Straight Home, Lexington Ave.

Straight Home is on Lexington Avenue, about a half mile east of Mount Read. There's a bar on one side, and a takeout pizzeria/grill on the other.
Straight Home used to be The Lex Bar & Grill, which is why there's a place called Lex South on Scottsville Road. I guess Lex South was originally a second location of the original Lex.
I mention that because Lex South shares its building with a pizzeria, Sylvio's, as does Straight Home, so it seems there's some connection between the Lex, or its successor Straight Home, and pizza.
But back to Straight Home. The grill opens at 11 a.m., but I tried to get a slice there a couple of time around lunch hour only to be told that pizza wouldn't be available until later. So finally one evening I swung by and got a pepperoni slice.
When I placed the order, the cook pulled out a large cheese slice, added some pepperoni to it and put it in the pizza oven, where it stayed for quite some time, even though it appeared to have already been baked when he put it in. Maybe it was just partially baked, with the idea that it could be finished when it got rewarmed in the oven.
After, I'd say, five minutes, maybe a little more, my slice emerged. It was a giant slice, measuring 10 1/2 inches along the sides.
Despite the length of time it had spent in the oven, the underside of the slice was quite pale. It was lightly dusted with cornmeal. It was firm, but not crisp.
The crust was rather thin toward the tip of the slice, and  gradually got thicker nearer the outer edge, going from about a quarter inch to 3/4" thick. The lip at the edge was over an inch thick.
The slice was rather greasy, probably from all the pepperoni. I would've held the slice vertically to let the grease drip off, but the pepperoni would've fallen off too. Pepperoni just doesn't adhere well when you try to add it to a cheese slice that's already been cooked. So I did the best I could sopping it up with a napkin.
There was a lot of cheese here, and a lot of pepperoni too. This was a big slice in a lot of ways. Big in size, and loaded with cheese and pepperoni.
The only thing there wasn't a lot of was sauce. There was just a thin layer underneath the cheese, and I couldn't really pick up much of its flavor.
Besides pizza, Straight Home has all the bar food staples, grilled, fried and otherwise. The wings looked and smelled particularly good. Both the bar (which is on the right, facing the front of the building) and the takeout counter were reasonably busy on this weeknight. (The name, I assume, is meant to allow you to say that you're going, or that you went, "straight home" after work or whenever, *wink wink*.)
This was, I thought, rather atypical bar pizza. Of the few bars that serve pizza, I've always figured that most, like Acme, make it thin so you won't get too full to keep drinking. One slice of this, though, was pretty filling.
I can't say I liked it too much, I'm afraid. The dough had risen nicely, and had a good bready flavor, but bottom was just not nearly done enough for me. I also found it a little out of balance, and would've liked a little more sauce to balace out the cheese and pepperoni. Overall, this was pizza with some potential, but this particular slice had some definite flaws as well. I'll give it a C-.
Straight Home Inn, 688 Lexington Ave. 458-0020
Mon. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 2 a.m., Sun. noon - 2 a.m.