SUNY College at Brockport

I've done some posts on pizza at local colleges, including the University of Rochester, Nazareth, and RIT.
I haven't seen any indication that St. John Fisher has pizza on a regular basis that's available to non-residents, so that's not on my radar screen. But the last local college I wanted to check out is SUNY Brockport.
So far, my college pizza tour has been disappointing. None have had any pizza as good as a local prep school, McQuaid Jesuit. Would I finally strike gold at Brockport?
In a word, no.
I started off at TRAX,which according to the Brockport website is "[l]ocated on the ground floor of Harrison Hall, [and] features made-to-order subs, fresh dough pizza, and Buffalo-style chicken wings. TRAX is the most popular retail operation on campus."
Most popular? Surely not for the pizza. From the three pizzas available (one of which was a cheese pie that was clearly past its prime) I chose a pepperoni slice and a specialty, Mediterranean slice. The pies were cut into very narrow slices -- sixteen to a pie, I believe. And they sell for $2.30 to $2.50 a slice. I thought you were supposed to pay less at a state school. Maybe that's just for tuition. Kind of like air fares:  you get a seemingly good deal up front, but then they nickel-and-dime you on everything else, whether it's your carry-on bag or the food.
And both slices were bad, frankly. The crust was soft and oily, and the dried-out gyro-type meat on the specialty slice did it no favors. The cheese was, well, adequate, and the sauce on the pepperoni slice had gone MIA.
Sometimes as I'm eating a slice of pizza, a word pops into mind. This time it was "horrid." I don't mean to slam them unnecessarily, but that word literally came to me as I was eating these. And I didn't finish them. The best advice I can give about TRAX is to make tracks from there, quickly.
My next stop was Carmen's at Union Square in the Seymour College Union. I got a Margherita slice.
I guess it met that description, generally. It was topped with cheese, diced tomatoes and shredded basil, which qualifies it as a Margherita. But it, too, was a disappointment.
Again, the crust was soft, and more pale than the slices I got at TRAX. It wasn't greasy, just soft and unenjoyable. Even the edge, which sometimes can salvage an otherwise bad slice, was soft and chewy. It had the texture of a leftover pizza slice that's been reheated in a microwave. Maybe some people like it that way. I don't.
The toppings were OK at best. A thick but small area of melted mozzarella was topped with some shreds of basil and a few chunks of diced tomato. There wasn't much flavor to speak of in any of it.
Fortunately for Brockport students, there are several better places in town. As with a lot of college towns, Brockport is home to a bunch of pizzerias, including Main Street, Perri's, Avanti, Mark's, Cordello's and Marvin Mozzeroni's. I'm not going to rank them here, but I'd take any of them over these on-campus places.
With good reason, colleges have tried in recent years to boost their food offerings. It's kind of like airlines. People may not choose an airline, or a college, based on the food, but it's a definite plus to serve better food. And among foods that college students don't prepare for themselves (in other words, not including ramen or box mac 'n' cheese), pizza has to rank near or at the top.
If I were a Brockport student or employee, I wouldn't be eating the pizza at either TRAX or Carmen's. There may be good food at Brockport, but this wasn't it. These get a D.
TRAX
Harrison Hall, ground floor
Noon - 1 a.m. daily

Carmen's
Seymour College Union
Mon. - Thu. 7:30 a.m. - 6 p.m., Fri. 7:30 a.m. - 3 p.m.

Cafe Sorelle at Nazareth College

Not long ago, I published a post about the pizza at the University of Rochester's "Pizza Pi" operation. I wasn't too impressed, and gave it a D.
But I figured that the U of R couldn't be the only local college trying to boost its pizza offerings (I did review RIT back in 2010, but I haven't been back since), so I started looking around local college websites. And I discovered that Nazareth College's Cafe Sorelle features Portabella's, which offers "handmade wood-fired pizza and panini."
Hmm. Wood-fired pizza? At Nazareth? Really? I was a little skeptical, but this was obviously worth investigating.
I hate to say it, but my skepticism was justified. First off, take a look at that oven. Do you see any wood in there? Neither did I. Maybe the oven is capable of handling wood, and maybe, at times, it does house a wood fire, but on this visit, it was nothing but a gas fire.
OK, well, I'm willing to overlook that if the pizza's good. False advertising issues aside, a gas oven is certainly capable of turning out excellent pizza.
But this pizza was far from excellent. There were three slice pies available. One of them was a pepperoni pie (pictured), but although I often go for a pepperoni slice, this one didn't look so good. It resembled a typical convenience-store pizza, kind of thick, with dried-out cheese along the edge, and, well, just not very appealing.
So I got a plain cheese slice and a "Greek" slice, both of which seemed fresher, as well as thinner. The "thinner" part wasn't decisive for me, but they did look thinner than the rather stale-looking pepperoni pie.
The top side of these slices didn't look half bad, but the bottom was a different story. They had that oily look and medium-brown color that signals to me that this is not going to be a great slice of pizza. It's the difference between dough that has baked on a hot surface, and dough that has almost fried in the presence of oil. Maybe some people like it the latter way. I don't. Especially with a thin-crust pie.
The underside showed that the crust had been docked, i.e., punctured with small holes to prevent big bubbles from forming. The crust varied in thickness, from very thin near the tip to medium-to-thick closer to the edge.
Things didn't get better on top, I'm afraid. The cheese was leathery. It had melted and congealed, and lost whatever melty smoothness it previously had. The cheese slice had a thin layer of tomato sauce underneath the cheese, but it added little other than some red color.
On the positive side, the toppings on the Greek slice were quite good, with tangy feta cheese and salty kalamata olives. But this was a case of good toppings on a bad crust. And good toppings can never save a bad crust. Contrary to what you would expect from so-called wood-fired pizza, even the edge on this slice was underdone; no charring, crackling or crispness whatsoever.
One of the sad aspects of this pie is that even without a true wood-fired oven, they should be able to turn out a better pizza than this. I've had better slices from convenience stores. I give this a D.
Oh, and while I was there, I stopped by another food location at Nazareth, The Roost, which advertises "focaccia pizza." Their website states that the Roost is "most renowned for their pizza."
On walking in, I didn't see any pizza available, until I noticed  a few cold squares sitting on a counter off to one side. They looked even less appetizing than what I'd just had, so I passed. Maybe they were left over from the day before, although it's hard to believe that they wouldn't toss them at the end of the day. The Nazareth website does state that the Roost is "a great place to stop by in the evening," but it opens at 11:30 a.m.; if pizza isn't made until later in the day, they should say so.
For students, Lourdes Dining Hall also has the Hearth Stone Oven, offering "homemade pizza," but obviously I couldn't try that. I wouldn't expect much, though.
Understandably, colleges are trying to boost their food offerings. I suspect that students today are more likely to have transportation and to live off-campus, and that there are more and better eateries around college campuses these days. And pizza is a must. So I get that colleges want to offer better pizza.
The problem is, it seems like some colleges are just offering better-sounding pizza. "Wood fired," "artisanal," "gourmet," "handmade," "homemade," and so on ... how about just good, basic pizza?
If you're in between classes, and you've only got a half hour to grab something to eat, you're pretty much stuck with what's available on campus. That's probably enough to keep these kinds of operations in business. But if you've got the time and the transportation, there's better pizza to be had, not far away.
Cafe Sorelle, Golisano Academic Center, Nazareth College
Mon. - Thu. 7:30 a.m. - 8:30 p.m., Fri. 7:30 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. Closed weekends.

Pizza Pi, University of Rochester

As college students return to school, I figured it would be a good time to review some of the options on and near the local campuses. I've covered most if not all of the RIT places before - check the RIT label on the left sidebar - so this week I'm covering two options for students at the University of Rochester.
We'll start at ground zero, in other words, right on campus. Pizza Pi is one option at The Commons, which is essentially a food court and your most likely option if you just want a quick lunch or bite to eat between classes.
I think colleges have been making an effort in recent years to improve their food offerings - if you (or your parents) are forking over $20 to $40,000 a year or more, it seems like the least they can do - so I was cautiously optimistic about Pizza Pi.
Alas, it was unfounded optimism. I arrived around noon, so I figured there'd be heavy turnover and fresh slices. And I guess my slice was pretty fresh. It just wasn't very good.
There were a few pies to choose from, cheese, pepperoni, I think a veggie pie and some specialty pie, but I went with a basic cheese slice.
The crust was thin, though not ultra thin. Its pale bottom was dotted with dark brown spots, obviously from the pan in which it had baked. I surmise that where there were holes in the pan, the dough was touching the oven deck, resulting in the heavy browning. Regardless, there was quite a contrast between those browned spots and the rest of the crust.
On the plus side, the crust wasn't oily, and it was actually a little crackled underneath, so it did have a bit of surface crispness. But that couldn't make up for the uninteresting crust, which, though not gummy, smacked of undercooked dough.
Up top, the cheese, like the underside, was dotted with brown spots. Unless you like your pizza well done, it was overcooked. When I bit into the slice, the cheese peeled off easily, like a thin layer of melted and cooled plastic.
The sauce was rather dried out, which made it difficult to properly evaluate its flavor, and there were a few granules of sprinkled cheese on top of everything. The slice was rounded out by a thin lip that was crunchy but uninteresting, with what I can best describe as a flat flavor.
Well. What can I say? The U of R is a fine school, its students pay pretty hefty tuition, and from what I've read, they've invested in some very good pizza ovens. And this is the best they can do?
Well, no, it's not. They can and should do better. It can't be that difficult. I think they owe their students better than this.
Before I finish, let me add that the server was very courteous and friendly. I wish every pizzeria server was that nice. So I had no problem with the staff.
But the pizza rates a D.
Pizza Pi, The Commons, University of Rochester
The Commons dining area is open 8:30 a.m. - midnight Mon. - Fri., and 11 a.m. - midnight on weekends. I'm not sure if Pizza Pi is open throughout those hours.

Stone Oven Pizza, RIT

College campuses aren't typically places I would go looking for pizza, but after hearing that RIT had a place called "Stone Oven Pizza," I thought it might be worth checking out.
Clearly the days of the dining hall as the place to eat on-campus are long gone. Today it's all about choices, and RIT offers students a dizzying array of options, including the aforementioned Stone Oven.
While it's nice to have choices and all, that doesn't mean much if the food's no good. So how's the pizza?
I got a cheese slice and a Margherita slice, which was one of specialty slices of the day. They were baked in what looked, at first glance, like a wood-fired oven, but it appeared to me that the flame inside was simply a gas flame.
The crust on both slices was thin, with an underside that was, sadly, crisscrossed with screen marks. I say "sadly" because it seems to me that baking the pizza on a screen, while it might be convenient, is not apt to give you as crisp a crust as baking it right on the floor of that nice-looking stone oven. And sure enough, the underside on these was firm, but not what I would call crisp, and the crust was a bit chewy. There were a few spots underneath that were nearly charred, but mostly they were just a mottled brown.

The cheese slice was covered with a fairly thick blanket of mozzarella. It was a little oily on top. The moderately-applied sauce had a thick consistency and a middle-of-the-road flavor, neither too sweet, salty or herbal. The puffy edge of the crust was OK, with some bready flavor, but not particularly noteworthy.
The Margherita was, well, not what I would call a Margherita. Not to get hung up on labels, but if you'd asked me what kind of pizza it was, I wouldn't have guessed that it was a Margherita.
Some chunky tomatoes were interspersed with what appeared to be fresh mozzarella, though the cheese seemed a bit dried out and not as creamy as it could've been.
That was fine, but where was the basil? I'm not sure that I've ever had a Margherita without some fresh basil on it. This simply had what flakes of what I took to be dried, crushed basil.
Semantics aside, this was pretty tasty. The underside, though still not crisp, was a bit more blackened than the cheese slice, and had some pleasant toasty flavor notes. I picked up a pronounced aroma of garlic, while on the palate, there was a tangy saltiness from the cheese, which played nicely off the sweetness of the tomatoes. To paraphrase Shakespeare, a Margherita by any other name would taste just as good, and whether this deserved that moniker or not, it was, for me, definitely the better of the two slices.
I didn't get a menu - I'm not sure that they had any - but you can get an idea of the offerings at SOP and its neighbors at the Commons here. Here's a campus map, if have no idea where the Commons is (I didn't).
Some time ago, RIT's Dining Services vowed to come up with "Rochester's Best Pizza." I'm not sure if this is supposed to be it, or if they're still in the laboratory working on it. Either way, I'd say they've still got some work to do, but this wasn't bad pizza. I wouldn't go out of my way to get it, but if I were on campus and hungry, there's a good chance I'd head to Stone Oven. I'll give it a B-.

Stone Oven Pizza & Pasta Cucina, at the Commons, RIT campus.
Mon. - Fri. 11 a.m. - midnight, Sat. & Sun. noon - midnight.