Back to Nino's

Lately I've been mostly focusing on going to places I haven't previously posted about. Mostly new places, and places some distance from Rochester.
But now and then you need to get back to basics, to the tried and true. So it was a few nights ago, when I went to Nino's on Culver Road. I've written about Nino's before, several times, but it had been years, which is far too long.
You can find some background information about Nino's in this post, so I won't go over that ground again. But owner Giacomo has been making his trademark focaccia and pizza in Rochester for close to four decades.
Nino's does not deliver, but that's a good thing, to me, because I enjoy going there. 
Why? Well, there's the place itself. If anybody ever wants to shoot a movie involving a scene in a pizzeria set in the 1970s or '80s, this would be a good choice. Not much has changed here since 1977, including the pizza.
That's not to say that Nino's hasn't kept up with the times. Giacomo showed me something on his smart phone, which was a generation or two ahead of mine. And I liked seeing an old model of one of Christopher Columbus's ships, of a style I remember from my teenage years (I'm referring to the model, not the ship) right next to the computer.
But I particularly love going into a place where the cooler still bears the logo of Like Cola. Obviously Nino's abides by the principle, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. And Nino's pizza doesn't need any fixing, any more than the cooler.
I got a medium pie, which was plenty for my daughter and me (my wife was not partaking on this occasion). Nino's standard pizza is thick, and that's what I went with, the standard. I've gotten thin-crust pizza from Nino's before, and liked it just fine, but a thicker, focaccia-style crust is what they know and do best, so I went with that.
I did not phone in my order, but instead ordered upon my arrival. I did that in part to give myself some time to chat with Giacomo, who remains as affable as ever. Having spoken to him at length before, we briefly touched on pizza-related matters, but soon moved on to current affairs and American history. I realized that Giacomo's knowledge extends well beyond pizza, and that he probably knows considerably more about our country than most native-born Americans, but after about 15 minutes I had to cut our conversation short, as the pizza was ready to go. I stuck it in my insulated pizza bag and rushed it home.
The crust was about an inch thick along the edge, a half to three quarters toward the center. It was well risen and breadlike.
The underside was browned, with some bubble spots. It was firm on the surface, and though not crisp, it had some surface bite, and was not oily. The interior was chewy and bready, and as befitting Nino's self-description as a "focacceria," it would've been well worth eating, unadorned. All pizza is, at some level, bread with toppings (leaving aside such deliberate oddities as cauliflower-crust pizza, ramen-crust pizza, etc.), and Nino's pizza exemplifies that.
Not that I mean to sell the toppings short. This pie was coated with a light layer of red sauce, which had slightly soaked into the crust, and smoothly melted mozzarella cheese. I'm more of a crust guy than a cheese guy, but the cheese is a real standout here. I'm never quite sure what's meant by that vague advertising term, "quality cheese," but if it means anything, this is quality cheese.
I don't usually go for meat-heavy pizza, but my daughter does, so I deferred to her preferences, and got sausage and meatballs. They were crisp on the outside, meaty on the inside, with a mild flavor, and despite my generally non-carnivorous leanings, a good complement to the other components.
As always, a very good pizza from Nino's. Having said that, I will add, in all candor, that this style may not be to everyone's liking. If your ideal pizza is thin and cracker-crisp, well, this isn't that. But I can only describe what I had, and give you my opinion.
And in my opinion, Nino's remains a local treasure. Nino's was making artisanal pizza before anybody around here had ever heard of the term. It deserves a spot on any local pizza lover's must-do list.

Nino's Pizzeria, 1330 Culver Rd., Rochester 14609
(585) 482-2264

Sun. - Thu. 4 p.m. - 10 p.m., Fri. & Sat. 4 p.m. - midnight

Baker Street Bakery, Park Ave.

Anybody who loves pizza almost certainly likes bread, and I'm exhibit A, there. I've been to most of the bread bakeries around town - in fact, I've toyed with the idea of expanding this blog's scope to include bread - but it was only very recently that I finally made it to Baker Street Bakery on Park Avenue.
Baker Street opened, I believe, in 2007. There's a combination of reasons why it's taken me this long to get there, but I did stop in recently.
BSB doesn't offer pizza as such (which is one reason it's taken me this long), but they do offer focaccia, which to most of us would be indistinguishable from thick-crust, pan-baked pizza.The difference is more semantic than real.
I got a veggie slice, topped with artichoke hearts, mushrooms, sliced tomatoes, black olives, caramelized onions, and jalapenos.
At first glance, this would seem not to be something I'd go for. If I could only eat one kind of pizza for the rest of my life, it would probably be a thin-crust, foldable, New York style cheese slice.
This was the diametric opposite of that. It was enormous, and heavy. I ended up cutting it in half, for lunch, and saving the rest for the next day.
But despite my general preferences, I've always taken a catholic approach to pizza. Thick, thin, cheese-only or multiple toppings, any pizza can be good, if it's well made.
And this was good, whether you call it pizza or foccacia. The underside was evenly browned and dry to the touch. The interior was bubbly and nicely risen, and the crust was flavorful.
It was also well balanced. Despite its heft, this was not simply an overloaded slice of pizza. The toppings were added in proportion to the thick crust. I don't think I'll ever get over my distaste for mushrooms, but they blended in with the other toppings, which made for a flavorful medley. Slightly sweet, salty and savory, with a bit of kick in the background.
I will nitpick a bit, for the use of what seemed to be canned black olives. I'm OK with canned olives, but they don't quite match up with the non-canned, cured variety. The dusting of grated cheese also added little if any flavor or aroma; it had a powdery texture similar to ground bread crumbs.
Those quibbles aside, this made for an enjoyable lunch. A good base of bread dough, and a well-chosen blend of toppings.
Beyond foccacia, Baker Street offers a wide range of breads, including sourdough and whole-grain breads, as well as delectable pastries. In a perfect world, every town and neighborhood would have its own bakery, and in the central Park Avenue neighborhood, Baker Street fills that niche very nicely.

Baker Street Bakery
745 Park Ave.
Sun. - Mon. 6 a.m. - 2 p.m.
Tue. - Sat. 6 a.m. - 6 p.m.

Nino's Focaccia

My wife and I have found out that our daughter has a problem with dairy products. We're not sure if it's lactose intolerance or something else, but dairy products seem to give her problems.
Not the greatest thing for a pizza blogger who has been bringing home pies to his family on a regular basis. But that's a minor issue, in the scheme of things.
Fortunately, more pizzerias are offering dairy-free options, and why not? It's no big deal to leave cheese off a pizza. The way the price of cheese has been going, they probably make more money that way anyway.
Furthermore, the whole idea of a cheese-heavy pie is a relatively recent, American thing; in much of Italy, you're as apt to find a pie with just a sprinkling of grated cheese, or even no cheese at all.
So recently, when I wanted a good, dairy-free pizza to bring home for dinner, I knew that Nino's would likely be a good place to go. Nino's, which I've written about before, specializes in focaccia, using recipes straight from owner Giacomo's native Sicily.
Focaccia, like pizza itself, has gotten Americanized and, arguably, dumbed down. Or changed, at least.
Most people today associate focaccia with a thick pan-baked bread that's been brushed with olive oil and sprinkled with grated cheese and herbs, typically rosemary. That's fine as far as it goes, but at Nino's, focaccia is a versatile platform, that can accommodate a variety of toppings. (And at Nino's, unless you order a thin-crust pizza, the pizza is made using a focaccia crust.) Focaccia or pizza, it's all about the crust, and the crust at Nino's is good. Very good.
So I asked Giacomo to create for me a focaccia with no cheese, which he was happy to do. After a brief discussion in which I sought his advice, I settled on a half-and-half vegetarian focaccia, with sun-dried tomatoes, garlic and onions on the whole thing, and the addition of roasted green peppers on the other half. A thick focaccia crust can handle a fair amount of toppings, but that's about as much as I'd want, so as not to overwhelm it.
I stopped by to pick up my order, before my roughly 25-minute drive home, and it was difficult not to start in on it right away. But it kept pretty well in the car, and was still warm when I got it home.
Happily, the drive home did not diminish the quality of the crust. The underside had that blistered, bubbly look that all too often is indicative of an overly oily crust, but this one was dry to the touch and crisp. The interior was nicely risen, chewy enough to reveal its breadlike qualities, but not overly dense, airy, gummy or greasy. It had all the qualities of great bread, only shaped into a disk to hold the toppings. And isn't that what pizza is, ultimately--disk-shaped bread with toppings?
The crust did make a fine base for the toppings. I'm an omnivore, to be sure, but I didn't miss the meat here. I also remain a red-sauce guy, and all in all I would probably ask for sauce next time, for an added dimension of flavor and a little more liquid. But the natural moisture of the vegetables and the olive oil on top were enough to give these some liquid balance for the bready crust. I particularly liked the thin-sliced garlic, which added flavor and aroma but was not harsh or overpowering.
I love a good thin crust, to be sure, but that doesn't mean that I can't appreciate or enjoy a thick crust from time to time. Whether we're talking thin or thick pizza, focaccia, or just plain bread, good is good. And Nino's is good. If you're a dedicated thin-crust lover like me, well, Nino's does that too, but give their focaccia a try first. I've never had a Rochester pizza quite like it, and it's because of the focaccia that Nino's remains among our local pizza institutions.
Nino's Pizzeria, 1330 Culver Rd., Rochester 14609
482-2264

Sun. - Thu. 4 p.m. - 10 p.m., Fri. & Sat. 4 p.m. - midnight