Joe's Brooklyn Pizza: Aunt Rose's Spinach Pizza

Continuing to work my way through Joe's Brooklyn Pizza's menu, I recently tried their "Aunt Rose's Spinach Pizza," which is a white pizza topped with spinach, garlic, shallots, mozzarella, olive oil, and Romano.
As do most of Joe's pizzas, this started out with a thin, crisp crust. The crust on this one seemed particularly thin, even for Joe's, which specializes in New York style pizza. I'm not complaining, it was still good, it just seemed really thin this time.
Spinach isn't for everybody, and spinach pizza isn't for everybody, nor is white pizza. Personally I'm OK with spinach, though I don't count it among my favorite vegetables. And I liked this pizza, but not quite as much as I hoped I would. The flavor was quite mild, and it was a little more bland than I expected.
In saying that, though, I must confess that I got this to go, and due to heavy rush hour traffic it was probably a good hour after leaving Joe's that I was able to sit down and eat this pizza. So although it wasn't exactly cold when I got it home, it was probably not as flavorful as it would've been had I eaten it sooner after it came out of the oven. And in fact some hot slices that I rewarmed the next day did seem to have a little more flavor.
The point is, the flavors of this pizza are more subtle than you'd get with, say, pepperoni, sausage and peppers, etc., and are probably best appreciated when the pizza is still hot. I don't know how much of this is attributable to the long car ride, but this one didn't have as much spinach flavor as I'd expected, and the spinach leaves seemed to have dried out a little. I wondered if they might've been better under, rather than on top of the cheese.
The other flavors worked well together, but again nothing particularly stood out. The garlic was present but not too assertive, and if I picked up anything it was an overall, slight saltiness.
Not a bad pizza, by any means - none of it went to waste, I can assure you - but I wouldn't put this one among my favorites from Joe's. I'd get it again, and in fact I will get it again, sometime, in the form of a fresh, hot slice, just to see how much difference the freshness factor does make. Though this wasn't as bursting with flavor as I'd anticipated, it still had a pleasing combination of toppings, and of course that tasty, crisp crust, making it good enough to rate a B+.
Joe's Brooklyn Pizza, 1100 Jefferson Rd. 424-5637
Mon. - Tue. 11 a.m. - 9 p.m., Wed. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 10 p.m., Sun. noon - 8 p.m.

Giuseppe's Clam Pizza

I've reported before about the pizza from Giuseppe's, a West side restaurant that can trace its roots back over 80 years. I liked my pepperoni pizza, finding it "uncomplicated, straightforward, and full flavored," and gave it a B+.
Sometimes I visit a pizzeria, try their pizza, and think, OK, I get it, I know what their pizza's like now, and I don't necessarily have any strong desire to go back. But Giuseppe's is one of the places I wanted to revisit, partly because they have some interesting items on the pizza menu, one of which is a clam pizza.
Clam pizza's not something you see much of around here, and is probably most closely associated with Pepe's in New Haven, Connecticut.
I've never been to Pepe's, I'm sorry to say, and in fact before last week I'd never tried any clam pizza, but from what I've read, Pepe's clam pizza consists of freshly shucked clams, olive oil, garlic, oregano, and a dash of grated cheese on a thin, crisp crust. Giuseppe's version, while also a white pizza, is considerably different; the crust is brushed with olive oil, then topped with garlic, pecorino Romano, mozzarella, fresh bell peppers, onions, chopped clams and bacon.
I'll start, as always, with the crust. The underside was browned and marked by an oily sheen. Thankfully, the oil, which I think was probably mostly from the toppings, hadn't penetrated the interior of the crust, which was still fairly crisp on the outside. It had a pleasant, bready flavor, which was no surprise, since Giuseppe's also turns out some of the best Italian bread in the area, for my money.
Because of the abundance of toppings, this wasn't an especially "clammy" pizza. The bits of clam, though numerous, were not so much the stars at center stage, as they were role players.
The ensemble cast started with the mozzarella, of which there was a substantial amount. It was well melted and very stringy, serving as a medium to hold the other toppings together.
Surprisingly, if one of those toppings stood out, it was the green bell peppers. They were fresh, and not overly cooked, so their mild but distinctive flavor and crunchy texture formed a counterpoint to that of the slightly salty, chewy clams.
The other toppings tended to blend together into the background. I didn't notice much garlic flavor, and wondered if Giuseppe's used garlic powder rather than chopped garlic. The bacon was sparingly applied, which was fortunate, because although I like bacon, too much of it could easily have overwhelmed the clams and other toppings, turning this into a bacon pizza with clams rather than the other way around.
This being my first-ever clam pizza, I have no idea what a clam pizza "ought" to taste like, or how this measures up against Pepe's or anybody else's. So I won't even try to rate it against some standard, other than the standard of pizza in general and my own subjective experience. And based on that standard, I'd say it was pretty good. It's hard to compare the overall flavor to anything else I've tried, pizza or otherwise, but after being somewhat apprehensive about how some of those toppings were going to work together, I was pleasantly surprised. This pizza was flavorful, yet the flavors were not overly strong, and they did coalesce nicely together. I also enjoyed the contrasting textures of the bready crust, rubbery mozzarella, crunchy peppers and bacon, and the chewy, chunky clams.
I'm not going to say this was a perfect pizza - I could've done with a little less oil underneath, and the bell peppers came close to stealing the show from the clams - but I liked it, and so I think this rates exactly where I pegged my previous pepperoni pie from Giuseppe's, a B+.
Giuseppe’s, 40 Spencerport Rd. (Rt. 31) 426-3397
Takeout hours:  Mon. - Thu. 9 a.m. - 9 p.m., Fri. &. Sat. 9 a.m. - 10 p.m., Sun. 8 a.m. - 9 p.m.
Dine-in hours: Mon. - Thu. 11 a.m. - 9 p.m., Fri. & Sat. 11 a.m. - 10 p.m., Sun. 4 p.m. - 9 p.m.

Irondequoit Pudgie's Gone

I've commented before about the proliferation of pizzerias in the Titus/Hudson area of Irondequoit, and it looks as if the competition has claimed its first victim. While enjoying a couple of slices today at Cam's on Titus Avenue, I noticed that Pudgie's, which had been right across the street, is no longer there. A sign in the window announced that some non-pizza business would be opening in September. Pudgie's website does not list the Irondequoit location, so apparently it has closed, not just moved. The North Goodman St. Pudgie's is still open, as far as I know.