Abba's Pizza

NOTE:  Abba's is no longer in operation. Chabad Lubavitch now offers Gavi's kosher pizza.
Pizza probably isn't the first thing that comes to mind when you think of kosher food, but yes, there is such a thing as kosher pizza, and yes, you can get it in Rochester. Yesterday I made it over to Rochester's first, and I believe only kosher pizzeria, Abba's Pizza, at the Chabad Center on Winton Road, just south of Monroe and Elmwood.
Abba's is open to the public, but don't expect to see any signs for it outside; simply look for the Chabad Center, go in the front door, and follow your nose down the hall to the kitchen.
The operator of Abba's is a Rochester native who spent some time in the photography business in L.A., then moved back here with his wife to raise a family. Despite a lack of experience in the food service industry (rare in L.A., I guess, which is full of actors waiting on tables), he accepted a job taking over the kitchen at Chabad. Since then, he's managed to "reinvent" himself, in his words, as a chef and pizzaiolo.
So what makes a pizza kosher? Well, most obviously, there's no meat. No pepperoni, no sausage, no meatballs. Second, all the ingredients are kosher - the flour, salt, you name it. Where that makes the most noticeable difference is probably the cheese, which is under rabbinical supervision from the milking of the cow to the production of the cheese. More significantly, in terms of taste, texture and appearance, the cheese on Abba's pizza is also made without rennet, which is an animal product commonly used in cheesemaking.
My slice (topped with red bell pepper and onion) had a very thin crust, which is a nod to the tastes of the many transplanted New Yorkers at the Chabad Center. Although Abba's started out with a crust described as a "compromise between thick and thin," that's no longer the case; there are no compromises here, and this is decidedly a thin crust. (And in case your knowledge of Jewish dietary laws is as poor as mine, no, it's not unleavened. Yeast is OK. Most of the time.)
The underside of the crust, which was given a one- or two-minute reheating in Abba's large commercial pizza oven, was firm and crisp on the outside. It wasn't exactly charred, but there were bits of what seemed to be burnt cheese underneath.
The crust was topped with a tomato sauce that was somewhat thick, not so much in a cooked-down way, but just in a not-watery way. It had a good, tomatoey flavor, with a certain background taste of herbs that I couldn't quite pin down.
Atop the sauce lay the cheese, which I found a bit bland, without the tanginess of most pizza cheese, but which partially made up for its relative lack of flavor with a melted, smooth, creamy texture. The vegetable toppings actually worked quite well with this slice, since a strong-flavored topping like pepperoni, even if it were available, would simply have overwhelmed the other components.
Abba's sells pizza by the slice, as well as in whole 16" pies, which might go up to 18" at some point, in response to consumer demand (those NYers love a big, foldable slice). They also offer soups, salads, sandwiches and fries. Prices are a bit above what you might pay elsewhere, largely because of the cost of the kosher ingredients, the cheese in particular, but the pizza is certainly not outrageously expensive, either.
In the months since it opened, Abba's has gotten a very good response from its Chabad clientele, and when school is in session it also does a steady business with students from Brighton High School across the street. Outside business has been slow, but given Abba's low public profile, that's not surprising.
This was pretty good pizza, and certainly distinctive. There was not a single aspect of it that stood out as particularly noteworthy or unusual, but the total blend of flavor and texture made it different from any other pizza I've had around here. I'm looking forward to going back to Abba's sometime for a full, made-to-order pie, but for now I'll give it a B-.
Abba's Pizza, 1037 Winton Road South, 14618  360-9723
Mon. & Wed. 10:30 a.m. - 2 p.m., Tue. & Thu. 10:30 a.m. - 7 p.m., Sat. 7 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.

A Christmas (Eve) Present from 2 Ton Tony's

Wearing a sweatshirt as red as Santa's suit, "2 Ton Tony" Proietti hosted a free Christmas Eve buffet lunch at his eponymous pizzeria in Irondequoit last Friday.
The event revives a family tradition started by Tony's grandparents, who owned the long-gone Ozzie's pizzeria on Goodman Street. Every year on Christmas Eve, they'd put out a free lunch as a thank-you to their customers.
This year Tony decided to do the same, the only change being the expanded size and variety of the buffet. When I stopped by at around 1:30, the booths at Tony's were filled with a mix of patrons, friends and family, who occasionally lined up at the buffet table as new trays were brought out, laden with several varieties of pizza, wings, meatballs, Italian sausage, rigatoni, salad, antipasti and more.
As Tony was busy overseeing it all and visiting with guests, he paused long enough for a photo, together with his daughter and his grandson, who sometime in the near future was going to have himself a sibling.
I chatted with Tony for just a few minutes, and as he casually mentioned some of the local pizzeria owners with whom he talks on a regular basis, I realized that there's a genuine community of local, independent pizza purveyors out there, probably as in any business, but it's nice to know nonetheless. Their very sense of neighborhood is what makes the independents less competitors than colleagues. And it's events like this that will help them survive, and thrive, in the face of economic challenges and competition from the big guys.
That community spirit exists not only among the owners themselves, but extends to their clientele too. As customers, we can help keep it alive by supporting our local pizzerias, so keep that in mind next time you're ordering. Buon appetito and Happy Holidays.
2 Ton Tony’s, 545 Titus Ave. 266-TONY (8669)
Mon. - Thu. 11 a.m. - 9 p.m., Fri. & Sat. 11 a.m. - 10 p.m., Sun. noon - 9 p.m.

That's Downright Criminal

Thought I'd pass this on -

AMHERST, Mass. (AP) - A man wearing a Bob Dylan backstage pass who ordered 178 pizzas from a Massachusetts pizza parlor but never picked them up has agreed to hand over the dough.

A lawyer for the New Jersey man says his client is a "decent enough" guy with no criminal record who felt bad about the prank.

Attorney Sean Cleary did not reveal his client's name and did not say how much he'll repay. The pizzas he ordered were worth about $4,000.

Workers at Antonio's in the college town of Amherst stayed until 5:30 a.m. on Nov. 20 making the pies. The man ordered them shortly after a Dylan concert at the nearby University of Massachusetts.

He said he would return in several hours and deliver them to Dylan's crew. But he never returned and the manager called police.

Some pizzas were given away, but most were thrown out.