The PIzza Shoppe

When I first read about "Detroit style" pizza a few years ago, I was skeptical. My gut instinct said, the pizza industry needs to keep coming up with new styles to sustain interest and drive business. And I wasn't sure whether Detroit pizza was genuinely a style unto itself, or just a marketing gimmick.

Since then, I've come around to realize that yeah, OK, it's a real thing. I've never been to Detroit, I've barely been to Michigan (and didn't have any pizza on my one brief foray), but I've read a fair amount about the parameters of the style, and I've had some versions of Detroit-style pizza locally. Some have been very good, and based on what I know, seem to come close to the definition of Detroit style. (I won't try to lay it all out here, but here and here are descriptions as good as any.)

So it was with some interest that I got around recently to trying The Pizza Shoppe in Penfield, which bills itself as "your casual neighborhood spot for Detroit-Style Pizza," "with that iconic thick, airy crust, crispy caramelized edges, and bold toppings." I ordered a single (10"x14") pizza, half cup 'n' char pepperoni, half sweet peppers and onions, for pickup.

Upon inspection, in some respects it hit the mark, with a thick crust and toppings that extended to the edges. So far, so good.

In other respects, however ...

Let's talk about the crust. Detroit style pizza should have a thick, but light, crunchy crust.  The underside shouldn't be particularly oily, but should have an almost fried quality from baking in an oil-coated, dark steel pan.

This crust, I'm afraid, fell short in that department. If I didn't know what it was supposed to be, I would've said it was what around here we know as sheet pizza. I mean, it was okay, but it certainly wasn't crisp. Granted, it took me about 20 minutes to get it home, but even allowing for that, it just didn't have the crisp surface I expected. The creases evident in the photo also indicated that in spots, it wasn't making full contact with the pan.

Another marker of Detroit style pizza is that the crust should have a light texture:  thick, but not dense. The Pizza Shoppe's website itself references its "airy crust."

In that respect too, this pizza didn't fit that description. I wouldn't describe it as dense, but it was quite chewy, and lacked the multitudinous tiny air pockets that are associated with the style.

Moving on to the cheese, with Detroit-style pizza the cheese is typically laid directly on the dough, then sauce is layered over the cheese during or immediately after the bake. This allows the cheese to adhere to the crust, and also creates a barrier between the crust and the sauce, which helps keep the crust from getting soggy.

I was frankly not concentrating on that aspect while eating this, and with the additional toppings it's a little difficult to tell from the photos, but I believe that the cheese was applied on top of the sauce. Again, that's more typical of ordinary sheet pizza than Detroit-style pizza. 

Not to get nitpicky, but I'll mention that purists will also tell you that authentic Detroit-style pizza uses Wisconsin brick cheese. The Pizza Shoppe uses a mozzarella blend with a little Parmesan. I won't hold that against them, because brick cheese is hard to come by in these parts, although there may be a better substitute than straight mozzarella. (I could swear, by the way, than when I was growing up down in the Southern Tier, my dad, who always kept our fridge stocked with a variety of cheeses, would buy brick cheese on occasion. Where he bought it, I have no idea, but I can still remember what it looked and tasted like.)

Finally, and again to quote The Pizza Shoppe's website, Detroit-style pizza is also typified by "a crunchy, caramelized cheese edge," thanks to the application of cheese all the way to the edge. The cheese melts and essentially fries in its own fat as it comes into contact with the sides of the pan. If you've baked pizza on a baking sheet, you know that a little cheese often ends up on the sheet as it bakes, and if you're like me those bits are like a bonus treat when the pizza comes out of the oven. This pizza did display some of that caramelization along the edge. Not to a great extent perhaps, but it was there, certainly.

I realize I've dinged this pizza on a number of aspects, and it may sound as if I didn't much like it. That's not the case. I repeat that I have never had Detroit pizza at its namesake place of origin, but with that caveat I've tried to describe the extent to which this pizza measured up, or fell short of the parameters of the style. In short, it checked some boxes but not others. I liked it well enough; treating it as a sheet pizza, it was fine. I'm just not too sure that a Detroiter would consider it authentic.

The Pizza Shoppe

1601 Penfield Rd #19 (Panorama Plaza), Rochester, NY 14625

(585) 203-1122
 

Menu: tpsroc.com 

Mon. - Fri. 11 am - 7 pm
Sat. noon - 7 pm
Closed Sundays

Grappa

 In late April, I had lunch with a friend at Grappa, which opened in 2015 at the Hilton Garden Inn in College Town. Although I have previously reviewed Grappa, that was in 2015, so a revisit was long overdue. 

In my 2015 post, I wrote that Grappa offered six pizzas on the menu; this time there were five. Alas, I did not list all six varieties, so I'm not sure to what extent the menu has changed since then. One change I am sure of is that pepperoni pizza is no longer on the menu. That's too bad, as I rather liked the one I tried back then.

But they do still have Margherita pizza, and as I did in 2015, I ordered one this time around as well. There were some similarities to the 2015 version, but also some significant differences. 

Then as now, the crust was quite thin. Both were browned underneath. The 2026 pie had pronounced screen marks underneath, however, which were absent in 2015. I'm a little leery of screen marks, because I generally prefer the entire underside of the crust to come into direct contact with the hot oven deck, but itself I don't consider that a sine qua non of good pizza.

 Interestingly enough, the crust on this pizza was noticeably crisper than on the 2015 pie. I described that crust as "straddl[ing] the line between crisp and pliable," whereas this crust was crisp to the point of brittleness. Make of that what you will.

Moving on to the toppings, just as in 2015, this Margherita was somewhat unusual in employing both tomato sauce and fresh sliced tomatoes.  And based on what I wrote back then, I'd say the tomatoes were more prominent on this pizza. The sauce was more heavily applied, and judging from the 2015 photo, the tomato slices were thicker, as well as more visually appealing, with a vibrant red hue; the 2015 tomatoes were paler and yellow-white in the center.

The sauce on both pies was smooth, and I honestly couldn't say if or to what extent they tasted the same. In 2015, I wrote that the sauce was "not heavily seasoned," and had a slightly sweet flavor.  That roughly describes the 2025 version, but my friend and I agreed that it tasted like canned sauce. I don't mean that it tasted metallic, and I certainly don't have an issue with using canned sauce. Plenty--I daresay most--pizzerias use canned sauce; I use it myself. But there was a certain flatness to this sauce that I tend to associate with canned sauce. It was OK; it just didn't wow me.

That brings us to the cheese. I was pleased to see the pie dotted with slices of fresh mozzarella, rather than the blanket of processed mozzarella that Grappa used in 2015.

Again, nothing wrong with processed mozzarella, or with a uniform layer of cheese. But if you're calling it a Margherita, I think you should try to stick to the stylistic parameters, and one of those, to my mind, is the use of fresh mozzarella. A Margherita pizza is not simply a sauce and cheese pizza with basil added. So kudos on that score. The cheese was also nicely done, with just a touch of browning, and a smooth, not rubbery texture.

Before I wrap this up, I'll mention that we also shared a plate of garlic Parmesan fries, which were very good. On my list of foods I love, french fries are not far below pizza, and these were crisp, potatoey, and hard to resist.

So as with myself, there have been some changes over the years at Grappa, some for the better. I've stopped handing out grades, for a combination of reasons, but I will say that I would take this pizza over the one I got in 2015 (which I gave a B). The crust was crisper and I liked the use of fresh mozzarella. So while I might prefer the 2015 version of myself, I'll take the 2026 version of Grappa's Margherita pizza.

Grappa 

30 Celebration Drive
Rochester, NY 14620

585.445.5770

Lunch
Monday - Friday 
11:00 AM - 2:00 PM 

Happy Hour
Monday - Saturday 
4:00 PM - 6:00 PM

Dinner
Monday - Sunday: 
5:00 PM - 9:00 PM

Sagra Italia

My wife and I recently had dinner at Sagra Italia on St. Paul St., which opened in late 2025 in the former site of Fifth Frame Brewing in downtown Rochester. Sagra had been on my radar screen for a while, after I learned that they offer pizza made with house-made focaccia. 

 Sagra Italia doesn't accept reservations, but although it was Saturday, I hoped that if we got there relatively early we wouldn't have much trouble getting a table. Fortunately, I was correct. They were moderately busy at around 5:30, but we were seated within a few minutes after our arrival. 

 Sagra is a fast-casual operation, with the food counter and kitchen on the right, and bar at the left. After making our choices, my wife put in our food order while I fetched us a couple drinks at the bar.

Any time there's Margherita pizza on the menu, I'm probably going with that, and so I did here. Rather than order an entire pizza, we got a single square-cut slice, which allowed us to try a second variety, the La Bianca (white pizza). We also shared a bowl of Shellfish Scoglio, which the menu describes as comprising Italian bronze-cut spaghetti, mussels, shrimp, grape tomatoes, marinara, white wine, garlic, chili flakes, fresh parsley, and Parmigiano/Romano (both? either? don't know).

Not long after putting in our order, our food was delivered to the table. The Margherita was topped with marinara sauce, fresh mozzarella, and basil pesto. The crust was an inch or so thick (it's focaccia, remember), and though my predilections run toward thin crust, I very much liked it. It was airy and crunchy, which indicated good gluten development. The flavor was quite good as well, and I was happily surprised by the use of basil pesto rather than fresh basil. I don't think that would've worked quite as well on a thin crust, but on a focaccia pizza, the pesto added basil flavor plus a bit of olive oil that helped balance the thick crust, in a way that fresh basil alone wouldn't have done.

I wasn't sure if I was going to like the La Bianca, but I was again pleasantly surprised, particularly by the lemon ricotta. Frankly, I've never been a huge fan of ricotta on pizza. Maybe it's just me, but it's always seemed like a substitute for fresh mozzarella. And lemon on pizza? Giddouttaheah!

But this was good. It would be easy to overdo lemon, but this was subtle enough that with the other toppings, it worked very well. Whoever is coming up with these ideas clearly knows what they're doing.

Oh yeah -- our shellfish was good too, as were the wine, beer, and service. I was also happy to see them busy, and I encourage you to check them out.

Sagra Italia

155 St. Paul Street

Wed. - Sun. 11 am - 10 pm, closed Mon. and Tue.