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.

Pizza Pantry, Corfu

I was recently in the Batavia area, and made a short detour to hit The Pizza Pantry in Corfu, which is about 16 miles from downtown Batavia.

On arrival, around noon on a Friday, I found a small takeout area, adjacent to the main restaurant/bar area. Surprisingly, the only slices available were pepperoni slices. So I got a pepperoni slice.
The crust was relatively thick, and browned underneath, with some bubbling. There were no screen marks. The underside was firm and dry to the touch. The interior had a pleasantly chewy texture.
The slice was well balanced, with enough sauce to play off the crust. I detected some oregano in the background. The sauce was more sweet than salty or acidic, but not overly sweet.
The cheese was generously applied. It seemed to be all mozzarella, and was well melted, though it had congealed a bit. The pepperoni was fine, but unremarkable. Not quite crisp, but not too greasy either.

Pizza Pantry's pizza menu comprises five sizes, from a "mini" to a 24-piece "party size." There are twelve toppings to pick from, and four specialty pizzas:  taco, chicken finger, white, and BBQ chicken.
As I mentioned, Pizza Pantry has a full-service restaurant, so they also offer a full to-go menu of pasta, burgers, subs, salads, wings, and fried fish and shrimp.
This was reasonably good pizza, with no obvious shortcomings, but neither was it outstandingly good. It was good, serviceable, but average pizza. So I'll give it a C.

Pizza Pantry, 9468 Alleghany Rd.
Corfu, NY 14036

585-599-4664

Tue. - Thu. 10:30 - 10:00, Fri. & Sat. 10:30 - 11:00, Sun. 11:00 - 10:00, Mon. closed

The Beer Market

As anybody who's driven along Mt. Hope Avenue in the past year or two knows, there's been a lot of development along the corridor from Crittenden to Elmwood Avenues. The result is College Town, which depending on your point of view is either a great asset to U of R students and Rochester residents, or just a sign of the homogenization of America. Within a two-block stretch, you'll now find a mix of mostly national chains, from bookstores to coffee shops, restaurants and bars. Whether that's a good or a bad thing, you can decide for yourself.
With a name like College Town, you knew pizza and beer would figure into the mix, and you'll find them both at The Beer Market. The Beer Market is apparently a franchise operation, with five locations at this point:  three in Illinois, one in Pittsburgh, and now one in Rochester.
Besides offering a wide variety of beers (I saw the long tap line, but didn't examine it too closely, but I assume they offer a good mix of beers), TBM gives pizza a prominent place on its food menu, which is what brought me here for lunch recently, with two friends.
I ordered "The Queen," an apparent reference to Queen Margherita, the namesake of Margherita pizza. It's topped with fresh mozzarella, Roma tomatoes, and fresh basil. My friends ordered a "Goodfella," with mild sausage, pepperoni, bacon, tomato sauce and herbs, and a simple pepperoni pie.
These companions have accompanied me on past excursions, and we don't always see eye to eye on pizza, but this time we were mostly in agreement. We found the pizzas very tasty (by which I mean they tasted good), thanks mostly to the toppings, but the crust left something to be desired. So I'll start with the latter.
The pizzas arrived at our table on pans, and it appeared they had been baked on those pans. The undersides had the golden-brown, bubbly look of pan-baked pies.
I'm OK with that; I've had many a fine pizza that was baked in a pan. I'm more concerned about the end result.
And the end result here was acceptable, especially given the overall flavor of the pies, but these were not great crusts. They weren't bad; they just weren't particularly good.
Why? Well, the crusts were medium thick and pliable. They didn't have the typical faults --  they weren't greasy, brittle or spongy -- but neither were they crisp or bready.
To me, the crust should be the shining star of the pizza. After all, it's the first thing to hit your tongue.
But these crusts were little more than vehicles to deliver the toppings. As such, they were OK, but it seemed that the preparation and baking had not really maximized the potential flavor and texture of the dough. I hate to resort to trendy linguistic cliches, but my reaction was, "meh." A little chewy, a little firm, but not memorable.
As I said, though, the toppings were good, and they elevated the pizzas overall. My "Queen" was abundantly topped with mozzarella and sliced tomatoes. This certainly wasn't a minimalist, less-is-more pizza, but the toppings were appropriate and in balance with the crust. A little more basil would've been welcome, but there was enough to add some flavor.
I took a slice from each of my friends' pizzas, and again I liked the toppings, as did my friends. The meats were crisp and flavorful, the cheese was stretchy, and the sauce was tomatoey with some mild herbal accents.
That brings me to the rating, which is where things get a little difficult. Without getting into a lengthy discussion, I'll go back to my standards, which involve whether I'd avoid this pizza, or whether I'd go out of my way to get it.
Measured by that standard, I'd put this pizza in the middle. It's OK; it's just not great, in my opinion. It's more about the toppings than the crust, but the toppings are pretty good. So I'll give it a C. 

The Beer Market, 1401 Mt. Hope Ave.

Mon-Wed: 11:00 a.m. - Midnight
Thursday: 11:00 a.m. - 1:00 a.m.
Fri-Sat: 11:00 a.m. - 2:00 a.m.
Sun: Noon - Midnight

Five 50º, Dewey Ave.

Over the course of writing this blog, I've written a few posts about Checker Flag, a now-defunct pizzeria at 1481 Dewey Avenue in Rochester, at the corner of Ridgeway. Checker Flag was best known for its dollar slices, which weren't bad, for the price.
Now comes Five50º, named, I assume, after the oven temperature. As the full name -- Five50º Pizza and Chicken -- implies, it's not just, or even primarily, a pizzeria. Five50º serves a range of items, many of them fried.
There's nothing particularly remarkable about Five50º, but it gives me occasion to say a few words about - what shall I call them? - inner-city pizzerias.
This particular neighborhood is on the lower end of the income scale. And I've learned through experience that the pizza in economically poorer neighborhoods tends not to be as good as in more affluent areas. Its main virtues are that it's fast, cheap and hot. 
Having said all that, the slice I got recently at Five50º was not bad. It wasn't great, but it wasn't bad.
Just inside the front door is a heated display case, containing an array of items to go, many of which consisted of fried chicken parts, of one sort or another. And pizza, available by the slice.
I got a pepperoni slice. It was reasonably good, and for two bucks, I had no major complaints. The crust was thin-to-medium thick, and while the bottom was more brown than charred, it was firm, and wasn't oily or soggy. The well-formed edge was reasonably bready, and not just a throwaway "pizza bone."
As a whole, the slice was decent, with a blanket of well-melted, gooey cheese, a proportionate layer of slightly sweet tomato sauce, and thin-sliced pepperoni. All in all, it was one of the better-made examples of the kind of pizza you get at these to-go places. I don't mean to damn it with faint praise, but it was a reasonably good slice.
As I said, Five50º offers a range of items. Pizza comes in medium, large and sheet sizes, either red or white. They have seven meat toppings and seven vegetable toppings. They also do calzones, burgers, wings (seven sauces), hot and cold subs, fried chicken, and a few sides, as well as freshly baked cookies, and cheesecake.
As far as a rating's concerned, I think it's fair to say that this slice was, overall, of average quality. Nothing I'd go out of my way for, but it was OK, with a well-baked crust, nicely melted cheese, rounded out by a proportionate layer of sauce and decent pepperoni. So I'll give it a C.

Five50º Pizza and Chicken, 1481 Dewey Ave. (at Ridgeway)
254-2550, 254-2522

Mon. - Thu. 11 a.m. - 11 p.m., Fri. & Sat. 11 a.m. - midnight, Sun. 1 p.m. - 9 p.m.

Tolleson's, Fairport - CLOSED

This establishment appears to have closed since this post was originally published.
On a recent drive to the east side of town, I spotted Tolleson's Pizzeria, which opened last summer on Whitney Road in Fairport. The site has housed, I think, at least a couple of pizzerias over the years, so maybe this time will prove the charm.
On my first visit to a pizzeria, I often try to go with just a slice or two, but I thought I'd take a chance on a whole pie here. I got a large cheese pie (not too exciting, I know, but I was trying to keep my costs down).
On opening the box, the pie looked pretty good. I don't mind a thick, bready, well-baked "naked" cornicione, but the toppings here were applied right up to the edge, which is fine too. The edge was nicely formed, with some browned bits of cheese.
The underside bore a mottled pattern, with an underlying paleness dotted with darker brown spots. I noticed a few dimples, apparently from the pan that the crust had been in, and a dusting of flour. The edge was crisp.
On biting into it, the medium-thick crust was pretty good, if not outstanding. I could detect some raw flour on my tongue, not a lot, but enough to notice. I know it's common to use some form of grain to help a pizza crust slide around on, and off, the peel, but I don't like to notice it on my tongue.
The texture was pretty good, but better underneath than on top. The top side was a little gummy.  Not terribly so, but a little.
Having said that, I must mention that when I phoned in my order, I did ask that the pizza be ready about 45 minutes later, to allow for rush hour drive time from my workplace. Maybe they prepared it right away and let it sit unbaked, until closer to pickup time. Or maybe they baked it immediately and it sat on top of the oven until I arrived. I don't know. But it was a little bit gummy on top. I suspect that if I had arrived 15 minutes after ordering, things may have been different. I don't know.
Flavorwise, the pie was fine. It was a little light on both the sauce and cheese, but the crust was on the thin side, so the overall balance was OK. I detected some herbs, faintly. The pie was evenly baked, with some browning along the perimeter and none in the center. The cheese seemed to be straight mozzarella, and hit the right balance between chewy and stretchy.
Aside from pizza, Tolleson's does wings and a full range of other fried foods, plus salads and subs. In other words, it's your basic, reliable, pizza-wings-subs joint, and there's nothing wrong with that. They also offer gluten-free pizza.
This is a tough pizza to grade. The underside was pretty good; the topside less so, although some of that might be related to the time lag between my order, picking it up, and getting it home. The flavor was good, but the toppings seemed a tad skimpy.
Allowing for the effects of the drive home, and going back to the factors that go into my ratings, I'm giving this a C. Nothing wrong with it, I was happy to eat it, but it was, on the whole, of average quality for the area. Fortunately, the average quality of pizza in the area is pretty good, so that grade shouldn't be taken as a dig at Tolleson's. It was decent, just not exceptional compared to other pizzerias in the area.
As I've said before, I rate pizzas, not pizzerias. I think that Tolleson's is worth a visit, and I intend to go back. This particular pie gets a C.

Tolleson's, 541 Whitney Rd. (near Baird Rd.), Fairport
(585) 203-1808
Mon. - Thu. 10 a.m. - 10 p.m., Fri. & Sat. 10 - 11, Sun. 11 - 8

Also 419 N. Main St., Newark
(315) 332-8008

Wolfgang Puck Express, Farmington

Somewhere in my online research, I ran across  a reference to Wolfgang Puck Express, a pizza place at Finger Lakes Gaming & Racetrack.
Wolfgang Puck is one of the fathers of so-called gourmet pizza, which has since morphed into "artisanal" pizza.
I don't question his qualifications as a chef, but when chefs turn themselves into brands, often something gets lost in the translation. Puck, for example, has a line of frozen "gourmet" pizzas. I've never tried one. For all I know, they might be very good. But it's a long way from a chef making his own pizza, to overseeing others making pizza under his direction, to selling mass-produced frozen pizza by the thousands.
Still, if you're a well-known chef, and you want to preserve your reputation, I would think you want to ensure, to some extent, that what's being sold under your name is actually good. At least relative to its competitors.
So when I went to FLG&R, I didn't expect to see Wolfgang Puck back there stretching dough, but I was hopeful that this would be better than the average, quick, chain pizza. And it was, though not by much. And all in all, it was no better than any other pizza you could get in the area.
Let me start with my experience going there. The pizzeria is inside the casino. I couldn't find it right away, so I wandered about a bit looking for it.
In contrast to the young, attractive, euphoric people I've seen on TV ads for casinos, the early-evening crowd here was mostly middle-aged and older. I didn't see anybody laughing, as in the ads, or even particularly happy looking. Most of the patrons were staring blankly at the slot machines, into which they pumped coin after coin, like automatons. I had to wonder whether any of them were actually enjoying themselves.
After some time wandering among this sea of blinking lights and electronic sounds, I found Wolfgang Puck's, tucked into one corner of the casino, to the left of the main entrance. It's a "fast casual" place, where you place your order at the counter, and they bring your food out to you. Nothing special, but a nice oasis from the gaming tables (in case you hadn't noticed, I'm not a fan of casinos).
My pizza choices were a Margherita, BBQ roasted chicken, pepperoni pomodoro, and roasted mushroom. The menu also included sandwiches, pasta, and some other choices, which you'll find here.
I got a Margherita. It was thin and supple, with some significant charring along the edge and underneath.The underside was a bit floury,quite dark in some areas and pale in others. It was rather soft, though not greasy. I detected some aroma, a blend of toasted bread and fried dough.
The toppings were, on the whole, pretty good. I liked the mozzarella, which was well melted, smooth and creamy. The tomato-sauce base was slightly sweet, with some herbal accents, and the fresh-tomato chunks were tasty as well. My one complaint is that I would've like more than a token smattering of basil, which I could see but barely taste.
A few weeks ago, while channel surfing, I ran across an episode of "Hell's Kitchen," in which the contestants were tasked with making gourmet pizza. Wolfgang Puck himself was the judge, and while he wasn't as nasty as host Gordon Ramsay, he pulled no punches in identifying the flaws in the contestants' pizza.
I wondered how Wolfgang would have critiqued this pizza that bore his name. I don't mean to hold it to a higher standard than any other pizza, but I think if he were honest, Puck would find some fault with it. For all its color, the crust didn't wow me. The fact that it wasn't crackly-crisp wasn't the issue; the problem was, it was very dark over some swaths of the underside, but it hadn't developed much flavor. It wasn't oily, but it reminded me of a pancake that's sat on the griddle for a little too long.
Again, the toppings were pretty good, although to me, any decent Margherita should have more basil than this. Overall, though, I did like the flavor.
This is a little hard to rate, frankly. In some respects, it was pretty good. It tasted good. But the crust was nothing special, and again I would have liked more than a token amount of fresh basil.
And I'm trying not to hold this to a higher standard, just because of the name attached to it. The fundamental question remains, how does this stack up against other pizza in the area?
In the end, I go with my gut. There were things I liked about this pizza, and things I didn't. But I can't say that, overall, it was any better, or any worse, than your typical Rochester-area pizza. Different, but not better than average. So it gets a C.

Wolfgang Puck Express
Finger Lakes Gaming & Racetrack
5897 Rt. 96, Farmington

Sun., Wed. & Thu. noon - 9 p.m.; Fri. & Sat. noon - 10 p.m.
Closed Mon. & Tue.

Luigi's, Naples, NY

As I've mentioned before, one of my pastimes is hiking, and I do a lot of that in the counties to our south. One of my favorite places to go is High Tor, just east of Naples. (I'll post some hiking photos sometime on my Facebook page.)
There's one major thoroughfare in Naples - yes, it's Man Street, a/k/a Rt. 21 - so if you pass through Naples you will go through the main business district. And in doing so you will pass by Luigi's, which is Naples' hometown pizzeria. Every small town needs a pizzeria, and Luigi's fills that role for Naples.
I stopped in during a recent Saturday lunchtime for a couple of pepperoni slices that had just come out of the oven. The thin-to-medium crust was a mostly golden brown underneath, and had clearly been baked in a pan (note the indentation along the edge). It was more pliable than crisp, but it had some breadiness, which was more apparent along the slightly thicker edge. Nearer the edge, the crust had a pleasant aroma and flavor, with some chewiness from the rising of the dough, but it was not noticeably crisper than the rest of the crust.
The toppings were good, and well balanced. The middle-of-the-road tomato sauce provided enough liquid to balance out the crust, but not so much as to prevent the cheese from adhering to the crust. That cheese seemed to be straight mozzarella, which was baked just to the point of slight browning.  The pepperoni was thin sliced, and nearly but not quite crisp.
Luigi's is a basic pizza/wings/subs joint, although it has a kind of split personality, with the pizza joint on one side and a grill-type operation (literally called "Luigi's Other Side") on, well, the other side. There's not really much of a physical separation, it's mostly a way to distinguish between the two aspects of the business.
These weren't bad slices, and in some respects I genuinely liked them. The flavor was good, and they were well balanced. But the crust fell a little short. It was just too soft for my taste. Maybe thinner crusts just don't do so well in a pan. A thick crust can and should stay in the oven longer, which allows it to develop a crisp underside. This crust was soft, and not equal to the toppings, which were rather good. So averaging it out, I'll give this a C.

Luigi's, 101 N. Main St., Naples


I'll let them describe the two sides:


Luigi's pizza - Open 7 Days a week

Sun - Thurs: 11:30 am - 9:00 pm; Fri & Sat: 11:30 am - 10:00 pm

No matter the time of day or the day of the week, we offer the best pizza, wings, subs, calzones, pasta, salads and appetizers for eat in or carry out.

We also offer a full deli, with Italian salads, meat by the pound & fresh Italian bread baked daily.


Luigi's Other Side

Tues - Fri: 11:30 am - 8:00 pm

Offering an array of grilled options, from burgers to hots, garbage plates to ribs and fish, Luigi's Other Side is the perfect place for in-house dining or carry out "diner" food.

Webster 99-cent slices: Martino's and Express Mart

I last reported on Martino's in Webster in April 2011.Prior to that I did a post on Martino's 99-cent slices offered on Monday and Tuesdays. I gave my 2011 pie a B and my 2009 slices an A-minus.
I returned recently for an update on those slices. But along the way I noticed that the Express Mart on Ridge Road was also offering 99-cent slices. Driven by hunger mixed with curiosity, I stopped in.
My pepperoni slice was, well, OK. The underside was pale but non-greasy, and showed that it had been baked on a perforated tray. It had a pleasantly bready aroma.
The crust was just a little crisp on the bottom surface, but otherwise soft. Not a bad crust, but not too good either. It brought to mind a soft breadstick, of the type you get at certain chain Italian restaurants.
The toppings were likewise not bad, but unremarkable. A thin but uniform layer of browned mozzarella, basic tomato sauce, thin-sliced pepperoni, and a sprinkling of dried herbs. 
OK, so on to Martino's.
Here I got two cheese slices. I was asked if I wanted them reheated, and I said yes. The minute or two in the oven yielded a crust that was not quite as crisp as what I'd gotten before, but it was still pretty good. The crust was on the thin side of medium, and had a very nice breadlike flavor and aroma. The medium-thick lip was satisfyingly crisp.
It was a well balanced slice as well. Perhaps a tad skimpy on the cheese, and I wondered if rising dairy prices were a factor. But with a thin slice, I don't like my pizza blanketed in a thick layer of cheese anyway, and for 99 cents a slice I couldn't complain.
The sauce was pretty middle-of-the-road, with a tomatoey flavor and a medium consistency. I detected some oregano, I think from a sprinkling of dried herbs.
Between the two of these, I'd say that Martino's emerged as the clear winner. These weren't world-class slices, but I had no major issues with them, and if price is a factor, you can't do much better for 99 cents. (The bottom photo, by the way, puts a Martino's slice and an Express Mart slice side by side.)
This time around, Martino's rates a B. Express Mart, a C.
Martino's Pizzeria
160 W Main St, Webster
872-4140

Mon. - Thu. 11 am – 10 pm
Fri. & Sat. 11 am – 11 pm

Sun. noon  – 10 pm

Express Mart, 819 Ridge Rd., Webster
671-7677

Vincenzo's, Elmira

Now and then I have occasion to travel to the Southern Tier, and on a recent trip down that way I stopped at Vincenzo's in Elmira.
Elmira's an interesting place; did you know that it's the site of Mark Twain's grave and a Civil War cemetery and prison camp? (And while we're on the subject, a modern-day state prison, although you won't see that in many guidebooks.)
And some pizzerias worth checking out. I've found that as you work your way into New York's Southern Tier, you tend to run across more pizzerias serving NY-style pizza. Some more successfully than others, to be sure, but the style itself seems to be more prevalent down that way. I'm not sure if that's a simple matter of relative proximity to NYC or just the lack of an indigenous style.
One purveyor of NY style pizza is Vincenzo's. Actually they don't claim to serve NY style, but rather Neapolitan (thin crust) and Sicilian (thick crust) pizza. But their thin pizza is broadly in the NY style.
On my visit, they had about five or six sliced pies to choose from, including one Sicilian pizza. I got a thin cheese slice.
This was quite thin, with a pale but crackly bottom. It  was a little floury underneath, but not too bad.
The slice was topped with a salty/sweet tomato sauce, in pretty good proportion to the thin crust. The mozzarella was decent enough, but nothing special, and there was a good inch and a half along the edge with no cheese. Had the crust been outstanding, that would've been perfectly acceptable, but the crust was, like the slice in general, just OK.
Vincenzo's offers 20 pizza toppings, and 11 specialty pizzas. They also do hot and cold subs ("hoagies"), wings, pasta, salads, calzones, stromboli, and a few other munchies.
I haven't always graded out-of-town pizzerias, but to me this one's an obvious "C." It was all right, not bad, but nothing special. No big flaws but it could've been better, with a crisper crust and a better coating of good cheese. So a C it is.
Vincenzo's Pizzeria & Hoagies, 303 N. Main St., Elmira
607-846-6584, 607-215-7379
Mon. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 10 p.m., Sun. 4 - 9 p.m.

Fireside Grill, Henrietta

Restaurants often seem to cluster together, but some literally stand alone. And for a long time, there's been a solitary restaurant on East Henrietta Road, at the corner of Garden Parkway, just south of the Thruway overpass.
For many years, this was FDR's, which was basically a suburban prime-rib and fish-fry kind of place. The location has reopened, under new ownership, as Fireside Grill & Sports Bar.
Pizza is popping up on menus all over these days, and when I ran across a story about Fireside, and saw that they were offering pizza, I added it to my to-do list. So I stopped in for dinner recently, and zeroed in on the pizza.
There were seven specialty pizzas to choose from, and sixteen toppings. I went with a basic pepperoni pie, which is one of my default pizzas. It's as standard a pizza as there is in the USA, so I figure it makes a good benchmark.
Before I begin to describe the pizza, I want to emphasize something I've said before, which is that it's easier to criticize than to praise. It's simply easier to start from perfection, and to say how a thing falls short, than to start from awful and say why a thing is better than that. So while I do have a list of demerits, keep them in perspective, and keep in mind my summation at the end.
The crust on this pizza was thin, overall, and the perimeter was formed into a cornicione (which is a fancy way of saying "cornice," which is a fancy way of saying "edge") that was puffed up thicker in some spots than in others. In a way, I like that lack of complete uniformity, as it tells me that this was probably not a premade shell. Somebody back there shaped this by hand.
But I did have some issues with the crust. First off, it was a little greasy underneath. I've gotten arguments before about whether there's a difference between grease and oil. "Oil," I guess, sounds better, as it may be olive oil, or just "natural" oil that exudes from the full-fat cheese on top. "Grease," on the other hand, is, well, just some unappetizing slick substance that's more suitable for working on your car than for cooking. You can read more on the topic here.
From my perspective, foodwise, oil is something you add to food. Grease is the stuff that's left over after you're done cooking. Others may disagree.
But I digress. My only point was, this crust was a little greasy underneath. Or oily. Whatever. It had some crispness, but was somewhere between an oily crunch and a dry-baked crackliness. The underside was a dark brown overall, a little blackened here and there. 
There was also a little grit underneath. Not a lot, but some. It's common to use corn meal, or semolina, or ordinary flour to help a pizza slide off the peel, but it often turns into blackened soot in the oven, and the oven needs to be cleaned out regularly to avoid a buildup. There wasn't much on my pizza, just a little, but I'd be remiss if I didn't mention it; I could definitely detect some grittiness as I was eating this pie.
Topside, this pizza leaned toward the cheese, rather than the sauce. There was a thin layer of sauce, which had somewhat soaked into the crust. I wouldn't say that it had disappeared, but it definitely was in the background.
The cheese, though, was quite prominent. Not that the pie was overloaded with cheese, but cheese was the most dominant topping. It seemed to be processed mozzarella, nicely melted but with some oil exuding out. The cup and char pepperoni was very good and well crisped along the edges but not burnt.
The place itself was pleasant enough, and quite a change from FDR, which I'd been to once or twice. There's a gas fireplace in the dining room, which was rather brightly lit; with its white-painted walls, I'd turn down the lighting for dinner, just a bit.
The bar is in the same area as before, and is well separated from the dining room. I see from their website that Fireside keeps quite a few local brews on tap, which is nice.
I liked it here. The pizza was OK, not beyond improvement, but not bad. I'll take it over one of those restaurant or bar pizzas that's nothing but a premade, dried-out shell with a sprinkling of toppings just before it goes in the oven. I'd like to try Fireside in another couple of months or so, but for now I'll give their pizza a C.

Fire Side Grill, 3939 East Henrietta Road
486-4611

Mon. - Sat. 11 a.m. - midnight, Sun. noon - midnight

Amore (Wegmans East Avenue)

When I first read about Wegmans opening an Italian restaurant, offering pizza, adjoining their revamped East Avenue store, I was both intrigued and skeptical. Wegmans gets a lot of things right, but I'm not sold on them where full-fledged restaurants - or pizza - are concerned.
But I did want to check out Amore, the Italian restaurant attached to the remodeled East Avenue store. You can read about the details of the pizza, and the oven it's baked in, here. As I said, I took a wait-and-see attitude.
I went for lunch with two friends, which gave me the opportunity to try three pizzas. I went with my usual Margherita. One of my companions got a diavolo, and the other ordered a butternut squash pizza topped with shaved Brussels sprouts and roasted leeks.
Each pizza measures eleven inches across, making it about right for one hungry person, or just enough to take a slice or two home with you. The crust on all three was quite thin; not paper-thin, but thin. Think of several sheets of paper.

My Margherita was generally good The underside of the crust had a few char spots, and was reasonably crisp. I'll get to the toppings in a moment.
My friend with the butternut squash pie complained that her crust was not good, and at first I assumed it was just a matter of personal taste. Then I tried a slice. It was heavily coated underneath with flour, giving the underside a pasty texture and a flavor of raw flour. It's common to find some flour on the underside of a pizza, as it helps keep the raw dough from sticking to the pizza peel. But this was too much.The crust was also very blackened - burnt, in fact - along part of the edge.
The diavolo, topped with sopressata and roasted peppers, had a decent crust, similar to the Margherita's, and we all agreed that it was the best pie overall of the bunch. The combination of peppery sopressata, sweet roasted peppers and melted mozzarella made a very nice combination. Despite the name, it wasn't especially spicy, but it did have a little bit of kick. It also came with a small cup of hot oil for dipping, something I hadn't seen before. I tried it, but it didn't seem to me to add a whole lot to the experience.
As for the other pies' toppings, the Margherita wasn't bad. It was topped with a basic tomato sauce, scattered dollops of melted, fresh mozzarella, and torn basil, which were added after cooking. It was rather salty but tasty, and I liked it, even if the components didn't quite come together like the best Margheritas I've had.
The butternut squash pie was likewise not bad, but not quite as good as I'd hoped. It's usually unwise to have preconceptions, but I was expecting something along the lines of the butternut squash pizza that I had at Fiamma. That pie was topped with a squash puree, which made for a nice sauce.
This pie, on the other hand, was topped which chunks and bits of roasted vegetables, including diced butternut squash. They tasted good enough, but overall I found the pie rather dry.
The opinions expressed here are mine alone, of course, but one nice thing about sharing pizza with people is getting their input. And on this occasion all three of us agreed that if we were to rank these pies from best to worst, it would be:  (1) diavolo; (2) Margherita; and (3) butternut squash. I'm not going to grade them individually, because part of the issue with these pies was the crust, which can vary from one pizza to another. In other words, just because the crust on the butternut squash pizza wasn't so good doesn't mean that Amore's butternut squash pizza has a particular problem with the crust; the problem is not with that variety, it's a problem with consistency.
I'm giving these a C. There were some issues, as I've described. Overall this was pizza worth trying, and there were things I liked about it, but it wasn't great, and at $12 for an 11-inch pie, I expect a little better. A C just seems right to me.
Amore, 1750 East Ave., 14610
(585) 452-8780
Lunch:
11:30AM - 2:30PM, Sunday - Saturday
Dinner:
5:30PM - 9PM, Sunday - Thursday
5:30PM - 10PM, Friday & Saturday

Lucca, Victor, Revisited

It's been a long time since I last reported on Lucca in Victor. This wood-fired pizzeria has been around since early 2009, although I believe the ownership has changed since my December 2009 review.
As I did then, I ordered a small Margherita to go. I thought about getting it to eat on Lucca's front porch/patio, but I wanted to get home, so I changed my mind and got it to go.
The pizza that I got confirmed that it was a good idea to do an update on Lucca, because it was different from the one I had before. Most noticeably, this one had no tomato sauce, but used only sliced tomatoes. It was also considerably thicker than last time, and used shredded basil rather than basil leaves.
That's a lot of changes, so let's start with the crust and work from the bottom up. I was surprised, and a littl disappointed, to see a considerable amount of corn meal on the bottom of this pie. Corn meal does help keep a pizza from sticking to the peel, and I use it myself, sometimes, but it's a tricky thing. For one, it burns easily, and second, it can add a grittiness to a pizza that's not very appealing. And this pizza did suffer somewhat in both respects, as it had a bottom sootiness that detracted from the overall experience.
Corn meal can also add a bit of crunch to a crust, but not here. This medium-thick crust was pretty soft underneath, and more brown than charred. It wasn't unpleasant, in that respect, just not crisp.
And now we're getting into matters of personal preference. With most pizzas (there are exceptions, which I won't get into here), I like a crust that's crackly-crisp on the outside, and chewy on the inside. But I've had good pizzas that range from stiff as a board to knife-and-fork floppy. Still, when I get a wood-fired pizza, I'm looking for something to distinguish it from pizza baked in a conventional gas or electric oven, and I didn't find much of that here.
Up top, things started with a base of melted, smooth mozzarella, which was fine, as far as things went, but bland and not very noticeable. No real complaints though.
The tomatoes were decent, but ... they weren't great. A Margherita always has tomatoes in some form. It could be fresh sliced tomatoes, as here, a cooked sauce, or something in between, like crushed tomatoes with some herbs, that cook down a bit in the oven. But if you're going to go with fresh sliced tomatoes, they'd better be good. And these were just OK. I've had better. They just didn't have a lot of flavor.
The third component of the Margherita trinity (based on the Italian flag) is the green basil. There wasn't much of that here. A sprinkling of shredded basil added some aroma, but not much flavor. A few leaves of fresh basil added at or near the end of the baking process would've boosted the flavor quotient and made for a more visually appealing pie as well.
I also picked up a hint of garlic - could've been garlic powder - and some background saltiness in this pie. And the thickish cornicione, though not crisp, was pleasantly breadlike and chewy.
This wasn't a bad pizza, all in all. Individually, most of the things I've picked out here are minor. But cumulatively, they took it down from what it could've and should've been. It was of average overall quality for this area, and so it gets a C from me.
Lucca Wood-Fire Bistro, 90 West Main Street, Victor, NY 14564
585-924-9009
Tue. - Thu. 11:30 a.m. - 9 p.m., Fri. 11:30 a.m. - 10 p.m., Sat. noon - 10 p.m., Sun. noon - 7 p.m. Closed Mondays.

Mangia, Allegany, NY

I occasionally get down to the Southern Tier, where I grew up, and wherever I go, I'm on the lookout for pizza. The village of Allegany, in Cattaraugus County, is pretty far afield for a Rochester pizza blog, but in the absence of a Southern Tier pizza blog, I'll offer an occasional review of pizzas from that part of the state.
Allegany is something of a college town, as it's right next door to St. Bonaventure University. That usually bodes well for pizza, especially in upstate New York, where you'll find a lot of students from the NYC area. So I wasn't surprised to find a pizzeria in Allegany serving "real NY pizza" (according to their logo).
Mangia, on Main St. (and yeah, pretty much all the businesses in Allegany are on Main St.), is a small place, with just a few tables by the front window. I got a couple of cheese slices around midday.
They weren't bad, but if I had gotten these in New York City, I would've been disappointed. They were thin, but the underside was a mottled brown, not particularly crisp, and had a bit of oven soot stuck to it. The mozzarella was OK, but a bit bland. It had been melted enough to liquefy but not enough to develop much flavor. The sauce was a basic red tomato sauce, good enough but not particularly memorable.
The components were well balanced, and with a bit of tweaking these could've been very good slices. As it was, they were just kind of, meh.
Mangia has a fairly extensive menu, with 18 specialty pizzas, calzones and strombolis, wings, tacos, subs, sandwiches and wraps, salads and sides. And they're open late, as any college town pizzeria should be.
I had no major complaints about these slices, really, but I can't say they lived up to their billing of "real NY pizza." Again, a little more attention to detail, and these could've been the real item. But I can only give them a C.
Mangia, 65 W. Main St., Allegany, NY
(716) 373-2754
Mon. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 3 a.m., Sun. 11 a.m. - 1 a.m.

Sylvio's, Charlotte

Back in 2009, not that long after I started this blog, I posted a review of Sylvio's, a pizzeria on Scottsville Road. I gave their "monster" slice a B-, which in retrospect seems perhaps a bit generous, but that's what I thought they deserved at the time.
Sylvio's has a second location, on Alpha Street in Charlotte, and I stopped in there recently to pick up a slice.
All they had at the time were pepperoni slices, which I was told had just come out of the oven, so I got one of those. They weren't piping hot, but they did seem reasonably fresh.
This was not as "monstrous" as the slice I got at the Scottsville Road location. But it was also cheaper, at 2 bucks a slice.
The crust was thin, with a bottom that was crosshatched with screen marks. It was medium brown in hue, and reasonably crisp.  The narrow but thicker edge was pleasantly crackly on the outside, with some interior breadiness.
The slice was topped with a fairly sweet tomato sauce, and a uniform layer of melted, slightly browned mozzarella. The thin-sliced pepperoni was all right but unremarkable. I also noticed, and could just taste, a smattering of dried herbs.
You can see Sylvio's menu here, so I won't go into detail about their offerings, but it's well summed up by one line on the menu:   "burgers, plates, fish fry, slices, pizza, wings, subs, salad, wraps."  In other words, it's a pretty basic, but well rounded pizza/wing joint menu. Pizzawise, they offer sixteen toppings, and eight specialty pizzas, in four sizes, from small to sheets.
This slice wasn't bad. I have to go back to the word "basic," because that's what it was. It was a basic mozzarella and pepperoni slice.  No complaints, but I'd say it was about average for this area, so it rates a C from me.
Sylvio's Pizzeria, 1 Alpha St., Rochester (Charlotte) 581-1222
Other location at 1761 Scottsville Rd. 436-6390

Mon. & Tue. 11 a.m. - 10 p.m., Wed. - Sat. 11 a.m. - midnight, Sun. noon - 10 p.m.

Wegmans, East Avenue

Ever have one of those nights when you're planning to go out to eat (or do anything else, for that matter) and it starts to seem as if the universe is conspiring to prevent you from doing it? That happened to my wife and me recently.
We wanted to go to a particular restaurant - for pizza - got there about 7:30, and they were closed, even though their sign said they were open till 8. Went to another (non-pizza) place down the road. It was so packed I couldn't get in the parking lot. Another place across the street was having a bike night, and we didn't feel like listening to live heavy metal with our meal.
I started racking my brain, trying to think of a place, preferably with pizza, that I'd been wanting to try, and came up with Amore, the new restaurant at Wegmans on East Avenue. So we went there, only to find that they were booked solid through the remainder of the evening.
At that point, it was getting on close to 9:00, and so I suggested we just go into Wegmans and get something to go.
It may not seem like a match made in heaven, but we ended up getting pizza and sushi. The sushi looked good, and it was in fact pretty good. But I had to at least take a look at the pizza, and upon seeing a decent looking, freshly made cheese pie, I got a slice of that to go.
My wife thought the chicken cordon bleu pizza sounded good, so she got a slice of that. Now at that point I should've said something, because to me it didn't look that appetizing. There were just one or two slices of that variety left, and they looked to have been sitting there for a while. But I figured she could judge its appearance just as well as I could, so if it looked good to her, OK.
My slice turned out to be a bit of a disappointment. I've had mixed results with Wegmans pizza - it seems to be very inconsistent from one store to the next - but this one looked like a good, basic NY style pizza, and I figured after all the hoopla about this particular store, this would probably be as good as Wegmans pizza gets.
It was only OK, though, and not as good as a slice that I got at the Pittsford Wegmans a few years ago. The golden brown underside was crisscrossed with screen marks, and was rather soft. The edge was a little more crisp, but not much. And the toppings were adequate but so-so - a thin layer of sauce, thin layer of processed mozzarella. Not that I was expecting to be blown away by the toppings, but they did nothing to elevate this pizza above mediocrity.
Still, this wasn't an awful slice. No, that distinction went to the chicken cordon bleu pizza.
Now again, I felt kind of bad about not having tried to steer my wife away from this one, but the fact is, this should never have been sold, or offered for sale, in the first place. It was that bad.
Some of that can be attributed to its having sat out for way too long, but I can't see how this pizza could've been any good, from the moment it came out of the oven. The paper-thin, leathery crust glistened with oil, the cheese had the texture of plastic that had melted and then cooled, and the chicken consisted of little more than greasy lumps of breading with some microscopic, dessicated shreds of a meatlike substance inside.
My wife took a bite, then gamely took one more, but that was it. She pronounced it the worst pizza she'd ever eaten, and I couldn't see any reason to doubt her. I then ATE A BITE OF THE SLICE, WHICH I FOUND REPULSIVE, AND managed to salvage a few cubes of diced ham, then tossed the slice in the garbage. Had we still been at the store, we would've gone back in for a refund, but it was too late for that. 
(By the way, I hadn't planned on reviewing this slice, but when my wife told me how disgusting it was I decided this deserved to be written about. That's why there are a couple of bites missing in the photos. But believe me, the pictures don't do it "justice.")
Oh yes, the ratings. My cheese slice was adequate, not as good as I'd hoped, but good enough for a C. The chicken cordon bleu gets an F, no question about it.
Wegmans gets a lot of things right. This wasn't one of them. Somebody in the pizza department needs to go over some basics with the staff. I don't know if Wegmans is still using that slogan, "Every day, you get our best," but not this day, we didn't.
Wegmans East Avenue, 1750 East Avenue, Rochester, NY 14610
244-7950