John and Mary's, Batavia

A few weeks ago I was in the Batavia area, so I stopped in to John and Mary's for a slice. I've seen the name before, but knew little of the history or the details of this place, which has several Buffalo-area locations.
The Batavia location apparently opened in 2014, but according to one site, John and Mary's traces its origins back to a hot dog stand opened in 1952 by John and Mary Guida. I don't see any connection to the Rochester-area Guida's pizzeria chain, and my pepperoni slice was dissimilar from the pizza I've had from Guida's.
This slice, which I had rewarmed in the oven, was on the thick side. From the appearance of the underside, which was a spotty mix of golden-brown and paler areas, it looked to have been baked in a pan. It was faintly oily to the touch, which also suggests the use of a pan.
The bottom surface wasn't overly oily (although it did leave a sizable oil mark in the box, so maybe the box had absorbed some of the oil), but it was more crunchy than crisp. When dough is baked directly on a hot oven deck or pizza stone, it tends to get crackly crisp. On an oiled pan, it tends to develop more of a crunch, especially where the dough is in directly contact with the pan.
On top, the mozzarella cheese was nicely melted. It was generously added, in good balance with the thick crust. I liked its smooth, stringy-stretchy texture, though it didn't add much flavor. A bit of Provolone or Romano would've been a welcome addition.
The sauce wasn't skimpy, but it was a relatively minor player. Some of it had been absorbed into the top of the crust. What remained seemed to be a pretty straightforward, slightly sweet tomato sauce, but honestly I couldn't much taste it. The wide slices of pepperoni were good and crisp, and added a nice flavor punch.
Turning to the menu (available on their Facebook page), John and Mary's ten specialty pizzas incorporate toppings that aren't among the nine a la carte toppings. The Hawaiian pizza, for example, includes ham, but ham is not listed among the extra toppings that you can request on a basic cheese pizza. I'm not sure how they would handle it if you asked. Hopefully it wouldn't turn out like the diner scene in the Jack Nicholson classic Five Easy Pieces.
Aside from pizza, J&M does wings, burgers, salads, tacos and fried seafood. They also offer "subs" and "hoagies." The main distinction appears to be that "subs" include lettuce, tomato, cheese and dressing, while "hoagies" do not, although they may include other items. So for instance a steak sub comes with lettuce, tomato, etc., while a steak hoagie comes with cheese, fried onions and sweet peppers. (Just read the menu.) There are daily specials, and they deliver all day, every day.
My pizza slice was reasonably good. The crust was OK, although I confess I tend to prefer the crackly, toasty, slightly charred variety over the golden brown, pan-baked type. But plenty of places do it like this, so presumably many people like it this way.
That aside, the cheese was good, the pepperoni was crisp and flavorful, and the components were well balanced. It was a solid, if unspectacular, example of WNY pizza. I'd give it a C.

John & Mary's Restaurant, 3711 W. Main St. Rd., Batavia
(585) 343-2101
Sat. - Thu. 11 a.m. - 9 p.m., Fri. 11 a.m. - 10 p.m.

Pauly's Pizza, Batavia

I recently had occasion to stop in Batavia, and took the opportunity to check out Pauly's Pizza.
When I stopped in around noon, there were plenty of slices available, but pepperoni was about the only choice. There may have been a cheese pie in there somewhere but pepperoni seemed like the way to go. Always best to go with a high-turnover choice when you're getting slices.
My two slices had a thin-to-medium crust, with a considerably thicker edge. The underside was dry, not oily, nicely browned, and lightly dusted with corn meal. The slices were soft enough to be folded, with a little exterior crunch, and a bit of interior breadiness as well. Which means it was a pretty good crust.
These slices had a "heavy" feel to them - in other words, they felt heavier than I expected them to, from their appearance. The crust wasn't particularly dense, so I think that was mostly due to the generous layer of cheese, and to some extent the sauce as well. The pepperoni wasn't applied in abundance, but these were cheesy, saucy slices.
The cheese - which Pauly's stressing is "100% high quality REAL cheese," seemed to be all mozzarella. It was uniformly applied and melted to just short of browning. A few flecks of dried herbs were visible, and tasteable (which is a word) in the sauce.
Pauly's (which has one of the busiest - and I'm not talking about web traffic - websites I've seen) offers 17 pizza toppings, and six specialty pizzas, plus a substantial menu of wings, subs, ribs, pasta, and more. Beer and wine are available.
This was good, well-made pizza. Decent crust, generous but not overloaded toppings, and good flavor. I'm not going to say it was head and shoulders above other pizzerias around here, so I'm not giving it an A, but it was above average, and without any real flaws to speak of, so I'll give it a B+.
Pauly's Pizza, 314 Ellicott Street, Batavia
Phone:  (585) 343-3100
Also 9980 Main St., Clarence. (716) 759-7700

Open from 11:00 a.m. daily

Stafford Trading Post

If you've been following this blog for a while, you may have wondered how I find all these pizzerias. Or maybe you haven't.
At any rate, it's not quite as simple as it might seem. Sure, there are obvious sources like the Yellow Pages and the internet, but there is no single place you can go to, to find a comprehensive list of area pizzerias.
So I rely on a combination of sources, including personal observation when I'm driving around, recommendations from readers, and scanning publications like Freetime, City, and the Penny Saver for ads and articles.
Somewhere along the line, I heard about the Stafford Trading Post in Stafford, which is a little east of Batavia. So I marked that on my mental radar screen as a place to check out sometime. Well, sometime finally came, and I stopped by as I was driving through the area.
This is a typical small town mom 'n' pop store (in other words, it's not a prefab chain minimart), and is worth a stop for that reason alone, if you, like me, like these little slices of Americana. There were a couple of sliced pizzas available when I arrived, one with pepperoni, and a white veggie pizza. Both looked pretty fresh. I got a pepperoni slice.
The thin to medium crust was golden brown underneath, and rather soft. It had a doughy texture and aroma. The crust was topped with a somewhat gloppy layer of melted mozzarella, over a slightly sweet, herbal red sauce. The wide and thin slices of pepperoni were OK, though not particularly crisp.
This pizza was, well, decent, but it left me scratching my head a bit wondering why the STP had been so heartily endorsed by whomever it was whose recommendation led me here. It was freshly made, I'll grant it that - no cardboard-like, premade crust here - and it had a certain enjoyable flavor and balance of components. But it was nothing too special, either. I'll give it a C.
Stafford Trading Post, 6177 E. Main St. Rd., Stafford. (585) 343-5658
Hours not available, but open daily.

Twofer Tuesday

Last November, I did a post on the Batavia Pontillo's (which is now "Batavia's Original"). I've also managed to sample another couple of Batavia pizzerias, so here's a quick roundup.
I had high hopes for Main St. Pizza Co., which looked a little more trendy or upscale than the average mom 'n' pop pizza joint. Not that mom 'n' pop places don't make good pizza, mind you, but Main St. seemed to offer the possibility of something a little out of the ordinary, perhaps a good New York style pizza, or a so-called "artisanal" pie.
Alas, it was not to be. The slice I got had a thin crust, but a soft, screen-baked bottom, which was browned but not at all charred. It was topped with a healthy helping of fairly sweet sauce, and atop that a layer of browned, congealed cheese, which easily separated from the crust. The slice seemed to have sat out for perhaps a bit longer than it should have. This was lunchtime, though, and pepperoni slices are usually the fastest-selling, so it couldn't have been sitting out for too long. Anyway, I always maintain that if a place sells slices, it's up to them to serve them reasonably fresh. This didn't seem too fresh to me.
The edge of the slice was a bit thick, and as is often the case with screen-baked pizza, it was more enjoyable than the rest of the crust. It had a pleasant crunch and some interior breadiness. It struck me that this was good dough, the potential of which was not fully realized in the baking process.

About two blocks away from Main St., you'll find Ficarella's Pizzeria, which has been in business since 1985.
My slice here also had a thin crust, with a crunchy underside that was lightly dusted with cornmeal. The crust was so crunchy and even brittle, in fact, that it broke apart as I was eating my slice, as you can see in the bottom photo. The edge was very crunchy, with some bubbles, so that when I bit into it, it was like biting into a hollow shell.
It's often hard to put a flavor into words, and that's the case here. Something struck me odd about the flavor of this slice, but I can't quite put my finger on it. It wasn't a bad flavor, exactly, but certainly distinctive and, well, just a bit unusual, even odd.
Maybe it's only that I'd just eaten the Main St. slice, which was rather sweet, and Ficarella's slice wasn't so sweet, so my tastebuds reacted to it differently. I wish I could convey it better than that. Words fail me, for which I apologize.
Whatever the flavor, I think it came from the sauce, which tends to be the wild card on pizza, since it can range from sweet to salty to acidic to herb-infused. That said, this wasn't a particularly sauce slice, with just a thin layer between the cheese and the crust.
The cheese on the Ficarella's slice was pretty thick, and while I like cheese, to me it seemed to throw the slice out of balance, as the cheese dominated the thin crust.
So, to recap:  Main St. was OK, but not great, and not as good as I'd hoped. It earns a C+ on the strength of its dough. Ficarella's Pizzeria also had potential - it some ways the crust was more to my liking than Main St.'s, but I was a bit put off by the way it broke apart, and that flavor left me scratching my head. I think it's clearly deserving of another shot sometime, but this one slice I'm giving a C.
Main St. Pizza Company, 206 E. Main St., Batavia (585) 343-0007
Mon. - Thu. 11 a.m.- midnight, Fri. & Sat. 11 a.m. - 1 a.m., Sun. noon - midnight
Ficarella's Pizzeria, 21 Liberty St., Batavia (585) 343-5545
Sun. - Thu. 11 a.m. - midnight, Fri. & Sat. 11 a.m. - 1 a.m.
P.S. I ran across this discussion of "Batavia style pizza" here.

Pontillo's, Batavia

My wife and I recently had occasion to travel to Batavia, so while I was there I made a point of stopping by Pontillo's for lunch. This is site of the original Pontillo's, and that makes it one of the oldest pizzerias, in the same location, in Western New York. These days, there is no direct connection between this Pontillo's and any of the Pontillo's that most of us are familiar with in the Rochester area, but that's a whole soap opera unto itself. But in short, the Pontillo's in and around Rochester are part of a loosely knit chain, while the Batavia Pontillo's is a stand-alone location. Some might question whether the Batavia Pontillo's can really claim a direct lineage to the original, but it's the same place at least, and there is one Pontillo brother involved in the Batavia business.
I was curious, then, to see how the pizza here would compare with  what I've had at various Pontillo's in Monroe County. Although I've seen a number of comments to the effect that the pizza varies widely from one Pontillo's location to another, I've found a definite consistency within the Pontillo's chain, in certain respects, particularly with regard to the crust, which tends to have a somewhat charred underside, sometimes nearly black in some areas but browned elsewhere.
We each ordered a small pizza. I ordered a small with "Sicilian sauce," which was supposed to be just crushed tomatoes, garlic, herbs and Romano, but I was given a regular cheese pie instead, with "regular" red sauce. In the waiter's defense, I may have confused him because I first ordered a plain cheese pizza, but then asked for Sicilian sauce. Maybe I should've just ordered a Sicilian to begin with. But on our check, there was no mention of Sicilian anything, so I think the order just went in as a plain cheese pizza.
My wife got a "Siena," which was topped with Gorgonzola, balsamic vinegar, mozzarella, grilled chicken and eggplant.
The crust on both was similar, on the thin side, nice and crisp though not charred underneath at all. The crust on the Siena was a little oily, probably from the toppings, particularly the eggplant, which had been deep fried.
Nonetheless, both undersides had a nice combination of chewiness and crunchiness, and the undersides were lightly dusted with cornmeal. The edge was thick, bready and chewy.
The cheese on my pizza was laid on a bit heavily, and was rather stringy when the still-hot pizza arrived at our table. The cheese contributed not just texture, but a pleasant, mild melted-mozzarella flavor.
The sauce was added in moderation, and had a simple tomatoey flavor, with a few bits here and there of what looked like fresh shredded basil, but they were so tiny that I was unsure if they were fresh or dried. It was a perfectly acceptable sauce, though it left me wondering what the Sicilian would've been like.
Although my wife was a little disappointed that her eggplant was breaded and deep fried (I can't stand eggplant in any form, although deep-fried is probably least offensive to me), she was otherwise was very happy with the pie. It was a little oily, as I mentioned, but the flavor was good. I never would have come up with that particular combination of toppings, but they worked quite well together, especially with the sharp Gorgonzola playing off the sweet acidity of the balsamic vinegar.

As a full-service restaurant, the Batavia Pontillo's has an extensive menu. The takeout menu I grabbed on the way out doesn't mention it, but I'm positive I saw clam pizza on the menu at my table, and there are a handful of other specialty pizzas available. They also offer a range of pasta dishes, salads, soups, subs, wing, and sides, as well as beef on weck, which I also love. The $8.99 lunch buffet includes unlimited salad, soup, pizza, baked ziti, dessert and a non-alcoholic beverage.
Speaking of beverages, there's a bar overlooking the kitchen area, though I don't recall if it's a full bar or just beer and wine. The ample seating is divided between the bar area and the adjoining dining room.
This pizza was certainly different from what I've gotten at Pontillo's in and around Rochester, at least as to the crust, which was not charred underneath. But it was nonetheless crisp and bready, and good enough to polish off the outer crust. The overall flavor on both pizzas was good too, and I'd like to go back sometime to try both the Sicilian and the clam pizzas.
I wonder if any oldtimers out there remember what Pontillo's pizza was like back in the late '40s or '50s. And I'd love to see a menu from the original place back then. I can't tell you who can better claim to represent the pizza of the original Pontillo's, but the Batavia location turns out a very nice pie, indeed, and I'll give it a B+.
Pontillo's Pizzeria Restaurant, 500 E. Main St., Batavia, 343-3333
Sun. - Thu. 11 a.m. - 11 p.m., Fri. & Sat. 11 a.m. - midnight