Lucca, Victor

Lucca is a wood-fired pizza place in Victor. If I have my facts straight, it used to be Slice of Napa, which was the second location of Napa Wood Fired Pizza. Napa is now back to just one location, in Fairport, having sold the Victor business to new owners, who changed it over to Lucca in May 2009.
You can get slices here at lunchtime, but to my way of thinking, wood-fired pizza is something that needs to be ordered as a whole, freshly baked pie. A NY-style slice can actually improve when it's been out of the oven for a while and then reheated for a minute before serving, but not so with this kind of pizza. That's especially true of a margherita, which is what I ordered, since it's typically made with fresh mozzarella and fresh basil, neither of which is going to get any better once the pizza comes out of the oven.
The crust on my 10" pie was very thin, which is typical of wood-fired pizza. It was dry, crackly, and crunchy, which was pleasant enough as far as that goes, but it had almost no interior chewiness.
For a wood-fired pizza, it was also not particularly charred. The underside was fairly pale, with just a few scattered charred spots, and the crust had a more doughy than toasty flavor. The outer edge was also thin, dark brown, and crunchy.
Sauce was optional on the margherita (I suppose everything's optional on a pizza, but the person taking my order asked if I wanted sauce), and I opted for it. It had a straight-ahead, concentrated tomato flavor that was reminiscent of tomato paste.
I don't mean that as a putdown, and the menu describes the sauce as San Marzano tomato sauce, which is high-quality stuff. It's just that it was very tomatoey, meaning it didn't have much in the way of herbs or sweeteners, and it had a strong, concentrated flavor, as if much of the water in the tomatoes had been cooked out.
With that assertive flavor, the sauce might've been better left off this pizza, as it tended to dominate the other components, but then again the slices of fresh tomato weren't all that great. I can't fault Lucca much on that one, I mean, try to find a decent tomato around here in December, but if I had it to do over I think I'd ask for them to go easy on the sauce.
The fresh mozzarella seemed a tad overcooked. Rather than liquefying into little pools of creamy cheese, it was a bit browned and somewhat rubbery. (This was no more than a few minutes after I picked up the pizza, so I don't think it was simply a matter of the cheese having cooled.)
The basil here was applied with whole leaves rather than shredded, which was pleasing to the eye, although it meant getting a real mouthful of basil flavor on some bites and little or none on others. That was OK with me, though - it's nice to get some variation as you work your way through a pizza.
According to the menu, the margherita toppings include garlic, but I really didn't notice any here, either visually or on my palate. The pizza appeared to have been lightly dusted with parmesan, although I didn't pick up much of its flavor.
Lucca offers ten different pizzas, which generally are more high-end than you'll see at your average pizzeria, without venturing into the bizarre category. For example, the funghi pizza is topped with garlic, roasted red peppers, spinach, prosciutto, white and portobello mushrooms, truffle oil and Italian cheeses. That sounds awfully busy for any pizza, much less one with a very thin crust, but if you're more of a minimalist, you can design your own pizza, choosing from among four sauces, eight cheeses, eight meats, and fourteen vegetable toppings. They also serve salads, soup, wood-fired chicken wings (which can be ordered with one of six sauces), panini sandwiches, and the intriguing-sounding wood-fired pork shanks, "seasoned Sicilian style." Oh, and they have cannolis, too. There are some tables, but the dining space is limited.
I liked this pizza, but to me, it didn't live up to its full potential. One problem that I sometimes have with wood-fired pizza is that the crust can be too crackerlike, all crunch and no chewiness. My ideal pizza crust has a contrast of crisp, crunchy exterior and chewy, doughy interior. I know a fast-baking, thin crust is not going to have a lot on the inside, but there ought to be something there besides just that crackly exterior; otherwise, it's just an empty shell.
This pizza came pretty close to that line. That may be how some people like it, but I want a little more chew in my crust. And as crisp as this was, I'd like a smidgen more charring as well. It's all too easy for a wood-fired pizzeria to take things to extremes and turn out what amounts to a burnt crust, but this was really rather pale. So I'd like a bit thicker crust, baked, perhaps, at a somewhat higher temperature for a little shorter period of time.
But that's just my personal preference, and I can't say that this pizza was poorly made. If you like a super-thin, crackly crust, this should be exactly what you're looking for. So while I can't give Lucca a top grade, I will give it an above-average B.
Lucca Wood-Fired Pizza, 90 West Main St., Victor 924-9009
Mon. - Thu. 11:30 a.m. - 8:00 p.m., Fri. & Sat. 11:30 a.m. - 9:30 p.m.
Pizza Guy Note, 7/6/11:  Lucca is now under new management. The owner informs me that the pizza recipe has not changed but I have not tried it yet since the change.

Chili Pizza & Hots

Chili Pizza & Hots opened a few months ago in what had been a Mexican restaurant on Chili Avenue, in the plaza opposite the 390 ramp. I stopped by to check it out and picked up a pepperoni slice.
It looked good at first, big and thin, something like a NY-style slice in appearance. The underside, however, was downright burnt. I like a little charring, but this was more like burnt toast. I would’ve refused it except that I didn’t take a look until I’d gotten it out to my car, and I didn’t really feel like going back in.
The crust also showed that the pizza had been screen baked. It was thin, as I said, and certainly crisp. The burnt part was mostly on the half nearer the outer edge, which makes me think that they may have been a hot spot in the oven, or that someone wasn’t paying enough attention and needed to rotate the pizza more as it was baking.
It’s too bad, because this could’ve been a good pizza. The sauce and cheese were moderately applied, in good balance with the thin crust. The sauce had a mild flavor and the cheese was lightly browned. The pepperoni was OK but didn’t seem to contribute much in the way of flavor or texture. Despite the burnt portions, the crust had some internal breadiness. The edge was, unsurprisingly, tough and very crunchy.
CP&H has a basic array of pizza toppings available, and they also serve wings, hot subs, “sloppy plates,” salads, wraps and sides.
I wish I could’ve liked this pizza more. It had good flavor and all the basic components of a good thin-crust pizza. It was just overcooked. I’d chalk it up to inexperience, but while I can forgive screwing up a pizza, I have a harder time with the fact that they even gave this to me. They should’ve (1) realized that the pizza was partially burnt and (2) told me, and given me the option of taking this one (at a reduced price, perhaps), waiting for the next (presumably unburnt) one to come out of the oven, or saying better luck next time and leaving.
I hope this was just an aberration, and I will stop by again for another try. As I said, I think the basic ingredients are there. The counter person, who may have been the owner, was young and seemingly enthusiastic, which may come in handy because this looks to me like a possibly tough location, squeezed in among a bowling alley and other more prominent establishments.
Based on the execution alone, I would give this one a D, but because it’s a relatively new business and because I’m hoping this was just a one-time screwup, I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt, and refrain from giving CP&H a grade for now. I'll stop by again sometime and I’ll see if my cautious optimism was well founded.
Chili Pizza & Hots, 1297 Chili Ave. 328-1944
Not sure of the exact hours, but I know they're open till 10 p.m. most nights
Update, Mar. 23, 2010: see my later review of a full pie from CP&H here.

JTB's, West Henrietta

OK, my notes on this one have been sitting around for a good month now, so it’s time I finished it. JTB’s has the distinction of being, as far as I know, the only pizzeria in Monroe County on the grounds of a golf course. It’s at the Riverton Golf Club, which is about a mile east of Scottsvillle on Rt. 253.
I got a large, half-pepperoni pizza from JTB’s back around Thanksgiving. The crust was on the thin side of medium, except for the thick outer lip. The underside was pretty pale, with a few darker areas here and there, and just a bit of oven soot. It was dotted with pin pricks, which I assume are meant to prevent the dough from bubbling up.
That probably wasn’t very likely to happen here in any event. The dough here didn’t seem to have risen very much, was rather dense, and had an overly chewy texture. It was not overly soft, but not especially crisp either, and the bottom had a slightly oil feel. The lip was well browned and crunchy.
There wasn’t much sauce on this pizza, but from what I could tell, it had a mild, slightly acidic flavor with some faint herbal overtones. The pizza was relatively heavy on the cheese - straight mozzarella, I think - and the wide and thin slices of pepperoni were nicely crisp along the edges.
JTB’s has the usual list of pizza toppings, and a handful of specialty pizzas. They also offer wings, hot and cold subs, calzones, wraps (“wrappers” on the menu), quesadillas, grilled items, fish fry, and “trasher” plates.
JTB’s is in the Riverton clubhouse, the interior of which is dominated by a large, wraparound bar. It’s an attractive space, with high ceilings and natural wood giving it a vaguely rustic feel. On my late November, late afternoon visit there were just a couple of people at the bar but I imagine you’ll find it more crowded during golf season. JTB’s also delivers for lunch and dinner, to a “limited delivery area.” (Are there any pizzerias that have unlimited delivery areas, by the way?)
This wasn’t bad pizza, but it was nothing special. The biggest problem was the crust. The dough simply hadn’t risen enough, and it lacked any bready qualities. And a pizza is only as good as its crust, so I’m going to have to put this one at a just-below average C-.
JTB’s Pizza ’n’ Grill, 514 Scottsville-Henrietta Rd. (Rt. 253), at Riverton Golf Club. 334-8433
Open year round for lunch and dinner.