I've done several reviews of Martino's on Long Pond Road, some good, some not so good. But Martino's is no more (there is an unrelated pizzeria named Martino's in Webster, which remains in business).In its stead comes Alloco's, which opened a few months ago. I stopped in the other day for a couple of slices.
One initial pet peeve - the pies for slices weren't out where I could see them. I always like to see what I'm ordering when I get a slice. That way I can see how fresh they look, or maybe one pie will just look more appealing than another on that particular day.
This visit provides another example. I asked for pepperoni, and that's what I got, but it appeared to me that these were cooked cheese slices that had some pepperoni slices added, prior to reheating in the oven.That's not the worst thing, but had I known that, I probably would've just ordered plain cheese. Adding toppings to a cooked slice and then reheating it simply doesn't allow the added toppings to integrate into the rest of the pizza, plus in the case of pepperoni, it doesn't get properly crisp.But OK, this wasn't the end of the world. Aside from that, how was the pizza?
The crust was rather thick - if memory serves, thicker than Martino's - though pies can be ordered thick, thin, or "traditional." I assume this was traditional.
It had a dry, crackly bottom that was nicely browned, with a smattering of corn meal visible. Not the even, shiny golden brown you get with overly oiled pizza, but the shade that bread or pizza dough turns when it's in contact with a hot oven deck. I wouldn't exactly call it charred, but a thicker crust shouldn't necessarily be charred anyway, as it needs time to bake fully through.
While I found this crust fully baked, it was, unfortunately, a little gummy on top. Maybe it had sat a little too long with its toppings before going into the oven. There have been lengthy online discussions of the "gum line" phenomenon; Some folks have suggested
that the act of slicing the pizza may itself create the appearance of a
gum line. I don't think that was the culprit here, though.I've probably made more of this than it deserves, and I won't speculate further. I will say that I've seen a lot worse than this, as far as gumminess is concerned, but I mention it in the interests of accuracy and thoroughness. The outer edge, though, I'm happy to say, was nice and crisp, with a breadlike interior.
The cheese was fairly thick, and seemed to be 100% processed mozzarella. I removed the pepperoni from one of the slices (which was easy to do) to give you a better look at the cheese. It wasn't particularly smooth or stretchy, but neither was it mealy or overly chewy; pretty basic pizza cheese.As was the sauce. It had a slightly sweet flavor, with just a hint of herbs in the background. Overall, the slices were well balanced among the various components.
So kind of a mixed bag here. The underside of the crust was well baked, but the gumminess up top detracted from things a bit. The toppings were certainly adequate, and were applied in good proportion to each other, but again I wasn't crazy about the pepperoni apparently having been added after the pie was baked.
Alloco's offers a wide variety of pizza toppings, and some interesting specialty pizzas, like a cheeseburger pie and a tater tot pizza. They also do subs, wings, breakfast items all day, seafood, pasta, and more. Download the full menu here.
Since Alloco's has been open for only a short time, I won't rate this pizza. It showed promise. The crust seemed fundamentally good, though the execution could've been a bit better. But the bottom line is, it was good enough to go back, and I hope to do so before too long.
Alloco's, 1742 Long Pond Rd.
585-426-8646 (426-TOGO)
Mon. - Thu. 8 a.m. - 11 p.m., Fri. 8 - 1 a.m., Sat. 10 - 1 a.m., Sun. 11 - 10
