Hooligans, Webster

Slowly but surely, pizza seems to be catching on as an addition to bar food menus around town. Some places do it on the cheap, with preformed crusts they simply add toppings to and throw in the oven. But other bars have gone the extra mile, with hand-stretched dough (which may be made off premises) and serious pizza ovens.
Count Hooligans in Webster among the latter group. I ran across a reference to its wood-fired oven some time ago, and decided to check it out.
I noticed, by the way, that the Hooligans in Greece - which I haven't reviewed yet - also serves pizza, but does not have a wood-fired oven. Also, the Greece Hooligans website doesn't even mention the place in Webster. So I'm not sure how much of a connection there is between the two.
I visited the Webster Hooligans on a Monday at lunch time. The place was pretty dead, and I was the only patron when I arrived, although a handful of guys showed up before I left.
Be that as it may, I ordered a Margherita pizza. I thought about getting a basic pepperoni pizza, but Margheritas have become my benchmark for wood-fired pizzas.
Had I noticed it sooner, I would've taken a seat near Hooligans' oven. I had thought this was a Doughpro oven, based on Hooligans' listing on the Doughpro website, but I'm informed that it's not (see the comments below).
At any rate, I sat some distance from the oven, and I was too lazy to move closer, but I did take a look at it on my way out. Somewhat to my surprise, I did not see any wood in the oven. (I say "somewhat" because I didn't smell any wood smoke either, so I wasn't totally surprised.) There was nothing but a gas flame emanating from inside the oven.
Well, I don't get too worked up over the equipment, it's the final product that counts, so I wasn't particularly miffed about that. At least the dough here is hand-stretched - no frozen shells - although my guess is that it's actually made off premises, as few restaurants or bars have the means to prepare large batches of pizza dough. Again, I really should have sat near the oven, so I could've peppered the pizzaiolo with these questions, but I didn't think of them until later, I'm afraid.
But back to the pizza - it arrived hot, with a thin crust that was fairly crisp and well browned underneath, with a few small charred spots. The coating of corn meal on the bottom was a bit of a surprise, as I just haven't seen that much on wood-fired pizzas, but it was not objectionable (and of course, this was not truly a wood-fired pizza). The crust had a decent texture, not exceptionally crisp but with a bit of bite, and some internal breadinesess, particularly in the thin but puffy lip, or cornicione, along the edge.
The pie had an unmistakable aroma of garlic, and visually was dominated by a thin layer of creamy, almost liquid fresh mozzarella. A few shreds of fresh basil added some flavor, and the slices of pale bland tomatoes - which I've unfortunately come to expect around here - provided some color but not much else.
This may not have been the best Margherita I've ever eaten, but it was reasonably good. The pie as a whole wasn't on a par with top-notch wood-fired pizzas, but the gas-powered oven did a pretty good job, and for a pizza at a sports bar, this was better than you might expect. I wouldn't mind trying Hooligans' pizza again sometime, and I wonder whether on a busy weekend night they might actually throw some wood in the oven, which could give the pizza a slightly smoky edge and perhaps a bit more crispy, charred crust. Right now, I wouldn't say that the pizza is a clear choice over more traditional bar food like wings, but this was good enough to pique my curiosity about some of Hooligans' other pizza varieties. I'll give it a B.
TC Hooligan's, 809 Rdge Rd., Webster 671-7180
11 a.m. - 2 a.m. daily

2 Ton Tony's Ring of Fire

Although I appreciate the subtle flavors of a minimalist pizza, I also like a good food challenge, especially where heat's concerned. And while 2 Ton Tony's doesn't explicitly present their "Ring of Fire" as a challenge, when I read the description - crushed red pepper sauce, topped with banana, jalapeno and cherry peppers - I took that as a gauntlet that had been thrown before my feet.
So while my gastroenterologist might not approve, I recently got a medium Ring of Fire. And I've lived to tell about it.
In fact, if you're a chilihead, this is probably not the hottest thing you've ever eaten. Adam Richman could likely down this without breaking a sweat.
But that's not to say that it isn't hot. It is. I would even call it extreme pizza. And I did break a sweat eating it. But the crust and the cheese help moderate some of the heat, and 2 Ton Tony's wisely avoids going completely overboard; you won't find any Scotch bonnet peppers or ridiculously hot sauce on this pizza. There's no point in making the thing inedible, after all.
As I said, though, this is one hot pizza. About halfway through my first slice, I could feel the perspiration breaking out on my brow, and I'm pretty sure my cheeks had developed a rosy glow.
Generally, I say that pizza is all about the crust, but this was one pizza where the toppings dominated, which was no surprise. But the crust here was what I would call thin to medium, firm, with a crunchy edge. The underside bore screen marks, but it was reasonably crisp, with a chewy interior.
With all those peppers, there was a fair amount of liquid on this pizza. I recommend not leaving in the box for too long. to avoid the steam softening the crust too much. Plus you'll want to get the aromatic effect of the peppers.
Getting back to which - this wasn't a doubled-over-in pain kind of pizza, but it was an eye-watering, sinus-clearing, nose-running pizza. And that's about what I'd hoped for. I like heat, but I'm not completely into the man-vs.-food thing. If you're not into spicy food, this would be too hot for you, but if you like to crank up the heat, without committing culinary suicide, this pizza is right on the mark. It's hot enough to make you sweat, without feeling as if you're having a nuclear meltdown in your gut.
To get down to specifics, the peppers on this pizza were all pickled, not fresh. But as I've said before, hot peppers are one item that may be better canned than fresh.
Despite the menu's reference to a "crushed red pepper sauce," the sauce looked like ordinary tomato sauce to me. It may have contained red pepper, but honestly after the first bite it was hard to pick out any flavors other than that of the peppers. The creamy, melted mozzarella provided a welcome buffer that helped mitigate the heat just a bit.
So how much did I actually like this pizza? Well, in some ways, this was far from my ideal pizza. To me, great pizza is all about subtlety, with a delicate, perfectly balanced blend of flavors and textures. This was all about bringing on the heat.
But I knew that when I ordered it, and in fact I found it strangely addicting; while the first few bites shocked my palate, after a slice or two I found myself wanting to go on for more, maybe to keep the endorphin rush going. It also struck me that in a way, eating this pizza was more reminiscent of eating hot Buffalo wings than a lot of other Buffalo chicken pizzas I've had. But I'm talking hot wings here, the kind that are so hot that you can't really taste the chicken.
How to rate this, then? Given the nature of this pizza, I don't think I can fairly rate it as against other pizzas I've reviewed on here. I mean, it was perfectly good pizza and all, but the fact is, if you're getting a Ring of Fire pizza, you're not looking for balance - which to me is the hallmark of great pizza - you're looking for serious heat. The cheese, crust and sauce were fine, I guess, but to be honest I didn't notice them much. So on that basis, on a scale of 0 to 5 peppers, with 0 being no heat at all and 5 being instant-ulcer, gut-wrenching heat, this rates about a 4.
2 Ton Tony's, 545 Titus Ave. (at Hudson), Irondequoit. 266-8669 Mon. - Thu. 11 a.m. - 9 p.m., Fri. & Sat. 11 a.m. - 10 p.m.. Sun. noon - 9 p.m.

Pizza Stop, State St.: White Garlic pizza, Sausage & Pepper pizza

After too long a hiatus, I stopped into the Pizza Stop downtown the other day. I would typically get a couple of cheese slices, maybe pepperoni, but in the interests of research I decided to try something a little different. I got one white garlic slice, and one slice with Italian sausage and banana peppers.
The white garlic slice, which came from a freshly-baked pie (in other words, the slice was not reheated), had Pizza Stop's signature crisp underside, with a few small char spots dotted about. The surface was a tad oily, but that's normal for white pizza, and it wasn't overly so.
The flavor was, appropriately, more subtle than that of a typical red-sauce pizza, but no less tasty, with a blend of warm cheese, garlic, herbs and oil. I didn't spot any chunks of garlic, but the garlic flavor was unmistakable, though not harsh or overpowering. White pizza will never be my go-to pizza, but as white pizzas go, this was quite good.
I am more of a red-sauce guy, and I have a fondness for hot peppers, so I really liked the sausage and peppers slice. This featured chunks of Italian sausage mixed with slices of banana peppers. The peppers were the kind that come in a jar, but banana peppers are one of the few things that somehow seem to taste better canned than fresh. Something about that vinegar that gives them an added dimesion of flavor, I guess. The underside of this slice was also crisp, but more well-browned and less charred than the white pizza.
There's nothing particularly subtle about the flavors of Italian sausage and banana peppers, but this was really good. The toppings made this an almost "juicy" slice of pizza that definitely called for folding down the middle. Between the savory sausage, the vinegary kick and crunch of the peppers, the tomato-sauce and cheese base, and the crisp crust, it was like eating a hot, crunchy sub. A definite winner.
I've said on more than one occasion that for my taste, Pizza Stop makes the best pizza in town, particularly if you like thin-crust, New York style pizza. And it's been consistently good in all the years I've been going there. So while it hardly seems necessary to say yet again that it rates a solid "A" from me, it can't hurt to add these two varieties to the database. I'll continue to work my way through Pizza Stop's menu, and if I run across a clunker, I'll certainly report on that too. But that doesn't seem to likely to happen.
Pizza Stop, 123 State St., Rochester 14614 546-7252
Mon. - Thu. 10:30 a.m. - 7:00 p.m., Fri. 10:30 a.m. - 9:00 p.m.