo's, 1687 Mount Hope Ave. 14620
(585) 442-6865
Hours: Mon. - Thu. 10 a.m. - 11 p.m., Fri. - Sat. 10 a.m. - midnight, Sun. noon -10 p.m.

Napa, South Clinton, Revisited

I have previously posted about Napa Wood Fired Pizza on South Clinton Avenue, and I've been impressed with their pizzas. Wood-fired pizza has become trendy in recent years, and when that happens, people tend to jump in, thinking it's a good way to make a buck, without necessarily knowing what they're doing. With wood-fired pizza, what happens all too often is that either they don't take advantage of the high heat afforded by a wood-fired oven, so that the pizza comes out with a soft and pale crust, or they go over the top, turning out burnt pizza that they assure their customers is the way wood-fired pizza is "supposed to be."
The South Clinton location of Napa, in my experience, gets it right. The crust is crisp, and charred in spots, yet still pliable, with the flavor of baked - not just burnt - dough.
On a recent visit with two friends, I got Napa's Diavola pizza, with house-made red sauce, crushed red pepper, roasted red peppers, spinach, and a blend of Mozzarella and Provolone cheeses (the "Napa cheese blend," on the menu), finished with house-made garlic oil. One of my companions ordered the Cuban pizza, topped with BBQ sauce, pulled pork, ham, dill pickles, Mozzarella and Provolone, and finished with fried onions, while the third member of our group got the "Tasty," with pepperoni, sweet sausage, roasted mushrooms, caramelized onions, Mozzarella and Provolone.
All three were nicely cooked. The undersides were charred, in spots yet evenly, and I would not describe any of the crusts as burnt. (By the way, is it "burnt" or "burned"? Here's one take on that question.) The crusts were thin and pliable, yet crisp, and in short, were pretty close to what I expect, or hope for, from a wood-fired pizzeria.
I would also note, in that regard, that the charring here wasn't just along the edges. I've had wood-fired pizza that is relatively pale underneath, but charred along its circumference. I think what happens there is that the oven floor is not all that hot, but by getting the pizza close to the flames, the pizzaiolo can achieve some charring along the edge. That's fine, as far as it goes, but I'd prefer to see charring underneath, which means that the whole crust - not just the edge - got the benefit of the wood fire's heat.
The toppings? No complaints there. Napa offers a dizzying array of 32 pizzas, as well as 35 toppings if you want to go the create-your-own route, so the possibilities are, if not endless, virtually so. My Diavola had just enough peppery heat to excite my taste buds. The Tasty was, well, tasty, and though I found the Cuban a bit overloaded, that's not the kind of topping-heavy pizza I would have ordered in the first place. But if you like a well-topped pizza, or unusual toppings, you'll almost certainly find something to satisfy your tastes on Napa's menu.
Following our meal, I stopped by Napa's kitchen, located just off the dining room/bar area near the patio, and spoke for a few moments with the pizzaiola, Bridgette. She informed me that Napa uses a 100% wood-fired oven, with no "assist" from natural gas or any other fuel source. For that reason, the fire is kept going, 24/7 - each morning, the embers are stoked, and give birth to a new fire for that day.
The oven temperature is typically somewhere in the mid 600s. That's hotter than what's achievable in the typical home oven, but not outrageously hot, and from the results, it's obviously hot enough to yield a nicely charred pizza.
I'll defer to the experts, but I sometimes wonder if the quest for hotter and hotter pizza ovens, and shorter and shorter cooking times, doesn't result from the same kind of peculiarly American, more-is-better mindset that's given us inedibly hot pepper sauces and mouth-puckeringly bitter microbrews with alcohol levels that often exceed that of wine. As a home pizza baker, it's nice to know that it's quite possible to achieve excellent results at temperatures well below that of the surface of the sun. (On that score, check out this video of a very nicely charred pizza made in a conventional - though no doubt expensive - home oven by no-knead guru Jim Lahey.)
At some point, I think I need to make a return visit to Napa's sister location in Fairport. I reviewed a pizza from there once before - and wasn't terribly impressed - but a revisit is in order. I can only hope they're comparable to the pizzas turned out by the South Clinton Napa, which, based on my experience, I'd say are among the city's best. I'll give these pies an A.
Napa Wood Fired Pizzeria, 573 S. Clinton Ave.
232-8558
Sun. - Thu. noon - 9 p.m., Fri. & Sat. noon - 10 p.m.

Cam's, Mt. Hope

A couple of people have asked me to review the Cam's on Mt. Hope Avenue near Elmwood. I've made a couple of stops there, so here's a report.
I have found Cam's to be pretty consistently good. As regular readers know, I'm no fan of chain pizzerias, but I have been impressed with the job that Cam's does of turning out reasonably good, New York style pizza, at numerous locations. And this was, generally, no exception.
On one visit, I got a cheese slice and a stuffed slice, something I don't remember seeing before at Cam's. It may have been there all along, I just never noticed.
The cheese slice was decent, with some spotty, light charring underneath. It did seem unusually thin, so much so that the crust lacked any bready interior, except along the edge. Maybe it was just me, that day, but although there was a bit of toastiness underneath, the crust also seemed a tad bland, as if there wasn't enough salt in the dough.
A good New York style slice should strike a balance between crispness and pliability. This came close, but the needle seemed to be tilting a little more toward the "pliable" end of the scale. So while the crust was OK, it mostly served as a platform for the sauce and the cheese.
Speaking of which, the sauce and cheese were pretty good. The sauce was slightly sweet, with some herbs in the background, and the slightly browned cheese had a slight tanginess that balanced it out well. (Cam's menu says that they use Grande® mozzarella, which many pizza connoisseurs consider among the best.)
Next up was a slice topped with cheese and pepperoni, and stuffed with sausage and pepperoni. As you can see from the cross-section photo, it wasn't as heavy, or thick, as it sounds. The bottom, and top, crusts were paper-thin, almost as if they'd managed to take the thin crust from my cheese slice and slice it in half horizontally. And the stuffing, while certainly noticeable, wasn't, well, overabundant. Don't get me wrong - it was a tasty, well-balanced slice. I'm just saying, don't confuse this with a deep-dish or casserole-type pizza.
That said, this was a heavier slice than the cheese slice, since it was mostly meat. The cheese layer was also thin but solid, covering the entire slice. Neither it nor the underside were as browned as on the cheese slice. The pepperoni slices on top were hardly necessary, but added some additional flavor.
On a separate visit, I got a Buffalo chicken slice, and a white-pizza veggie slice, which made for a more nutritionally balaced duo than on my other visit. The former came with finely diced chicken, tossed in a medium-hot Buffalo sauce, along with Ken's blue cheese dressing and mozzarella. A smattering of banana pepper rings added a vinegary edge and a bit more heat, although the overall flavor profile still hovered around medium. If you're tolerant enough of spicy food to be ordering one of these, then I'm sure you'd have no problem with the heat level on this one.
At first, I thought the veggie slice was Cam's take on a Margherita, but no, that's not basil, that's spinach, and that's feta, not fresh mozzarella.
Cam's veggie pizza is described as being topped with "fresh spinach on a bed of garlic butter & Grande mozzarella with your choice of tomatoes or artichokes, finished off with feta cheese crumbled over the top" (obviously this one had tomatoes). Those made for an enjoyable combination.
When I was a kid, I loved Popeye cartoons, but they never convinced me to eat spinach. In fact, I've long thought that Popeye cartoons were pro-spinach propaganda, but now I realize that they probably did more to turn me off spinach than anything else. I knew that if ate spinach (canned spinach, no less), my biceps wouldn't really blow up like a balloon, nor would I be able to turn an alligator into a matching set of luggage with one punch from my cinderblock-size fists, but I did get the impression from those cartoons that kids were expected to hate spinach, so I refused to touch the stuff.
Of course, the spinach on my family's dinner table at that time was usually the frozen kind, which is about as appetizing as the stuff you clean out of your gutter in late fall. So it was a revelation for me to discover, as an adult, that fresh spinach leaves are actually not bad. Not on my favorite-foods list, but not bad, and they contributed a nice flavor here, which was well complemented by the sharp, salty feta, garlic butter and tomatoes. Even the tomatoes were reasonably good - they looked to be Roma tomatoes, which in the off-season especially, are often a better choice than so-called "slicing" tomatoes.
I'm not going to individually rate all these pizza slices. I will say that in general, they were typical of Cam's - reliably good, if not quite top-tier, thin-crust pizza. The crusts were decent, reasonably crisp, with some light charring, and the toppings were of good quality and tasty. I'd say these average out to about a B-plus.
Cam's Pizzeria, 1290 Mt. Hope Ave., Rochester 14620
Tel.: 256-7437 (PIES)
Hours: Mon. - Sat. 10 a.m. - 11 p.m., Sun. noon - 10 p.m.

Little Venice Revisited

It's been over two years now since I reviewed Little Venice Pizzeria on South Avenue. I found a few flaws with the slices that I had then, and gave it a C-minus.
But it has been a while, and I figured it was high time to go back. So back I went, and ordered a small pepperoni pie.
This had a thin to medium crust, with a soft but dry underside. The bottom was browned and there was a tiny bit of oven soot (soot was an issue for me last time as well, although this wasn't as bad).Though the underside was soft, the edge had a bit of crunch, and was singed in a few spots.
A thick layer of melted mozzarella cheese gave this pizza a chewy texture. It was well balanced by the slightly herbal tomato sauce, which seemed to be more of a presence this time around, either because there was more of it or because this was a fresh pie (as opposed to reheated slices) and the sauce hadn't had time to dry out. The thin slices of pepperoni were a bit crisp along the edges, but quite greasy, which necessitated some mopping with a napkin.
This was not bad. Not something I'd go out of my way for, but very serviceable pizza, certainly. And though it was, compared to other local pizza, about in the middle of the pack, it was an improvement on last time. It still loses a point or two for the soft crust, slight oven soot, and for the very greasy surface, but overall the flavor and balance were good, so I'll give it a C.
Little Venice Pizzeria, 742 South Ave. 14620. 473-6710
Mon. - Thu. 11 a.m. - 11:30 p.m., Fri. & Sat. 11 a.m. - 12:30 a.m., Sun. 1 - 11:30 p.m.

The Distillery, Mt. Hope Ave.

Continuing my occasional series of reviews of bar pizzas, today takes us to the Distillery on Mt. Hope Ave.  The Distillery is more than a bar, of course - it has a very long menu, and plenty of people go there to eat, not to drink - but it's certainly not a pizzeria, either, and I'd say this pizza falls into the general category of bar pizza.
Except for those places that have dedicated pizza ovens or otherwise specialize in pizza, most bars around here don't turn out particularly good pizza. There are bars that make good pizza, of course, but most don't, in my experience. So I can't say I was expecting much, but I tried to keep an open mind.
I ordered a tomato & basil pizza, which sounded roughly like a Margherita, topped with tomato slices, red onions, tomato sauce, mozzarella, Parmesan and fresh basil. All of the Distillery's pizzas are available on a "traditional" (white) or whole wheat 10-inch crust, and I opted for the white.
The crust was pretty thin, not very bready, but a little crunchy, with a golden-brown underside. It wasn't what I would call well integrated, by which I mean that it seemed more like a cooked flatbread with toppings added, than a pizza where the crust and toppings are all baked together. I don't know if this crust was prebaked at all, but that's how it seemed to me.
The flavor was fine, nothing out of the ordinary but not bad. The cheese and sauce, both of which had been pretty generously applied, consisted of melted mozzarella, Parmesan, and a basic tomato sauce.
The Distillery's other pizza offerings include plain cheese, pepperoni, a white veggie pizza, Buffalo chicken, and a Mediterranean pizza, with grilled chicken, pine nuts, basil pesto, diced tomatoes, green onions, and Kalamata olives. And as I mentioned, the rest of the menu is lengthy, ranging from bar food (including wings that are among Rochester's best, at least at the original Mt. Hope location) to more substantial entrees like grilled sesame ahi tuna and sirloin steak. And there is a full bar, with a decent, if not overly impressive, draft beer selection.
As far as the atmosphere goes, the Distillery is a sports bar, make no mistake, with TV screens everywhere you look, but unless there's a big game on, most of the crowd is there to eat and drink, not to watch sports.
This was not bad pizza, but it's not a pizza I'm likely to order again, except perhaps as a shared appetizer. The flavor was pretty good, and a slice or two could be a good warmup or accompaniment to wings or other bar food. But as an entree, it didn't quite match up to some of The Distillery's other menu items, such as the aforementioned wings, or just a basic burger with fries. The crust just didn't wow me, and the components didn't come together as well as they could have. So while I wouldn't turn it down if you offered me a slice, I'll peg it at just below average, and give it a C-minus.
The Distillery, 1142 Mt. Hope Ave., Rochester 271-4105
Other locations at 300 Paddy Creek Circle, Greece, 3010 Winton Rd. South, Henrietta, and 10 Square Dr., Victor.
Mon. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 2 a.m., Sun. noon - 2 a.m.

Napa, S. Clinton

Last January, I did a post on Napa, a wood-fired pizzeria in Fairport. I gave it a B-, which isn't bad, but I did find some fault with my Margherita, particularly its lack of balance. I thought that the heavy layer of sauce overwhelmed the very thin, crackly crust. But I did give them credit for making effective use of their wood-fired oven, and not turning out a pizza with a wimpy, pale crust.
Napa recently opened a second location in the city on South Clinton Avenue, right next to Boulder Coffee. I had lunch there with a couple of friends, which allowed me to check out several varieties of pizza.
For myself, I chose a "Genovese," which, as far as I can tell, doesn't seem to be on the online menu, which is either outdated or only applies to the Fairport location. The Genovese comes topped with potato, rosemary and garlic. I've seen potato pizzas on menus around here, but they're often of the "stuffed potato skin" variety. I've been curious for a while to try a more authentic, Italian-style potato pizza, and this sounded like it might come close, even though from what I've read, potato pizza is more commonly found in Rome than in Genoa.
My companions selected a couple of red (tomato-sauce-based) pizzas, a "Corleone," topped with hot capicola, roasted red peppers, fresh basil and fresh mozzarella, and a "Rustica," with Italian sausage, caramelized onions, and green peppers.
As was the pizza at the Fairport location, this pizza was very thin, so much so that the crust had virtually no interior. Though the crust was charred, the charring here was more spotty than at Fairport, and the crust was much less brittle. It was certainly crisp, with a nice "bite" to it, but it was not crackly, and had just a bit of chew.
My Genovese was subtly flavored, with paper-thin slices of potato on top, accented by the rosemary and garlic. In its simplicity, I'm guessing that it wasn't too far off from something you might find in Italy, where the pizza is not typically overloaded with toppings, as in this country.
I was a little less impressed with the Corleone. The sauce on this one seemed lighter and less cooked than at Fairport, but it, too, was laid on rather thickly. Though it tasted fine, and I enjoyed the other toppings, I thought the sauce simply overwhelmed everything else on this pizza, crust included.
The Rustica may have been my favorite of the three. It was, perhaps, the closest to an "American" pizza (could that be a reason I liked it?), with its combination of sausage, peppers and onions (can you ever go wrong with sausage, peppers and onions?), plus the nicely melted, creamy cheese and the sauce, which seemed to be in better balance with the other components on this pizza.
The South Clinton Napa is in a converted house, and although it maybe hasn't quite fully settled in to its new digs, it's a pleasing space, with a modest dining room, small bar area (no alcohol yet), and a covered deck. Service was good, and I got the impression that the staff are trying hard to deliver a good product and please their customers.
I was pretty pleased with these pizzas. Starting with the crust, as I always do, these were charred but not burnt, crisp but not brittle. Though I tend to like my crust just a tad thicker, with more of a bready interior, that's strictly my subjective preference, and I can't fault Napa too much on that one. Plus, I understand that we're talking wood-fired pizza here, which is often going to be very thin.
When the crust is that thin, though, it's easy to overdo the toppings, and I think that was the case with the Corelone. Other than that, I had no real complaints, and I'm looking forward to my next visit, and some further samplings from the menu. I'll give Napa an A-.
Napa Wood Fired Pizzeria, 537 S. Clinton Ave. 232-8558
Mon. - Thu. 11 a.m. - 9 p.m., Fri. 11 a.m. - 10 p.m., Sat. 4 p.m. - 10 p.m., Sun. 4 p.m. - 9 p.m.

Joey Mags, South Clinton

It's taken me a while, but I finally made it to Joey Mags, which opened some months ago on a stretch of South Clinton Avenue with a lot of food choices, including Shiki, India House, and Ming, among others.

Joey Mags is something of a combination deli/pizzeria, with a cold-cuts counter in front and pizza ovens in back. When it opened, it was also serving barbecue, and while there are still ribs on the menu, the smoker that used to be out front was not there on my visit. Had I noticed it at the time, I would've asked about it, but I didn't see any signs of outdoor, wood-burning barbecue going on. It may be just as well, since barbecue takes a long time and continual attention to do properly. Perhaps they decided to concentrate on the pizza and deli part of the operation, I'm not really sure.
Anyway - I was a bit surprised to find out that Joey Mags' pizzas only come in one size, large. Kind of odd, but OK, I can live with that. I got a half cheese, half pepperoni, as well as a small order of wings.
Speaking of which, another idiosyncrasy here is that unless you request otherwise, your wings will be cooked "whole" - in other words, the "drumstick," "flat," and tip in one piece. According to the owner, this results in a juicier wing, but I didn't learn that until after I'd ordered mine split, so I can't verify that. It makes some sense, though, I guess, since the juices would have fewer holes to escape from.
My pizza had a thin crust, which got a little thicker toward the edge. The dough hadn't risen much, and the crust didn't have much of an interior; it was a bit dense or gummy in texture, with a chewy texture. The underside was firm but not crisp, browned, but not greasy.
There wasn't much sauce on this pizza. A peek under the cheese revealed a few pockets here and there, in the folds of the dough, but not much. I did notice a pronounced flavor and aroma of herbs and, I think, garlic powder.

There was a fairly large amount of cheese, particularly relative to the sauce. The cheese was well browned. The pepperoni slices were just a bit crisp along the edge, with some spiciness.
As I said, I also got wings. They were pretty spicy for "mild" wings, and were coated with a rather unusual looking, almost pink sauce. It also had a distinctive flavor that I couldn't pin down, not really classic Buffalo sauce, but not bad either.
Besides pizza and wings, there are plenty of sandwich fillings to choose from, and a few other items - the aformentioned ribs (cooked indoors, I presume) among them.
There are a few tables, but not as much seating as you might think from the outside. One of the most interesting features of the interior, for me, was the bust atop the deli counter, of a bald but unidentified man. Perhaps some customer will eventually recognize who the subject was. Service was good, and if the owner is there when you visit, you'll find him friendly and conversational.
The pizza, alas, didn't thrill me. I'm not saying it was bad, but for my taste, there were a few issues:  it seemed a bit out of balance due to the relative paucity of the sauce; the crust could've been crisper underneath, and didn't have a very airy interior; and the garlic-powder aroma put me off a bit as well.
That said, it had some things going for it. If not crisp, the crust was at least not greasy, the cheese was OK, and garlic powder aside, the overall flavor was decent. In other words, this was an average pizza. So I'll give it an average grade, a C.
Joey Mags,1026 S. Clinton Ave. 442-2270

Daily: 4:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.
Pizza Guy note, 12/3/10:  Joey Mag's has closed.

Hong Kong House, S. Clinton Ave.

Yes, you read that right. The Hong Kong House. A Chinese restaurant. On a pizza blog.
Over the years, this location has housed "Little Saigon," "Fast Chinese Restaurant" (love that name), and the Imperial Chinese restaurant. Given the building's facade, it will probably always house something along those lines, barring a major facelift.
So it was with some surprise that I noticed one day that word on the sign: "pizza." And after checking the menu on their MySpace page and seeing that they offer "Green Olivers" on their pizza, well, sheer curiosity took over.
Then again, who knows?, I thought. You don't have to be Italian to make good pizza, and even discounting a bit their claim to make the "best pizza in town," the menu does say that it's "bakeo in real brick oven," so it might be pretty good, I figured.
(I'm not trying to make fun of the owners themselves for the misspellings, by the way. I don't know Mandarin Chinese from a mandarin orange, and my knowledge of their language is pretty much limited to those words on the back of fortune cookie slips. But some of the menu entries I find hilarious.)
I went for the lunchtime pizza special - two slices, french fries, and a soft drink for $5. By the time my food came out, I had forgotten about the drink, and the lady at the counter said nothing, so I ended up with just the pizza and fries, but that still is a pretty good deal.
Or at least it would be if the pizza were any good. It wasn't.
The crust was very dark brown underneath, but not at all crisp. In fact, it was downright soggy, like a wet sponge. Had I kept it in its styrofoam container for very long, I might've attributed that to condensation from the steam, but it wasn't in there more than a couple of minutes.
For all its soft wetness, though, one edge of one of the slices was actually hard - so hard that it was difficult to chew through it. I began to suspect that this pizza might've been baked the night before, rescued from god knows where when a customer unexpectedly asked for pizza at lunchtime, and thrown into the microwave. Maybe not, but that might just as well be what happened, considering what I was given.
The cheese was melted and bland. The sauce was barely noticeable save for some faint herbalness. I didn't pick up any tomato flavor at all.
The fries, at least, weren't too bad. Not great, and they smelled a bit of stale cooking oil, but good enough to eat, which is more than I can say for the pizza, most of which I ended up throwing out.
Now it might seem all too easy to pick on a Chinese restaurant for its bad pizza - I mean, I wouldn't expect to get great Kung Pao chicken at an Italian restaurant. But an Italian restaurant wouldn't serve that in the first place, nor, for that matter, does your average Chinese restaurant offer pizza. So I can't cut them any slack in that regard. They chose to offer pizza, even going so far as to claim it to be the best in town. Was I surprised that it wasn't very good? Not really. But I'll hold it to the same standards as any other pizza.
I should mention, by the way, that HKH's culinary diversity goes well beyond pizza. Besides Chinese food, they also offer spaghetti, tacos, subs, souvlaki, clam chowder ... well, you get the idea.
If it were up to me, I'd say concentrate on the Chinese food and forget the other stuff. But maybe this works for them. They are open till 3 a.m. every night, and maybe if you're drunk and hungry in the wee hours this stuff tastes just fine. But stone sober in the early afternoon, I found this pizza inedible. I give it an F.
Hong Kong House, 985-B S. Clinton Ave. 244-5569, 244-6103
Mon. - Wed., Sat. & Sun. 3 p.m. - 3 a.m. Thu. & Fri. 11 a.m. - 3 a.m.