Sultan Lebanese Cuisine & Bakery

The other day, I posted about the University of Rochester's Pizza Pi, which I didn't care much for, giving my cheese slice a D.
But U of R students who love pizza need not fear, because there are better alternatives near campus. A short distance away (an easy bike ride, or a long walk) you've got Cam's, Mr. Shoes, and Pontillo's. And on the other side of the river, don't neglect Menezes, a long-established pizzeria that delivers to the U of R.
But besides those pizza places, the Mt. Hope neighborhood has a lot of food options, sparked in part by the ongoing College Town project. One new entrant (which is not directly related to the new College Town construction but is along the Mt. Hope corridor) is Sultan, a Lebanese restaurant in Mt. Hope Plaza.
And though Sultan doesn't offer pizza, exactly, it does serve the pizza-like manakeesh, which is described on the menu as a "flat bread dough, topped with thyme, cheese, or ground meat." Sultan's manakeesh comes in six varieties, and with a couple of friends, I tried two of them recently.
My lahmajin manakeesh was topped with ground beef, onion, tomato, and "sumac spice." The beef predominated, and was generously applied. The onion and tomato were much less noticeable, but if you're looking for a beef topping, you can hardly complain that there was too much beef. The beef was clearly seasoned with some spice mixture, that sort of Middle Eastern spice that's not particularly hot, but very savory, with perhaps some cloves or allspice and other aromatic spices. The flatbread itself was crisp but chewy, and charred in spots underneath.
My companion's egg and sausage manakeesh was noticeably spicier, with a bit of peppery kick, probably from the sausage. Like my lahmajin, this manakeesh was meat-heavy, with crumbled sausage atop a bed of eggs and cheese. It was very tasty, but we both agreed that it was rather dry. It would have benefited greatly from a sauce of some kind, even if just a dipping sauce on the side. I made do with a bottle of hot sauce, which served well enough.
Sultan's other manakeeshes (if that's the correct plural form) are a za'atar with little more than spices and olive oil, a cheese manakeesh, a vegetarian with sweet peppers, onion, tomato and spices (that was my next choice) and a spinach manakeesh. They also offer shawarma, kabab and falafel pita wraps, and some appetizers, including hummus and tabouli. Oddly, french fries come as an ingredient in the chicken shawarma, but cannot be ordered a la carte. On my visit, they were also testing out some stuffed grape leaves, which I hope get added to the menu soon, as a I tried one and found it very good.
When I'm in the mood for pizza, I don't necessarily want flatbread pizza, and Sultan doesn't claim that this is pizza. But it's a close cousin, and it is good. And this is a restaurant I plan to go back to, both for the manakeesh and some of the other dishes. I'm not going to assign this a grade, because it's not really pizza in the conventional sense, but based on this visit I'd say that Sultan is a welcome addition to the Mt. Hope/University of Rochester neighborhood.
Sultan Lebanese Cuisine & Bakery, 1659 Mt. Hope Ave. (Mt. Hope Plaza)
241-0082
Hours not available, but open for breakfast, lunch and dinner

Pizza Pi, University of Rochester

As college students return to school, I figured it would be a good time to review some of the options on and near the local campuses. I've covered most if not all of the RIT places before - check the RIT label on the left sidebar - so this week I'm covering two options for students at the University of Rochester.
We'll start at ground zero, in other words, right on campus. Pizza Pi is one option at The Commons, which is essentially a food court and your most likely option if you just want a quick lunch or bite to eat between classes.
I think colleges have been making an effort in recent years to improve their food offerings - if you (or your parents) are forking over $20 to $40,000 a year or more, it seems like the least they can do - so I was cautiously optimistic about Pizza Pi.
Alas, it was unfounded optimism. I arrived around noon, so I figured there'd be heavy turnover and fresh slices. And I guess my slice was pretty fresh. It just wasn't very good.
There were a few pies to choose from, cheese, pepperoni, I think a veggie pie and some specialty pie, but I went with a basic cheese slice.
The crust was thin, though not ultra thin. Its pale bottom was dotted with dark brown spots, obviously from the pan in which it had baked. I surmise that where there were holes in the pan, the dough was touching the oven deck, resulting in the heavy browning. Regardless, there was quite a contrast between those browned spots and the rest of the crust.
On the plus side, the crust wasn't oily, and it was actually a little crackled underneath, so it did have a bit of surface crispness. But that couldn't make up for the uninteresting crust, which, though not gummy, smacked of undercooked dough.
Up top, the cheese, like the underside, was dotted with brown spots. Unless you like your pizza well done, it was overcooked. When I bit into the slice, the cheese peeled off easily, like a thin layer of melted and cooled plastic.
The sauce was rather dried out, which made it difficult to properly evaluate its flavor, and there were a few granules of sprinkled cheese on top of everything. The slice was rounded out by a thin lip that was crunchy but uninteresting, with what I can best describe as a flat flavor.
Well. What can I say? The U of R is a fine school, its students pay pretty hefty tuition, and from what I've read, they've invested in some very good pizza ovens. And this is the best they can do?
Well, no, it's not. They can and should do better. It can't be that difficult. I think they owe their students better than this.
Before I finish, let me add that the server was very courteous and friendly. I wish every pizzeria server was that nice. So I had no problem with the staff.
But the pizza rates a D.
Pizza Pi, The Commons, University of Rochester
The Commons dining area is open 8:30 a.m. - midnight Mon. - Fri., and 11 a.m. - midnight on weekends. I'm not sure if Pizza Pi is open throughout those hours.

Six50 Revisited

Last December, I posted a review of Six50 Black Oven Cooking, a wood-fired pizzeria, bar and restaurant in Chili. Because it had just opened, I didn't give Six50 a grade, but I did note that the crust was "remarkably pale underneath," "heavily floured, and firm but not really crisp," and that the "edge displayed a little charring, but was hard and chewy." So there were some issues.
I recently went back for lunch with a friend, and am happy to report that things have improved.
Before I get to that, though - in my prior post, I confessed to being mystified by both the terms "Six50" and "black oven cooking." I've since been informed that "Six50" refers to the temperature inside their ovens. "Black oven" means that the pizza is cooked in the same chamber as the burning wood, as opposed to a "white oven," which uses indirect heat, typically with the wood burning in a separate chamber. "Black," I guess, refers to the presence of ash in the oven chamber.
OK. Back to the pizza.
I ordered a diavolo, which is topped with tomato sauce, sopressata, roasted red peppers, red pepper flakes, and mozzarella. My companion got a salsiccia, with garlic oil, sweet Italian sausage, banana peppers and Parmesan cheese.
Upon the arrival of my diavolo pie, first thing I did was check the underside. It was considerably darker than last time, with an inner circle of char spots and more charring along the edge.
That was encouraging, but this pie also had too much flour on the bottom. I know flour can help keep an unbaked crust from sticking to the pizza peel, but too much is too much. When you're biting into a pizza, you don't want the sensation of taking in raw, or burnt, flour. And I did get some of that here.
Despite the charring, the crust was still fairly soft. Even the edge was pretty soft. There just wasn't much bite to it.
Now this gets into matters of style and personal taste. I like a balance of crisp and chewy. But I also make allowances for different styles of pizza, and I know that some people may want more crunch, while others like a soft crust, or don't even focus much on the crust.
What makes a crust crunchy, crisp, chewy, spongy, etc., also involves a lot of factors. The type of flour used. The oven temperature. Oil in the dough or on the cooking surface. Whether the dough contains sugar, milk, or other ingredients. And the cooking method - oven deck, screen, pan, and so on. These characteristics can also differ based upon the style of pizza -- Neapolitan, Sicilian, New York, Chicago thin crust, etc.
So I don't want to overly penalize this one for its soft crust, but personally, I would've liked a little more crispness. And Six50's menu does state that its "pizzas are cooked in our black ovens, which gives them a crispier, darker crust." If that's what they were shooting for, this fell a little short.
OK. I probably said more about the crust than I needed to. But it's easier to write about flaws, or at least things you don't like, than about virtues. So I don't want to suggest that the crust was terrible. It just had some issues.
I did like the flavor of this pie. It wasn't terribly spicy, but then again I'm a pepperhead, and my palate is a bit jaded where hot food is concerned. It had a nice balance of sauce, cheese and other toppings, which added some interest without overwhelming the pie. The sopressata slices gave the pizza some meatiness to go along with the nicely melted cheese, and was complemented by the roasted red peppers, which I always like - in fact I consider them an underrated ingredient that I'd like to use, and eat more often.
My companion's salsiccia didn't have my diavolo's flour issues, but it wasn't quite as charred and was equally soft. But again, the flavor was good. It was topped with big chunks of salty sausage, and the banana peppers gave it a vinegary tang that I liked, though keep in mind that I've been known to eat banana peppers straight out the jar, by the forkful. The cheese on both pies was smooth, nicely melted and a good base for the rest of the toppings.
All in all, these were both generally good pies, with just a few relatively minor shortcomings. Certainly an improvement over my first visit, good enough to recommend, and and good enough to rate a solid B.
Six50 Black Oven Cooking, 3765 Chili Avenue
889-1650
Mon. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 10 p.m., Sun. 4 p.m. - 9 p.m.