New Giveaway! $25 Alloco's Gift Card

One of the things I like about writing this blog is being able to give away free pizza to my readers. Most of the time, that involves me approaching a pizzeria owner and asking him or her to donate a gift card or certificate.
But thanks to the generosity of a local business, SEMtech Systems, I have two $25 gift cards to give away for Alloco's. Alloco's, on Long Pond Road between Ridgeway Ave. and Rt. 31, offers pizza, pasta, wings and subs. Check out their Facebook page here.
First let me tell you a bit about SEMtech. It's a small commercial and residential access control/multimedia company located in downtown Rochester.
What does that mean? Well, on the commercial side, SEMtech services and installs the parking machines in the downtown parking garages. They recently finished installing new equipment at the new Midtown parking garage.
For residential customers, SEMtech installs front-door keypad locks, video doorbells, smart thermostats, smart lighting, and home theaters. You can read more about the services SEMtech offers here.
I may look into SEMtech's services myself. I misplace my keys all the time, and I do get annoyed fumbling around for the right key when I arrive home after dark. The fewer keys I need to carry, the better.
But back to the giveaway. SEMtech has graciously paid for two $25 gift cards for me to give away to my readers (I get nothing out of this, by the way, other than the satisfaction of making free pizza available to my readers).
I'll give away the first $25 gift card next Monday, June 29, a little after noon. To make things interesting, I'll hold off on giving away the second gift card until two days later, on Wednesday, July 1, around the same time. You won't have to enter twice to win - one entry will get you in for both drawings - but this will give anybody who missed the first one a chance to get in for the second.
To enter, just send me an email at ROCPizzaGuy@gmail.com. Include "Alloco's giveaway" in the subject line. Winners will be chosen at random, using random.org. Please include your actual name and mailing address in the body of the message. I will not use your information for any other purposes than this giveaway, and I will not provide your information to anyone else, ever.
Thanks again to SEMtech for making this possible.

Alloco's Restaurant and Catering
1742 Long Pond Road
Rochester, NY 14606
585-426-TOGO (8646)

SEMtech Systems, LLC
46 Mt. Hope Ave. #4
Rochester, NY 14620
Steven Benz (585) 285-5312
Earl Paige (585) 402-4014
support@semtechsystems.com

Jreck Fusion, Greece - CLOSED

NOTE: This establishment has closed.
There are certain establishments that I've known about for a long time, but just never got to. Such is Jreck Subs.
It's a name I've seen around, and although I get the occasional sub here and there, I just never paid much attention to Jreck. I knew it was a chain, of some sort, but I'd never heard anything about it, and it just never occurred to me to go there.
But I recently heard of a new place, Jreck Fusion, in Greece. This got my attention because they offer pizza.
I've since looked at their company history online. Jreck is a regional chain centered around Syracuse. Jreck Fusion is a relatively recent addition to the chain, offering subs, pizza, and "froyo," which is short for frozen yogurt.
I picked up a cheese slice and a pepperoni slice the other day. They looked good, at least initially. Thery were thin, with a layer of melted, slightly browned cheese.
As I examined them further, however, two things struck me. First, the slices were not just foldable, there were rollable. There was no underlying crispness or backbone. And the cheese slice in particular was rather pale underneath.
Now I should note that I declined to have these slices rewarmed. Maybe that would've helped. But I was also told that they had just come out of the oven, and I'm sure that's true, because they were steaming hot. Maybe I should have had them rewarmed, just to crisp them up. I think some pizzerias may intentionally take out pies a little early, to use for slices, to allow them to be reheated without getting overdone.
Understandable, but if that's what they do, they should let the customer know.
The slices were very thin, and the undersides were crisscrossed by screen marks. I like a thin crust, but I still like an interior to the crust, and these didn't have much of an interior to speak of. They were almost like thick flour tortillas.

That's unfortunate, because the toppings were pretty good. The cheese was well melted, a bit browned, and stretchy. (The fact that the cheese was a little browned, though, makes me think that if I'd had the slice rewarmed, any added crispness imparted to the crust might've come at the expense of the cheese, which might've gotten overcooked.) The sauce was tomatoey, with a nice balance of sweetness, acidity and salt, and the pepperoni was crisp.
Jreck Fusion offers a wide variety of specialty pizza (the menu is available on their Facebook page), including chicken pesto, Philly steak, and Country Sweet. Pizzas come in 14" and 18" sizes.
Their are also two dozen subs on offer, both hot and cold, as well as calzones, a few sides, a couple salads, and a "Fusion Plate," their version of Rochester's signature dish.
And there's the aforementioned "froyo," which interestingly, is priced by the ounce - 48 cents an ounce, to be exact, though there's a $0.25/oz. special Monday through Thursday from 2 - 4 p.m. (Not a criticism, but I always figured people get frozen yogurt because it's supposed to be better for you than ice cream, mostly because it's lower in fat. So I find it a little humorous to see that the available toppings include Oreo's, Reese's Pieces, and cookie dough.)
So a mixed bag here, from my perspective. The pizza tasted good, and there was a lot to like. But I found it wanting in the crust department. If Jreck Fusion can get the crust more crisp underneath, and maybe give it a little more rising time, I think they'll have some seriously good pizza. I'm hopeful in that regard and I'll be interested to see how things go.

Jreck Fusion
2846 W. Ridge Rd.

(585) 471-8570

Sun. - Wed. 11 a.m. - 9 p.m., Thu. 11 a.m. - midnight, Fri. & Sat. 11 a.m. - 2 a.m.

Flour City Pizza, Lyell Avenue

Pizza places have come and gone at 1074 Lyell Avenue: Dom's, Mark's, Paradiso.
Next up is Flour City Pizza, which opened last month. I stopped by the other day for a couple of slices. I got one cheese slice and one pepperoni slice.
Both were thin, with dark brown bottoms and some charring. The cheese slice was more charred than the pepperoni. They were crisp - not shatteringly so, but crisp; when folded, the crust cracked a little, but did not break. The undersides were dry to the touch, with a light dusting of flour.
The slices were well balanced. There was a moderate layer of slightly sweet sauce, accented by a whiff of garlic (perhaps garlic powder) and a faint flavor and aroma of herbs, including, I think, some oregano.
They took a light touch with the cheese here, but I had no complaints about that. With a thin slice, I generally don't want a heavy blanket of cheese. There was enough here to play off the crust and sauce, but not so much as to predominate over the other components.
Besides slices, Flour City offers in 12" and 16" sizes, as well as sheets. Their toppings choices are extensive - five cheeses, six sauces, eight veggies, and eight meats. If you're ordering a pie, you can ask for thin or "original style" crust. I'm assuming these were thin. If they were original, then "thin" must be very thin indeed.
They also do hot and cold subs, burgers, dogs, fries and onion rings. No wings, apparently.
I was rather impressed, and pleased, with these slices. What made me even more pleased was the price - just five bucks for the two slices and a bottle of pop. Based on these slices, I'd say that Flour City Pizza is off to a very good start. Maybe they'll be the ones to make it stick at this location.
I've been avoiding assigning letter grades to places that have only recently opened. Sometimes I do that because the pizza had some flaws, and I don't want to saddle a new place with a bad grade while they're still working the bugs out and trying to get on their feet. That's certainly not a concern here, because this pizza was quite good, but for the sake of consistency I'll defer giving Flour City Pizza a grade until I've had a chance to go back. But I will say that these slices were at least above average, and well worth stopping for.

Flour City Pizza
1074 Lyell Ave., Rochester
585-458-0634

Mon. - Wed. noon - 1:30 a.m.
Thu. - Sat. noon - 3:30 a.m.
Sun. noon - midnight