Pizza NOTA

Pizzerias open and pizzerias close, but I was more than a little intrigued when I saw recently that Pizza NOTA had opened in the Neighborhood of the Arts in Rochester. They bill themselves as offering something along the lines of New Haven (Ct.) style pizza, which as far as I know is a first for this area.

So why is that a big deal? In a nutshell, New Haven style pizza is sort of like New York style pizza, but not exactly. And devotees of each will tell you why one is better than the other. There's an abundance of stuff about it online, but for a primer, go here or here. I've been to New Haven and tried a few of places, and I've read quite a bit about it, so I had an idea of the style going in. 

NOTA seems a bit unsure of where they stand; their website describes their pies as "Inspired by New Haven’s iconic char," but "finished with a touch of New York influence." Not quite sure what that means, but my interest was piqued by seeing that NOTA has a coal-fired oven. I don't want to get into a long digression here, but coal-fired ovens are typical of New Haven's long-established pizzerias, and some of NYC's older pizzerias as well.  Coal was the fuel of choice way back when primarily because it was more readily available, and there are some differences between coal- and wood-fired ovens in terms of temperature, maintaining the fire, oven humidity, and so on. Read more here. 

My wife and I shared one pizza, along with a salad.  So the question was, which pizza to order? Several sounded interesting, but since this was our first time here, I figured we'd go with a classic New Haven pizza, the tomato pie. NOTA's version is described as topped with Bianco DiNapoli tomato, garlic, pecorino, Parmesan, Sicilian oregano, and EVOO (no mozzarella). 

Upon its arrival at our table, our pie was blackened along the edge and blistered underneath. There was almost no cornicione to speak of; the edge was just barely thicker than the rest of the crust, and the sauce was also applied nearly all the way to the rim.

One of the most striking aspects of the pizza was how thin the crust was. It was literally translucent. 

So there wasn't much interior. It was a nicely charred bottom and the toppings, but with almost nothing in between.

At this point I will pause to address "authenticity" and style points, as in, is this how New Haven style pizza is "supposed" to be?

I'll digress long enough to say that (1) I've had New Haven pizza, but I'm no expert; (2) there are differences among New Haven pizzerias, so there are no hard and fast rules, just general characteristics; and (3) I don't put too much emphasis on that sort of stuff anyway. If I were judging this in a competition in the category of New Haven style pizza, sure. 

But as much as I enjoy trying different pizza styles, as a blog writer I try to focus more on simply describing the pizza, allowing for some subjective impressions, with less emphasis on measuring it against some Platonic ideal. Perhaps I hold a more Aristotelian view of pizza. It's hard to say because neither Plato nor Aristotle were familiar with pizza, although they probably did enjoy the occasional flatbread.

Wait, where was I? 

Oh yes. In my estimation this fell within the parameters of the New Haven style, based on my own experience and what I've read and seen about New Haven pizza: thin, charred, and chewy.

But to re-digress for a moment to the subject of style, if I were a stickler for that sort of thing I could ding NOTA in a few nitpicky respects.

For starters, I was a bit surprised to see that they offer no clam pizza, which is perhaps the most iconic New Haven variety. I'm not even saying I like clam pizza, just that I was surprised.

Second:  too round. Yes, too round. For reasons that have never been explained to my satisfaction, purported authorities on the subject have asserted that New Haven pizza is not supposed to be circular, but sort of oblong or "roundish." If you don't believe me, ask AI, which is never wrong about these sorts of things.

That was actually a valuable piece of information, though, as I've discovered that shapewise at least, I've been making New Haven style pizza all these years; despite my best efforts I have yet to get a pie to come out perfectly round. I'll have to remember that next time I serve homemade pizza to guests. ("Uh, yeaah?!  It's New Haven style! It's supposed to look that way!")

Third: it's all described as "pizza." As the pizza intelligentsia (fancy word for snobs) know, in New Haven, it's not "pizza," it's "apizza," which for still more inexplicable reasons is pronounced "ah-beetz." Maybe that's where the New York attitude comes in? ("Ah-beetz? What da **** is ah-beetz? Whaddaya, from Noo Haven or sumpin?")

Next digression. When I went to New Haven a few years ago I had a serious dilemma about how to pronounce the word when I got there. Say "pizza" and you sound like a tourist (which I was, but that doesn't mean I want to sound like one). Say "ah-beetz" and you seem like you're trying too hard to sound like a local. My solution was to avoid saying the word at all ("I'd like a clam pie"). Not once did "pizza" or anything close to it come out of my mouth. 

I also got a look at Pizza NOTA's oven. I saw flames, but I couldn't directly see the source of them. It didn't directly resemble a coal-fired oven like those I'd seen at some of New Haven's oldest pizzerias, where there's a pile of burning coal in the back of the oven chamber. The flames were coming up from some hidden source at the back of but beneath the oven deck.

I wanted to ask questions, but they were getting busy, so I didn't, but I was left with some questions. Like, is the oven "gas-assisted"? How is the coal used? Coal or charcoal? If coal, what kind? And not least, what kind of legal and regulatory hoops do you have to jump through to use coal as a heat source these days? I'm guessing one cannot have an old-style coal oven anymore, and that you're looking at quite an expense to meet current standards.

Questions for another day. Which there will be. This was very good pizza, and I can't say I've had another in our area that quite compares to it. One of the most heartening things over the years since I started this blog is how the range of choices in our area has expanded. Pizza NOTA offers something genuinely different, and it was no one-and-done kind of place for me. I plan to go back to try some other varieties, and to learn more about their pizza.

Pizza NOTA

192 Anderson Ave.

Rochester, NY 14607

Thu. 4:00 pm – 8:00 pm

Fri.   12:00 pm – 08:00 pm

Sat.   12:00 pm – 08:00 pm
    
Sun.   3:00 pm – 08:00 pm

Closed Mon. - Wed.       

Table 87, Brooklyn

It's rare that I do a blog post about a pizzeria hundreds of miles from Rochester, but on a recent weekend visit to New York City I visited a place in Brooklyn that's worth writing about.
I was staying in Brooklyn at 3B, which itself is worth a review; it's a B&B in a third-floor walkup, in a good location, with a friendly staff and fantastic breakfasts (I actually departed from my pizza-only diet to enjoy their breakfast food, and I'm not even typically a breakfast eater).
I had, of course, done some advance research, and so I knew about Table 87 on Atlantic Avenue. It's one of the few places in the City where you can get coal-fired slices (as opposed to a whole pie).
At this point I should mention that, as NYC pizza aficionados will know, and someone would likely point out if I didn't say it first, a few blocks away, you can get what is reputed to be one of the City's best slices at Di Fara's. Di Fara's is widely regarded as among the finest pizzerias in the City.
Had I been staying longer, or had my hotel been closer, I might've gone there. But as it was, I had limited time, it would've been a long walk (or an inconvenient subway ride, which also would've added to the cost of Di Fara's $5 slices), and after reading about hour-long, or longer, waits at Di Fara's, I just wasn't inclined to make the trek up there.
So I am not comparing Table 87's slices with Di Fara's. I have no basis for comparison. What I can say is that Table 87 serves terrific coal-fired slices without a long wait, at a lower price than Di Fara's.
I stopped in on a Friday night, and was able to get a Margherita slice right away, no waiting at all, except for the slice to be reheated. It was $4, pricey compared to the average slice joint, even in NYC, but not bad for coal-fired pizza; buying and maintaining a coal oven isn't cheap, so I expect to pay some premium.
I'm sure you can make bad pizza in a coal-fired oven as easily as in a gas or electric oven, but this slice lived up to the promise of coal-fired, NY-style pizza. It was spottily charred and crackly underneath, with a slightly smoky, toasty aroma. The fresh mozzarella was nicely melted, and the tomatoes and basil were heated through but not overcooked.
And far from the Seinfeld soup-Nazi stories I've read about some pizza places in NYC, the staff here was very friendly and accommodating, even before they found out that I was a food blogger. Check out this video to get a sense of their light-hearted yet serious approach to pizza.
I'll be the first to admit that I'm no expert on New York City pizza. It's a vast pizza universe, and although I've had plenty of slices, and shared a few pies, in the City, I know that I've only scratched the surface.
But I do think that I've had enough pizza to have a pretty solid basis for knowing what's good. And Table 87 is good. Better than good. I don't know when my travels will take me downstate next, but Table 87 has been added to my go-to list, and if you're planning a trip to NYC, it should be on yours as well.
Table 87, 87 Atlantic Ave., Brooklyn
(718) 797-9300
Sun. - Thu. 11 a.m. - 10 p.m., Fri. & Sat. 11 a.m. - 11:30 p.m.

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.

Tony D's Tomato Pie

During my recent mini-tour of Rochester pizzerias with fellow pizza blogger "Lapp" from WorstPizza.com, one of our stops was Tony D's in Corn Hill.
I've done a couple of posts now about Tony D's, the most recent being this past April. But I knew there were more pizzas on the menu that I wanted to try, so when Lapp mentioned that somebody had recommended Tony D's to him, I happily seconded the idea.
As things turned out, I made no further progress on the menu, though. As I was perusing said menu while sitting at the bar overlooking the open kitchen, a freshly made pie was briefly placed on a tray next to me, before being whisked off to a customer's table.
Sometimes when you're eating out, you see a dish, and you think, "That's what I'm getting." (Which is far preferable to seeing it after you've already gotten your food, and you think, "That's what I should have ordered.") This was one of those times. This pie looked simple but delicious.
I was able to corral a nearby server and found out that the pizza in question was that night's special, a tomato pie with sun-dried tomatoes, Romano and basil. It had sounded promising when our own server told us about it, but seeing one up close clinched it.
Lapp chose a 10-inch pie for his dinner (check out his review of his pie here), but I went with the large, which is 14 inches in diameter. But I didn't have to fly home the next day, so I knew I could take any leftovers home without much difficulty.
My pie tasted as good as I expected. It wasn't all that much different from Tony D's Margherita pizza, perhaps a bit more tomatoey, with a sharper cheese flavor, but overall there was a good balance among the tomatoes, cheese, basil and crust.
As for that crust - visually, it bore all the hallmarks of a great, crisp crust from a super-hot oven, with charring along the edge and underneath. In fact, in some spots on the bottom, the outer surface of the crust was charred right through (see bottom photo). And it did have a certain smokiness to it.
So it was a surprise to find that the crust was really quite soft. It wasn't mushy or spongy or anything like that, it was just not at all crisp.
Now before I go criticizing Tony D's about things I don't really understand, let me say that I have read that pizzas in Naples typically have a soft, pliable crust. It mostly has to do with the flour they use, which is relatively low in protein. Clearly heat wasn't the issue here, so it seems to me that it must indeed be the dough that resulted in this soft, pliable crust.
Technical matters aside, then, this crust may not be far off from "authentic" Neapolitan pizza. But for me there was still a bit of a disconnect between the appearance of the crust and its texture.
I must admit, though, that I prefer a crisp crust. And I guess I also expect to get a crisp crust from a place with a coal-fired oven (actually they were using both coal and wood on my visit, but no matter), which conjures up images of old-time pizzerias in New York City, with crusts that crackle a bit when you bite into them.
So that's where rating a pizza gets tough. I don't want to downgrade this pizza purely because of my subjective preferences, but it's hard to completely put those preferences aside.
I've given Tony D's an A-minus before, and I think I'll stick with that. As I've said in the past, the grades are no more than a rough guideline, and readers should focus on my descriptions to decide if they think they'd like the pizza at a given establishment. If I thought that Tony D's had been striving for something else here, but fell short of the mark, I'd lower the grade, but as far as I can tell, they simply use a dough that bakes up rather soft. I've downgraded places for soft crusts before, but generally only if the crust was greasy, spongy, or had some other defects. So with the caveat that Tony D's serves up a soft-crusted, but well-charred pizza, I'll again give it an A-minus rating.
I do have one thing to add, though.This 14-inch pie cost $18, while Lapp's 10-inch pie, with custom-ordered toppings, was less than half that amount, at $8. If you're going by surface area, his pie was a little over half the size of mine, and unless sun-dried tomatoes are more expensive than I thought, mine seemed pretty pricey. Cost doesn't figure into my grades, but I think it's worth making readers aware that if cost is an issue, ordering your toppings a la carte may save you a dollar or two.
Tony D's, 288 Exchange Blvd. 14608
Tel. 340-6200
Hours:  Sun.  4 - 10 p.m., Mon. - Thu. 11 a.m. - 10 p.m., Fri. 11 a.m. - 11 p.m., Sat. 4 - 11 p.m.

Return to Tony D's - Vongole Pizza

It's been a long time since I reviewed Tony D's in Corn Hill Landing. Over two years, in fact (have I really been doing this for that long?).
It's certainly not because I didn't like it - I gave it an A-minus, after all. But I've had a lot of pizzerias to investigate since then, and Tony D's isn't exactly the kind of place where you can just go in and grab a slice.
No, Tony D's is a full-service restaurant and bar, and it doesn't serve slices. Its signature item is its pizza, which remains Rochester's only commercially available pizza cooked in a coal-fired oven.
That oven, by the way, I've learned was manufactured by Doughpro, which sells commercial ovens to restaurants nationwide. According to the map on their website, Doughpro is also the maker of the ovens you'll find at RIT, Hooligans in Webster (check this blog for an upcoming review of that establishment), and Bocaccini's in Perinton. Tony D's is "gas assisted," which means that it does use coal, but they're not exactly building a fire from scratch. The gas flame helps to start it up and maintain a more or less constant temperature.
Purists may consider that cheating, I suppose, but I'm not so much interested in the technical side of things as in the finished product. If the pizza's good, I don't care if it came out of an Easy Bake Oven.
This time around, I thought I'd try something a little different, and Tony D's vongole (clam) pizza caught my eye. It's topped with clams, sausage, parsley, oregano, chilies, Asiago and Parmesan cheeses.
Before my pizza came out, I was served a small basket of very good bread with dipping oil, which is always a nice touch, even if it did seem a bit superfluous with pizza.
The danger with bread, of course, is that you'll fill up on it before your entree arrives, but I didn't have to wait long for my pizza. It arrived on a wooden peel, hot and fresh out of the oven.
The crust was very thin - so thin that I was able to fold the slices twice. It was charred but except in a spot or two, I wouldn't call it burned, and it displayed a good balance between charring and pliability. There was one spot along the edge where the crust had bubbled up and was more burned through than charred, but it didn't detract from the pizza overall. Mostly the charring consisted of some small, spotty black blisters underneath, and it was a little less charred than last time. The crust was not dried out, and it remained pliable and bready tasting. It wasn't particularly crisp, but it was firm.
As for the toppings, clams and sausage wouldn't have struck me as a natural combination, but they worked surprisingly well together, with the distinctive, savory clam flavor playing off that of the spicy, peppery sausage. The addition of chilies added a little more kick, but it was not overdone; this was a spicy pizza, but not so much as to leave you panting for relief.
The sausage, I thought, tended to predominate over the clams, but all in all the flavors here were pretty well balanced. The herbs and cheeses blended into the background, but everything together melded into a very flavorful, satisfying pie. And while this wasn't overly spicy, I was surprised at how the chilies and the pepper in the sausage enhanced the flavor of the clams.
There was a little oil on top of this pizza, but it was by no means greasy. A little oil can be a good thing, as fat helps transmit flavor to your tastebuds. Kudos on the crust as well. The cheese on this pizza went right up to the edge of the pie, and combined with the slightly salty, bready flavor of the dough, this was a crust worth finishing.
Tony D's recently expanded into some adjoining space, adding a new seating area and a second bar. They've also gotten a full liquor license. With outdoor seating in the summer, Tony D's is clearly out to offer people multiple reasons and occasions to stop in, whether for a business lunch, drinks before or after a downtown show or event, or a leisurely dinner.
As for this pizza, it was very, very good. In terms of a rating, here's where subjectivity comes in. This was a very enjoyable crust, but it was not very crisp on the outside. The texture was reminiscent of a freshly-baked pita - firm and chewy, but not crisp.
In general, I like my crusts crisp, meaning that there's just a bit of crunch on the outside when you take a bite. I know that's a personal preference, and some people may not share it. But particularly with a thin crust pizza, I think that the added dimension of that exterior crispness, contrasting with the interior chewiness, elevates a pizza to sublime levels. That was missing here.
So while I really liked this pizza, and I think Tony D's deserves a spot on any local pizza lover's to-do list, I'm going to stick with my previous grade, and give it a just-short-of-perfection A-minus.
Tony D's, 288 Exchange Blvd. 14608, 340-6200
Mon. - Thu. 11 a.m. - 10 p.m., Fri. 11 a.m. - 11 p.m., Sat. 4 p.m. - 11 p.m., Sun. 4 p.m. - 9 p.m.

Tony D's, Corn Hill, Rochester

Although there are by now several places around Rochester making pizza in wood-fired ovens, Tony D's in Corn Hill Landing is the first and so far only local pizza restaurant with a coal-fired oven. Why is that a big deal? Well, some of the most renowned pizzas in NYC and elsewhere have been made in coal ovens, which burn at very high temperatures, generally without producing as much smoke as wood.
A quick aside: in Naples, considered the birthplace of modern pizza, wood was the traditional fuel; coal was used in the old days by Italian immigrants in New York because it was readily available. As with many pizza-related topics, there's a whole debate about what's better, coal or wood, and natural gas has its adherents too, but that's beyond the scope of this review. Just take it from me: a pizzeria with a coal-fired oven in Rochester is a big deal to pizza aficionados.
Tony D's is a full-service restaurant, with table service as well as a counter in front of the open kitchen, where you can sit and see your pizza, or other food order, being prepared. In the corner of the back wall is the cobblestone-faced oven, with a stack of wooden pizza peels standing nearby. I should've turned the flash off on my camera because the flash tends to drown out the orange glow of the coals, which is much more visible than the picture would indicate. The aroma from the fire is noticeable but not strong, and not really smoky, since coal burns pretty cleanly.
(The D&C, incidentally, describes the oven at Tony D's as "gas assisted," which I assume means that it uses a combination of gas and coal, but unless you're a real purist, it's a legitimate coal-fired oven, and is clearly hotter than the average pizza oven.)
I ordered a margherita, which was razor thin except for the puffy edges. It was charred and blistered underneath and along the edge, to the point of being burnt in spots, but thanks to the heat of the oven it retained some bready chewiness and the pieces were foldable, meaning that they hadn't dried out to the point of becoming crackly. Clearly, though, this is pizza that needs to be watched and tended to carefully in the oven; a minute or two one way or the other, or a failure to rotate the pizza when needed for even cooking, can make all the difference.
I had read that at one point Tony D's had turned down the heat in the ovens because patrons were complaining that their pizza was "burnt," but that they had since gone back to the high temps. I'm glad they did. What would be the point of a coal-fired oven if you're not going to crank up the heat? The menu, by the way, warns that Tony D's pizzas are "well done" - you want golden-brown pizza, there are plenty of other places you can go to.
The sauce was applied thinly - heavy toppings won' t do on thin pizza - and had a nice, sharp tomatoey flavor. The sauce was topped with a thin layer of shredded cheese, browned on top, and applied sparsely enough to allow pockets of sauce and the occasional tomato chunk to poke through. In the center of each of the four slices was a creamy, melted island of fresh mozzarella, and scattered throughout were wilted shreds of fresh basil. (It struck me while eating that one benefit of folding a thin slice is that it squeezes the toppings together, so that you still get a healthy dose of toppings with each bite.)
The overall impression was of a mix of diverse flavors rather than a homogeneous blend. With each bite, the crust, tomatoes, cheeses and basil each came through individually, unlike your basic corner pizza joint slice, in which the flavors tend to meld together.
As I've said before, that very corner-pizza-joint style is, to me, the ideal pizza, so it wouldn't be fair to measure Tony D's against that standard. The basic approach here is different, whether you want to call it high-end, artisanal, rustic, authentic, etc. Simply approaching it on its own terms, I thought it was quite good, with a range of contrasting, yet complementary flavors and textures that made it easy to finish off my 9" pie. I'll give it an A-.