Perinton Pizza

Perinton Pizza is a family-owned and operated pizzeria that’s been in business since 1985. Technically the address is Courtney Drive, but for practical purposes it’s in a small plaza on Pittsford Palmyra Road (Rt. 31), between Turk Hill Road and Rt. 250.
I picked up a couple of cheese slices at lunchtime. While waiting for them to come up, I noticed that the pizza here is baked in a conveyor-belt oven, which you don’t often see around here.
The results, in this case at least, were not impressive. My slices had a faint scent of frying oil, and the underside was soft, browned, and oily. The crust was pretty thin, except at the thick outer lip. It had a soft, spongy texture, except again for the lip, which was crunchy. The lip - which was probably the best part - displayed some air holes inside, but the rest of the dough didn’t seem to have risen much, and even the lip didn’t have much in the way of breadiness, with a bland, white-bread flavor and texture.
The sauce, which was modestly applied, had a mild tomatoey flavor. The cheese was rather thick, and was well browned and congealed into a solid mass.
Perinton Pizza has a fairly extensive list of pizza toppings, and quite a few specialty pizzas, which cholesterolically speaking run the gamut from a veggie pizza to the potato skin pizza, with potato skins, chives, bacon, mozzarella, cheddar, and sour cream.
There’s also a long list of specialty subs, as well as wings, wraps, calzones, salads, appetizers, “landfill plates,” Italian dinners, fried fish or shrimp, and a few desserts too. All items are available for pickup, delivery, or eating on the premises.
According to the menu, Perinton Pizza has won the “Perinton Pizza Poll” five of the past six years. I don’t know who the other candidates were, but Perinton Pizza must have its fans. Based on this visit, I can’t count myself among them. As always, it all starts with the crust, and this one was too soft, spongy and greasy, and the cheese was overcooked. I also got the impression that the yeast hadn’t been given enough of a chance to do their thing before the pizza went in the oven.
Speaking of which, I don’t know to what extent the oven itself is to blame, but to my way of thinking, a conveyor belt system really takes away any ability of the pizza maker to control the final product once the pizza has gone into the oven. In effect, it renders the pizza maker little more than a machine operator, rather than a chef or true pizzaiolo. That may be convenient, if you’re staffed with inexperienced help, but it doesn’t bode well for the pizza.
But again, just my opinion. Presumably these folks haven’t stayed in business for nearly 25 years by making pizza that nobody likes. But based on my idea of good pizza, I’ll give it a D.
Perinton Pizza, Courtney Commons Plaza, Fairport 223-8118
Mon. - Thu. 9 a.m. - 10 p.m., Fri. 9 a.m. - 11 p.m., Sat. 11 a.m. - 11 p.m., Sun. 11 a.m. - 10 p.m.