Sal's Pizzeria, Ithaca

Ithaca is a bit far afield for a Rochester-based pizza blog, but my travels take me there on occasion, and I suspect that a lot of Rochesterians get down that way from time to time as well. The Ithaca area has a lot to offer, from natural features ("Ithaca Is Gorges," as the bumper sticker says) to its colleges and all that goes along with that - restaurants, nightlife, shopping, and so on.
And pizza. Where there are colleges, there is pizza.
And Ithaca is a college town. There's Ithaca College, as well as Ithaca's most famous institutional resident, Cornell University. I imagine that Cornell in particular attracts a fair number of students from downstate, who grew up on New York style pizza, so it's not surprising to find that style well represented in and around Ithaca.
I've also found that you don't have to go that far in the direction of New York City before you start finding a lot of New York style pizza places. Get down to the Southern Tier, around Elmira and points east and south, and NY style pizzerias seem to become far more commonplace than they are around Rochester. At least, that's my impression. (That may not hold true in Binghamton, which I guess has its own style of pizza, that I've yet to investigate.)
So anytime I'm in the Ithaca area, I'm curious to check out its pizzerias. Following a recent hike in the Connecticut Hill Wildlife Management Area, I stopped by Sal's Pizzeria, in southwest Ithaca. By way of background, I quote from Sal's website:
"Salvatore Melice came to Ithaca from Canicaitti Sicily in December of 1974. One year later he began working in the restaurant business. In 1979, he became a partner in Roma Pizzeria. After 10 years as a partner Sal decided that it was time to go out on his own and Sal's Pizzeria opened in 1989.
"Joe Tilton became Sal's partner in 1999. He brought with him 28 years of restaurant experience. Together Sal and Joe have over 50 years of experience combined."
That experience manifests itself in some pretty good pizza. My cheese slices (which were reheated prior to serving) were very thin, with some light charring underneath. The crust was crisp and a little crackly, and despite their thinness they had some breadiness inside, and an almost sweet flavor.
The slices were topped with a bright red, tomatoey sauce and stretchy mozzarella. The cheese seemed to have migrated a bit toward the center of the pie, but not too much, and as a whole the cheese was applied in good proportion to the thin crust.
Sal's offers 20 pizza toppings (including salami, which I often use when baking pizza at home), but otherwise keeps it simple, with just two pie sizes (12" and 16") and just four specialty pizzas, including the mysteriously named "Sal's Special." They also serve wings, pasta, subs, grilled sandwiches, a few dinners, and sides. There's free delivery after 4 p.m.
This was good pizza. It was close to New York style, but not quite like classic NY pizza - the cheese in particular was a little more unevenly distributed and, in some spots, thicker than I would expect from a NY style slice. The toppings weren't bad, and I enjoyed them well enough, but somehow they seemed not quite to match up to the crust, which I liked very much. So I can't give this an A, but it certainly rates an above-average grade, for a B.
Sal's Pizzeria, 220 S. Fulton St., Ithaca
(607) 277-SALS (7257)
Mon. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 10:30 p.m., Sun. 11 a.m. - 10 p.m.

College Town Pizza, Ithaca

On my Memorial Day visit to Ithaca - the same one on which I stopped with my family at The Connection, I also grabbed a slice from nearby College Town Pizza.
This is a smallish pizza shop located near the Cornell campus, although a sign in the window indicated that they're soon moving (I didn't have a pen handy so I forget where they're headed, but I don't think it was far away).
The good news was that they had a vast array of slices to choose from. That was also the bad news, though, because most of them appeared to have been sitting there for quite some time on this holiday mid-afternoon.
I wanted a plain cheese slice, in part so I could compare it to the slice I got at The Connection.
The sole available cheese slice, however, was the last slice of the pie whence it came, and didn't look too fresh. And often the last slice is the smallest, since many servers serve up the biggest slices first.
I think I might've been given a break on the price, as I saw the guy whom I took to be the proprietor say something to the cashier/server, and when I asked her what I owed, she replied, "Uh, just a dollar." Maybe I'm misinterpreting it, and I can't be sure, as I didn't see any prices listed anywhere (the only thing I saw written on the walls was graffiti, which is apparently permitted, if not encouraged here), but it just seemed as if I got a price break because this wasn't a prime slice.
Whatever. It was cheap, that's all I know.
The slice was reheated prior to being served to me, and the result - initially, at least - was a pleasant surprise. The thin crust was nicely charred, and quite crisp.
Too crisp, as it turned out. The slice broke in half, sideways, when I started to bit the tip, and the entire crust and the slice as a whole were very dry. I don't know if much of the water from the sauce had evaporated by the time I got it, or if there just wasn't much sauce on the pie to begin with, but this was a very dry slice of pizza. I suspect that evaporation played a role, as a fresh crust, even without sauce, ought to have a certain amount of moisture on the inside. This one didn't.
That said, it tasted OK. Due in part to the paucity of sauce, it was cheese-dominated, and the cheese was acceptable, basic mozzarella. I also noticed a definite presence of oregano.
College Town does have an impressive array of specialty pizzas available, from a minimalist marinara pizza with nothing but sauce and basil to a carnivore's dream, a meat lover's pizza laden with sausage, pepperoni, ground beef, steak, meatballs and bacon. They also offer wings, subs, pasta, wraps, Italian entrees, and sides.
I wasn't crazy about this slice, frankly, but I could tell that the pizza itself had the potential for greatness. I'm really just guessing when I say I think it had been sitting out for too long, but if that is what was going on here, then a fresh slice might've vaulted this pizza into the top tier. Based on what I had, though, the best I can give it is a C. That doesn't mean I didn't like it, only that it was, all things considered, good enough, but no better than good enough.
College Town Pizzeria, 401 College Ave., Ithaca
(607) 272-7500
Thu. - Sat: 11 a.m. - 4 a.m., Sun. - Wed. 11 a.m. - 11 p.m.
(Delivery until 30 minutes before closing time)

The Connection, Ithaca

I was back in Ithaca on Memorial Day, not for a hike this time but for a family outing. We were disappointed to learn that there was no swimming, or even wading, allowed in any of the many nearby state parks until mid-June (the effect of state budget cutbacks?), but in spite of that we had a good time. The Ithaca Sciencenter was a big hit with my daughter, and more than made up for the lack of aquatic activity.
For my part, I got to check out a couple of new-to-me pizza places. First up was The Connection, which is just across the street from the Chapter House, of which I have fond memories from visits to Ithaca of years ago. (Apparently The Connection is also related to Loco Margarita, a relatively new Mexican restaurant/bar next door.)
I got a single cheese slice, though I was sorely tempted by the "Popeye" pizza, a white pizza topped with spinach and feta. But a basic cheese slice is the benchmark for me, and I wanted to save room in my stomach for at least one more slice from another pizzeria (and for a cone from Purity Ice Cream, a local institution), so I just stuck with the one cheese slice.
As seems to be true of a lot of Ithaca pizza, this was thin, and more or less New York style pizza. Although it wasn't an especially large slice, particularly compared to the giant slices that have become more and more common these days, it was more than reasonably priced, at just a dollar. Pepperoni slices at The Connection were also a buck each, and "gourmet" slices, including the Popeye, were a still inexpensive $1.69.
My slice looked to have been screen baked, with a uniformly brown underside. It was more crisp than I would have expected from its appearance, thanks in part, I'm sure, to the reheating it got before it was served to me.
For a plain cheese slice, it was a little oily. I let some of the oil drip off the tip, and mopped up a bit more with my napkin. The cheese was a bit browned and was passable.
This slice was rather light on the sauce. I don't necessarily like a lot of sauce on my pizza, but here there was just a very thin layer between the crust and the cheese. For my taste, this could've used a little more, to give the slice more flavor and moisture and to balance out the other two components.
The Connection has an extensive menu, with six specialty pizzas, including a Margherita and a roasted chicken vodka pizza, a wide array of toppings, calzones, wings, pasta, subs, salads, and burritos, among other choices. There's very little seating, though we were able to eat on the premises on a relatively quiet holiday afternoon. As befits a pizzeria catering to college students, they're open late, till 2 a.m., every night.
This was decent pizza. I enjoyed it well enough. At the same time, it was nothing special. On the plus side, the crust was reasonably crisp, and the overall flavor was pretty good. On the down side, the crust wasn't great, either. It was also surprisingly oily for a cheese slice, and as I mentioned, a little light in the sauce department.
So on balance, I'm giving this a C. I know some people think that's a bad grade, but all it means is that this was pretty average pizza. Not bad, particularly, but nothing I'd go out of my way for. I would like to sample some of The Connection's gourmet offerings sometime, but this basic cheese slice was simply adequate.
The Connection, 310 Stewart Ave., Ithaca
607-256-3278
Mon. - Thu. 4 p.m. - 2 a.m., Fri. - Sun. 11 a.m. - 2 a.m.

Finger Lakes Flat Bread Pizza, Ithaca

Another hike, another pizza.
A recent hike in Tompkins County on a Saturday morning allowed me to take a short drive into Ithaca, where I got a pizza from Finger Lakes Flat Bread, which is a regular vendor at the Ithaca Farmers Market. The market in general is reminiscent of the Rochester Public Market, but with a decidedly different vibe. Where Rochester's market has an urban feel, with a mix of vendors and patrons from a spectrum of ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds, Ithaca's has a more affluent, liberal, NPR-listening atmosphere. It's more Berkeley, California than Upstate New York, which is to say that it reflects the overall feel of Ithaca itself.

Not that any of that matters, in pizza terms, but it'll give you some idea of the overall atmosphere.
And so it makes it no surprise that there would be a wood-fired pizza place on site. While wood-fired pizza has been around for centuries - probably since the dawn of pizza itself - my impression is that its current popularity, like that of a lot of food trends, can be traced back to the west coast, from Seattle to Southern California. (A search of the Lexis "All News" database tends to confirm this.) Wood-fired pizza and hipsterism just seem to go together.
OK, on to the pizza. Finger Lakes Flat Bread serves up fast-baking, thin-crust pizzas from an oven that reaches temperatures around 800 degrees. On the day I visited, there were three pizzas available, and I went with the pie that came closest to a classic Neapolitan pizza, topped with tomato sauce, mozzarella, basil and garlic oil. (I don't remember exactly what the other two choices were, but I think one was a white pizza and the other was a much "busier" pizza with a bunch of toppings.)
My pie was ready very quickly, in probably no more than three minutes. The most immediately noticeable thing about it was its irregular shape. Now I know from making pizza at home that getting a pie into a round shape is not as easy as it sounds. And personally I don't particularly care what shape my pizza is. Still, I couldn't help being reminded of this scathing critique of "faux primitive" pizza. I suppose you could look at this, though, as demonstrating that each of FLFB's pizzas is a work of art, not a cookie-cutter pizza cranked out on an assembly line.
While there was a bit of charring on the underside and along the edge, it was relatively modest, and the crust was quite pliable, more so than I had expected. The crust did have a nice, mildly bready flavor, but its most significant attribute was its thinness. It had some crispness, and was enjoyable enough, but didn't have quite the depth and complexity of flavor and texture that make for world-class pizza.
The toppings were good. The pizza had a prominent but not harsh flavor and aroma of garlic, and a well balanced trio of creamy, melted mozzarella, tomato sauce and shredded basil. Once I'd gotten photos of it, this pie did not live a long life.
So while I'm not giving this an "A" rating, make no mistake that I liked it. And I'd stop there again. I would not like to take a chance on overcooking the cheese, but I might ask next time that my pie be given an extra 30 seconds or so, just to get the crust a little bit more done.

Finger Lakes Flat Bread
Saturdays and Sundays; Steamboat Landing, Ithaca, NY 14850
Tuesdays and Thursdays; Dewitt Park, Ithaca, NY 14850
607-273-7109