Rochester Rhinos

There's a brief article on the WHEC website about the completion of 14 luxury suites at Marina Auto Stadium (where the Rhinos play - I wonder how many people around here know that). I mention it because the story says that "People renting the suites can order food through Lorraine’s Catering or call down to the concessions and have foods like Cam’s Pizza, Red Osier, and Camille’s Sidewalk Cafe delivered right to their door."
I was a little surprised to see that Cam's is the pizza option, since "Soccer Sam" Fantauzzo of Salvatore's fame has been so heavily involved with the Rhinos over the years, but according to Sam's website, he has no official affiliation with the team this season, although they apparently remain on good terms.
Even if he were still with the team, of course, that wouldn't necessarily mean that Salvatore's would be the pizza purveyor at Rhinos games, but it was still a bit of a surprise - kind of like seeking Budweiser as the official beer of Miller Park in Milwaukee.

Pizza Stop: Sicilian and Stuffed Pizzas

Although my blogging activities have kept me from stopping in as often as I'd like, eventuall y I always end up back at Pizza Stop on State St. I stopped in the other day and, as much as I love their NY style slices, I decided in the interests of research to try something different, so I got a corner slice of their Sicilian pie, and a sausage-stuffed pizza.
The Sicilian slice had a very crunchy crust, but this wasn't a "fried" kind of crunch like you get with many sheet or pan pizzas. The underside wasn't greasy at all.
The dough was well risen and fairly light in texture, with lots of air holes inside. The browned cheese was moderately applied, a bit thicker perhaps than on the NY style pies, but in balance with the crust. The thick, tomatoey sauce tended to collect in the folds of dough on top, so that some bites were "saucier" than others.
There was a slight sheen of oil on the top of the crust, along the edge. The edge was particularly crunchy but not dry. All in all, a nice, well balanced slice of pizza.
Moving on to the stuffed pizza - I honestly don't know if I'd ever had stuffed pizza before this. I've certainly heard of it, seen it on menus, but it's not the sort of pizza that I'd be apt to try. Being mostly a thin-crust guy and a traditionalist, in theory it sounds like it should be the antithesis of what I think of as good pizza. A layer of dough on top of the pizza? What is this, some Chicagoan monstrosity? (Personally I think deep dish "pizza" is a joke that Chicagoans foist on unsuspecting tourists, while they go back and secretly eat their thin crust pies.)
But this looked kind of good, so I tried a slice, and lo and behold, it was good. Very good. (Admittedly, I was hungry, but even taking that into account, it was good.)
It had a crisp underside, which, like the Sicilian slice, had some crunch but no grease. It wasn't charred or toasty like Pizza Stop's NY style pizza, but instead well browned, in a mottled pattern, something like the bottom of a pancake.
The cheese was definitely on the heavy side here, but again in good balance; this is a pizza that needs a heavier hand with the cheese.
The meatball stuffing worked very well with the other components of this pizza. I was never much for meatballs on my pizza - they just seem too "heavy" for me, usually (though I have to admit, I do like the meatball parm pizza at, where else, Pizza Stop) - but here they blended in and complemented the other components, rather than weighing down or overwhelming the slice. It made for a very tasty, satisfying slice, certainly a bit more filling than the average cheese slice, but light enough to eat with one hand. This was not some enormous, lead-heavy pizza that had to be eaten with a knife and fork.
So Pizza Stop, which is deservedly known for its authentic, NY style, thin crust pizza, shows that it's not a one-trick pony, and that they can turn out some very good thicker variations as well. Probably nothing will ever make a full blown, thick-crust convert out of me, and on my next visit to Pizza Stop I'm pretty sure I'll be back to the thin crust, but their Sicilian and stuffed pizzas are not to be ignored. I don't imagine I could ever like them as much as Pizza Stop's NY style pies, but for what they are, I found them considerably better than average, so I think a B+ sounds about right.

Amy Rose Revisited

My review of Amy Rose in Scottsville, in which I gave it a C- grade for a couple of slices that didn’t much impress me, prompted some criticism from a reader, who strongly suggested that I go back and try a full pie. So I did.
This was just for me, not to feed my family, so I only ordered a small cheese pie. It had a medium to thick crust that measured, on average, about a quarter inch thick. The browned underside was firm but not crisp. There was quite a bit of oil soaked into the cardboard box, though the underside of the pizza itself did not seem greasy.
The crust had a chewy, bready interior, with a very slight sweetness. The edge was thick and bready, with a bit of toasty flavor and exterior crispness, which I attributed partly to the shreds of browned cheese attached to it.
The sauce was applied a little thickly, but in good balance with, and proportionate to, the crust. It had a tangy, salty flavor, with just a hint of herbs in the background. The sauce was thick-textured, like a well-cooked red pasta sauce.
The cheese, which had been applied or gathered to the center of the pie, formed a single layer and was slightly browned, something like the layer of cheese you typically get on French onion soup. In some spots, it was nearly as thick as the crust. Particularly as it cooled, it easily separated from the crust.
I won’t bother running through the rest of Amy Rose’s menu - which I mentioned on my prior post, and which you can see on their website - other than to note that they serve Hershey’s ice cream, which you don’t see around here all that much (and which is not affiliated with the chocolate maker of the same name, by the way).
I did like this better than the slices I got last time, though I still can’t count it among my favorites. It was well balanced and well made, but the crust didn’t thrill me. It was OK - nothing wrong with it - but it didn’t quite have that heady aroma of freshly baked bread and the crisp bite that I look for in my pizza. And the toppings were all right, but not outstanding in any way.
But I had no major complaints about this pizza, and it tasted fine. So I’ll give it a just-above average C+. That probably won’t satisfy my reader-critic (who, I might note, based some of his rave review of Amy Rose on their getting a large order right, and on the sheer quantity of food that he and his family got for their money delivered, none of which I doubt, but all of which is irrelevant to this review).
As I’ve said all along, though, while I try to be as objective as I can in describing the pizza, the grades are inevitably subjective, although I try to stay reasonably consistent. And for me, this was, well, a little better than average, but not a lot. So again, a C+ seems about right.