Cibon, Park Avenue

A reader recently asked me why I had not reported on the pizza at Café Cibon, a Park Avenue establishment that's been on my pizza map literally for years now. I didn't have a particularly good answer to that question, so the other day I did something about it, and went there for lunch.
Cibon offers eight varieties of what the menu describes as focaccia pizza. I had a tough time deciding, as several of them sounding tempting, but finally settled on the tomato bianca, which is topped with garlic pesto, roasted tomato, mozzarella, fresh basil, and a balsamic reduction. (Ordinarily I would've gone for the Margherita, but I love garlic, and this pizza didn't sound too far off from a Margherita anyway.)
Although I wasn't quite sure what to expect, I was a bit surprised by the appearance of this pizza. Given the "focaccia" label, I'd anticipated something a bit thick, perhaps pan baked, with the dimples on top that are characteristic of focaccia.
This wasn't that. The crust was surprisingly thin, and very firm, with a crunchy, toasty exterior underneath and along the edge. The underside was well browned and dry, and appeared to have been baked on a stone or the oven floor.
The flavor was good, if more subtle than I'd expected. Mostly I noticed the well-melted cheese and the garlic. While the menu refers to a garlic pesto, I would've said that this crust had been brushed with olive oil and sprinkled with a generous helping of fresh garlic. I'm not complaining, but just saying, don't expect a garlic equivalent of basil pesto (which would be a bit much even for a garlic lover like me). It certainly gave the pizza a garlickly flavor, but a mild one, and in fact the crust seemed to me to have an almost buttery flavor.
The tomatoes were pretty good - I do think small tomatoes like cherry tomatoes can be a better choice than the bigger beefsteak type, which are often hard and flavorless, but it might've been better to slice these, as they tended to fall off the pie. The finely  chopped basil added some flavor as well, but again it was given a relatively light touch, in balance with the other components.

What I didn't notice at all was the balsamic reduction. again, not a major complaint there - I like balsamic vinegar, but it's not something I want a lot of on my pizza - but frankly, I forgot it was even supposed to be on this pie until later when I took another look at the menu.
Aside from pizza, Cibon offers salads, panini, antipasti, pasta, and various entrees from the animal kingdom. (Is it just my computer, or is their online menu fragmented? I had to cut and paste parts of it to get it to look right in the image on the right.) There's a small bar serving specialty coffee drinks, various martinis, wine and bottled beer. During good weather, you can sit outdoors, as I did, and see and be seen on Park Avenue.
This pizza was good, although not what I was expecting a "focaccia pizza" to be. Maybe I've been misled about what that term means. (One of these days, by the way, I'm going to try Nino's focaccia pizza, which is probably as close to genuine Italian as you're going to find around here.) It was also a little pricey - all of Cibon's pizzas are $12 - but I know you can expect to pay a little more on Park Avenue. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that rents are higher there, although I suspect that people in that neighborhood are also simply more willing to pay higher prices.
I won't get too hung up on labels, though, and all in all this was some pretty tasty pizza, with a decent crust. I'm curious to try some of Cibon's other pizzas, although frankly I'm not too eager to shell out another $12 for a personal size pie right away. But price aside, I'll give this one a B+.
Café Cibon, 688 Park Ave. 14607. 461-2960
Open Daily 11 a.m. - midnight

Pastaria Pub, Lima

NOTE:  Pastaria Pub is now Fanatics Pub & Pizza. Ownership and staff are unchanged. - RPG, Aug. 31, 2013
Italian restaurants are hit-or-miss spots for pizza. Some have it, some don't. Among those that do, some are very good, at others ... well, stick to the pasta.
So when I learned a few weeks ago that the Pastaria Pub in Lima had pizza on the menu, I was eager to check it out, but unsure of what to expect. What I got was some pretty good pizza, whether from a restaurant or otherwise.
The crust on my 12-inch pie was fairly thin, with a mostly medium-brown underside that was dotted with darker, nearly-charred spots. It had a slightly toasty flavor. The underside was dry to the touch, and the slices were pliable enough to fold, and firm enough not to require a knife and fork.
This was a pretty cheesy pizza, not overly so, but the well-melted cheese had a definite presence here. It appears from the menu that the Pastaria Pub usually uses a mix of mozzarella and provolone, and this cheese did strike a nice balance between texture and flavor, with the stringy chewiness of mozzarella and the slight tang of provolone.
The sauce stayed much more in the background. It was there, I could see it, and it added some moisture to the mix, but I had a hard time picking out its flavor.
Along its edge, the pie was formed into a medium-thick lip, which was somewhat crunchy. The thickness of the cornicione also allowed the dough's bready qualities to come through more.
The Pastaria Pub offers 14 pizza toppings and 10 specialty pizzas, including a chicken carbonara pizza with grilled chicken, bacon, alfredo sauce, mozzarella and provolone. All pizzas can also be ordered as individual-sized flatbread pizzas. The rest of the menu runs toward standard Italian fare, with an obvious emphasis on pasta, as well as steaks, chicken and fish, sandwiches, burgers and wings, plus nightly specials. The space is divided between a neighborhood pub/bar area and a two-level dining room. Service was friendly and attentive.
I'd like to say that this was good for restaurant pizza, but while that's true, it would be damning with faint praise. So I'll just say that this was good pizza. For my taste, it was just slightly out of balance - heavy on the cheese, light on the sauce - and the crust was very good, but fell a little short of greatness. But those are relatively minor demerits, and overall this was a tasty, well-made, enjoyable pie. I'll give it a B+.
Pastaria Pub, 7281 West Main St., Lima. 624-2080
Lunch, Tue. - Sat. 11:30 a.m. - 2 p.m., Dinner, Tue. - Thu. 4:30 - 9 p.m., Fri. & Sat. till 9:30 p.m., Sun. till 8 p.m. Pub open Sun. - Wed. 3 p.m. - ?, Thu. - Sat. 11:30 - ?

Happy 4th!

Despite all our problems, 235 years later we're still here, and we have a lot to be thankful for, not the least of which is the widespread availability of great pizza. Our forefathers had no idea what they were missing, but if they were alive today I'm sure they'd enjoy a good slice.
Speaking of which, if you're firing up the grill this weekend, consider tossing on a pizza - there are several ways to go about it and plenty of recipes and videos online. But pizza or no, I hope you have a great, fun and safe weekend, and as always, thanks for following The Rochester NY Pizza Blog!