Little Park Ave - CLOSED

(This establishment is now closed)
Park Avenue in Rochester is home to several pizzerias. One of the more recent entrants is Little Park Ave Pizzeria, near the corner of Park and Oxford. It is in fact a little place, and the diminutive name has a certain symbiosis with the Half Pint Pub a couple of doors down. And since the Half Pint doesn't serve food, that symbiosis might extend beyond the names.
On a recent lunchtime visit to LPA, I got a cheese slice and a Buffalo chicken slice. (The other option was pepperoni.)
Both were thin, with a dark brown underside, criss-crossed by screen marks. The bottom was not crisp, but firm, and the slices were foldable, i.e., not floppy. The crust wasn't great, but it was serviceable, in other words, it was not bad and was a good-enough base for the toppings.
I usually love a basic cheese slice, but in this instance I preferred the Buffalo chicken slice. The cheese slice was OK at best. The cheese was a little browned, and sprinkled with dried herbs, among which the oregano stood out.
Some oil had exuded from the cheese. The sauce was thinly applied, which was reasonable given the thinness of the crust, but I found the sauce rather bland. This slice just seemed to be missing something. I would've liked a little more flavor or complexity from the crust, or cheese, or sauce. Aside from the dried herbs, there just wasn't much going on here.
Not surprisingly, the Buffalo chicken slice was more flavorful. It was topped with wing sauce, which was mild but had a little kick, and a distinctive flavor. A little less vinegary than your typical wing sauce, with the herbs playing a role too. Intriguing, and not bad.
Atop the sauce was scattered mozzarella and bits of breaded chicken. A spiral of blue cheese dressing added the right accent. The slice wasn't heavily laden with toppings, but the toppings were in balance with the thin crust. 
Little Park Ave offers pizza in 10- and 16-inch sizes, with two dozen available toppings and ten specialty pizzas, including a mac-and-cheese pie and a signature house pie with red sauce, capicola, ham, mozzarella, Asiago, and fresh spinach. They also do an Italian-bread pizza, which is a foot-long sliced loaf of Italian bread topped with red sauce and cheese, and a flatbread Mexican pizza. Subs, soups and salads are also on the menu.
I've never graded Buffalo chicken slices, because it comes in so many ways that there is no benchmark for the style. I couldn't give this cheese slice a very good grade, but I don't want to just average the two slices out and slap a bad grade on Little Park Ave., because that might dissuade people from trying it. I liked the Buffalo chicken slice, and I'd like to try some of their other pizzas. So I'll just say that, for my taste, the cheese slice was not the greatest, but the Buffalo chicken slice was good enough to make me want to come back for more of LPA's other offerings. I'd encourage you to try it for yourself and let me and other readers know what you think.

Little Park Ave Pizzeria
371 Park Ave.
585-271-7377

Mon. - Fri. noon - 11 p.m.
Sat. & Sun. 10 a.m. - 11 p.m.

http://littleparkave.com/index.html

Ruck's Pizza, Lima

Just when I've nearly run out of pizza places to try, a new one comes along. One of the latest is Ruck's Pizza Kitchen in Lima. It's near the crossroads of 15A and 5 & 20.
Apparently Ruck's opened in 2014, but I only recently learned of its existence. I assumed it had gone into the now-closed Mark's location, but it's actually a door or two down, closer to the intersection.

I stopped in around lunchtime on a recent Saturday and got a pepperoni and a Buffalo chicken slice. They were pretty big, and one would have been enough to satisfy my hunger after a morning hike, but I wanted to sample a couple different varieties.
The crust was medium thick, a little charred on the pepperoni slice, paler on the Buffalo chicken slice. It's been my experience in general that the crust on Buffalo chicken pizza tends to come out a little different from that on "regular" pizza, so that didn't surprise me.
The pepperoni slice was heavy on the cheese, and a little oily underneath toward the tip, i.e. the center of the pie. I liked the crust overall, which was reasonably crisp and bready.
This was a fairly weighty slice, mostly due to the mozzarella cheese. It was laid on in a thick melted blanket. The texture straddled the line between stretchy and chewy.

The thin slices of pepperoni were crisp along the edge, as they should be. The tomato sauce was slightly sweet and mildly seasoned. Overall, a good, basic slice of pizza, typical of the Rochester style.
The Buffalo chicken slice was wider than the pepperoni slice. I don't know if the pies were sliced differently or if it was just luck of the draw. But it was nearly a quarter pie, whereas the pepperoni slice looked to be about a sixth.
As I mentioned, the underside was relatively pale, but it was mostly dry to the touch, and it had a nice, chewy interior. On top, the slice was topped with small chunks of chicken, a thin layer of mozzarella, mild Buffalo sauce and a swirl of blue cheese dressing. It was good, but if I were to order a whole pie, I'd probably ask for at least a medium-hot wing sauce. But for a slice with the flavor of Buffalo wings, this was a pretty good example.
Ruck's offers pies in 10, 14 and 18 inch sizes, plus sheets. You can easily customize your pizza, with thin, "regular" and thick crust, red, white or "pink" sauce, and 20 toppings to choose from. They also do 18 specialty pizzas, including a "585" (basically a garba- I mean "trash" - plate on a pizza), and "Ruck's favorite," the "Golden Boy," with "Golden BBQ sauce," chicken tenders, steak and cheddar.
They also do hot and cold subs, wings, calzones, salads, quesadillas, fish fry, and a few more items. In short, Ruck's pretty much covers the basics, and then some, for a local pizza joint.
I was generally happy with these slices. They were well made, flavorful examples of Rochester style pizza.
I have in the past avoided rating Buffalo chicken pizza, largely because the whole approach to that style varies so much from one place to another. As for the pepperoni slice, it was pretty good. Some charring, breadlike crust, crisp pepperoni and a good balance of cheese and sauce. Not quite at the top of my local list, but good enough to rate a B.

Ruck's Pizza Kitchen

7294 W. Main St.
Lima, NY
585-582-6552

Mon. - Thu. 11 - 9, Fri. & Sat. 11 - 10, Sun. noon - 8

Tony Pepperoni Buffalo Chicken Pizza, and a Giveaway

I happened to be in Henrietta the other day around noon, so I decided to stop in to Tony Pepperoni on West Henrietta Road, maybe a half mile south of Marketplace Mall. I've enjoyed their thin-crust pizza in the past, but it had been a few years since I was there.
I had forgotten how extensive an array of pizza Tony Pepperoni offers, but I was quite impressed with the selection and found it difficult to choose. I was particularly intrigued by one french-fry-laden pie, which I was told was the "Tony Plate" pizza, but in the end I went for a single slice of Buffalo chicken pizza.
I also took the opportunity to speak to owner Mark DiPaola. He and his brothers bought the business shortly after it opened, and he's been at it now for over ten years. As with any good owner, Mark's love and enthusiasm for the pizza business came through clearly in our brief conversation.
The pizza here is generally NY style. It's thin, and made with high-gluten flour, which allows the dough to be stretched into large pies, with a crisp, chewy crust. 
My Buffalo chicken slice was quite good, with a thin, crisp, crackly crust topped with medium hot sauce and unbreaded chunks of diced chicken. 
For this pie, Tony Pepperoni uses a blend of cheeses. I found a base of melted, processed mozzarella, topped with finely shredded cheddar, and I detected some blue cheese in the mix as well.There are different ways to go with Buffalo chicken pizza, but this was a good take on the style, that struck a nice balance between the flavor of Buffalo wings and the underlying pizza base.
Given its relative longevity in the highly competitive pizza business, Tony P's has clearly found a winning formula. When I asked about future changes, Mark told me that there may be some tinkering with the menu, to keep up with current trends. But the menu is already pretty extensive; I count 18 specialty pizzas, and they do wings, subs, salads, and more. A second location is also possible, down the road, but for the moment Mark's got plenty to keep him occupied, between his current operation and tending to a three-kid family at home.
Had I been hungrier, I would have availed myself of more of Tony Pepperoni's slice choices, but this slice alone was large enough to make for a good quick lunch. The rest will have to wait.
If you'd like to find out for yourself how good the pizza is here, here's your chance to do so for free. Mark was kind enough to provide me with two gift certificates, one for a large one-topping pie, and another for a large specialty pie.
To be eligible to win either, just leave a comment at the end of this blog post. If you have a preference as to which you win, please state your preference, and if I can, I'll honor it. I can't guarantee you'll get your preference, but I don't think you can go wrong either way.
Win or lose, stop by Tony Pepperoni's sometime and let the guys know that the Rochester Pizza Guy recommended it.
I'll pick two winners next Friday, June 6, a little after noon.

Tony Pepperoni, 4164 W. Henrietta Rd.
585-334-2830
Open 11 a.m. - 10 p.m. daily

Aniello's, Corning

Since just about everyone who knows me knows of my love for pizza, I get a lot of recommendations. And one that's come up, more than once, is Aniello's in Corning. It's on East Market Street, which is a several-block stretch of restaurants, bars and shops. From what I've read, the presence of Corning Inc. not only supports, but almost almost necessitates a scene that's a little busier and perhaps hipper than what you'd otherwise expect in a Southern Tier city of this size.
And pizzawise, maybe a little more New York City-oriented too. New York style pizza does seem to be more common in the middle and eastern end of the Southern Tier than in WNY, but Market Street is probably an especially friendly environment for it.
I'd been to Aniello's before, years ago, but before I started this blog. So on a recent trip down that way, to visit my in-laws, I stopped by with my wife and daughter. It was a Saturday, a little after noon.
Anniello's is a fairly large place, with several big pizza ovens, and they were doing a pretty brisk business, so I assume slices were moving quickly. The slices did seem fresh, and there were pies going into and coming out of the ovens at a rapid pace.
They had a good selection of slices, and the menu included some other items, like my daughter's sub, which she was happy with. But she's a minimalist where subs are concerned; sliced turkey and shredded lettuce are all she wants, and it's pretty hard to screw that up.
My wife and I both got pizza. She had a cheese slice and a Buffalo chicken slice, while I opted for a pepperoni slice and a cheese Sicilian slice.
The three thin, NY style slices were OK, but honestly, a bit of a disappointment. It's not that they were bad, by any means, but they were more brown than charred underneath, and didn't have quite the crackly crispness I look for in a NY style slice. They were crisp, and they passed the fold test - I could fold a slice and have it stick straight out, horizontally, without flopping - but they lacked the charred spots and toastiness that I expect to find in a NY style slice.
I hate to hold this against Aniello's, because the fact is, I don't think they claim to serve authentic NY style pizza, although I think they have a reputation for that. As far as I can tell, they've never made any claim beyond serving thin-crust pizza, which is not the same thing as NY style. And this was thin, for sure. But it seemed to emulate the NY style, and I would've preferred a slightly blackened, charred bottom. It's not just a matter of esthetics; if the underside is slightly charred, it will likely have a nice, crisp exterior. And this wasn't quite there.
My other quibble with the thin slices was the lack of sauce. Good pizza is all about balance, and a thin slice should have a correspondingly thin layer of sauce, but there was almost no sauce on these slices. The sauce was what I call "painted on" - I could see it, it was red, but I could barely taste it and it was too dried out for me to sense it in my mouth.
The cheese and pepperoni were OK. The cheese was well melted, but not as creamy-textured as the best that I've had. It was certainly serviceable, but not memorably good.
It's rare that I have pepperoni on a pizza that stands out, for good or bad, and this was ordinary thin-sliced pepperoni. At some point, I expect to see some places start offering premium pepperoni (or "salumi," or whatever other designation they use for cured Italian sausage), but this was pretty standard stuff. No complaints, just nothing special.
My Sicilian slice was a definite improvement. It was topped with more sauce and more cheese, as befitted the greater thickness of the crust.
One upside of that was that the flavor of the sauce came through much more on this slice. There was a good deal of herb flavor, with some notes of basil and oregano, overlaying a medium-sweet, tomatoey sauce. The cheese was again nicely melted, with just one "nude" spot.
The crust was well-risen, not greasy underneath, crisp and substantial, and dotted inside by numerous air holes. Aniello's may be known as a NY-style place, but I preferred this over the thin slices.
I didn't try my wife's Buffalo slice, although she was happy with its mildly spicy kick and chunks of chicken. Its toppings included tomato sauce, which some places forgo on Buffalo chicken pizza.
All in all, I liked the pizza we had here, but it had some relatively minor shortcomings. The crust on the thin slices wasn't quite as charred and crackly as I would've liked, and they could've used a bit more sauce. But they weren't bad, by any means, and the Sicilian slice was very good.
I'm not going to try to separate these slices out into separate blog posts. I assume if somebody's interested enough, they'll read this post and figure out for themselves what I thought about the pizza here. So I'll give the pizza here, overall, a B. It was generally better than average, and worth a stop. But if you stop, I'd particularly recommend the Sicilian pizza.

Aniello's, 68 E Market St, Corning, NY 14830

Phone:(607) 962-2060
Sun. - Thu. 11:00 am – midnight
Fri. & Sat. 11:00 am – 1:00 am

Fastrac

I generally don’t even consider buying pizza at a gas station. For one thing, unless they’ve got a full-blown pizzeria setup, they’re just baking pizzas on premade crusts, with no craftsmanship involved. Plus almost every gas station is part of a chain, and I am not very interested in chain pizza, period.
But sometimes, I go into a station or a convenience store, and see a pizza sitting there in the warmer and I can’t help thinking, it doesn’t look half bad. And maybe I’m hungry. And it’s cheap. So ...
So I broke down the other day and got two slices from Fastrac, a regional chain of gas stations that has some of the cheaper gasoline prices around, at least if you have one of their cards. They all serve pizza, under the name “Slices,” and as gas station pizza goes, it’s not the worst-looking pizza around. So my curiosity got the best of me, and I picked up a pepperoni slice and a Buffalo chicken slice.
The latter was very thin, with a crunchy, almost crackerlike crust that had been docked, i.e., punched with tiny holes to keep it from bubbling up in the oven. The edge lacked any lip or cornicione to speak of, but where the underside was crisp, the edge was hard and brittle, with a good deal of “bite.”
The Buffalo slice was topped with small chunks of plain, unbreaded chicken, an even layer of slightly browned mozzarella, and blue cheese sauce, with a swirl of basic hot sauce for that Buffalo-wing flavor. The overall flavor wasn’t bad, particularly if you like your wings dipped in blue cheese. This was missing the “fried” flavor of pizza made with breaded chicken, but it was also missing the grease that often accompanies breaded chicken.
The pepperoni slice was qualitatively different, with a crust that was about the same thickness, but slightly oily to the touch underneath. It had a certain fried-like exterior crunch, but was soft and spongy inside. The bottom was also pockmarked by several bubbly air holes. And where the Buffalo chicken slice had virtually no cornicione, this slice was thick and puffy along the braided edge, which is consistent with what I’ve generally seen at Fastrac. The cornicione also had a certain sheen to it, similar to a loaf of bread that was brushed with an egg wash before baking, though I doubt very much that this was done here. Probably the shininess was simply due, again, so the presence of oil.
The pepperoni slice was topped with a basic tomato sauce, a modest layer of melted mozzarella, and some nondescript, wide and thin slices of pepperoni. A smattering of dried herbs was visible, and I thought I detected the distinctive aroma and taste of garlic powder.
These weren’t awful, but they were far from the best slices of pizza I’ve had. I should add, though, that these weren’t the best looking slices I’ve ever seen at Fastrac; these came from the East Main Street location downtown, near the Inner Loop, and were not as good-looking as the slices I’ve seen at the Fastrac at the corner of West Henrietta and Calkins Roads. I have yet to try the latter location’s pizza, so I’m not passing judgment here on Fastrac as a whole, though if the quality does vary much from one location to another, that’s an issue in itself.
As for these slices, I’d say they were below average for this area. Maybe not by a lot, but nonetheless below average, and so I have to give them a D.
Fastrac, 672 East Main Street, Rochester, with other locations throughout Western and Central New York.

Vicari's, Ontario

In researching the new, second location of Empire Pizza in Ontario, I ran across a reference to Vicari's Pizzeria, which I'd never heard of before, on Ridge Road in Ontario.
For the time being, the Ontario Empire location opens at 4:00, so I made the trek to check out Vicari's. It's a small pizzeria on Ridge Road (which is not the same as 104, it's an older road parallel to and just south of 104), between Ontario Center Road (Rt. 350) and Furnace Road (County Road 110).
I got there about 11:45 a.m., and was pleasantly surprised to see several pies available for slices. I chose a pepperoni slice and a Buffalo chicken slice.
Both were thin (about an eighth of an inch thick), New York style slices. Each came sliced into two. The undersides had a dusting of corn meal and were lightly charred. They were pliable but firm, with some chewy breadiness in the interior.
The pepperoni slice was topped with a moderate amount of mildly flavored tomato sauce, a thin layer of mozzarella, and a generous helping of thin pepperoni slices. It was a well balanced slice, and the overall flavor was good.
The Buffalo chicken slice was done with small chunks of breaded chicken (think a diced chicken finger), "Cajun sauce," and mozzarella. "Cajun" seems like an odd name for Buffalo chicken sauce, but the flavor was that of a basic hot sauce, with enough heat to add a little kick, though toward the mild end of the scale. Blue cheese is served on the side here, not on the pizza.
Vicari's menu is available online, but I'll give a brief rundown.
Pizzas come in 10-, 14- and 16-inch pie sizes (which are available thin, thick, or "regular" - I assume these were "thin"), as well as 16" pan pizza, and sheets. A 9-inch gluten-free pizza is also available. There are 22 toppings and ten specialty pizzas, plus calzones, "twists" and "knots." They also do wings (fried or char-broiled), subs, salads, burgers and pasta. Next time I'm out that way I may get a "Bambino" sub, named in honor of Babe Ruth, I'm sure - one wall of Vicari's is devoted to the New York Yankees (a customer in a Red Sox cap did his best not to notice, or at least not to let it bother him).
I should mention that despite the image of a wood-burning pizza oven on the front of the menu, Vicari's uses regular pizza ovens. Nothing wrong with that - the pizzas are brick-lined, and they don't use screens - but to avoid confusion it wouldn't be a bad idea for them to switch out the photo at some point.
This was some pretty good thin-crust pizza. It didn't have quite the crackle of superb New York style pizza, and some of the corn meal had burned a bit, turning into soot. To get a little nitpicky, the cheese was all right, but not as delectably creamy as I've had on some slices. So I'm not prepared to give it an A. But it was well balanced and tasty, with a good crust. It was certainly above average, and I'm adding it to my mental go-to list for the area, so it easily rates a B from me.
Vicari's Pizzeria, 1795 Ridge Road, Ontario, NY 14519
315-524-4500
Mon. - Sat. 10 - 10, Sun. noon  - 9

Colie's Cafe, Park Ave. - Buffalo Chicken Pizza

Places that advertise themselves as pizzerias always take priority on my to-do list. Restaurants with pizza on the menu, not so much.
So it took me a while to get to Colie's Cafe on Park Avenue. This was formerly Camille's, and part of a franchise, but a couple of years ago, they changed over to Colie's, and became an independent operation. I think that's the gist of it.
And they do have pizza on the menu, so I had to give it a try.
From the six pizzas on their menu, I got a Buffalo chicken pie. Ordinarily, the first time at a place, I would go for a plain cheese pizza, or maybe pepperoni, but I figured few people are going to come here just to get a regular pizza, not with Cobbs Hill and Chester Cab both nearby. And since Buffalo chicken pizza may be the most popular "specialty" pizza locally, I thought that would be a good choice.
Plus, Colie's menu describes their Buffalo chicken pizza as topped with "grilled chicken with onions, celery, tomatoes, crumbly bleu cheese, spicy boom-boom sauce and mozzarella." You rarely see celery on pizza (it's tough to do, since it's so full of water), and I wondered about the "boom-boom sauce," and crumbly blue is unusual too, for pizza, so I was intrigued.
The pizza came up remarkably fast, just a few minutes after I ordered it. That was not a good sign, as it suggested a very pre-made pizza.
But I was pleasantly surprised. This was pretty good. It wasn't very big, maybe 8 inches across, but the crust was reasonably crisp and not greasy.
The pie was topped with diced, unbreaded chicken, tossed in a very mildly hot sauce. If you want this spicy, better ask for some Tabasco or whatever they have on hand. So as a hothead, culinarily speaking, that was a disappointment. But it was an interesting take on Buffalo chicken pizza, with crunchy slices of celery, sauteed onions, and diced tomatoes, mixed with a creamy white sauce that was tinged with blue cheese crumbles.
One odd thing was that the top layer of the crust easily separated from the bottom. It wasn't so much that the toppings separated from the crust as that the crust separated into two layers, top and bottom.
That aside, this was a tasty pie, with a decent crust, and an interesting mix of flavors and textures. I haven't been rating Buffalo chicken pizza, since they vary so widely as to make them difficult to compare with each other. And I'm not sure what I would think of Colie's more traditional pizzas. So I'll not give this a rating, but I will say that I enjoyed it, and I'm frankly not a huge fan of Buffalo chicken pizza. If you are - and maybe even if you're not - it's worth trying.
Colie's Cafe, 657 Park Avenue, Rochester, NY 14607
442-4986
Mon. - Sat. 8 a.m. - 9 p.m., Sun. 8 a.m. - 8 p.m.
Other locations at 3349 Monroe Ave. in Pittsford and at Eastview Mall

Wegmans, Calkins Rd.

I have occasion to stop at the Wegmans on Calkins Road fairly often, and when I walk through the hot-food section, my eyes are often drawn to the pizza.
Now I suppose my eyes would be drawn to the pizza, no matter what, but in this case it's partly because the pizzas always looked pretty good to me.
I've reviewed Wegman's pizza before, and I was in no hurry to try any more. It's not that the ones I had before were bad; but they weren't outstanding, either, and I'm generally not eager to try chain pizza or supermarket pizza. And Wegmans pizza is both.
But the sight of those pies finally got to me. So the other day I picked up a cheese slice and a Buffalo chicken slice.
The former had a thin, pliable crust. The underside was firm but foldable, well browned and dry, with some corn meal visible.
The slice was topped with a thin layer of cheese that easily separated from the crust. A thin oily layer, that may have been from the cheese itself, the sauce, or another source, seemed to be the main cause.
The cheese seemed to be all mozzarella, and was melted just shy of browning, though it was a bit congealed by the time I got it to my car.
There was a fair amount of sauce on this slice, but it was particularly noticeable thanks to its very tomatoey, lightly seasoned flavor, which gave it a pungency not found in sweeter or more heavily seasoned sauces.

It didn't take me long to work my way to the outer edge, which was marked by a thin, narrow cornicione that was somewhere between crisp and crunchy.
My Buffalo chicken slice was topped with unbreaded chunks of chicken, which had been given a light coat of seasoning. The chicken was not exactly abundant - some here, some there - but it wasn't skimpy either.
This was essentially a white pizza with seasoned chicken. It had a very mild flavor overall, there was no tomato sauce, and I didn't notice any hot sauce. It was rather oily on top, so maybe the crust got a drizzle or brushing of oil.
Or maybe the oil came from the cheese. There seemed to be a mix of cheeses on this one, including both mozzarella and blue, perhaps some Provolone or a sharper cheese in there as well. There was just enough blue cheese - a few small chunks scattered about - to add some faint background flavor.
The crust on this slice was similar to the cheese slice, but seemed a little softer and more pliable. Parts of the underside were well browned, and again there was some corn meal visible.These weren't bad. If you're doing some grocery shopping here and you're hungry, and the food samples aren't enough for you, these are OK.
But while they're not as convenient to eat on the go, I'd take one of Wegman's subs over these. These were roughly New York style slices, but judged against that standard, they didn't quite measure up. The crust wasn't terrible, by any means, but it was a bit limp and lifeless. And since the first thing that hits your palate is the underside of the crust, the crust is the key to a great slice. These were good enough, but not great, and I'll give them a C.
Wegmans, 745 Calkins Road, Henrietta 14623
334-4010 (store), 444-2015 (pizza)

Guida's, Elmgrove Rd. Buffalo Chicken Pizza

Now and then I like to try, and report on, Buffalo chicken pizza. It's not necessarily one of my favorite styles, but it's clearly popular around here, and it does come in an interesting range of interpretations from one pizzeria to another.
I recently picked up a Buffalo chicken slice from Guida's on Elmgrove Road in Gates. Interestingly, this was a little different from the Buffalo chicken pie that I got some time ago from Guida's in Honeoye Falls. That one was topped with breaded chicken, and a heavy layer of mozzarella and blue cheese sauce, with a thin layer of hot sauce underneath. This slice was topped only with chicken, mozzarella and hot sauce, and the blue cheese sauce came on the side.
Although I liked the Honeoye Falls version, that's probably a good idea. With chicken wings, after all, the blue cheese is for dipping, and while I like blue cheese with my Buffalo chicken - whether wings or pizza - I'd rather control the amount that I use. I wonder, though, whether this difference between this slice and the Honeoye Falls pizza reflects a difference between the two locations, or a Guida's-wide change in how they make their Buffalo chicken pizza.
Anyway, this came on the usual good Guida's crust, which was crisp, chewy and charred, and I think a bit darker underneath than a typical Guida's slice, with a faint whiff of cooking oil, probably from the chicken. The crust was thin to medium thick, and bready, with a fairly thin, medium wide cornicione that was just slightly oily to the touch.
The cheese seemed to be straight mozzarella, and was applied moderately. Flavorwise, it took a back seat to the chicken and the hot sauce. The latter had a buttery quality and medium heat, like medium-hot Buffalo wings. The chunks of breaded chicken were rather salty and left a peppery aftertaste.
I haven't been rating Buffalo chicken pizza, and I won't start now. It's a style that has no clear parameters, and it would be difficult to rate a Buffalo chicken pizza without passing judgment on the pizzeria's take on the style. I will say that this pizza had a very good crust, as I have come to expect from Guida's, and pretty good flavor.
What I'd really like to see is pizzerias offering the option of getting your Buffalo chicken pizza hot, medium, or mild, or different sauces, like Cajun or garlic parmesan. None of those could ever supplant my preference for basic tomato sauce and cheese pizza, but they'd be fun to try. Until then, if you are a fan of Buffalo chicken pizza, Guida's on Elmgrove is worth a stop.
Guida's, 736 Elmgrove Rd., 14606
426-6464
Mon. - Thu. 11 a.m. - 10 p.m., Fri. & Sat. 11 a.m. - 11 p.m., Sun. noon - 10 p.m.

Colombini's, Revisited

It had been a long time since I reviewed Colombini's, a pizzeria/deli on Chili Avenue. And somebody, I think, told me I should go back for one of their giant slices. So I went back.
On my first visit, there were two choices available, pepperoni and Buffalo chicken. Since they were quite large, I didn't really want one of each, and I opted for the Buffalo chicken. The Buffalo chicken pie looked fresher, plus I figured this would allow me to check out Colombini's take on this style, which I've been covering, off and on, for some time now.
The slice, which was briefly reheated before being given to me, was big and floppy, with an orangey-brown bottom that was pockmarked with a few bubbly craters. It wasn't really greasy, but there was clearly some oil present, which is not too unusual with Buffalo chicken pizza. As is often the case, it was hard to tell if the oil was in the dough to begin with, applied to the baking surface, or had just seeped down from the toppings.
The crust was reasonably firm, and a little crisp along the edge. I'm not quite sure why you see three different, distinct areas underneath in the photo - the craters, as I call them, the orange area on the right, and the dark brown area along the perimeter. The crater is where there was a bubble in the dough, but I'm not sure why there's such a clear differentiation between the orange and brown areas. Perhaps some oil did seep down from on top, and caused the crust to brown more in those areas.
There was a mix of cheeses on top, mozzarella and cheddar, I think, along with chunks of unbreaded, diced white meat. The base consisted of a thin, medium-hot sauce, with no tomato sauce.
On my second visit, I was told that no hot slices were available, though there were some wrapped Sicilian slices in the deli case. I got a couple of those, which I reheated for 10 minutes at 400 degrees in a toaster oven, directly on the rack.
These were pretty good. The bottom was rather pale, but reasonably crisp, with no oiliness. The reheating definitely helped in that regard.
The dough was nicely risen, and the crust had an airy texture with a bit of crunch underneath, but softer on top, where the water from the sauce had soaked in a bit. The edge was quite crisp, with a crunchy bite.
The slices were topped with an ample layer of thick tomato sauce and plenty of dried herbs. The only cheese was a generous sprinkling of grated Romano.
So in two visits, I did not try a basic cheese or pepperoni slice, but between the Buffalo chicken and the Sicilian pizzas, I preferred the latter. Partly that was because of the toppings - although I like wings, where pizza's concerned, I guess I'm more of a red-sauce-and-cheese guy than a hot-sauce-and-chicken guy, but I also liked the crust better. It was crisp and airy, but with enough substance to provide some bite and chewiness. And I liked the flavor - you can hardly go wrong with a good tomato sauce, Romano cheese, and herbs.
The Buffalo chicken slice was acceptable, but I found the crust too soft and oily for my taste. But the flavor wasn't bad.
The deli itself, just from what I saw, is also worth a stop. There is a nice selection of cold cuts to choose from, and they make their own bread. I haven't tried their wings, but they have gotten excellent reviews.
As has been my custom, I will not assign a rating to the Buffalo chicken pizza, since there is so much variation within that style, but the crust fell somewhere into the average category. The Sicilian slices could've been a little more done on the bottom, but all in all, I liked them, and I'll give them a B.
Colombini's Pizza & Deli, 3193 Chili Ave.
Tel.: 889-2213
Hours: Sun. - Thu. 9 a.m. - 9 p.m., Fri. & Sat. 9 a.m. - 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.

Pontillo's, Hudson Ave. & East Ridge

Some time ago, somebody asked for a review of the Pontillo's in Irondequoit. I'm sorry it's taken so long, but I finally made it there.
Often, I like to get a plain cheese slice, or maybe a pepperoni slice, as they serve as useful benchmarks for pizza. But on this occasion, confronted with a wide variety of slices to choose from at lunchtime, I went with a Buffalo chicken slice and a pepperoni Sicilian slice. Next time I'm up that way, I'll get a regular cheese slice.
The Buffalo chicken slice was very thin and easy to fold, with a lightly browned bottom. It was not at all charred, unlike most Pontillo's pizzas I've had. (As has been pointed out before, Pontillo's is a very loosely knit chain, with different locations often sharing no more than a name, so what you get at one may not be much of an indicator of what you'll get at another.) But there was no greasiness, either; the underside was dry and a bit floury, with some surface crackling, a good sign of a crisp crust. The edge was nice and bready, with the texture and flavor of Italian bread.
Buffalo chicken pizza may be one of the most variable styles, with options including tomato sauce, hot sauce, breaded or unbreaded chicken (which might be ground or cubed), mozzarella or blue cheese, celery, carrots, and various permutations of all of those. This one was topped with a thin layer of wing sauce. It was fairly mild, but packed some punch, as it more flavor than physical substance, as compared with a typical tomato-based pizza sauce.
Atop that, small chunks of diced, unbreaded white meat provided the protein. They were a little on the dry side (wouldn't dark meat be closer to real wings?), but you may prefer that to right-out-of-the-fryer, breaded chicken coated with grease that spreads oil all over the pizza.
The cheese here seemed to be all mozzarella. It was about as thick as the crust itself, but since the crust was thin, this wasn't overly cheesy pizza. If there was any blue cheese in there, it was well in the background, as I didn't taste any. The overall flavor of this slice was of chicken, overlaid with mild Buffalo-style spices, with the thin but bready crust as a base, and the mozzarella cheese as a condiment. In some ways, this was almost like a Buffalo chicken wrap - a cup of blue cheese dipping sauce would've been nice.
I don't recall having seen Sicilian slices at any Pontillo's before, not that I'm any expert on Pontillo's, but that's why I opted for one here. These were available with either cup-and-char or "regular" pepperoni, and I chose the former.
This slice was about an inch thick, and roughly six by six inches. The underside was well browned, and just slightly oily to the touch, which is not uncommon for a pan-baked pizza. It was firm underneath, with a bit of crunch on the surface, and dotted with bubble holes and craters of various sizes. As I have generally found to be true of Pontillo's crusts, this one was chewy and bready, with a well-risen interior marked by numerous air pockets.
The tomato sauce also seemed very similar to what I've had at other Pontillo's locations, with a medium-thick consistency and a touch of sweetness. The mozzarella cheese didn't blanket the entire slice, but seemed to have settled into some low spots on the surface as it melted. The pepperoni was more evenly distributed and was good and crisp along the edges, with a nice crunch followed by a meaty chewiness. All in all, the slice was on the heavy side, a bit dense, but more from the substantial, thick, chewy crust than in an overloaded or oil-soaked way, as is the case with some pan-baked pizzas.
The Irondequoit Pontillo's has a little seating, and a basic menu consisting of pizza, calzones and wings. Service was friendly, despite the lunchtime crush. Oh, and despite the official address, the entrance is on Hudson Ave., just north of East Ridge.
These were both pretty good slices, further confirming that despite its loose-knit organizational structure, Pontillo's generally turns out reliably good pizza. I'll give the Buffalo chicken slice a B, on the strength of its good crust and tasty toppings. The Sicilian gets a B as well, for a crust with nice crunch, appropriate density and chew, and overall good balance.
Pontillo's,702 E. Ridge Rd. (Hudson Plaza), Rochester 14621
Tel.: (585) 467-6900
Hours: Mon. - Wed. 3 p.m. - 10 p.m., Thu. - Sun. 11 a.m. - 10 p.m.