Livingston County Pizza Co., Avon

When I started this blog and researching local pizzerias, I kept finding references to a place on Rochester St. in Avon, but it was apparently an instance of an outdated listing, because anytime I checked,the place was closed.
Recently, though, I saw what looked like a new listing for a pizzeria at the same location, by the name of Livingston County Pizza Company. I recently took a drive down to check it out.
The pizzeria is in a small building on what, further north, becomes East River Road. The spartan setting consists of a small counter and a few booths, one of which, near the window, butts up against an industrial-size mixer.
LCPC emphasizes its gluten-free menu, which includes not only pizza, but cakes, pies, cookies, and bread, plus gluten-free versions of their burgers and other hot menu items. I was tempted, for a moment at least, to try the gluten-free pizza, just out of curiosity, but I thought for my first time I should go with the regular pizza. I got a 13-inch "small" plain cheese pie. (They also offer 8-inch "personal" and 16-inch "large" pies.)
This had a dry bottom that was rather soft. The crust was thin, and a little gummy. The dough didn't seem to have risen very much, and I couldn't see any air holes in the cross-section.
That's the bad news. The good news is, it tasted good. There was plenty of sauce and cheese - maybe a little more than necessary for such a thin crust - but the sauce and cheese themselves were well balanced and complemented each other well.
With a cheese pizza, the sauce usually is the strongest-flavored component, and if there's much sauce, it'll be very prominent. This sauce was up front but not overwhelming, with a nice mix of salty, sweet and tangy notes. It had a concentrated, cooked-tomato flavor, reminiscent of a long-simmering tomato sauce.
The cheese was well browned but not burned or dried out. It seemed to be straight mozzarella, nothing too complex, but pretty good, with a pleasantly melted but chewy texture and no grease.
For a small place, LCPC has a big menu. Besides the 12 available pizza toppings, they offer eight specialty pizzas, calzones, wings, hot and cold subs, sandwiches, panini, salads, pasta, and various grilled and fried items. It was only after I left that I noticed that many of the menu selections have a baseball-themed name, such as the Babe Ruth and Ripken burgers, the Ballpark pizza (pepperoni, ham, bacon and sausage), and the Triple Play sub (ham, roast beef and turkey).
And that doesn't even include the gluten-free menu. You can get gluten-free pizzas in 10- and 13-inch sizes, chicken tenders, a Friday fish fry, and just about anything on bread or a roll, all gluten free.
As they say on the infomercials, "but that's not all" - LCPC also offers gluten-free baked goods, from  bread to buns to cookies, cakes, pies, and frozen pizza crusts. I know there are people out there looking for gluten-free baked goods, and this should be on your list of go-to places. It's got as extensive a gluten-free menu as I've ever seen.
As for this pizza, frankly I wasn't thrilled with it. I probably give more importance to the crust than most people, and this wasn't a particularly good crust. It wasn't gluten-free, but like some gluten-free crusts I've tried, it just didn't seem to have risen much. I may have preferred the gluten-free crust, if that's what they do best here.
But to some extent, the lackluster crust was compensated for by the other components, which tasted good and complemented each other well. Considering the pizza as a whole, it was roughly average for pizza in this area, so I'll give it a C.
The Livingston County Pizza Co., 212 Rochester St., Avon
Mon. - Thu. 11 a.m. - 8:30 p.m., Fri. & Sat. 11 a.m. - 9:30 p.m., Sun. noon - 8 p.m.

Dontonio's, Avon

I don't find myself in Avon a whole lot, but I managed twice in the past month to stop at Dontonio's, a pizzeria on the eastern edge of town on Rts. 5 and 20, right next to Tom Wahl's.
The first time around, I got a couple of pepperoni slices, which was the only thing available on my midday visit. They were "normal" size, and pretty fresh out of the oven, though they did get a quick reheating.
The crust was thin, with a  crackly, bumpy underside. It was not dark, but there were a few small char spots, and it was dry to the touch.
The edge of the crust was especially crackly. On one slice, it broke off from the rest of the slice entirely. The interior, though, was on the chewy side, in a good way. I liked the contrast between the exterior crunch and the interior chewiness.
These were reasonably tasty slices, with a well balanced mix of slightly browned mozzarella, a middle-of-the-road tomatoey sauce, and a bit of spicy kick from the pepperoni. Nothing particularly remarkable there, but they worked well together and were added in good proportion to the crust.
After that good experience, I was looking forward to trying a full pie from Dontonio's, which I did a couple of weeks later. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't quite as good as the slices, I'm afraid.
The crust on this pie was quite thin, but the edge was very thick. The underside was dry and firm, but not really crisp. I found the dough nice and bready, but it seemed a bit bland. Though the underside showed some dark brown spots, it didn't have the toasty flavor or aroma that I look for in a crust. The flavor brought to mind a loaf of bread that was baked at a relatively low oven temperature, giving it a nice texture but not the complex flavors that develop at high temps.
The toppings were also on the mild side. As I often do, I got a plain cheese pizza, which best allows you to see what a pizzeria's pies are really like, so I wasn't expecting that much in the way of flavor, but even taking that into consideration, the sauce and cheese didn't do much to lift the overall flavor profile. The thin layer of sauce added some mild tomato flavor, but not much else. There was a faint hint of oregano, though I couldn't tell if that came from the sauce itself or from a sprinkling of the dried herb.
The cheese on this pie was perhaps the most dominant component, but more because of its quantity than its flavor. It was melted juuust to the point where it was beginning to brown, which is about where I like it, but it too seemed rather bland. Even processed mozzarella sometimes has a certain tanginess to it, but this cheese added more texture than flavor; the addition of a slightly sharper cheese, even just a little provolone or a sprinkling of Romano, would've been welcome. I also wondered if this was part skim cheese, as it was congealed but not particularly smooth or stringy. It had exuded some orangey oil in the oven, so I'm not sure.
Dontonio's offers pizza in 9-, 12-, and 16-inch sizes, plus sheet pizzas, with your choice of 16 toppings. Their only specialty pizza is a chicken wing pie. They also do wings, calzones, subs, salads, and fried sides.
I don't mean to sound overly critical of this pizza. It was OK. But perhaps after liking my slices, I was expecting more from the pie. And frankly, my family wasn't crazy about the pie, which I brought home for dinner, so that probably made me scrutinize it a little more closely than I otherwise would have.
In retrospect, I think the slices benefited from being reheated, which made the crust crisper and the cheese a little browner (and more flavorful) and from the pepperoni, which added some kick. Maybe if I'd simply asked that my pie be "well done," and gotten some extra toppings, I would've liked it more.
And though it's a cliche to say that a dish tastes OK, but could use salt, in fact I think that might've been the case here. The crust tasted to me like bread made with very little salt, and neither the sauce nor the cheese tasted of salt either. I'm not a salt fiend, but a little sodium chloride does have a way of perking up the taste buds.
On the plus side, the dough did have some nice bready qualities, and though it was on the bland side, the outer crust, or "bones," made for good dipping into my homemade hot sauce. And it was a well made, well balanced pizza. I liked my slices better than the pie, but even the pie was all right, and I'm going to average them out to a C+.
Dontonio's Pizzeria, 303 East Main St., Avon
Tel.:  226-3290
Sun. - Thu. 11 a.m. - 10 p.m., Fri. & Sat. 11 a.m. - midnight