R Pizzeria, North St.

I was on my way to - where else? - a pizzeria when a big sign reading "R Pizzeria" caught my eye. It's on North Street, which runs between Portland and Hudson, a few blocks south of Clifford Ave. I kept going to my original destination, but made a mental note to check out R Pizzeria, which I did a few days later.
The only slices available when I stopped were pepperoni, and sausage & pepperoni. I got two of the former.
They came in a styrofoam to-go container, which frankly doesn't make a good container for pizza. Styrofoam traps moisture, meaning that if the pizza's hot, it's apt to get soggy if it sits in there for long.
And the last thing this pizza needed was to get soggy. It had a thick, soft, spongy, pancake-like crust with a dark brown, bubbly underside that had the appearance of fried dough. It was topped with a thin layer of sauce that managed to be both oily and watery at the same time. Some of the sauce had soaked through the top layer of the spongy dough, making it very wet on its upper surface. The outer edge was formed into a thick lip, which was, well, not bad. Not particularly crusty or chewy, but OK, in a white-bread kind of way.
The cheese, which had been laid on a bit thickly, was a little browned, but still fairly stringy. The small pieces of pepperoni were the real stars of this pizza, however. They were crisp along the edges, oily and spicy, and that spicy flavor and crisp chewy texture was - fortunately - the dominant feature of these slices.
R Pizzeria has a limited menu, with pizza, hot and cold subs, wings, fried chicken, and various other fried stuff. It's also one of the only pizzerias I've seen with gizzards on the menu. I'm not sure if gizzards are available as a pizza topping, but you could always ask. There's a small grocery here as well. It's pretty much a takeout and delivery place.
As you might guess, I wasn't thrilled by this pizza, but you know, I didn't hate it either. It was actually kind of good in its own way; almost good in spite of itself. Maybe it was the synergy of the crisp, spicy pepperoni and the toasted, stringy, chewy cheese. Had they been atop a better crust, I might've really enjoyed this pizza a lot. As it was, though, that flaccid, spongy, grease-bottomed crust dragged the rest of the pizza down with it, resulting in a score of C-.
R Pizzeria, 695 North St. 338-7929
(Not sure of the hours)

Gaetano's

Gaetano's Bakery is one of those old Italian bakeries with which Rochester is so richly blessed. Although I have to admit that Wegmans bakes some pretty good bread, I'll often skip their bakery section and make a special stop at one of these places for a loaf of Italian bread, just to help keep them in business. These places are local treasures that we too often take for granted until one day you're driving by, or watching the local news, and you learn that one of them is closing.
Since pizza dough is essentially bread dough, it's a little surprising that more of them don't do pizza in addition to bread. I suppose space constraints may play a role, among other factors.
But Gaetano's does do pizza. In fact, their menu describes Gaetano's as "more than just a bakery," with a "full menu of homemade quality food!" So on a recent day when I had occasion to be in the area, I stopped in and grabbed a slice. I would've preferred trying a whole pie, to get the fresh-out-of-the-oven experience, but it was lunchtime, so that will have to wait for another day.
My pepperoni slice was medium thick. The underside was not very crisp, but the outer edge, which had a fairly thick lip, was quite firm, so much so that the slice successfully resisted my attempts to fold it. No matter, as this was not a big, floppy slice in need of folding anyway.
“Medium” also best describes the color of the underside; not charred, but not pale, either. It was punctured here and there with tiny holes, which I’ve seen before elsewhere. Perhaps they serve the function of avoiding large air bubbles building up. I’ll have to ask sometime.
The crust was chewy, but not in a particularly bready way; the dough didn’t seem to have risen all that much, and was fairly dense, which I found surprising for a pizza that had been made at a bakery.
The sauce had a thick consistency and a cooked-down flavor, and was moderately applied. The cheese was well browned, and became easily separated from the crust. Gaetano’s menu states that they use 100% whole milk mozzarella, but this slice didn’t have any of the excess oil that sometimes seems to result from using whole-milk cheese, which of course contains more fat than the part-skim variety.
As I mentioned, the outer edge was formed into a pretty thick lip, which made a nice finish to the slice, with its crunchy, breadstick-like flavor and texture.
Gaetano’s offers a full range of pizzas, and four specialty pizzas, including a Sicilian, which is topped with oil, black pepper, fresh garlic, parsley, romano cheese and basil. You can also buy pizza dough (which I think you can do at a lot of pizzerias, it’s just that most don’t advertise it), either regular or whole wheat.
Other items on the menu include hot and cold subs, calzones, wings, “homemade” soup, and a few sides. (Their catering menus are much more extensive, and can be viewed on their website.)
And of course bread. Lots of breads, from basic Italian to baguettes, ciabatta, “Tuscan crusty bread,” and others, plus rolls and various stuffed breads. Finally, let’s not forget the desserts, which include a range of pies, cookies, and pastries.
As I said, I love these kinds of places. They’re local, they’re family owned, they’re part of Rochester’s history and social fabric. They help create a sense of place in a way that chain establishments never will.
But I have to be honest here, and I was a little disappointed with this pizza. It was OK, but as I was eating it, it came to mind that it had an overall “flat” flavor. I was expecting more from the dough, particularly. I do think Gaetano’s deserves another shot, and I’ll give it one - that Sicilian sounds very tempting - but on the basis of this one slice, I’m giving it a C.
Gaetano’s Bakery, 1439 W. Ridge Rd. 865-7810
Mon. - Thu. 9 a.m. - 7 p.m., Fri. & Sat. 9 a.m. - 8 p.m., Sun. 9 a.m. - 6 p.m.

Meneze's, Chili Ave.

Menezes Pizza is on Chili Avenue in Rochester’s 19th Ward. They’ve been in business, at one location or another, since 1986, and at their current location since 1996 (there’s an extensive history of the pizzeria on their website).
I ordered a large pie, half pepperoni, half plain. It was a 16" pie, cut into square slices.
The crust was medium-to-thick, and appeared to have been baked on a screen, although the website describes Menezes pizza as stone-baked. I asked one of the owners about that afterwards and was told that the pizzas do start out on a screen and then are moved to the oven floor about halfway through baking, for reasons having to do with the high volume of orders they have to deal with. But if a customer asks for the pizza to be cooked on the oven floor throughout, Menezes will accommodate that request.
Getting back to the crust, it did have some exterior crispness. It was a relatively light shade of brown underneath, but had a darker, pretzel-like hue along the thick, slightly crunchy lip. Overall, the dough had a reasonably bready flavor and texture, which is especially important for a thicker-crust pizza.
Topside, the cheese was well browned, especially on the cheese-only half. It was fairly thick, and was baked to the point of coagulation - in other words, it wasn’t stringy, which was fine by me.
The sauce had a mild, tomatoey flavor. It wasn’t unnoticeable, but stayed very much in the background. The pepperoni was of the wide and thin variety, and had good flavor.
Menezes has a basic menu, with a modest list of pizza toppings and two specialty pizzas (Buffalo chicken and steak). They also offer wings and chicken fingers, hot and cold subs, burgers, fries, and salads. The wings, by the way, are nice and meaty, and although I ordered mild (to suit my six-year-old’s more delicate palate), they packed some heat.
Menezes is a takeout and delivery place, with a wide delivery area covering just about all of Southwest Rochester. The delivery map is on their website, which also features on online ordering service.
If you peruse Menezes’ menu and website, I think you’ll also sense a commitment by the owners both to turning out a good product, and to their neighborhood. That dedication to their craft is evident in the pizza as well, which had good flavor and texture, was well made, and, to me, typified that hard-to-describe, yet unmistakable “Rochester” style of pizza. For my taste, it would’ve benefited from just a bit of charring underneath to give the crust a nice, toasty flavor, and next time I’ll be sure to ask that it be cooked sans screen. But that one quibble aside, I enjoyed this one, and I’ll give it a B+.
Menezes Pizza, 445 Chili Ave. 328-3010
Mon. - Wed. 11 a.m. - noon, Thu. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 1 a.m., Sun. noon - midnight
Pizza Guy note:  for a profile of Menezes and discussion with the owners, go here.