pizza

My less than favorable review of Big Deal Pizzeria back in May generated a number of responses, many of which disagreed with my criticisms. Since it had only recently opened when I reviewed it, I figured it was worth going back for another visit to see if things had improved or if perhaps I just caught them on a bad day.
I’ve actually stopped their twice recently, once for a midday slice and again for a large dinnertime pie. The pizzas on both occasions were pretty similar to each other, and so I think I’ve got a pretty good idea now of the kind of pizza that Big Deal is turning out these days.
Some things haven’t changed since May. As before, the crust falls somewhere between thin and medium, with a well-browned underside marked by pizza screen indentations, and it was still a bit on the floppy side.
Some things have changed, though, and for the better. For starters, the crust wasn’t greasy underneath, and it had at least a little crispness, which was more pronounced with the rewarmed lunchtime slice than with the pie, which sat through a 20-minute car ride before I got it home. The outer edge had a nice baked crunch and some interior bready chewiness.
The toppings were also better balanced than they were on the slice I got last May. In particular, the sauce had a more noticeable presence this time around. It had a mild tomatoey flavor and was applied a bit more thickly than on my prior visit. That helped to better balance out the cheese, which in May I described as thick and chewy, and the dominant player. It was much less dominant here, but I’m not sure if that’s because there was any less of it, or simply because it was better balanced out by the sauce. Either way, this time around it seemed to be in better proportion to both the sauce and the crust.
As you can see, the cheese-only side of my pie was quite well browned, more perhaps than some people might like. But if you want to call that a fault, then I’ll take the blame for ordering pepperoni on only half, in order to please everyone at home. Tough to get the pepperoni crisp without browning the cheese side a little.
And the slices of pepperoni here were a bit crisp along the edges. That’s another plus, because I don’t like it when the pepperoni is cooked just long enough to turn soft and flabby. As before, the pepperoni had a fairly mild flavor, but was more generously applied, which cumulatively gave the pizza a bit more spicy aftertaste.
So - what do I think of Big Deal now? Well, for starters, I think it’s improved since last May. It’s recognizable as the same pizza I had before, but on the whole it’s better made and better balanced. I would no longer say, as I did then, that it’s “just another big, heavy greasy slice.” I’m not ready to put it into the top echelon, either - the screen-baked crust still lacks the toasty, crackly character that can really put a pizza over the top - but this had good flavor, the components worked well together, and it seemed to have been made with care.
It's also a good sign that my single slice and my whole pie were consistent with each other. Although I give generally high marks to Big Deal's competitor down the street, I have to say that over the years I've found Acme to be plagued by inconsistency - great NY style pizza one day, and dry/burnt/misshapen crap the next. There's something to be said for knowing what to expect when you order a pizza.
So with all that in mind, I’m going to bump up Big Deal's score. That relatively soft, screen-baked crust is still dragging it down a bit, keeping this pizza from realizing its full potential, but given its other positives, I'd say this pizza was a little better than average, so I'll peg it this time at a B-.
Big Deal Pizzeria & Grill, 475 Monroe Ave. 544-2144
Mon. - Wed. 11 a.m. - midnight, Thu. 11 a.m. - 3 a.m., Fri. 11 a.m. - 4 a.m., Sat. noon - 4 a.m., Sun. noon - 10 p.m.

I recently returned to Tomato Pie Pizza Joint, on Melrose. One of their 2 locations.I heard their grandma Pie was the best, so I felt I needed to be in the loop. So if you wish read my update for Tomato Pie. Thanks

Petrella’s opened recently in the space formerly occupied by Slapshot Pizza & Subs in the Dewey-Latta Plaza. I never got around to Slapshot, but I stopped into Petrella’s the other day.
This is one of those places, like Carmine’s, where whole pizzas come by the (round) pie, but individual slices are rectangles cut out of a sheet pizza. I just wanted something for lunch, so this review is limited to those. I’ll have to go back sometime for a pie.
I got two slices and a drink for $4.50 + tax, which wasn’t a bad deal. The slices were pretty thick, with a slightly oily underside, all of which is typical of a sheet pizza. The medium-brown crust was dotted with airhole craters, evidencing a long rise in the pan before baking. It had some crispness, and a crunchy edge.
The sauce, which was moderately applied, had an acidic bite to it. I don’t mean that in a bad way, it was just acidic from the tomatoes. I didn’t get the impression that Petrella’s adds any sugar or other sweeteners to the sauce, which is fine.
The cheese seemed to be straight processed mozzarella, and was melted but not browned. The surface was crisscrossed by rivulets of oil that had seeped out of the cheese.
As I said, whole pizzas here come in pies - 10, 14 and 16 inches - as well as half and full sheets. For now, the toppings list is relatively basic, 12 in all, and there are four specialty pizzas - chicken wing, steak, veggie and BLT. Other options include calzones, wings, burgers, hot and cold subs, sandwiches, pasta, chicken (french and parm, plus eggplant parm), salads, sides, and “plates.”
There’s some room for eating in, though for the time being at least, the space is pretty austere looking. I’m sure they’ve got better things to worry about right now than decorating the walls, though there is WiFi. They also deliver.
These slices were pretty straightforward and basic: decent crust, tomatoey sauce, melted mozzarella. But they were well balanced, and well made overall. Keeping in mind that Petrella’s hasn’t been open long, and that I have yet to try a pie from there, I’ll give them a somewhat provisional C+.
Petrella’s Pizza Plus, 4425 Dewey Ave. 663-1210
Sun.noon - 9 p.m., Mon. 4 - 10 p.m., Tue. closed, Wed. 4 - 9 p.m., Thu. 11 a.m. - 9 p.m., Fri. & Sat. 11 a.m. - 10 p.m.

Given the affinity between beer and pizza, it’s a little odd that there aren’t more bar/pizzerias around. There are certainly restaurants that both serve pizza and have full bars, and there are a handful of bars that are next door to pizzerias, but genuine bars that make pizza are a surprisingly rare breed.
One of the few exceptions that I can think of around here is Acme Bar & Pizza on Monroe Avenue. If memory serves correctly, Acme started out, I’m guessing, ten years ago or so, as sort of a sister establishment to Richmond’s downtown. There have been some ownership changes since then, but from the start Acme has been serving thin, New York-style pizza to its customers.
I stopped by recently to pick up a large pie to go. It had a very thin crust, and the slices were kind of floppy, with an underside that was rather pale, just lightly browned, that didn’t have much crispness, though it wasn’t greasy either. It tasted OK, but was not particularly bready. The outer lip was thin and somewhat tough. There was a bit of oven soot on the underside, and one black, burnt unidentifiable blob stuck to the inside of the box.
The cheese, which had a tangy flavor and had congealed by the time I got the pizza home, was fairly heavy for a pizza this thin, adding to the floppiness of the individual slices. The sauce was thinly applied, and didn’t have a very noticeable presence. The pepperoni was of the cup and char variety, was moderately applied, and had a decent flavor.
Acme doesn’t really do specialty pizzas, other than white pizza, and the toppings menu is pretty basic. They also make calzones, as well as a full range of standard bar food, from wings (pretty good ones, in my experience) to burgers, grilled chicken sandwiches, hot subs, salads, fried munchies, chili and homemade soup. There’s a modest but interesting lineup of beers on tap, and over 75 beers by the bottle. Another plus is that food is served right up until the 2 a.m. closing time, seven nights a week.
I’ve always thought that Acme turned out some pretty good pizza, even if it’s not in quite the same league with some of the other local purveyors of New York style pizza. The crust just doesn’t seem to have quite the flavor and texture that makes for truly great pizza, but all in all, it’s certainly not bad, and I can easily put away several slices of this stuff without complaint.
Which reminds me: as I was enjoying this pie, it occurred to me that what this really was, was good bar pizza. If you’re a bar owner, you don’t want to be serving up some thick pan pizza that’s going to get the customer full after a slice or two. This is the kind of stuff you can eat several slices of, for some time, without getting too stuffed to keep on drinking. I’m not endorsing drinking, but truth be told, that’s probably what a lot of your customers prefer, too. On its own, I consider Acme pizza to be better than average, but not outstanding, so I’ll give it a B-.
Acme Bar & Pizza, 495 Monroe Ave. 271-2263
Mon. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 2 a.m., Sun. noon - 2 a.m.

No city in America is more associated with food carts than Portland, Oregon. Czech, Mexican, Japanese, Thai, Korean, Chinese, Greek, Indian, Polish, Turkish, Venezuelan, Southern, Barbecue...you name it, Portland's probably got it in a convenient on-the-go form.

Neapolitan-style pizza, though...now there's a rare commodity in the food cart scene.

Until today, I was aware of only one food cart serving this kind of pizza in the city, and that was Wy'east over on SE 50th. There, proprietor "Squish" cooks his Naples-and-New York-inspired pies one at a time in a tiny gas-fired oven, and does a very fine job with it.

But then a friend of mine alerted me to another food cart in Portland over in SE 12th and Hawthorne's "Cartopia," one that was serving Neapolitan/NY-style pizza from a wood-burning oven. A wood-burning oven. In a cart. My mind was effectively blown.

How could that work? A wood-burning oven in one of those diminutive shacks-on-wheels certainly seems like an accident waiting to happen, at worst a death wish for some suicidal pizzaiolo wishing to submit his body to the conflagration with which his product so desperately communes. Gathering my neighbors from across the street (who with their far superior camera graciously provided some of the photos for this piece), I set out tonight to see just what sort of madness was at play here on this cold autumn's eve.

Pyro Pizza is a more intimidating cart than most of the others clustered in "Cartopia." It sits higher than the others, requiring the use of a deck to reach the service window, through which owner John Eads's surprisingly large domed oven can be viewed plainly. As we approached the cart, Eads was gathering what looked like alder wood for the oven. He brought the wood to the side of the cart, where a chopping block and maul lay waiting. Yes folks, he proceeded to chop the wood then and there, splitting it to a size better suited to the oven. I can think of no better way of measuring Eads's pride in his work, that his love of pizza would permit the necessity of the most primeval means of manual labor: splitting firewood. Not for a brick-and-mortar pizzeria, may I remind you, but for a pizza cart. That's dedication, my friends.

Filled with an immense sense of respect for the man, my friends and I ordered two pizzas off the menu: the traditional Margherita (with mozzarella di bufala!), and the daily special, which was the roasted garlic, plum tomato, spinach, and gorgonzola pizza. Both were ready in five minutes, twelve-inch wonders served simply on wax paper in reusable baskets.

I sampled the Traditional Margherita ($8) first. Eads spreads his dough very, very thin, and this makes for a marvelously crisp crust with light-to-moderate charring on the underside. The cornicione is large, puffy, and chewy, with a nice hole structure. I should note that Eads makes his dough fresh every day with Bob's Red Mill whole wheat flour, but for whatever reason, it doesn't smack of whole wheat like the many other versions I've tried over the years. Eads's crust has the flavor of good bread, and thankfully is neither fibrous of texture nor "healthy" in taste. You know what I mean. I think the crust is pretty great, and with the heavenly black blisters making periodic appearances, worthy of being eaten in its entirety.

The red sauce is not yet perfect. It was alternately too sweet or too salty, depending on the bite, and at times I swear I could taste something akin to aluminum, perhaps from the cans the tomatoes had been packed in? Hard to tell. Sometimes you just get a bad tomato in the can. It's not a bad sauce by any means, but it could stand some improvement. (Ed. -- I just heard from Eads that the sauce contains no sugar. Instead, the sweetness in the sauce comes entirely from the tomatoes and the roasted red onions blended in with them. Fascinating!)

I'm curious to know where Eads gets his buffalo mozzarella, because while it tasted fine on the Margherita, its time spent in the oven disintegrated every ounce of it into ricotta. It's tough to tell by looking at the pictures, but trust me, it was evident on the first bite. Very peculiar.

I'm also curious to know where he gets his gargantuan basil. I mean, just look at the basil in that first shot of the Margherita. It's huge. Took up the whole slice! It tasted great, too. Fresh, vibrant, and full of flavor. Speaking of the basil, I washed down my pizza with Eads's homemade Basil Lime Soda ($1.50). This was an initially strange yet oddly satisfying soda in which you could very much taste the basil of its namesake. I don't know how Eads makes it, whether he uses fresh basil and extracts its essence or achieves it by some other means, but this is a winner.

The second pie, the Daily Special ($8), was much heavier on the toppings, and as such the crust wasn't quite able to support them (though a quick fold remedied that). There are a lot of strong flavors working together here: the gorgonzola is aggressive with a very pleasant bite, the bits of plum tomatoes provide wonderfully sweet explosions of juice, and the huge chunks of roasted garlic ooze their fragrant oils over the entire pie. I couldn't quite taste the spinach, but given those first three ingredients, it's easy to understand why.

I liked the special with its complex, robust flavor set, but it was hard to eat more than a slice of it. It may be too rich for my palate, but others bored of the more basic pies may find just what they're looking for here. It's a great pizza for sharing.

Before we left, I managed to speak to Eads briefly about Pyro Pizza and the fact that it has been open for only two weeks now. We also chatted about his oven, which is comprised of a brick floor and a refractory dome. Eads says he built the oven first on the four-wheel flatbed, then built the trailer around the oven. It's now crammed full with a work counter, coolers in the back to store the various ingredients and sodas, a fully functional sink, shelves, and even a rack of fancy lights (which you can kind of see in the photo above). This was clearly a planned operation, and if it wasn't, then I'm even more amazed. Eads already owns another pizza cart in downtown Portland called Give Pizza a Chance, an establishment I have not yet frequented but certainly will after my experience here.

It's still early in the life of Pyro Pizza. There are some kinks to work out, but so far the pies coming out of John Eads's oven are surprisingly good for pizza from a cart of all places. Next time (and there will definitely be a next time) I'm going to try some of the other items on his menu, including the pepperoni and the Cuattro Formaggi. I've also heard that Eads on occasion makes a bacon-and-egg pizza, which I'd love to sample.

For the prices Eads is selling these pies, you're getting a heck of a deal. If you're not in the mood to wait in line at one of Portland's more popular pizzerias, I highly encourage you to swing by Pyro and get your fix. It's quick, it's good, and Eads's love of pizza comes through in every bite.

And you may as well get some poutine from Potato Champion while you're there, since you're in the neighborhood...

OVEN: Wood

RECOMMENDED: Margherita, Basil Lime Soda

Today I'm writing about another place that does pizza in a wood-fired oven: Brio.
Before I get to the details, though, let me apologize for the poor quality of the photographs on this one. I thought I could get away with the "indoor" setting on my camera and no flash, but the light in the restaurant was just too dim. I prefer not to use the flash, because it tends to flatten out the picture, and at close range it can cause lighter areas, like the underside of a crust, to white out completely, but clearly it would've been preferable here. But though the photos may not win any Pulitzer Prizes, they should be good enough to illustrate my description.
Brio is a full-service restaurant specializing in Italian food. It’s more upscale than your basic, red-sauce type of place, but it’s not particularly cutting-edge or chichi, either. Think of an Italian chain restaurant, now make it a notch or two better than that, and you’ll have a pretty good idea of what Brio is all about.
Brio opened in 2002, so for around here at least, they’re a relative veteran of the wood-burning oven scene. I ordered a Margherita pizza with a white (as opposed to whole wheat) crust.
When it came, the crust had a slightly charred appearance, as expected, but it was surprisingly soft. It wasn’t greasy, but I got the impression that this was a short dough, in other words, made with a fair amount of shortening, which will result in a softer crust. The slices were not crisp, were instead quite pliable, and despite the charring, I got no “crunch” when I bit into them. The crust was thin, but had bubbled up into big, puffy airholes here and there. The outer lip was also light and puffy, enjoyable but again not very crisp or breadlike.
These were very cheese-dominated slices. Some Margheritas, especially the more “artisanal” types, come out of the oven with just a few islands of melted, fresh mozzarella atop a bed of crushed tomatoes, but this pizza was covered with a think blanket of stringy, processed mozzarella that took center stage. Bits of shredded fresh basil added some welcome herbal flavor to cut through all that cheese. The oven-roasted tomatoes (also unusual, in my experience, for a Margherita pizza), were good, but except when I got a good chunk of one, they didn’t add much flavor to the pizza as a whole, compared with fresh tomatoes, which have a less concentrated flavor, but more liquid, so that their flavor tends to spread out more over the entire pizza.
Brio’s other six varieties of pizza run the gamut from basic sauce, mozzarella and pepperoni to chicken and pesto, seafood, and grilled vegetables. The rest of the menu features several pasta dishes, steaks, and fish. Some Spanish influences also creep in, as in the chorizo pizza and the paella, which is incongruously listed under “Pasta.” There’s also a kid’s menu, and though it’s not your typical family-type place, it’s noisy enough to bring the kids without worrying about bothering your neighbors.
This isn’t the first time I’ve eaten at Brio, and my experiences there have generally been good. Casting a more critical eye on the pizza this time, though, I was a bit disappointed. It was all right and all, but here’s another place that features a wood-burning oven, yet doesn’t seem to be taking full advantage of it, at least where the pizza is concerned. Look, I’ve had wood-fired pizza that was too crisp, to the point that it was like nothing so much as a giant round cracker, but c’mon guys, you’ve got a tremendous heat source there, don’t be afraid to use it!
I don’t know - maybe it’s got something to do with the fear that diners in this area will be put off by the sight of what some might see as “burned” pizza, and maybe I’m overestimating the sophistication of local pizza lovers’ palates, but I think we’ve gotten past that point where this kind of pizza needs to be dumbed down for it to go over with the public. Wood-fired pizza places have been popping up all over here lately, and I’m guessing that what might not have flown six or seven years ago would be embraced by a lot more customers today.
I don’t mean to come down too hard on Brio - as I said, the pizza was OK - but I just think how much better than OK it could’ve, and should’ve been. Of course, it’s altogether possible that I’m in a distinct minority here, and that the overwhelming majority of Brio’s customers wouldn’t change a thing, but I’m giving this one a C+.
Brio Wine Bar and Grill, 3400 Monroe Ave., Pittsford. 586-7000
Mon. - Thu. 11:30 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. and 5:00 - 11:00 p.m., Fri. 11:30 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. and 5:00 - 11:00 p.m., Sat. 4:00 - 11:00 p.m., Sun. 4:00 - 9:00 p.m.

Roma’s café is on University Avenue, just west of Culver. It’s in one of those red brick buildings near Hot Shots and Towner’s Bikes. The entrance is on the side of the building, and I would never had noticed it except for a small A-frame sign out in front with that magic word, “Pizza.”
It’s a pretty small operation, with a counter right inside the door serving up coffee drinks and other takeout items. I picked up a couple of cheese slices.
The slices had a thin crust, with a fairly thick lip at the edge. I detected a slight odor of cooking oil, but they weren’t particularly greasy, and the undersides were dry. They weren’t exactly charred, but they did have a pleasant toastiness and a bit of crispness. The edge was nice and bready, making it more than just a “throwaway” crust.
The sauce was pretty lightly applied, and took a bact seat to the cheese, which had a tangy flavor that rather dominated the pizza, particularly since the cheese layer was nearly as thick as the crust itself. It was just a little browned, and retained enough moisture to give the slice an overall wet moutfeel, despite the relatively modest amount of sauce.
Roma’s offers three types of slices - cheese, pepperoni, and a specialty slice of the day. Pies come in 10" and 14" sizes. The toppings list is pretty short - eight items - and they also have Buffalo chicken and white pizzas, plus calzones.
Non-pizza fare includes breakfast sandwiches, salads, quesadillas, wraps, chili and soup. They have a full menu of hot and cold coffee specialty drinks.
This wasn’t bad pizza by any means, and I hope they continue, but I must say that aside from that A-frame sign that caught my eye, so far this place is well under the radar. Nothing relevant came up when I googled the name and address. The menu doesn’t have the address, phone number, or hours. And the server, though not rude, was, well, not exactly friendly either.
So, back to the pizza, I’d say this was somewhat better than average, a bit out of balace, perhaps, but with a decent crust and good flavor overall. I’ll give it a B.
Roma’s Café, University Ave.
7:30 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. (at least that’s what the sign on the side of the building says - I don’t know if that’s just weekdays)

I swear I'm not on Joe's payroll, but somewhat coincidentally, some friends and I shared a large Grandma's pizza from Joe's today for lunch. I took the opportunity to get a shot of Joe's array of available slices and the Grandma's pie. Here they are, for your viewing pleasure:

City Newspaper's current edition has their 2009 Readers' Choice Award winners. Predictably, a chain, Pontillo's, won for "Best Pizza Joint." Nothing against Pontillo's, but this is why these awards are meaningless. There's a Pontillo's near practically everybody in this area, so of course it's going to get more votes than a single-location pizzeria, no matter how good the latter is. I swear I think Papa John's won one year.
What these awards are really about, I suspect, is attracting advertisers with the lure of allowing them to put "Voted Best ____ in Rochester" in their ads. I think City claims some sort of moral high ground compared to the D&C, which runs a similar vote every year, because City's "election" is wide open, whereas the D&C's is limited to the businesses that pay to be on the ballot. Given the nature of the voting, though, they're still doing a disservice to any out-of-towner or newcomer who makes the mistake of thinking that these really are the best establishments of their kind that Rochester has to offer.
Thanks to City, though, for reporting the opening of Hose 22 Firehouse Grill, a new restaurant in Charlotte, with pizza on the menu. I'll have to give it a try sometime.

I mostly try to avoid venturing into the cultural wasteland along Jefferson Road in Henrietta, but once in a while it can’t be helped. Fortunately, there is one oasis in that culinary desert, and that’s Joe’s Brooklyn Pizza.
I’ve written about Joe’s before, but I recently found myself in the area, so I took the opportunity to stop by Joe’s and try something different from my usual cheese slice. Instead, I got of Joe’s Sicilian slices, and one “Grandma’s” slice.
The Sicilian slice seemed like the same basic setup as a typical sheet pizza, but unlike most sheet pizza I’ve had, it wasn’t greasy. Compared with Joe’s thin, New York style slices, it was more chewy than crisp, but the crust had a pleasant bready texture and aroma. And while the typical sheet pizza has a hard edge with a “fried” crunch, the lip here likewise was more like a fresh breadstick. The sauce was thick and flecked with herbs, and the cheese was just a bit browned. All in all, it was like an improved version of sheet pizza.
The real standout for me, though, was the Grandma’s slice. This is made with the same thin crust as Joe’s more familiar New York style pizza, but is topped with tomato sauce, extra-virgin olive oil, diced garlic, basil, and romano cheese. It’s difficult, and would be pointless, to describe each of these components separately, because what made this so good was the way that the ingredients blended together. It shared what seemed to be the same thick, herbal sauce with the Sicilian slice, but rather than simply forming a layer between crust and cheese, the sauce took center stage, but blended with the other toppings so remarkably well that, to use a cliché, the whole was greater than the sum of its parts.
And then of course there’s that crust. Crisp yet chewy, not at all greasy, with a charred, toasty underside and gluteny, bready interior, it formed a perfect, complementary base for the sauce and other toppings. It really showed how great a pizza can be with relatively few, simple toppings. To resort to another cliché, it demontrated that with pizza, sometimes less is truly more.
Getting back to the Sicilian, I liked it well enough, though it didn't exactly make me a convert. I can appreciate the style, and though I'm no connoisseur I imagine this was a well made example, but for me, NY style remains the way to go. It may have something to do with the fact that Sicilian is baked in a pan, which doesn't yield the same crisp crust as a pizza baked directly on the oven floor.
The Grandma's, though, immediately jumped into the short list of my favorite pizzas. All those flavors - tomatoes, herbs, chunky garlic, that sharp romano tang, with the olive oil to bring it all together, and the crisp, bready crust underneath - damn, that was good.
As I mentioned in my previous Joe's review, Joe's is very similar to Pizza Stop, but the sauce at Joe's seems to have more of an herbal flavor profile than Pizza Stop's, which has a tomatoey brightness with a bit of natural acidity. For a regular NY style cheese slice (which to me is still my all-time favorite style of pizza, the one I fell in love with the first time I had the real thing in the City), I think I prefer Pizza Stop's. To me, a simple, straight-ahead tomato sauce is a better fit on a "plain" cheese slice, where it's essential to keep the three components - crust, sauce and cheese - in balance. But Joe's sauce worked beautifully on the Grandma's pizza, which I guarantee you I will be eating again. For that pizza in particular, but also for continuing to serve consistently good pizza in general, I'm bumping Joe's up to an A.
Joe's Brooklyn Pizza, 1100 Jefferson Rd # 23B. 424-5637
Mon. - Tue. 11 AM - 9 PM, Wed. - Sat. 11 AM - 10 PM, Sundays 12 AM - 8 PM

There are 2 of these in the same town, Sherman Oaks. One is more of a take out place - the one on Burbank Blvd. is for eating in. It's a pretty typical Italian restaurant, with salads, sandwiches, pastas and calzones. It seems very family oriented, maybe its the children's drawings on the tables or the actual child who took my drink order. Me and a friend ordered a large pizza, it was about

Today we head south to Main Street, Scottsville. Not too long ago, the chief dining attraction here would’ve been the Oatka Steak & Seafood restaurant. Named for the nearby creek, it started out as a tavern and inn in the early 19th century. Sadly, the Oatka went out of business a couple of years ago or so. It would be nice to see it reopen.
Until then, you can still grab a slice of pizza, as I recently did, at Amy Rose Pizza, just a few doors away.
These being normal size, not “mega” slices, I got two, one cheese, one pepperoni. They were fairly heavy slices, with a medium thick crust and a soft-textured, light brown underside. The crust was quite dense, and didn’t seem to have risen much, as there were no real air pockets visible.
The cheese on the cheese slice was very well browned, and had congealed into a single, unitary layer. The sauce seemed to be pretty much MIA here, although I thought I detected a slightly sweet flavor in there somewhere. Maybe it was my imagination, but either the sauce or just the slice as a whole seemed to have picked up some of the flavor of that day’s “gourmet” pizza, which was a pulled-pork pizza. They had been sitting on racks in the same enclosed pizza warmer, so it’s not inconceivable, I guess.
The pepperoni slice was quite generously topped with thin, mildly flavored slices of pepperoni. The outer lip of both slices was a bit tough and chewy.
Amy Rose has a long list of pizza toppings, as well as 14 varieties of the aforementioned gourmet pizza. That includes a stuffed pizza and a deep dish pizza, but you can also order a regular pizza with thin or thick crust, and one of four sauces - red, white garlic, pink or pesto. In short, there’s a pizza for everybody here.
Amy Rose also offers wings (described as “jumbo”), calzones, fish fry every day, hot and cold subs, burgers, dogs, soup, salad, sides and desserts as well. If that’s not enough, they serve Hershey’s ice cream (not sure if that’s a seasonal thing or not), cappuccino and chai tea. There’s some seating available, and Amy Rose also delivers all day.
It’s a good menu, certainly, and Amy Rose deserves commendation for a commitment to making its sauce, dough and rolls fresh and on-site. I wouldn’t mind coming back to try a specialty pizza or to take out a pie. But on this occasion, the slices I got didn’t impress me too much. The flavor wasn’t bad, but I have to deduct some points for the dense crust and the overly browned cheese. I also found them a bit out of balance, with the sauce barely noticeable between the chewy cheese and the crust. Next time I’m in the area, I’ll give Amy Rose another try, but for now I’ll give it a C-.
Amy Rose Pizza, 11 Main St., Scottsville 889-7590
Mon. - Thu. 9 a.m. - 10 p.m., Fri. 9 a.m. - 11 p.m., Sat. 10 a.m. - 11 p.m., Sun. 10 a.m. - 9:30 p.m.