And the Winner Is ...

Craig Ephraim! Craig (cephraim on the comments but I recognize the name from Facebook) has won a $25 gift certificate to Tony D's in Corn Hill. Craig, I don't think I have your mailing address so please send it to me at rochesternypizzaguy@gmail.com and I'll get the card in the mail to you straight away. When you go there, please tell them where you got the card. Thanks and enjoy, and thanks to everyone who participated!

Last Day for City Newspaper's "Best of Rochester" Primary Voting

Just a reminder that today is your last chance to vote in City Newspaper's "Best of Rochester 2012" poll. This preliminary round will determine the finalists in a wide range of categories.
If you're so inclined, I'd appreciate your vote in the "Best Local Blog" category (Question #66). There are plenty of other interesting categories, including "Best Pizza Slice" and "Best Specialty Pizza." Lots of other stuff, too, from food to entertainment to sports. Make your voice heard!

2 Ton Tony's Pizza Party Photos

I was, unfortunately, unable to attend 2 Ton Tony's free pizza party in Spencerport last Sunday, but Tony sent me some photos. Ogden Supervisor Gay Lenhard and Spencerport Mayor Joyce Lobene were in attendance for the ribbon cutting, and a lot of local residents got to enjoy some fine pizza, courtesy of owner Tony Proietti.
Next time you're in the area, stop by for a slice or two. It won't be free, but it will be good.

Wally's Pub, Canandaigua

Like anybody else in the Rochester area, I find myself in Canandaigua from time to time, but it's not an everyday thing, so on a recent foray into Canandaigua, I hit up two pizza places. The first was Pizano's, which I posted about recently.
But prior to going there, I discovered online that Wally's Pub, a bar just off Main Street, sells pizza to go, so after picking up my pizza from Pizano's, I swung by Wally's and grabbed a pepperoni pie.
(I did not, by the way, eat two pizzas in one sitting. I had a couple of slices of each - they were small slices - and saved the rest. Even I have my limits.)

This provided an interesting contrast to Pizano's, and showed how a dish as simple as pizza can vary so much from one place to another. Wally's crust might've been a tad thicker than Pizano's, with a more uniformly browned underside that was reasonably crisp. The dough had clearly been "docked," meaning punctured with small holes to prevent it from bubbling up in the oven. The crust also had a certain crunchiness that suggested perhaps the presence of oil or other shortening in the dough, though the crust itself wasn't noticeably oily.

The toppings were also markedly different, though not necessarily better or worse, than Pizano's. A uniform layer of melted mozzarella was almost gooey, in a good way. The abundant cheese meant that my leftovers benefited well from reheating (which led me to discover that putting frozen slices into a 400 degree toaster oven for about 8 minutes, followed by 30 seconds in the microwave, does a remarkably good job of bringing leftover pizza back to life. The oven crisped up the bottom, and the microwave melted the cheese quite nicely).

While I enjoyed the stringy mozzarella, the other toppings played prominent roles as well. The sauce, though not applied to excess, was nonetheless noticeable for its very tomatoey flavor. And the pepperoni was generously laid on, several slices thick in spots, as you can see in the third photo.

Aside from pizza, Wally's offers the usual selection of bar food (you can find their menu here), and from some online reviews that I've read, the Wally Burger is held in no little renown. Though not much to look at on the outside, Wally's is a pleasant spot, a classic neighborhood tavern with just enough room for its U-shaped bar, which on this occasion was about half full of locals enjoying lunch and some friendly conversation.

It's unfortunately rare to find bars around this area that serve pizza, and rarer still to find bars that serve good pizza. So Wally's was a pleasant surprise. There was nothing particularly subtle or sublime about this pizza - it was saucy, cheesy and meaty, with a serviceable crust - but it was good, solid pizza, with a lot of flavor and textural contrasts. The almost biscuitlike, crispy crunch of the crust, the well melted cheese, tomatoey sauce and abundant pepperoni combined to make a very distinctive pie that rates a B from me.

Wally's Pub, 16-18 Phoenix St., Canandaigua

(585) 394-2718

I'm not sure of the hours, but don't go by the listing on Facebook, which shows Wally's as closed on Mondays and opening late on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. I called them one morning when the Facebook listing showed them being closed, and not only did someone (presumably the bartender) promptly answer, but when I told him I was just checking to see if they were open, he replied, with a tone of surprise, "Of course! We're always open." And according to the menu, the kitchen is likewise "always open," so if you're inclined to go, just go. They'll be open.

New Giveaway - $25 Tony D's Gift Card!

It's giveaway time again! This time I have a gift card from Tony D's in Corn Hill, good for $25 toward anything on the menu.
I've written about Tony D's before, and it's good stuff. It also got this rave review by a fellow pizza blogger from Florida. I had lunch at Tony D's recently, and while I'm not doing a full-blown review this time, I've included some photos here so you can get a look at their coal-fired pizza. They do more than just pizza, as you can see from their menu, but pizza is the main draw here.
I usually begin these giveaways on a Friday, but this Friday I'm busy and may not have time, so I'm starting a day early. But it will run till next Friday, August 31. To enter, just leave a comment, any comment, at the end of this blog post. I'd prefer that it be on-topic (your opinion of Tony D's, why you'd like to win, or anything pizza-related), but that's not a requirement. Shortly after noon on the 31st, I'll pick a winner at random. Leave as many comments as you like, but multiple entries will not increase your chances of winning.
If you do win, I'll need a way to contact you, and get the gift card to you in the mail, so either include an email address in your comment (not necessary, if I can get it from your Blogger profile), or email me at rochesternypizzaguy@gmail.com, with your screen name, real name, and postal address. I won't share them with anyone - it's strictly so I can mail the card to you if you win.

Product Review - Rocky Mountain Popcorn

The food trend of the moment seems to be gourmet popcorn, and while food trends come and go, this is one I can live with. Popcorn is tasty, takes on added flavors well, and makes for a quick, not-too-filling snack.
The biggest downside to popcorn is keeping it fresh. Those popped kernels tend to absorb moisture like a sponge, and can quickly go stale.
I was recently given a free variety-pack sample of popcorn from the Rocky Mountain Popcorn Company. It's a Colorado-based company that's been in the gourmet popcorn business for 20+ years, but which has just recently begun to distribute their product nationally.
Rocky Mountain describes its popcorn as "real: it’s light, fresh, crisp and big... just like the mountains themselves. We find the biggest, moistest kernels we can, and only hot-air pop them. Rocky Mountain Popcorn is honest: it’s delicately coated with natural flavors, not smothered with pretentious-sounding hoo-ha. You won’t find corn syrup or partially hydrogenated anything in Rocky Mountain Popcorn."
With allowances for advertising "puffery" (no pun intended), this is genuinely good popcorn. The flavors - "naked" (plain), cinnamon sugar, white cheddar, caramel, butter, jalapeno, and kettle corn - hit the mark, and the foil packaging kept the popcorn fresh-tasting and crunchy.
I'm a hothead, flavorwise, so I went for the jalapeno. These had more of a jalapeno-cheese flavor than straight jalapeno, but they had a nice kick - not scorchingly hot, but enough to give the salivary glands a little workout.
My wife's and daughter's tastes run more toward the sweet end of the scale, and they've been happily munching on the caramel and kettle corn. The former has the classic flavor of caramelized sugar - no corn syrup here, just honest-to-god brown sugar - while the latter strikes the right balance of sweet and salty. There's no substitute for hot, fresh kettle corn, but this comes close. And we all like the butter flavor. Again, you can't beat freshly-popped corn with hot melted butter, but this was far better than the yellow styrofoam that you get in an average, mass-market bag of popcorn at the supermarket.
Speaking of which - at the moment, Rocky Mountain popcorn is currently available in New York mostly at "travel centers" (formerly known as truck stops). In our region, the Dansville Travel Centers of America and Petro in Waterloo both carry Rocky Mountain popcorn. You can also order it online, and this week you can get 35% off your order; go to RMPC's facebook page for more info.

Pizano's, Canandaigua

On a recent foray into Canandaigua, I got a medium pizza from Pizano's, which adjoins the Villager restaurant and the V Pub (you can read a little of the background here).
Pizano's menu advertises pizza dough that is "fresh and made hourly," which I don't think could possibly mean that they literally make a fresh batch of dough every hour, from scratch. Pizza dough isn't like coffee; you don't want to use it, or eat it, right after it's been made. Unbaked dough needs time to achieve optimal flavor and texture before it does in the oven. So my guess is that they mean that they bake pizzas at least hourly, so that if you get a slice, you know it hasn't been sitting there all day drying out under a heat lamp. But since I ordered a pie, the freshness of Pizano's slices wasn't a particular concern of mine.
This medium pepperoni pie had a thin crust, with a pale bottom that was firm but not crisp, and dry, not greasy. Though the bottom was pretty dry - which is a good thing - the top was a different story. It wasn't drenched in grease, but some areas were coated in a thin layer of orangey oil, which may have come from the cheese, the pepperoni, or both. Some of the oil had soaked into the top side of the crust, though not too deeply. I wasn't thrilled by the pale underside, but there was some nice breadiness near the edge, with some good-sized air holes created by the yeast.
Though the cup-and-char pepperoni was fine, the most prominent component here was the cheese. It had a tangy flavor, and very much predominated over the thin layer of mildly-flavored sauce. A light sprinking of grated cheese added to the overall cheesy flavor of this pizza.
Pizano's offers six specialty pizzas, including a "Tuscany Valley" pie topped with roasted red peppers, pepperoni, onions and Genoa salami. I think salami is an underused, underappreciated pizza topping that is well worth trying, if you haven't done so yet (but it's got to be good, hard salami, not the wimpy stuff that shows up on your average sub sandwich). They also do wings, calzones, sandwiches, salads, pasta, ribs, and (mostly fried) seafood. It's a pretty full menu of standards. They also do catering.
As for this pizza, I found myself liking it in spite, or because, of what seemingly should've been considered flaws. What I particularly liked about this pizza was its distinctiveness. It had a combination of flavors and textures that was subtly, yet definitely, different from other pizzas I've tried. And the overall flavor and texture, was, I thought, rather enjoyable. Somehow, the firm, chewy crust, the oil-slicked cheese, and the ever-so-slightly burnt pepperoni worked together, to make for a good pie.
I made a note, while eating this pizza, that despite its seeming flaws - the almost underdone crust being foremost among them - my impression at the time was that it deserved a B, with the caveat that this pizza would not be to everyone's taste. If you demand a pizza with a crisp, crackly crust, you might be inclined to give it a D. But I do prize distinctiveness among pizza, and to me, this is one to at least try. So I'm sticking with my initial impression, and giving it a B.
Pizano's Pizza, 243 S. Main St., Canandaigua
(585) 393-0690
Open 10 a.m. - midnight daily

Save the Date: FREE Pizza from 2 Ton Tony's on Aug. 26

I can't say much more about this than Tony does in this announcement, so I won't.

Return to Panzari's

One of my earliest blog posts was a review of Panzari's in Corn Hill, in April 2009. I gave them a pretty scathing review, and a D-minus to go along with it. Part of that was due to my chagrin that a place that advertised wood-fired pizza would serve me a pizza made in something akin to a waffle iron.
But I've wondered, since then, if I just caught them on a bad day, and I figured that now that they've got some increased competition, in the form of Tony D's across the street, maybe they've stepped up their game. So I went back.
I ordered the same pizza as last time, the "Margarita" (still misspelled), not just because I like that style but because I figured it would make for a fair comparison with what I had last time.
Interestingly, Panzari's website now advertises "Brick Oven-Fired Pizza," not wood-fired pizza as before. "Brick oven-fired pizza" doesn't really make any sense to me; "brick oven pizza," or "wood-fired pizza," I get, but "brick oven-fired pizza" is meaningless.
Semantics aside, though, OK, I get that they are not doing, or claiming to make, wood-fired pizza these days, just pizza baked in a brick oven. Fair enough, and certainly a brick oven can produce excellent pizza, regardless of the heat source.
But to my disappointment, if less than complete surprise, my pizza was about the same as before. The thin-to-medium crust was soft, with a lot - and I mean a lot - of corn meal adhering to the bottom. Much of the corn meal was blackened. Now I like corn meal well enough, in some contexts (polenta, for example), and I use it myself sometimes to keep my pizza dough from sticking to the peel, but every bite here included a gritty dose of the stuff. Not good.
Aside from that sooty corn meal, and a little browning along parts of the edge, the crust was pale and uninteresting. It had a pleasant enough flavor, but texturally, it was dull. Whatever advantages might be gained by the use of a brick oven weren't apparent here.
The toppings didn't help much. Granted, I could've opted for bolder, more flavorful toppings, but there's no reason that a Margherita can't have an interesting, complex flavor profile. This pie had a thick layer of melted mozzarella (which in itself wasn't bad, or wouldn't have been, in combination with the right other toppings), fresh but bland tomato slices, a smattering of shredded basil, and a bit of garlic. As I've said before, better to use good, canned tomatoes (like San Marzano tomatoes from Italy) than flavorless fresh tomatoes. And to me, the basil on a Margherita should do more than just supply the third color of the Italian flag. It should add flavor and aroma. The few shreds on this pizza may have added up to a single basil leaf, and were barely noticeable on my palate. The garlic was a welcome addition, but wasn't able to rescue this pizza from mediocrity.
Once again, then, a very disappointing pizza from Panzari's, and undoubtedly my last, barring word of significant changes there. Thanks to my dropping pluses and minuses from my grades, this gets a half-step bump up from Panzari's previous D-minus, but the letter grade remains stuck at D.
Panzari's Italian Bistro, 321 Exchange Blvd., Rochester 14608
546-7990
Mon. - Thu. 11 a.m. - 9:30 p.m., Fri. 11 a.m. - 10 p.m., Sat. 4:30 p.m. - 10 p.m., Sun., 4:30 p.m.–9 p.m.

Pizza San Giorgio, Canandaigua

With this post, I begin a look at some Canandaigua-area pizzerias. No particular reason, just a combination of happenstance and my discovery of a couple of places out that way that I'd never been to.
In the case of Pizza San Giorgio, on East Lake Road, I had to travel out that way recently, so I stopped by. It's a deli/convenience store, but also a full-fledged pizzeria - there's a kitchen with pizza ovens, unlike many convenience stores where the pizza seems to emerge out of nowhere.
I got a couple of cheese slices, which were reheated in the oven. The crust was medium thick, with a soft texture, and indented underneath with screen marks. The underside was also somewhat oily, and in some areas an oily sheen was visible.
I'm not sure if that oil had exuded from the dough itself, or was on the pan it had rested in, or seeped down from the top. I don't think it was the latter, because although the top also showed some oil, it was that orangey kind of oil that you see on top of some pizzas, that I think exudes from the cheese. And the oil underneath wasn't orange.
But speaking of which - this was very cheesy pizza, and frankly it didn't seem to be great cheese. Maybe if I'd gotten a freshly made pie, or stopped in right after this pie had come out of the oven, things would have been better, but this was more chewy than creamy or gooey (hey, a mini-poem!).
Maybe it was mostly the abundance of cheese, but the sauce kind of got lost in the mix here. I tried to taste it separately but it really seemed overwhelmed by the cheese and to a lesser extent the crust. I did pick up a hint of garlic powder, the presence of which might have explained the light layer of black dust on the cornicione.
Pizza San Giorgio offers nine specialty pizzas, and fifteen toppings, including dill pickles, which is so out there that I really want to try it. They also do wings (in a wide variety of styles, including a black pepper-based "Pepe Nero" wing that they claim you won't find elsewhere this side of Malaysia), subs, calzones, sides, breakfast sandwiches, and ice cream. There are tables in the back, and a diner-type counter. And a small grocery section stocked with snacks and drinks.
So I like the place. The staff was friendly, and it seemed like a great spot for local residents and visitors heading down to the east side of Canandaigua Lake.
But I have to be honest - I didn't care for this pizza. Now again, maybe things would have been different had they been fresher, but I always say that if you offer slices, then it's fair for me to rate the slices.
The overall flavor of these slices was OK, but they really weren't that great. The crust was soft, they were unbalanced - too high a cheese-to-sauce ratio - the cheese itself didn't seem to be the best, and they were oily, top and bottom. I wish I could rate them higher, but I have to give these slices a D. In spite of that, I would stop back, but probably for a sub, snacks, Pepe Nero wings, or maybe to try a dill pickle pizza.
Pizza San Giorgio, 4502 NY Rt. 364, Canandaigua
585-394-4817
Mon. - Sat. 7 a.m. - 9 p.m., Sun. 8 a.m. - 9 p.m.

Good Guys, Chili Ave.

I was surprised to discover that my most recent review of Good Guys on Chili Ave. was back in May 2009.
I would've sworn that I'd reviewed it since then. Maybe I was thinking of my review of Good Guys' short-lived second location on Ridgeway Avenue in Greece (now the site of Pizzeria 5).
So certainly it was high time to get back to Good Guys, and to try a full pie from there.
Like a lot of pizzerias, Good Guys offers crusts of varying thickness, thin, thick and "regular." I ordered a regular crust, with half pepperoni and half sweet peppers.
The crust was on the thin side of medium, with a dry underside that displayed some blistery charring underneath. A little flour adhered to the crust, but not enough to detract from what was a pretty good crust. A bit of raw flour was visible in some cracks on the bottom, but it wasn't a major defect.
It was firm enough that an individual slice could be held horizontally, without the tip flopping. The underside was also fairly crisp, on the outside, but with some chew inside. A crunchy edge rounded things out nicely.
The components were also well balanced, with a moderate amount of sauce, melted mozzarella, and a background of herbs. The sauce was neither particularly acidic, salty, nor sweet, but rather a straightforward, tomatoey flavor, and the sauce and cheese nicely complemented the crust. The additional toppings were also fine, although I regretted forgetting to ask for cup-and-char pepperoni, which is available here.
I can best describe this as Rochester style pizza, with some characteristics of New York style. It was a little thinner and crisper than a typical Rochester pizza, but thicker and heavier than classic New York pizza.
All in all, a very good pizza. A little tough to grade - very good, with no particular defects, yet it wasn't so clearly head and shoulders above other pizza in the area as to warrant an A. I've stopped trying to fine-tune my grades with pluses and minuses, so I'm going to go with a B on this one, which is still a good grade. But one or two more fine pies from Good Guys may persuade me to bump them up. I look forward to going back.
Good Guys Pizza, 3313 Chili Avenue #2 14624
(585) 889-2940
Sun. - Thu. 11 a.m. - 10 p.m., Fri. & Sat. 11 a.m. - 11 p.m.

Vicari's, Ontario

In researching the new, second location of Empire Pizza in Ontario, I ran across a reference to Vicari's Pizzeria, which I'd never heard of before, on Ridge Road in Ontario.
For the time being, the Ontario Empire location opens at 4:00, so I made the trek to check out Vicari's. It's a small pizzeria on Ridge Road (which is not the same as 104, it's an older road parallel to and just south of 104), between Ontario Center Road (Rt. 350) and Furnace Road (County Road 110).
I got there about 11:45 a.m., and was pleasantly surprised to see several pies available for slices. I chose a pepperoni slice and a Buffalo chicken slice.
Both were thin (about an eighth of an inch thick), New York style slices. Each came sliced into two. The undersides had a dusting of corn meal and were lightly charred. They were pliable but firm, with some chewy breadiness in the interior.
The pepperoni slice was topped with a moderate amount of mildly flavored tomato sauce, a thin layer of mozzarella, and a generous helping of thin pepperoni slices. It was a well balanced slice, and the overall flavor was good.
The Buffalo chicken slice was done with small chunks of breaded chicken (think a diced chicken finger), "Cajun sauce," and mozzarella. "Cajun" seems like an odd name for Buffalo chicken sauce, but the flavor was that of a basic hot sauce, with enough heat to add a little kick, though toward the mild end of the scale. Blue cheese is served on the side here, not on the pizza.
Vicari's menu is available online, but I'll give a brief rundown.
Pizzas come in 10-, 14- and 16-inch pie sizes (which are available thin, thick, or "regular" - I assume these were "thin"), as well as 16" pan pizza, and sheets. A 9-inch gluten-free pizza is also available. There are 22 toppings and ten specialty pizzas, plus calzones, "twists" and "knots." They also do wings (fried or char-broiled), subs, salads, burgers and pasta. Next time I'm out that way I may get a "Bambino" sub, named in honor of Babe Ruth, I'm sure - one wall of Vicari's is devoted to the New York Yankees (a customer in a Red Sox cap did his best not to notice, or at least not to let it bother him).
I should mention that despite the image of a wood-burning pizza oven on the front of the menu, Vicari's uses regular pizza ovens. Nothing wrong with that - the pizzas are brick-lined, and they don't use screens - but to avoid confusion it wouldn't be a bad idea for them to switch out the photo at some point.
This was some pretty good thin-crust pizza. It didn't have quite the crackle of superb New York style pizza, and some of the corn meal had burned a bit, turning into soot. To get a little nitpicky, the cheese was all right, but not as delectably creamy as I've had on some slices. So I'm not prepared to give it an A. But it was well balanced and tasty, with a good crust. It was certainly above average, and I'm adding it to my mental go-to list for the area, so it easily rates a B from me.
Vicari's Pizzeria, 1795 Ridge Road, Ontario, NY 14519
315-524-4500
Mon. - Sat. 10 - 10, Sun. noon  - 9

Colie's Cafe, Park Ave. - Buffalo Chicken Pizza

Places that advertise themselves as pizzerias always take priority on my to-do list. Restaurants with pizza on the menu, not so much.
So it took me a while to get to Colie's Cafe on Park Avenue. This was formerly Camille's, and part of a franchise, but a couple of years ago, they changed over to Colie's, and became an independent operation. I think that's the gist of it.
And they do have pizza on the menu, so I had to give it a try.
From the six pizzas on their menu, I got a Buffalo chicken pie. Ordinarily, the first time at a place, I would go for a plain cheese pizza, or maybe pepperoni, but I figured few people are going to come here just to get a regular pizza, not with Cobbs Hill and Chester Cab both nearby. And since Buffalo chicken pizza may be the most popular "specialty" pizza locally, I thought that would be a good choice.
Plus, Colie's menu describes their Buffalo chicken pizza as topped with "grilled chicken with onions, celery, tomatoes, crumbly bleu cheese, spicy boom-boom sauce and mozzarella." You rarely see celery on pizza (it's tough to do, since it's so full of water), and I wondered about the "boom-boom sauce," and crumbly blue is unusual too, for pizza, so I was intrigued.
The pizza came up remarkably fast, just a few minutes after I ordered it. That was not a good sign, as it suggested a very pre-made pizza.
But I was pleasantly surprised. This was pretty good. It wasn't very big, maybe 8 inches across, but the crust was reasonably crisp and not greasy.
The pie was topped with diced, unbreaded chicken, tossed in a very mildly hot sauce. If you want this spicy, better ask for some Tabasco or whatever they have on hand. So as a hothead, culinarily speaking, that was a disappointment. But it was an interesting take on Buffalo chicken pizza, with crunchy slices of celery, sauteed onions, and diced tomatoes, mixed with a creamy white sauce that was tinged with blue cheese crumbles.
One odd thing was that the top layer of the crust easily separated from the bottom. It wasn't so much that the toppings separated from the crust as that the crust separated into two layers, top and bottom.
That aside, this was a tasty pie, with a decent crust, and an interesting mix of flavors and textures. I haven't been rating Buffalo chicken pizza, since they vary so widely as to make them difficult to compare with each other. And I'm not sure what I would think of Colie's more traditional pizzas. So I'll not give this a rating, but I will say that I enjoyed it, and I'm frankly not a huge fan of Buffalo chicken pizza. If you are - and maybe even if you're not - it's worth trying.
Colie's Cafe, 657 Park Avenue, Rochester, NY 14607
442-4986
Mon. - Sat. 8 a.m. - 9 p.m., Sun. 8 a.m. - 8 p.m.
Other locations at 3349 Monroe Ave. in Pittsford and at Eastview Mall

Cast Your Ballot!

Can it already be a year since the 2011 Best of Rochester poll in City Newspaper? Apparently.
The 2012 ballot is now online and presumably inside the paper edition as well. I don't know if The Rochester NY Pizza Blog can pull off a threepeat, but I'd appreciate your vote in the "Best Local Blog" category. There are also a number of other food-related categories, including best pizza and best specialty pizza.