3 Daughters Pizzeria

May 2026 saw the opening of 3 Daughters Pizzeria on East Avenue, in the former location of Big City Deli & Pizzeria (which I never got around to trying). I happened to be in the area recently around lunchtime, so I stopped in to check it out.

It's a small place with a modicum of seating (two tables, as I recall), so I got a couple slices to go. 

They had four varieties available:  cheese, pepperoni, Margherita, and the "113 East Ave Special" (garlic pesto marinara base, sausage, pepperoni, onions, peppers, finished with hot honey drizzle). I opted for a cheese slice and a Margherita slice. The counter person / pizzaiolo rewarmed them prior to handing them over. 

Both were thin-to-medium, from about a quarter-inch thick near the tip to a half inch nearer the outer edge. They had a chewy interior and a very crisp bottom. Much of the latter was surely due to the reheating, but the Margherita slice was crisp enough that I could hold it horizontally without folding and with no "flop" at the tip. When I did try to fold it, it cracked down the middle. All of which is OK with me; I'll take that over a soft, limp crust any day, and while well browned, these weren't burnt.

The cheese slice was covered with a layer of what I took to be mozzarella and cheddar. It was nicely melted and stretchy. This is purely subjective, but I would've been happy with a lighter application of cheese, as it overwhelmed the sauce, which was rather tasty, with some subtle notes of garlic and herbs. But I was only able to taste it near the outer perimeter where the cheese was absent.

(As an aside, I should note that if you look closely you may see what appear to be creases in the cheese. That resulted from the server putting both slices in the same bag, and the cheese slices was on the bottom, so it did indeed get some indentations from the wax paper separating it from the Margherita slice above. It's more of an esthetic issue, so I didn't mind, but it's some indication of the thickness of the cheese.) 

I noticed when making my selections that I didn't see any basil on the Margherita, which seemed odd, but I almost always go for a Margherita when it's offered, and it looked pretty good regardless.  When it came out the oven, the server gave it a drizzle of some sort of sauce. I need to learn to speak up more, because I should've asked what it was, but I didn't, and all I could make out from the label on the bottle was "Glaze."

I'm still not sure what it was. I thought perhaps it was some sort of basil-infused condiment, but I didn't detect any basil notes. It was sweet but not spicy, so it wasn't hot honey. I was thinking balsamic, and the color was consistent with that, but I didn't really pick up any vinegar. To confuse matters further, the menu describes the Margherita as topped with "red sauce, fresh mozzarella, Roma tomato, oregano, finished with olive oil and fresh basil." No fresh basil here, and the glaze was not just olive oil, I'm certain of that. So for now it remains a mystery.

Regardless, I enjoyed the slice. It was definitely heavy on the tomatoes, with a thick layer of sweetish tomato sauce (some of that sweetness might've been from the mystery glaze), as well as slices of Roma tomato. The fresh mozzarella was applied over the tomato slices, and tended to blend in with them rather than stand out as distinct islands of cheese, but overall the slice had a good flavor, particularly if you like your pizza on the tomatoey side. Margherita? Mmm, no, but nomenclature aside, I liked it.

Aside from the four sliced pies available that day, 3 Daughters' pizza menu has some interesting choices, many of them sandwich-inspired, including a BLT pizza, a Cuban pizza (garlic base, carnitas, ham, salami, mozzarella, Swiss, pickles, Cuban creamy creole mustard drizzle), a Reuben pizza, and a Spicy Pickle pizza (garlic Cajun base, mozzarella, cheddar, jack, dill pickles, and house pepper ranch and Sriracha drizzle), which despite my predilection for pizza purism, sounds intriguing enough that I wouldn't mind giving it a try.

I should also mention that 3 Daughters Pizzeria is next door to 3 Daughters Tap & Tavern, which has a separate food menu (which includes flatbreads but no pizza). The bar is in the space formerly occupied by Temple Bar & Grill, although it appears that 3 Daughters' owner retained most of Temple's staff, and 3 Daughters' website still refers to it in spots as Temple Bar & Grill, so I gather there is a certain amount of continuity there.

All in all, I was pretty happy with my two slices. I could quibble about a few things. Both seemed a little out of balance to me:  the cheese sauce was almost too cheese-laden, and the Margherita was heavy on the tomatoes, but I know that where pizza's concerned, a lot of folks have a more-is-better attitude, so maybe that's just me. And then there was the whole no-basil Margherita thing, but hey, it tasted good. I don't get downtown as often as I used to, but 3 Daughters has earned a spot on my options list when I do.

3 Daughters Pizzeria

113 East Ave, Rochester, NY 14604

(585) 355-4027
3daughterspizzeria.com 

NOTE:  the hours listed below were lifted from a Google search result. I strongly suggest calling to confirm before going. 

Friday    11 AM–2 AM
Saturday    11 AM–2 AM
Sunday    12–10 PM
Monday    11 AM–11 PM
Tuesday    11 AM–12 AM
Wednesday    11 AM–12 AM
Thursday    11 AM–2 AM

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." It opened in 2022, but I have had it on my to-do list since then.

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