Salvatore's to open pizzeria/bar

I mentioned not long ago that there are surprisingly few bars around here that serve pizza. Lately, they've been sprouting up in some numbers, though, and now comes word of another.
If you pay any attention to local news you must've heard about the recent fire in a Family Dollar plaza in Rochester. Now comes word that one of the plaza tenants, Salvatore's Pizzeria, is relocating that particular operation to the old Maxwell's Bar & Grill around the corner on E. Ridge Rd. This will be Salvatore's first location with a bar. Remarkably, it's supposed to be opening this Wednesday. Whatever you think of Salvatore's pizza, give "Soccer Sam" Fantuzzo credit for a quick turnaround and keeping his staff employed over the holidays.

Dragonfly, Park Ave.

Dragonfly Tavern & Pizza Factory is a relatively recent addition to Park Avenue in Rochester. The Tavern opened last January in the space formerly occupied by the Park Bench, which has since moved to Monroe Ave., thus continuing the Rochester tradition of businesses with geographically misleading names (in addition to the ones listed here, I recently discovered that Park Avenue Pets is also located on Monroe Ave.).
The Pizza Factory opened somewhat later in the front of the building where Pontillo's used to be. The wall separating the bar from the pizza place has been knocked down, so you no longer have to go outside to get from one to the other, but they still each have their own space and identity.
I stopped in for a lunchtime slice not long ago. It was shortly after noon, and the first pepperoni pie of the day had just come out of the oven. It was somewhere between a standard slice and a “huge” slice in size, making the $3.50 price seem a tad steep for this area, although everything seems to cost a little more along Park Avenue.
Given its neighborhood, I thought that perhaps Dragonfly might turn out something along the lines of an “artisanal” pizza that would appeal to the local pizza cognoscenti (that’s Latin for “snobs”). So I was surprised, and a bit disappointed, to see that this pizza had been baked on a screen, which left heavy indentations on its medium-brown underside. One of the fundamental problems with a screen, I think, is that it prevents the dough from coming into direct contact with the oven floor, so that it bakes more by radiant than conductive heat, and can’t develop a nice, crisp bottom.
Still, lots of places use screens, so I can’t fault Dragonfly too much there. But even screen-baked pizza can be a little crisp underneath, and this wasn’t. It was soft and floppy, and a bit oily, leaving my fingertips a little greasy. The crust was thin but dense, and didn’t appear to have risen much.
This was a cheese-dominated slice, with a thick layer of congealed cheese on top. Though the menu describes the cheese as a blend of mozzarella and provolone, this slice had a strong aroma of what I took to be parmesan cheese, which also imparted a sharp, tangy flavor to the pizza.
The cheese lay atop a comparatively thin layer of sauce, which had a good tomatoey flavor. The pepperoni slices were embedded in the cheese, making them more soft than crisp. The thin lip of the crust was rather chewy and somewhat tough in texture.
Dragonfly has an extensive list of pizza toppings, some of which are frankly bizarre (how do peanuts, hash browns, or mandarin oranges sound on your pizza?), and a correspondingly long list of specialty pizzas, ranging from standards like breakfast pizza (which surprisingly does not include hash browns, though I’m sure you could ask for them to be added) to more exotic fare such as Jamaican chicken and clams casino pizzas. All the specialty pizzas can be ordered “half and half,” so you can try two at once, or split with a friend who doesn’t share your culinary predilections. Pies come in just two sizes, 10.5 or 16 inches.
Depending on your perspective, the rest of the menu is either a more sophisticated, or simply self-consciously trendy, version of a typical bar menu. French fries, for example, are offered here as “Boursin Cheese Fries,” with a sauce made of said cheese, white wine and shallots, “topped with scallions and a swirl of RedHot.” If burgers are your thing, the Buddha burger comes topped with seaweed salad, shiitake mushrooms and a kaffir lime soy glaze. There are also three desserts on the menu, which are more conventional: carrot cake, cheesecake, and a chocolate-peanut butter brownie, all of which are baked in house, from scratch. Oh, and if you want regular French fries or a plain ol’ cheeseburger, they can do that too.
Getting back to the pizza, this wasn’t bad, really, but it had its share of problems. Too soft, too floppy, and unbalanced, with too much cheese relative to the other components. The list of toppings and specialty pizzas suggests that Dragonfly is trying to appeal to a more discriminating clientele than your average pizza ’n’ wings crowd, but the execution here left something to be desired. But they’ve only been at it a short time, the service was friendly, and their heart seems to be in the right place, so I’ll check in on them again somewhere down the line. For now, I’m giving Dragonfly a C-.
Dragonfly Tavern & Pizza Factory, 725 Park Ave, 563-6333
Daily 11:00am – 2:00am
Limited menu 12:00am – 2:00am
Sunday Brunch 10:00am – 3:00am

Bella Pasta Cafe, Greece

Bella Pasta Café opened last March in a small plaza on West Ridge Road, across from Ridgemont Plaza in Greece. It’s a family affair, owned and operated by two brothers, Randy and Danny Connor, with other relatives pitching in or employed there.
I ate dinner at Bella Pasta on a recent Sunday evening with my family. As we approached the entrance, all I could see on the inside was a walk-up counter near the front door, and I began to wonder if this was a less formal restaurant than I had expected - one of those places where you order at the counter and they bring the food to your table on a tray.
Thankfully, it wasn’t. It’s just that Bella Pasta has kind of a split personality, with a takeout counter on one side, separated by a partition from the dining area on the other.
The food offerings reflect the same dichotomy, with takeout staples like wings and subs sharing the menu with more substantial, mostly Italian dishes, many of which were mainstays at the old Portico Restaurant on St. Paul Street, where Danny Connor used to head-chef.
But we know what I was here for: the pizza. I ordered a medium (I always like to order at least a medium for review purposes), and though Bella Pasta bills itself as the “home of the 4 free toppings,” I went with straight pepperoni.
The thin to medium crust was fairly pale - “golden brown,” shall we say - underneath, but surprisingly crisp. It seemed a bit shiny with oil, but was not particularly greasy to the touch or in flavor. It was dotted with a number of small puncture holes, which I assume is done to keep the dough from bubbling up or blistering as it rises or bakes. The crust was not especially bready, but it had a pleasant, freshly-baked flavor, and was enjoyable. The outer edge was crunchy and formed into a thin, narrow lip.
This was a verrry cheesy pizza. It was topped by a thick layer of melted, stringy, slightly browned mozzarella. The cheese might’ve overwhelmed the whole thing had it not been balanced out by the sauce, which was also pretty generously applied. Like nearly everything else on the menu, the sauce is made on the premises, and it had a pronounced tomatoey flavor, neither very herbal nor too sweet. The pepperoni was of the cup-and-char variety, though sliced more thinly than I’m used to seeing it. It was just a bit crisp along the edges.
The plentiful sauce and cheese made this the kind of pizza that might best be eaten with a knife and fork. My silverware, however, stayed clean, though I can’t say the same for my napkin, as I stuck with the hands-only approach.
Bella Pasta offers 12 pizza toppings, and seven specialty pizzas, including a calamari pizza. Somewhat surprisingly, given the takeout and counter service, they don’t serve slices, even at lunchtime, though I suppose that ensures that when you do get a pizza, it’s going to be fresh, not something that’s sat in a warmer for an hour or more.
As for the entrees, all the usual Italian favorites are here, such as lasagna, Chicken Marsala, eggplant parm, shrimp scampi, and veal french. On that note, though I generally try to stick to the pizza, the food in general seemed to be of very high quality here. My wife raved about her Chicken Asiago, my daughter’s steak fries were crisp but not greasy, and my tiramisu was among the better examples I’ve tried around here. Service was good too - our waitress handled our six-year-old’s spilled chocolate milk with aplomb, and the owner checked in on us during our meal and gave us a warm goodbye upon leaving.
As I mentioned in my post on Rizzi’s, there tends to be a certain difference between the pizza you get at a restaurant and what you typically get from a takeout pizza joint. That held true here. It’s hard to put my finger on it, but this was “restaurant” pizza. But it was good restaurant pizza, and that’s the important thing. I can’t say I’ll go back for more of it, if only because I want to check out some of the other items on the menu. I will, however, give it a solid B+ for its crisp crust, tasty sauce, and ample but balanced toppings, enhanced by friendly and efficient service.
Bella Pasta Cafe, 2846 West Ridge Road. 340-6100
Mon. - Thu. 11 a.m. - 9 p.m., Fri. & Sat. 11 a.m. - 10 p.m., Sun. 1 p.m. - 8 p.m.