CompTin

I have been working my way through pizzerias in and around Fairport, so that journey recently took me to CompTin Pizza & Provisions. According to one report, the name "is a portmanteau of the partners' current business ventures,'" i.e. Compané Trattoria  and  Tin Cup Social.

I got a large (16-inch) pizza, with cup-and-char pepperoni on half and sweet peppers and onions on the other half.

The crust was extremely thin. I wondered if they use the same amount of dough for a large that they do for a medium 12-inch pizza and just roll it thinner.

Frankly, the crust wasn't great. I ordered online and considered requesting "well done," but I'm glad I didn't, as this was heavily blackened. Charring is one thing, but this was blackened, and well, yeah, burnt.

The crust had also separated, top from bottom in some areas, so there was just a wafer-thin layer on top and underneath, with a gap in between. Not everywhere, but even where that hadn't happened there wasn't enough substance to the crust to make it interesting. I like a good thin crust as much as anyone but this was just thin.

Before I move on, I will note that the pizza was in the box (which I put in an insulated bag) for about 30 minutes before I got it home. That may have had some effect on the crust but obviously that had no effect on the thickness (or should I say thinness) or the heavily blackened bottom.

The toppings were good. Just what I ordered, and flavorful. The cheese was nicely melted, soft and stretchy. The cup and char pepperoni was well done, although some of the slices were upside down. I guess I never thought about it before but for some reason some slices were like upside-down cups. Were they applied the wrong way? Were they turned over after the pizza was done? This requires some thought and perhaps experimentation. 

Sometimes I write a post and it feels as if I've made the pizza sound worse than it was. This might be one of those times. It had some issues, for sure. Could've been better, no doubt. But somewhere in there was a good pizza, just waiting to burst out with better execution. CompTin, if you are reading this (and you may not be, because I don't claim to be an "influencer"), you can do better. 

 CompTin Pizza and Provisions 

1276 Fairport Rd, Fairport, NY 14450

(585) 203-1312

Fri. & Saturday    12–10 PM
Sunday    12–8 PM
Mon. - Thu. 12–9 PM

 

Shooters, Revisited

It was back in March 2011 that I last reviewed Shooters, a bar and restaurant in Fairport, or Perinton, depending on how you look at the map, or go by postal designations. Either way, it's at the corner of Fairport Road (31F) and Baird Road. But it was overdue for a revisit.
With that in mind, I recently stopped at Shooters with my beautiful wife for lunch. She opted for a salad (ah, women, what can I say) while I got a Margherita pizza.
It was thin, as expected,  with an underside that was generally golden brown, with a light dusting of flour. There were a few charred spots along the edge, but not underneath.
It was tasty, with a thick layer of bright-tasting tomato sauce and several well-melted dollops of fresh mozzarella, and some fresh basil that had been added at the end. The pie had also been dusted with a grated hard cheese, probably Parmesan.
Although the underside wasn't shatteringly crisp, it was firm. As you can see in the photo, I was able to fold and hold a slice up, horizontally, even as the well-melted cheese stretched out.
There was a genuine wood fire in the oven; it wasn't just a gas fire, as I've seen in some places. From a brief conversation with the pizzaiolo, though, I learned that the fire typically gets cranked up, and the oven temperature is typically higher, in the evening, resulting in a shorter baking time.
That's understandable; the lunch crowd was relatively sparse, and I can see not wanting to go through a lot of fuel during low-volume hours. I suspect, then, that a pizza ordered during the dinner hour would likely come out a little more charred and/or crisp underneath.
But this pie was not underdone, even if it was a little different from what I would've gotten had I ordered the same pie that evening. It was not blistered or charred underneath, but it was firm. If your ideal pizza is "leopard spotted" underneath, try coming here for dinner rather than lunch.
Shooters offers twelve pizzas, and while I went with my default Margherita, I'd like to try their clams Casino pizza and their andouille sausage pizza. They also have an extensive burger menu, as well as sandwiches, panini, salads, wings, and other sides and appetizers. There's a full bar, and a lot of TVs around to keep sports fans happy.
I liked this pizza, and I liked the place itself. The service was attentive, and the pizzaiolo was obviously dedicated to his craft. This particular pie wasn't among the very best I've had, in my opinion, but it was good overall, and good enough to make me want to go back. So a B seems about right.

Shooters, 1226 Fairport Road
Fairport, NY 14454

Mon. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 2 a.m., Sun. noon - midnight
Pizza available till 11 p.m.

585-385-9777

info@shootersny.com

Joe's Brooklyn Pizza Review and $30 Gift Card Giveaway

While I always look forward to trying new places - and I've got more coming up, soon - at some point I always return to old favorites.
Which is why the other day I stopped into Joe's Brooklyn Pizza for lunch with a couple of friends.
I always have a tough time at Joe's, deciding between its classic, New York style thin-crust slices and its thick-crust Sicilian squares. Add on top of that the stuffed-crust pizza and it can be a real, if happy, dilemma.
This time around, I went with a thin-crust "old fashioned" tomato pie slice, and a thick-crust grandma's slice. The toppings are similar: both include tomato sauce, extra virgin olive oil, garlic, shallots, basil, and pecorino Romano cheese, but the grandma's pizza adds processed mozzarella. Sometimes I want two contrasting slices, like a red and white slice, or a minimalist and loaded slice, but this time I went with my gut, and this is what I wanted.
I don't think I can say much about these that I haven't said before, because Joe's is consistently good. But this blog is an account of my pizza experiences, so I'll describe them.
The thin slice was crisp but foldable, black-blistered but not burnt. The toppings both balanced the crust and blended together beautifully. The red sauce built a base of tomatoey sweetness, offset by a sharp edge from the cheese. Add aroma and flavor from shredded basil, garlic and thinly sliced shallots, and I was in pizza heaven. 
As good as that slice was, it had a strong competitor in my "grandma's" slice. Although "New York style" is often thought to be synonymous with "thin crust," thick, pan-baked, Sicilian-style pizza is commonly found in NYC, and Joe's produces a fine example.
At my request, they cut this slice in half, because I thought I might save half for later, but that proved unnecessary, as I ended up eating both on the spot. But that's why it looks like two triangular slices in the photo.
A lot of "sheet" pizza is soft or oily, or both, underneath. This was neither. The underside was crisp and crackly, and the interior was chewy and breadlike. The addition of mozzarella added an extra dimension of flavor and texture that helped balance the thicker crust.
I didn't sample my friends' pepperoni slices, but I've included a photo. They've accompanied me on prior trips to Joe's, and they were as happy as ever with their slices. In fact, as I look at the photo, I'm Jonesing for a pepperoni slice.
This barely begins to describe the pizza options at Joe's. They also offer Buffalo chicken pizza, BBQ pork pizza, and several white pizzas. I've reviewed some of them before, here, for example, but I may tackle more of them next time. They also offer wings, which I have yet to try. That's another one for my to-do list.
The best way for you to sample Joe's offerings would be for free, right? So enter now to win a $30 gift card from Joe's. The card is good toward anything on Joe's menu, and it's good at both Joe's locations. I haven't been there yet -- yet another item on my list -- but Joe's has opened a second location at the corner of Routes 31 and 250 in Fairport.
To enter, send me an email at ROCPizzaGuy@gmail.com. Put "Joe's" in the subject line. Please include your name and address in the message. I will NOT use your information for anything but the contest, or give them to anyone else, ever. You may comment on this post here on the blog, but that will not get you entered in the giveaway.
I'll pick a winner at random, using random.org, on Wednesday, June 10, a little after noon. So email me by noon on June 10 to get your entry in. Win or lose, do yourself a favor and get to Joe's. And when you go, do me a favor by letting them know that you read about them on The Rochester NY Pizza Blog.

Joe's Brooklyn Pizza, 1100 Jefferson Road, Henrietta
585-424-JOES (5637)

Perinton Square Mall, 6720 Pittsford-Palmyra Road, Fairport
585-364-0361


Mon., Tue. 11 AM - 9 PM
Wed. - Sat. 11 AM - 10 PM
Sunday noon - 8 PM

Tolleson's, Fairport - CLOSED

This establishment appears to have closed since this post was originally published.
On a recent drive to the east side of town, I spotted Tolleson's Pizzeria, which opened last summer on Whitney Road in Fairport. The site has housed, I think, at least a couple of pizzerias over the years, so maybe this time will prove the charm.
On my first visit to a pizzeria, I often try to go with just a slice or two, but I thought I'd take a chance on a whole pie here. I got a large cheese pie (not too exciting, I know, but I was trying to keep my costs down).
On opening the box, the pie looked pretty good. I don't mind a thick, bready, well-baked "naked" cornicione, but the toppings here were applied right up to the edge, which is fine too. The edge was nicely formed, with some browned bits of cheese.
The underside bore a mottled pattern, with an underlying paleness dotted with darker brown spots. I noticed a few dimples, apparently from the pan that the crust had been in, and a dusting of flour. The edge was crisp.
On biting into it, the medium-thick crust was pretty good, if not outstanding. I could detect some raw flour on my tongue, not a lot, but enough to notice. I know it's common to use some form of grain to help a pizza crust slide around on, and off, the peel, but I don't like to notice it on my tongue.
The texture was pretty good, but better underneath than on top. The top side was a little gummy.  Not terribly so, but a little.
Having said that, I must mention that when I phoned in my order, I did ask that the pizza be ready about 45 minutes later, to allow for rush hour drive time from my workplace. Maybe they prepared it right away and let it sit unbaked, until closer to pickup time. Or maybe they baked it immediately and it sat on top of the oven until I arrived. I don't know. But it was a little bit gummy on top. I suspect that if I had arrived 15 minutes after ordering, things may have been different. I don't know.
Flavorwise, the pie was fine. It was a little light on both the sauce and cheese, but the crust was on the thin side, so the overall balance was OK. I detected some herbs, faintly. The pie was evenly baked, with some browning along the perimeter and none in the center. The cheese seemed to be straight mozzarella, and hit the right balance between chewy and stretchy.
Aside from pizza, Tolleson's does wings and a full range of other fried foods, plus salads and subs. In other words, it's your basic, reliable, pizza-wings-subs joint, and there's nothing wrong with that. They also offer gluten-free pizza.
This is a tough pizza to grade. The underside was pretty good; the topside less so, although some of that might be related to the time lag between my order, picking it up, and getting it home. The flavor was good, but the toppings seemed a tad skimpy.
Allowing for the effects of the drive home, and going back to the factors that go into my ratings, I'm giving this a C. Nothing wrong with it, I was happy to eat it, but it was, on the whole, of average quality for the area. Fortunately, the average quality of pizza in the area is pretty good, so that grade shouldn't be taken as a dig at Tolleson's. It was decent, just not exceptional compared to other pizzerias in the area.
As I've said before, I rate pizzas, not pizzerias. I think that Tolleson's is worth a visit, and I intend to go back. This particular pie gets a C.

Tolleson's, 541 Whitney Rd. (near Baird Rd.), Fairport
(585) 203-1808
Mon. - Thu. 10 a.m. - 10 p.m., Fri. & Sat. 10 - 11, Sun. 11 - 8

Also 419 N. Main St., Newark
(315) 332-8008

Compané: Italian Tradition in Fairport

In connection with my current giveaway for Compané Bistro in Fairport, I had a conversation with Mario Cristofori, the controller/manager of Compané. While I was already sold on Compané's pizza, by the end of our discussion I was even more eager to return for a meal. And it might not even include pizza.
Compané (pronounced com-PAH-nay) got its start in August 2010. As with many good pizzerias and restaurants, it's a family affair. Mario's father Guido is from the Abruzzi region of Italy, and he opened Compané with the aim of replicating the food he knew and loved back home.
Compané is the family's third venture into the restaurant business, which started with a pizzeria/deli in Henrietta, followed by Grappa, a former Fairport establishment in a location that is now the site of a Chinese restaurant.
Despite this history, Guido's primary work background was not in the pizza business, but in masonry. That's proved helpful, though, because Guido put those skills to good use in building Compané's impressive wood-fired oven, as well as its very comfortable back patio.
An electrical fire on the restaurant's first New Year's Eve resulted in Compané closing for several months, mostly to cope with water damage. But reopen they did, and that's fortunate, because the pizza here is very good indeed.
Maybe it's a stereotype to characterize Italians as having some special cooking skills, but Mario told me that his family has "always had a knack for the kitchen." That starts with "Nana," who, well into her eighties, still comes in regularly to make gnocchi. Once I've reviewed a restaurant, I enjoy going back and not feeling obligated to try the pizza. Next time I go to Compané, I'm ordering gnocchi.
But let's get back to the pizza. Compané's oven is a work of art, although much of what you see is a facade. That's not to say that the oven is some sort of fake. It's a serious wood-burning oven. But the actual cooking space is relatively small, as it has to be; you want to trap the heat from the wood fire, not just let it go up the chimney.
And that oven is 100% wood fired. No gas flames there, it's wood from the get-go. Compané uses various woods, but they are all "neutral" hardwoods - no aromatic fruit woods. Fruit woods are fine for barbeque, but for pizza you are generally not looking for a distinctive smoke.
To be ready in time for dinner, somebody generally gets the fire started between 2 and 2:30 in the afternoon. And again, it might be Mario's dad Guido, who's there daily to monitor the oven.
But starting the fire is the easy part. The fire has to be maintained throughout the evening, holding the temperature at between 600 and 700 degrees. That's a good temperature not only for pizza, but for some of the other dishes that Compané uses the oven for, like wings, ribs and roasts.
Another tricky aspect to using this oven is that Compané's oven is big; it can hold seven to eight pizzas at a time. That's good, in a way, when they've got several pizza orders coming in at once, but it also means that a lot of skill, and close attention, are required to keep an eye on the pizzas and make sure that they're all getting properly done, each at the right time.
Fortunately, Compané can count on an experienced set of employees to keep things running smoothly. I'm sure there are the usual hiccups and crises that you find in any restaurant, but based on my visit and their continued success, Compané seems to be managing rather well.
And while Compané turns out very traditional Italian food, I should mention that they offer gluten-free and whole-wheat pizzas as well.
Compané exhibits a lot of the characteristics that I find common to good pizzerias. It's family based (Mario's mom and sister are also involved), and everything is made from scratch. It's also locally based - Mario grew up in Fairport - but its roots go back to Italy.
Whether you win a gift card or not, you'd do well to give Compané a try. I enjoyed it and I think you will too.

Compané, 80 N. Main St., Fairport
678-4013

Mon. - Sat. 5 p.m. - 10 p.m.

New Giveaway: Compané, Fairport

To kick off the new week, I have a new giveaway for my readers.
Compané Brick Oven Bistro in Fairport has provided me with four $20 gift cards that I'll be giving away to four lucky readers.
I'll have a lengthier piece on the blog in a few days, with more information about Compané, but I wanted to get these up ASAP. All you need to know for now is that, as I've described before, Compané turns out excellent, A-level pizza (and other dishes) from its wood-fired ovens. So you'll want to be in the running for one of these gift cards, for sure.
Since I have four of these to give away, I'll do this over four days. I'll pick a winner each day, beginning a week from tomorrow, Tuesday, February 4, shortly after noon. So the fourth and final card will be given away on Friday, February 7.
To enter, simply leave a comment following this blog post. Any comment will do, but it would be nice if it's pizza-related. If you win, I'll need to be able to identify you as the winner and get the card to you, so please don't leave an anonymous comment. If you do win, you'll need to send your full mailing address to me at rochesternypizzaguy@gmail.com.
Thanks to Compané for this generous donation, and thanks to my readers for following the blog. Keep checking in here or on my Facebook page, or follow me on Twitter for updates!

Compané, 80 N. Main St., Fairport
678-4013

Mon. - Sat. 5 p.m. - 10 p.m.

Glengarry Inn, Fairport

In September 2011, I did a post about The Argyle Grill at Eagle Vale golf course. It was OK, a sort of French-bread pizza that rated a C+. Probably not something I'd go back for, though.
However, in looking over the Eagle Vale website, I did notice that they also have a more formal restaurant, the Glengarry Inn, which also has pizza on its menu. Since the Grill and the Inn are separate facilities, and the menus are otherwise quite different from each other, I figured the pizzas were probably not alike, either. The Glengarry website also describes their pizza as "brick oven pizza," which sounded like a positive sign. So off I went, for dinner with my wife.
The Glengarry Inn has seven specialty pizzas on the menu. My wife assumed I'd go for the "New York Traditional," topped with tomato sauce, mozzarella and pepperoni, but with, for lack of a better term, "gourmet" pizza, I often gravitate toward more interesting-sounding choices. In this case, I opted for the Tuscadore, with prosciutto, black olives, Roma tomatoes, artichoke hearts & mozzarella.
Sad to say, what I got fell well short of my hopes and expectations. As usual, the culprit was the crust. 
I think the photos pretty much tell the story. Not only did this seem like a premade crust, but it wasn't even good as premade crusts go. It was neither crisp nor soft, neither rigid nor supple, but just lifeless, like a stale flatbread that had been heated up for several minutes in the oven. That's really all I can find to say about it.
The toppings were better, but not nearly enough to save this pizza. And even they weren't outstanding - the black olives were, I believe, of the canned variety. Canned olives are OK, in a pinch, but I expected better. Other than that, the toppings were decent, but again, not enough to compensate for the dull crust.
What made this particularly surprising is that the rest of our food was quite good, and I really would like to go back sometime to try some of Glengarry's other dishes. Frankly my wife and I were both amazed that a restaurant that aims this high would even offer such poor pizza.
If you're interested, Glengarry's other pizzas include a Greek pizza with feta cheese, spinach, Kalamata olives, Roma tomatoes, and extra virgin olive oil, a "California" (arugula, goat cheese, grape tomatoes and pine nuts), "Adirondack" chicken (diced chicken breast, wild mushrooms, Bermuda onion, roasted peppers & gorgonzola), a "Sicilian" white pizza with fresh garlic, herbs, mozzarella & ricotta, and a "Mediterranean" with extra virgin olive oil, artichokes, pepperoncini, sundried tomato, and mozzarella.
As I said, I would genuinely like to return to the Glengarry Inn. The menu included a number of tempting beef, chicken, fish and pasta dishes. My wife enjoyed her scallops, and other diners' food looked far more appetizing than mine. Our server was very capable, friendly but not intrusive, the atmosphere was pleasant, refined but not stuffy, and the live piano music was enjoyable. But the pizza? The pizza, I'm afraid, gets a D.
Glengarry Inn, 4400 Nine Mile Line Road, Fairport, NY 14450
598-3820
Mon. - Thu. 4 p.m. - 10 p.m., Fri. & Sat. 4 p.m. - 11 p.m. Closed Sun.

Back to Vinny's

With, I don't know, 200+ pizzerias around Rochester, and new ones opening all the time, it's often a long while before I get back to some of the places I love.
One such is Vinny's Bakery & Deli in Fairport, which I last visited in January 2012. Over a year is too long not to return to Vinny's, which turns out great pizzas in both Sicilian and American styles.
I do love Vinny's Sicilian pizza, but on this occasion, I was just after a plain old pepperoni pizza for dinner. 
And that's what I got - a simple pepperoni pizza, and yet as I was sharing it with my wife and daughter, it struck me that as ordinary as this pizza seemed on the surface, it was really very, very good, in subtle ways.
What I mean is that this was just fundamentally good pizza, prepared in a straightforward American style. It all starts with the crust, and I did enjoy this crust. It was bready and flavorful, with a slightly crusty bottom. Unfortunately my camera's flash tends to wash out the undersides of pizza slices, so the picture doesn't do it justice, but the bottom surface of this pie was dotted with char spots from the oven deck. It had a slight surface "bite" but was pliable, with a nice, weblike interior from the risen dough.
The crust was on the thin side of medium thick, and was proportionately topped with a flavorful tomato sauce and aged mozzarella cheese. The pepperoni was just slightly crisp along the edges.
All of that sounds so ordinary. So why was this a great pizza?
Well, this pizza showed me that a pizza can be more than the sum of its parts. At its most elemental level, yes, it was a basic American style pizza. But it almost perfectly embodied that style. I couldn't find a fault with this pie. The crust was good, the sauce, the cheese, the pepperoni - it was kind of the pizza equivalent of a world-class pianist tossing off Beethoven's "Für Elise," which is famous but relatively easy to play. Impressive? Not really. But flawless? Absolutely.
So while Vinny's Sicilian pizza remains its forte, by no means should you overlook their "regular" American-style pizza. And of course there's the potato pizza that I've reported on before. For that matter, I should mention that Vinny's also offers stuffed breads, arancini (fried rice balls), and homemade panelli wraps, as well as all the other treats you'd expect from a good Italian deli and bakery, from bread to subs, soups and sweet treats like cannoli, biscotti and cookies. It's a local treasure, and its only drawback, from my perspective, is that it's not closer to my home or office.
Vinny's Italian American Bakery & Deli, 1350 Fairport Road, Fairport
585-377-4200
Open daily 8 a.m. - 8 p.m.

Links, Perinton

This establishment is now closed.
Thanks to a reader's very thorough listing of places that I hadn't covered, I resolved to work my way through some local bars and restaurants that offer pizza. In general, these aren't places that you would go to just for the pizza, but if you do go, you may wonder whether you should order the pizza (is it going to be on an oily, brittle or spongy premade shell, or might it actually be good?), so I think it's worth it to check these places out and let readers know a little about the pizza.
And so, not long ago, I stopped at Links, a self-described "upscale" sports bar in the Perinton Square Mall at the corner of Pittsford-Palmyra Road (31F) and Moseley Road (250). Links is unique, I believe, among local establishments for offering virtual golf, with individual stations where you can play golf - virtually - in front of a video screen.
You're more apt to find me at a mini-golf park with my daughter than on anything resembling a real golf course, so the virtual golf didn't especially interest me. But I did want to try Link's grilled pizza.
Is it just me, or is grilled pizza popping up more on menus these days? I suspect that for a lot of restaurants and bars it has the appeal of being relatively easy to prepare - throw a crust on the grill, flip it and add toppings.
The problem is that, from the standpoint of ease of preparation, those benefits are best realized with a premade crust, i.e., a "shell" or parbaked crust that the restaurant buys from a wholesaler. Sure, you can make your own fresh dough, stretch it, and grill it, but if part of your motivation in adding grilled pizza to your menu is that it's easy to make, that would largely defeat the purpose.
I'm not going to say that premade crusts are necessarily bad, but I don't think they're ever exceptionally good. You're essentially talking about taking a piece of flatbread out of a package and heating both sides on a grill. Good enough? Maybe. But great?
Not in this case, at least. The crust on my pizza had grill marks on both sides, as expected, and was rather wet on the surface, I imagine from the toppings. It wasn't soaked through - the wetness was on the outside - but it was not crisp or even al dente firm.
This was a very cheesy pizza, with a heavy layer of melted mozzarella that was almost liquid. It didn't adhere too well to the crust, but that's typical of grilled pizza, since the cheese is not applied until after the top side has already been cooked on the grill.
Beneath the cheese was a thin layer of slightly chunky tomato sauce, which was dotted with some herbs, particularly, from what my palate could tell, oregano.
I was in a vegetarian mood that day, so I ordered sweet peppers and onions (which are generally an excellent, and underrated combination), and I got one more topping, so I went with black olives. The toppings I got were, well, OK. The olives were canned, which I guess is what I should've expected - not too many places slice their own "fresh" olives ("fresh" is kind of a misnomer, since all edible olives are cured) - and the diced red onions and green peppers were fresh. Not to be picky, but I prefer sauteed peppers and onions on my pizza - it seems to give them a fuller, yet mellower flavor. But these crunchy bits of onion and pepper were fine for what they were.
Links' menu has several pizza options, including a "build your own" (which is what I got) with tomato sauce, mozzarella and up to three toppings included in the basic price, a Buffalo chicken pie, Hawaiian pizza, BBQ chicken, chicken bruschetta pizza, and a white Tuscan pizza with olive oil, roasted garlic, mozzarella, tomato and kalamata olives. Actually, that last one sounds so good I'm wondering why I didn't order it. Oh well.
The rest of the menu is pretty extensive, and includes bar staples like burgers and wings, as well as steaks, seafood and pasta. The atmosphere is casual, as you would expect of a place where guys are playing virtual golf a few feet away.
To be honest, I've never been a huge fan of grilled pizza, but some are better than others. This was, well, not bad, but not especially great either. Part of it, I suppose, has to do with one's expectations - if you simply described this as a grilled flatbread, I may have taken to it better. But as a pizza, it was no better than OK. I'll give it a C.
Links Bar & Grill, 6720 Pittsford-Palmyra Road, Fairport
585-598-2663
Mon. - Thu. 11:30 am - midnight, Fri. 11:30 — 1 am, Sat. 8 am - 1 am, Sun. 8 am - 10 pm

Fairfield's, Fairport/Penfield

As I've mentioned before, it takes me a little longer to get around to bars and restaurants that serve pizza, but I do generally get to them, eventually. Recently I crossed another such place off my list, Fairfield's. The name comes from its location near the border of Fairport and Penfield.
Fairfield's is a casual restaurant with a small bar. The menu is split roughly between Italian American mainstays (e.g. chicken french, linguine with clam sauce) and bar food staples like burgers and wings.
And pizza, which straddles both those culinary worlds. So I stopped by recently to check it out.
While you can "build your own" pizza from Fairfield's list of 25 available toppings, they also have 11 specialty pizzas available, and I went with my usual Margherita (which was correctly spelled on the menu, I might add). Margherita pizza was named for an Italian queen, and the pizza created in her honor displays the red, white and green colors of the Italian flag. So Margheritas typically involve some combination of tomatoes, cheese and basil.
Fairfield's Margherita is described on the menu as topped with fresh tomato sauce, mozzarella, Romano, basil and olive oil. And that proved to be an accurate description, particularly where the oil is concerned.
In short, I have never seen such an oily pizza. Even before I took a slice, I could see a pool of oil surrounding the pizza on the plate. Oil on top, oil on the bottom - it was amazing.
I briefly considered sending it back, but I figured my job is to review what I'm given, so I forged ahead and started eating.
Now here's the thing. Yes, it was kind of gross seeing so much oil on one pizza, but it actually tasted pretty good. Maybe I was just hungry, but I don't think that completely explains it.
The fact is, oil can make food taste better, especially when it's picked up some of the flavor of other ingredients during the cooking process. Fat conveys flavor to your taste buds, or so I've read. That's why vegetables taste better with butter, and why a fried onion tastes better than a boiled onion. Food memories are strong, and I also remember as a kid sopping up the oily sauce from my dad's chicken stew with a hunk of Italian bread. If I made that dish today I'd probably skim off most of the oil, and then wonder why mine didn't taste as good as dad's. And it's not unusual for a pizzaiolo to give a pizza a quick swirl of olive oil, either before or after going in the oven.
So yeah, this tasted good, in a guilty-pleasure kind of way. Problem was, the crust had all the texture of a maple-syrup-soaked pancake. The bottom was nicely browned, but I couldn't properly assess the texture of the crust, because it was so coated and infused with oil. Only along some parts of the edge, which displayed some nice blistering from the oven, did I get a sense of its underlying bready qualities.
Aside from that, the pizza was topped with a smooth, even layer of melted mozzarella cheese. It seemed to be good cheese, in the sense that it had taken on an almost liquid quality, and was not overly chewy or rubbery. The red sauce and bits of chopped basil stayed very much in the background, but added some subtle counterpoints to the richness of the cheese and the oily but tasty crust.
Fairfield's does offer some tempting specialty pizzas, and gluten-free pizza as well. There's a lot on the menu that I like, and rather than me go through it, you can take a look at it here.
Now we get to the hard part. How to grade this pizza? Subtract that oil, and it could easily rate a B, at least. With all the oil, I've been leaning toward a D. I know people have different likes and dislikes in pizza, but I don't think anybody would like this much oil on, in and under their pizza.
Not to duck the issue, but I'm not going to grade this pizza. A single letter grade would oversimplify matters. If I had separate grades for the crust, cheese, overall flavor, etc., it would be different. But from the start I've been giving pizzas one overall grade, and I plan to stick with that. And even if I were to rate the crust separately, I'm not sure what I'd do, because I think it was fundamentally good - it just got doused with oil.
I don't know if this was typical of Fairfield's pizza. Maybe the chef accidentally gave this a way-too-heavy dousing of olive oil. But if so, I would think some of it could've been poured off the plate before it was served to me. If this was typical of their pizza, then I'd recommend cutting way back on the oil. Oil has its place, but more is not always better, and this is a perfect example of that.
Fairfield's Bar & Grill, 2600 Baird Road, Penfield 14526
(585) 383-0767
Monday and Tuesday 11:00 am to 10:00 pm
Wednesday 11:00 am to 11:00 pm
Thursday 11:00 am to 10:00 pm
Friday and Saturday 11:00 am to 11:00 pm
Sunday 4:00 pm to 9:00 pm.

Headliners, Fairport (CLOSED)

(This establishment has closed. - RPG)
Whenever a new pizza place opens, I'm torn between wanting to check it out immediately and giving them enough time to work the bugs out.
I recently stopped at Headliners, which debuted earlier this summer in Fairport. It hasn't been open long, but curiosity got the best of me, so off I went.
Headliners is a "big slice" place, with giant slices for three bucks. On my visit, they were offering cheese, pepperoni and Buffalo chicken. I got a pepperoni slice.
This slice was mostly very thin, but nearer the edge it was quite thick. The underside was a uniform brown, with screen marks. My fingertips could detect a bit of oil, and though it didn't have a crisp "bite," the exterior had a crackly surface, as you can see in the bottom photo.
At the outer edge, the crust ended in a wide, thick, bready, crusty cornicione with some burnt-cheese notes, giving it a flavor that was reminiscent of Cheez-It crackers.
The slice was blanketed by a heavy. solid layer of congealed mozzarella cheese. The sauce was more moderately applied, but was detectable on the palate. It had a bright, tomatoey flavor with some peppery kick, the source of which I was unable to identify (some red pepper in the sauce, perhaps?).
For a pepperoni slice, this was a bit light on the pepperoni, but what there was was pretty good, cup and char pepperoni that was a little crisp along the edges.
You can peruse Headliners' menu here, so I won't bother reciting everything they offer, but I will note a few things of interest. One, Headliners' pizza comes with your choice of sauce, which is something you don't see too often. At headliners, you can get your pizza with traditional red sauce, sweet & sour, garlic parmesan, BBQ or Buffalo sauce, the latter two of which come in hot, medium and mild versions. So basically, you can get chicken wing sauce on your pizza, but hey, why not? I've been known to dip my crusts into my chicken wing sauce from time to time myself.
Also of note is Headliners' "Famous Pizza Plate Challenge."  Finish a "Famous Pizza Plate" (which consists of mac salad, home fries, and a giant slice, covered with meat hot sauce) in under 25 minutes, and you'll receive a Headliners T-shirt, and get your picture on their wall and on their website. As of the date of my visit, one customer had managed to accomplish this feat, although I was told that he, well, shall we say, "lost it" twice during his efforts (which should've disqualified him, I say, but it's not my contest to run).
Overall, this was a reasonably good slice of pizza. The flavor was good and the crust wasn't bad. It was not, however, better than average for this area, in my opinion. For one thing, while I like cheese as much as the next guy, this slice was a little too cheese-heavy. The cheese dominated the other components, throwing the slice out of balance. And while a crackly underside is ordinarily a sign of a good crust, this crust wasn't as crisp as the photo might indicate. It was cracked, but lacked that bit of bite that makes for a truly great crust. The crust was firm, but nothing particularly special. So while this was by no means a bad slice of pizza, on balance I'd say it was about average, and I'll give it a C.
Headliners Pizza, 541 Whitney Road, Fairport, NY 14450
203-1808
Mon. – Sat. 10 a.m. – 10 p.m., Sun. 11 a.m. – 10 p.m.
email: info@headlinerspizza.com

Perinton Pizza Emporium Revisited

Back in December 2009, I did a post about Perinton Pizza (a/k/a Perinton Pizza Emporium), which I gave a D based on the oily, bland crust and overbaked cheese on the slice that I tried.
As with most of my negative reviews, that didn't sit well with everybody, and some two and a half years later a revisit was clearly overdue, so I went back recently for a small cheese pie. Since my prior experience with a slice wasn't so great, I thought a pie might be a better gauge of their pizza.
This pie had a dry bottom - that was certainly better than last time - but it was soft underneath, with no exterior "bite."
The crust was medium thick, with pretty good, bready flavor and a yeasty aroma, though on top, where the crust met the sauce and cheese, it was rather gummy, almost like wet dough. The crust was much better along the thick cornicione, which had a nice exterior crunch, giving it some of the characteristics of a good loaf of bread.
My pie was topped with a tomatoey sauce, of medium-thick consistency. Some herbs were noticeable on my palate. The mozzarella had pooled a bit toward the center of the pie (this will tend to be more noticeable on small pies), and was slightly browned and very stringy. All in all, the components of this pizza were well balanced.
This was, without question, an improvement over the slice I got last time. The primary improvement was the relative dryness of the underside, without all the oil that marred my previous slice. It also had pretty good flavor, nicely melted cheese, and a pleasantly crisp outer edge.
But I like a crisp crust, and aside from the cornicione (which will account for less of the crust on a larger pizza), this was not a great crust. It was OK, but still too soft underneath for my taste, and as I mentioned, the top side was a little gummy, probably from the moisture of the toppings seeping into it. So while this was not a bad pizza, on balance, I'd say it was no better, or worse, than average for this area, and I'll give it a C.
Perinton Pizza, 11 Courtney Drive, Fairport
223-8118
Sun. 11 a.m. - 10 p.m., Mon. - Thu. 10 a.m. - 10 p.m., Fri. 10 a.m. - 11 p.m., Sat. 11 a.m. - 11 p.m.

Bocaccini's, Perinton

As I've mentioned in the past, restaurant pizzas generally take me longer to getting around to, but I do get around to them eventually. My most recent was from Bocaccini's, near the corner of Rts. 31 and 250 in Perinton. (The "official" address says Fairport, but it's not in the village of Fairport, it's in the town of Perinton.)
For some reason I had been under the impression that this was a chain restaurant, but it's not. Must be something about the name and the suburban location, but it just sounds like a chain place.
At any rate - the food here includes some traditional items like veal, chicken, or eggplant parm, more inventive dishes such as herb-crusted pork tenderloin with butternut squash ravioli in a maple-Dijon glaze, as well as basic, simpler fare, including panini, wraps, and, yes, pizza.
Unlike some comparable places, Bocaccini's doesn't have a wood-fired oven, but advertises its pizza as "thin crust brick oven pizza." The pizza oven was visible from our table, thanks to Bocaccini's open kitchen.
From the nine pizzas listed, I had to go with the Margherita (spelled "Margarita" on the menu). In addition to the standard tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella and basil, I requested fresh garlic, which wasn't listed as a topping on the menu, but which is generally available.
My plate-sized pizza had a very thin crust; in fact, the crust was thinner than the cheese layer. It was good cheese, smooth and stringy, and definitely needed to be consumed while the pizza was still hot.
The underside of the crust was well browned toward the center of the pie, much lighter toward the edge. While it was reasonably crisp, however, there was way too much corn meal underneath. I don't mind a little corn meal, I know it serves a purpose (primarily to keep the dough from sticking to the peel), but this was really coated with it. Some places do use it to give the crust extra crispness (though I don't generally care for that), but this was just gritty.
The crust itself was all right, with a chewy texture, but it wasn't so bready or flavorful that I could really enjoy eating it all by itself. So the wide "naked" ring of crust along the edge wasn't a plus here either. Not a big problem, but again this crust benefited from the toppings, which could have been spread a little closer to the edge.
The sauce was more apparent to the eye than to the tongue. I think it was simply applied thinly - not much moisture could have evaporated, under that layer of cheese, and the crust wasn't soggy, so I don't think much soaked into the dough either. But it was hard to taste, and aside from the cheese, I didn't pick up much moisture here. The bits of shredded basil were OK, if a little dry. If you like basil, I think it's best to add some fresh basil at or very near the end of the baking process; dry basil has relatively little flavor, unless it cooks in a liquid, such as tomato sauce, for some time. This basil looked fresh, but it also looked as if it had dried out in the oven, which sapped it of much of its flavor and aroma.
The garlic was a good choice, and I'd recommend it, unless of course, you don't like garlic. It had a mild yet pronounced flavor that added an extra dimension to this pie.One of my companions also got pizza, a white, four-cheese pie. We agreed that it was good, but the four cheeses (ricotta, mozzarella, Asiago and Romano) tended to blend together into one mass, and we couldn't pick up their distinctive flavors or tell what each contributed to the whole. I'm frankly inexperienced with "quattro formaggio" pizza, so maybe that's just how they are, and I don't fault Bocaccini's for that. Maybe the whole point of the style is to blend four different cheeses. But for me, if I'm getting a pizza with four distinctive cheeses, I want to be able to taste them each and get a sense of how they play off each other.
This was a pleasant enough lunch - the setting was comfortable, with an open, airy feel, and faux-industrial decor accented by some splashes of color. Service was fine. Oh, and my third companion very much liked his panini, and he can be a tough critic.
The pizza? No huge complaints here, but several little flaws. The excessive corn meal underneath, the wide, barren strip along the edge of the relatively bland crust, the absence of any noticeable sauce layer - none of these were enough to make me dislike this pizza, which all in all wasn't bad, but collectively they knock it down to a no-better-than-average C.
Bocaccini's, 6720 Pittsford Palmyra Road (Rt. 31), Fairport, NY 14450

Sun. 4 - 9 p.m., Mon. - Fri. 11 a.m. - 10 p.m., Sat. noon - 10 p.m.

Compané Bistro, Fairport

As I've explained before, it takes me a while to get to certain places, particularly restaurants that serve pizza, but are only open for dinner. I've got a family, and it's not we're going out to dinner that often. And when we do, it's apt to be a kid-friendly place with hot dogs or mac 'n' cheese on the menu.
So as much as I've been wanting to check it out, it was bound to take me some time to get to Compané Bistro in Fairport. You could take a kid there, but it was worth the wait until my wife and I could go on our own.
It was a warm, sunny, late afternoon, so we asked to be seated outdoors on Compané's patio. The surrounding area is not exactly picturesque, just a couple of parking lots and the back sides of some buildings in downtown Fairport, but they've done a nice job of creating a pleasant dining area enclosed by wooden fencing and two walls of Compané's own building, which with a little imagination (and maybe a few glasses of Chianti) could almost be somewhere in Italy.
Compané has a full menu that includes steaks, chicken, fish and pasta, but the centerpiece, both literally and figuratively, is its wood-fired pizza oven. There are eleven pizzas and fourteen toppings to choose from, but I went with my old standby, the Margherita, which here goes by the name "Main Street."
This super-thin pizza was quite crisp along the edge, and got softer and more supple toward the center. There was some charring around the perimeter, and spotty charring underneath.
In that respect, this crust fit the profile of a lot of wood-fired pizzas I've seen. The radiant heat from the fire tends to char the edge of the pizza, which, with the help of some skillful manipulation by the pizzaiolo, will be more or less even along the edge. But the deck of the oven is not hot enough to give the underside the same degree of crispness, especially when the thin crust is topped with tomato sauce and maybe other moisture-laden toppings.
This is where it gets tough to separate my personal preferences from a purely objective viewpoint. From some things that I've read (like this), wood-fired pizza in Italy is often so supple and "wet" that it needs to be eaten with a knife and fork. So despite my fondness for pizza that's crisp on the outside and chewy on the outside, this may come pretty close to the original, Neapolitan mark.
I'll get back to that thought, but first let me mention some other aspects of this pizza. It was fairly saucy, especially for its thin crust, and the sauce was dominated by a bright, tomatoey flavor. Though this was a sauce, not simply crushed tomatoes, as on some Margheritas, it did not have the "cooked" flavor that you get on a typical American-style pizza.
The cheese was nicely melted mozzarella, with some stringiness, topped with a sprinkling of Romano. The fresh mozzarella here was not the thick-sliced rounds that you see on some pies, but a creamy, well-melted layer that was just a bit browned on top. A few wilted basil leaves added the final touch of authentic Margherita flavor.
One thing I appreciated about Compané's pizza menu was that there were no overloaded pies on there - no meat lovers' pizza, no "trash plate" pizza - just well-chosen combinations, like the Fourth Avenue, topped with tomatoes, mozzarella, prosciutto, olives, and artichokes, or the Galusha, a white pizza topped with garlic, mozzarella, arugula, red peppers, and goat cheese. There are also more unusual, creative options, like the Potter Place, with house-made arugula pesto and walnuts, and you can always come up with your own combinations.
This was also one of those places where it was difficult to limit myself to the pizza menu. A number of entrees sounded tempting, but I was there to try the pizza. I'd like to go back so I can sample some of Compané's pasta and meat dishes, which you can peruse here. 
Compané closed for a while due to a fire, but I'm thankful it reopened. This was good pizza, and a very pleasant dining experience.
I'm in the process of simplifying my rating system - just A through F, no pluses or minuses - and I've been on the fence about this one, trying to decide on an A or a B. Nothing wrong with a B, but was this really among the top tier of local pizza?
My biggest issue with this pizza was that the center wasn't very crisp. But I think that comes down to my own particular tastes. And I've read enough about pizza in Italy - Naples, in particular - to conclude that Italian wood-fired pizza is typically soft, wet or floppy in the center. The Neapolitan style is what they're going for here, I think, and it wouldn't be fair for me to judge them by a standard that's more in line with New York-style pizza, which is descended, but significantly different, from Neapolitan pizza.
So without the benefit of having been to Italy, I think Compané has done a very good job of producing pizza in the Neapolitan style. And it was pretty doggone good, no matter what you call it. So it gets an A from me.
Compané Brick Oven Bistro, 80 N. Main St., Fairport
678-4013
Mon. - Sat. 5 p.m. - 10 p.m.

Vinny's Twofer

I've posted about Vinny's Bakery & Deli in Fairport twice before, in August 2010 and in March 2011. I've consistently been pleased and impressed with their pizza, particularly the Sicilian pizza. That's no great surprise, considering that the owners are from Sicily.
And I frankly just love these kinds of places. If the pizza was bad, I'd say so, but in my experience, pizzerias that are run by Italian immigrants, or that have stayed in the families of Italian immigrants, make good pizza. And Vinny's is no exception.
I recently split a Sicilian sheet pizza with someone, which gave me more than enough to feed my family of three.
Unfortunately, thick-crust pizza with no mozzarella is a tough sell in my house, so I also got a "regular" pizza, half plain, half pepper and onions. And I got half of my Sicilian with mozzarella, again to please my family (what can I say - they're not pizza purists). The other half was the "true" Sicilian pizza, with just tomato sauce, garlic and grated Romano (there are two slices in the upper right of the top photo with no cheese - that's due to the mozzarella sticking to the inside cover of the box, which probably has more to do with my driving than anything else.
So let's get right to the star of the show, the Sicilian pizza. A reader who's a big fan of Vinny's urged me to try a traditional Sicilian, partly because the use of grated cheese, rather than a blanket of sliced or shredded cheese, allows the moisture in the dough to evaporate, resulting in a crisper crust.
This is one that I've had to think about. Now it stands to reason that a thicker layer of dough will contain more moisture than a thin crust. And some of that moisture has to evaporate in order to get a crisp crust.
A solid blanket of cheese would certainly seem to impede the evaporation of moisture from inside the crust. Does that mean that a pizza with a sprinkling of grated cheese will have a crisper crust?
At first blush, that might seem to make some sense, but I'm not so sure, even after eating this pizza. I didn't see any big difference between the slices with the sliced mozzarella and those without. In thinkinig about it, I also think that the sauce itself would be the primary impediment to moisture evaporating from the crust. And this was saucy pizza. I think where the cheese matters most is probably on the top side - if the sauce is exposed to the hot air inside the oven, some of its water will evaporate, concentrating the flavor of the sauce, and avoiding the gumminess that can result when water from the sauce leaches back into the top layer of the crust. But I don't think it probably makes much difference as to the underside, especially if you eat the pizza while it's still hot.
Having said all that, I really liked this pizza. The underside of Vinny's pizza is not quite like that of any other pizzeria around here that I've tried (and I've tried nearly all of them). It literally shines, with a glossy surface that's crisp and smooth, yet not at all greasy. The interior of the crust is light and airy but not overly soft. It doesn't quite have the complexity of flavor that I would expect from a slow-rising dough - but it makes a very good base for the toppings.
Ah yes, the toppings. I love a good plate of spaghetti and meatballs, but sometimes the best part is mopping up the sauce with a thick slice of Italian bread. This was very much like that experience, only a few notches higher. Each slice was topped with a thick, tomatoey sauce, infused with chunks of garlic, and a generous sprinkling of pungent, grated Romano cheese. There are lots of good food combinations out there, but none better than tomatoes, garlic, and Romano.
Given the relative lack of cheese, as compared with a typical, mozzarella-topped American pizza, the sauce was added in good balance with the thick crust, enough to provide moisture and flavor without overwhelming the crust or making it soggy. The slices with mozzarella (thin sliced, not shredded - this was clearly good mozzarella, hand-sliced off a block) were equally good, although the mozzarella seemed superfluous to me, even if it did make the pizza more acceptable to my young daughter, as it conformed more to her conception of what pizza should look like.
But both she and my wife were more interested in the "regular" pizza - a standard pie, with tomato sauce and mozzarella, which I got half-topped with peppers and onions. What can I say? It was very good, though to me it took a back seat to the Sicilian. The thin-to-medium crust was lightly charred underneath, with a dry, firm underside. What I noticed most about this pizza was the cheese, which was very nicely melted, and which was clearly top-shelf stuff - no dried-out shreds here, or orangey oil exuding from the cheese, just a smooth, creamy blanket of mozzarella.
If you really prefer standard, American-style pizza, then you should be more than happy with Vinny's version. It's got a nice crust and tasty toppings, and easily rates a B+. But it would be a shame to go to Vinny's for a pizza and not get a Sicilian. I've never been to Sicily, but I have to think this is as close as it gets, in these parts. It gets an A from me.

Towpath Cafe, Fairport

While pizzerias are easy enough to find, there's plenty of pizza out there at local restaurants, where you wouldn't necessarily expect to find it. One such place is Towpath Cafe in Fairport.
This location was formerly Fairport Village Coffee, and like that establishment, Towpath Cafe features coffee, wine, and live music. But it's added pizza to its menu, which I don't think was offered in its previous incarnation.
The pizza, which is described as "fire grilled," comes in five varieties, which I'll let you read on the Cafe's menu. As I often do, I went with the "Margarita," which is topped with "garlic & oil, tomatoes bruschetta, mozzarella and fresh basil."'
My pizza had a very crisp crust that was on the thin side of medium. The outer edge was crunchy and a bit oily on the surface, with some interior chewiness. The underside bore prominent grill marks.
The menu's use of the term "tomatoes bruschetta" is a fairly apt description. This reminded me of bruschetta, the name of which comes from the Italian "bruscare," which means "to roast over coals," a reference to the bread, which is typically drizzled with olive oil and grilled, and topped with tomatoes, garlic, basil or other toppings. This was topped with finely diced tomato, bits of chopped garlic, and flakes of basil, on a bed of stringy, chewy cheese. I found the overall flavor quite good, with some herbs in the background. The tomatoes weren't fantastic, but they did have some tomatoey sweetness, which puts them ahead of a lot of fresh tomatoes around here at this time of year.
Besides pizza, Towpath Cafe offers burgers, paninis, wraps, and salads. The atmosphere is laid back and casual, kind of a cross between a coffee house and a restaurant, with outdoor seating overlooking the canal in the warm months.
This was decent pizza. It had a pretty good overall flavor, and the crust wasn't bad, with a bit of external crunch and some grilled toastiness. And importantly, it was distinctive. I'll give it a B-minus.
Towpath Cafe, 6 N. Main St., Fairport, 14580
Tel. 377-0410

Mon. - Thu. 8 a.m. - 10 p.m., Fri. & Sat. 8 a.m. - 11 p.m., Sun. 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.