pizza

I did a post about the pizza at the Pittsford Wegmans back in January 2010. I thought it was a decent, if not outstanding, approximation of New York style pizza, and gave it a B-minus.
Since then, I've heard from more than one person that the pizza at the Penfield Wegmans is very good, so I finally got around to checking it out. Supposedly Penfield has a certain type of pizza oven that's supposed to result in better, crisper pizza.
I got a cheese slice and a white slice. I was initially slightly peeved when the server didn't give me the biggest slice out of the cheese pie, which was unevenly cut, with some slices noticeably bigger than others. Yes, I could've specified which one I wanted, but to my mind, the server should always pick out the largest slice (ideally, of course, the slices would all be the same size, but that's another matter).
All right, well, I got over that. How was the pizza?
A bit disappointing, I'm afraid, after I'd been led to believe that it would be quite good. The underside of the cheese slice was a pale yellow, with some corn meal visible. It was topped with a moderate amount of cheese that had exuded an orangey oil that I generally associate with cheaper ingredients.
The slice was floppy and very foldable, so much so that I could roll it up without any cracking or crackling on the surface of the underside. There was some nice crunch along the thin lip at the edge, but otherwise the crust was rather dull and not at all bready.
It was generously topped with a thick tomato-pasty sauce, and while I hate to complain about getting too much of anything, the sauce was almost too heavy for such a thin crust.
The crust, at least, on my white pizza slice was a little better, with several browned, though not charred, spots underneath. The slice was foldable, but cracked a bit down the middle when I folded it in half, which was a good sign, and it was indeed more crisp than my cheese slice, with a breadier flavor, aroma and texture. The lip was considerably wider than on the cheese slice, with the result that the cheese got pushed off closer to the tip.
The moderately applied cheese was bubbly and brown on top, and was dusted with flecks of some unidentified dried herbs. A garlicky aroma emanated from the slice, but it seemed more like garlic powder than fresh garlic to me, and I did not see any bits of actual garlic anywhere (what I at first took to be finely chopped garlic turned out to be Romano).
Overall, however, this slice seemed a little "flat" to me, flavorwise. I know a white pizza is apt to have a more subtle flavor than a red pizza, but this just seemed a bit dull-tasting to me.
Neither of these was a terrible slice of pizza. On the contrary, they were pretty decent. But again, I'd been expecting something better from this particular Wegmans location. The cheese slice tasted pretty good, but had a less-than-stellar crust, and the white slice had a much better crust, but was lacking in flavor. I'm giving both of them a C.
Wegmans Penfield, 2157 Penfield Rd., Penfield 14526. 248-3200

In March 2010, I posted a review of Bonafede's on Linden Avenue, giving it a very respectable B+ for well-balanced, tasty pizza on a pretty good crust.
I also mentioned that I had not been aware of Bonafede's existence until a short time prior to that post, partly because I've never had much occasion to travel on that stretch of Linden Avenue, which is mostly residential; not the kind of area where you'd expect to find a pizzeria. (I think I learned of Bonafede's by seeing it listed in the Yellow Pages.)
Well, I don't know how much the location had to do with it, but Bonafede's is gone. In its place is Gianna's NYC Italian Kitchen, which has a roughly similar menu, but a different style of pizza.
Given the name of the place, it will come as no surprise that Gianna's pizza is more in the New York style than Bonafede's had been. The crust on my cheese slice was very thin, and though it wasn't exactly what I would call bready (which is tough to achieve with a thin crust), the dough had risen somewhat; it wasn't dense or gummy inside.
The underside was lightly dusted with corn meal. It was fairly light-hued overall, with some scattered charred spots, and was crackly and nearly burnt along the edge.

The slice was topped with a light layer of tomato sauce. It was not a particularly saucy slice, and I didn't pick up much flavor from the sauce.
Atop the sauce lay a coating of oily, orangey cheese. If you've had it, you know what I mean by "orangey." I don't mind it, but it's not the greatest melting cheese in the world, and I frankly can't recall ever having seen that kind of cheese in all the times I've been to New York City. It does have a certain inexplicable appeal for me, though, and with its light sprinkling of Romano, the cheese was actually kind of good.
Gianna's pizzas come in 16" and 18" sized, plus a 14" x 24" Sicilian. There are four specialty pizzas, plus calzones, wings, pasta, "heroes" (hot subs), and three hot dog choices - Zweigles, Nathan's, and Sabrett's, for that authentic New York "dirty water dog" flavor. They also offer something called Nutella pockets, which I've never heard of before but which I'd love to try, as I consider Nutella one of the truly great culinary concoctions of our time.
Based on this slice, I'd say that Gianna's pizza is one of those that I would consider more of an approximation than an exact copy of New York style pizza. That's not a putdown, mind you, as this was rather tasty, and it would be easy to polish off a few Gianna's slices in one sitting. But the cheese and the crust didn't seem to quite nail it as far as New York style is concerned. Still, it was good enough to rate a B- from me.
Gianna's NYC Italian Kitchen, 514 Linden Ave. 14625. 248-5040
Mon. - Fri. 11 a.m. - 8:30 p.m., Sat.: 4 p.m. - 9 p.m. Closed Sun.

Early on in the course of this blog, I was particularly keen to search out purveyors, actual or claimed, of New York style pizza. That led me to visit All Star Pizza in Penfield back in March 2009. The cheese pizza that I had on that occasion wasn't spectacular, but it was good enough to rate an above-average B-minus.
Lately I've been trying to sample Buffalo chicken pizzas, mostly because it's a very popular style in these parts. I'm not a huge fan of the style - I like wings, but I'd rather eat them separately from my pizza - but it's enjoyable now and again, and it is interesting to see different pizzerias' takes on this type of pizza.
Recently, I went back to All Star to check out their version. I ordered a small Buffalo chicken pie.
The crust was very thin, and as before, it was screen baked. The underside was dark brown overall, with some light char spots near the center, and paler near the edge. The bottom was slightly oily, nothing too bad though. The edge was considerably thicker, nice and bready, and nearly blackened in a few places.
The pie was topped with what appeared to be  ground chicken, rather than the chunks of chicken I've found at most other places. Naturally, then, the chicken wasn't breaded. The pizza had a vague aroma of frying oil, which is not such a bad thing in this case, since we are talking about Buffalo chicken.
The thin layer of sauce was spicy and a little oily. Visually, it could've passed for tomato sauce, and in fact I'd wager that there was some tomato sauce in there. I could be wrong, but it struck me as either a blend of hot and tomato sauces, or possibly tomato sauce topped with hot-sauce-laden chicken. There was some definite heat, but it tended to lurk in the background rather than assault the senses. (Interestingly, I seemed to notice the heat, and the distinctive Buffalo wing sauce flavor, more the next day when eating the cold leftover pizza.)
The mozzarella was also applied somewhat thinly, but in proportion to the crust; in fact, the cheese layer was probably about as thick as the crust itself. It, too, was on the oily side (you can see the oily sheen in the bottom photo), but that's typical of this style.
I didn't notice any blue cheese, making this more akin to a spicy chicken pizza than what I would expect of a Buffalo chicken pizza. Again, I'm guessing a bit here, but it seemed to me that a thin layer of tomato sauce had been applied, then the cheese, and finally sauteed ground chicken that had been tossed in wing sauce.
I'll reiterate that I am not rating Buffalo chicken pizzas. Ratings are only useful if the things being rated are at least broadly comparable, and there's such a wide variation among Buffalo chicken pizzas that I can't see how it would be of much help to rate them. I wouldn't just be rating the execution, but the concept, based inevitably on my subjective preferences (who's to say what's better - a pizza with a hot-sauce base, like this one, or with a blue cheese base, like Brandani's?).
But I will say that for what this was, it wasn't bad. You might prefer chunkier chicken, or the addition of blue cheese to give you a more authentic "wing" flavor, but that's a matter of taste. From as objective a standpoint as I can muster, this pizza was reasonably good, with no particular flaws to speak of. So if the idea of a spicy pizza topped with ground chicken appeals to you, this one's for you.
All Star Pizza, 1628 Penfield Rd. (across from Panorama Plaza) 385-2244
Mon. - Thu. 11 a.m. - 9 p.m., Fri. & Sat. 11 a.m. - 10 p.m., Sun. 3 p.m.- 9 p.m.

Note, Aug. 15, 2011: this establishment was formerly a second location of the downtown pizzeria, The Pizza Stop. It is no longer associated with the Pizza Stop and is now operating under a different name, although ownership and management remains (partly) the same as when it opened. The following review was written while this pizzeria was still operating under the name "The Pizza Stop" and remains here as a historial record. 

Last June, I did a post about the then-new, second location of The Pizza Stop, on Empire Boulevard in Penfield. Based on the two slices I had gotten, I wrote that "Pizza Stop seems to have pulled it off - opening a second location
that's as good as the original. So once again, a solid A rating from me."

Well, I later learned that there had been some sort of split or schism between the owners and managers of the original Pizza Stop on State Street, and of the new location on Empire. I added a note to my original post to that effect in December of last year.

Since then, I've seen various postings about whether the quality had declined at Pizza Stop 2 ("Pizza Stop 2" is my terminology, by the way, just for the sake of convenience; both locations go by the same name). I meant to go back to check it out, but of course there are a lot of other places I wanted to visit too, so I never seemed to get around to it.

Well, about a week ago, a reader left a comment on my Pizza Stop 2 post stating that in reliance on my "A" rating, he went to Pizza Stop 2, and ended up with some of the worst pizza he'd ever had. That prompted a response from the owner of Pizza Stop 2, and some comments from other readers as well, both good and bad.

So that got me off my butt and back up to Pizza Stop 2, to see for myself. I've been there twice now in the past week, and gotten four slices in that time. Here's what I found.

On my first visit,I got a grandma's slice, and a white garlic slice with peppers and onions, which is almost the same as what I had the previous time, when my white slice didn't include the peppers and onions. I picked them out of a pretty wide variety of lunchtime slices.

The undersides were brown and very slightly charred. They were maybe a tad less charred that on my previous visit, but the crusts were good, with a very light dusting of cornmeal, and a crisp exterior with some surface crackling.

The white slice was a little greasy, but that's not uncommon with white pizza, which usually involves a brushing or swirling of olive oil, plus there's no red sauce to absorb any oil from the cheese as it melts.

Otherwise, both slices had good flavor and balance, and were close to what I had last time.

On my second visit, I got a Sicilian slice and a Buffalo chicken slice. The pepperoni slices looked especially good, but two slices are about my limit for lunch, and I really wanted to try these two varieties.

On both occasions, service was good, and this time around the server (who may have been the owner) let me select my Sicilian slice, which allowed me to choose a big side slice. It was appropriately quite thick, with a dry, firm bottom, a crunchy edge, and a somewhat dense texture with countless tiny air holes in the crust. The crust was just very slightly gummy on top where it met the thick, herbal sauce. Overall, again quite good, even if Sicilian's not generally my thing when it comes to pizza.

I think this was the first time I've ever tried a Buffalo chicken pizza from either location of The Pizza Stop, so in that regard I can't compare it to past examples. The crust on this one was very thin, even paper thin toward the tip of the slice. It was a bit thicker, with some breadiness, toward the outer edge, and the dough had good flavor. The tip was too thin to really have any interior, but near the edge there was some internal "airiness," if that's a word (well, it is now). It was topped with chunks of breaded chicken in coated with hot sauce, which was, well, pretty hot. There was no blue cheese, celery or tomato sauce, so the overall flavor here was of spicy chicken and mozzarella.

After reading some of the comments, I really wasn't sure what to expect on these visits to Pizza Stop 2. Would it be good, terrible, the same as before, radically different?

Well, in general, it was about the same as what I remembered, and close to the original. Was it exactly the same? Does it still deserve the A rating I gave it before?


That's a harder question. It may not have been quite the same, maybe not even quite as good. Then again, given the circumstances, I think I was approaching this one in a hypercritical way, looking for any subtly different nuance.

But in point of fact, if I hadn't had any reason to expect anything to be different, I don't think I would've noticed any difference, at least no significant difference. And the fact is that if you go get a slice of pizza at a particular pizzeria ten times, you're going to get ten unique slices. They may, and should, be pretty similar, but given the vagaries of yeast, temperature, humidity, etc., each one will be subtly different from the others.

So what I decided to do is approach this the way that football referees do on instant replay. Unless it's clear to me that the quality's changed, I'm going to stick with the same rating. That's not to say that each slice shouldn't be graded on its own merits, but if I'm going to change the grade, I need to be sure that I'm not doing it just because of things I've heard, or read, or because I'm subconsciously applying a stricter standard than I ordinarily would, based on what other people have said.


And again, this pizza was about the same as what I had before. I can't speak for others, and I have no firsthand knowledge of others' experiences. So if your experience with this or any other pizzeria differs from mine, feel free to leave a comment, preferably with some factual detail to back up your opinions. But based on these two recent visits, I'm again giving Pizza Stop 2 an A rating.

The Pizza Stop, 1773 Empire Blvd., Penfield 347-4050

Mon. - Thu. 11 a.m. - 9 p.m., Fri. & Sat. 11 a.m. - 10 p.m., Sun. noon - 8 p.m.

When the new Yellow Pages come out, I always check the pizza listings, to see if there's anything new in there. There are always a number of places that have been out of business for years (how do they stay listed so long?), but often I also discover one or two places that are new or that I hadn't been aware of before.
This year's discovery was Bernunzio's, a deli just off Penfield Road. This is a very easy place to miss, as it's not that visible from Penfield Road, and until I saw the Yellow Pages listing I'd never heard of it, nor would I have expected it to serve pizza, had I driven by it. But the menu on their website says that they serve pizza, so I had to check it out.
On my weekday lunchtime visit, there were some plain cheese and pepperoni slices available, sitting in a warmer. I got one pepperoni slice, which was pretty good sized, a quarter of a pie, measuring about six and a half inches along the side.
The slice had a soft crust with a golden brown underside. It was well risen, with big air holes inside, and the dough was reminiscent of a soft dinner roll.
There wasn't much sauce on top, although it's possible that it simply seemed that way because some of the moisture in the sauce had evaporated or soaked into the crust. But there wasn't much cheese either, which can only mean that there wasn't much to begin with. Of all the toppings, it was the pepperoni that really stood out, not because there was so much of it or because it had a particularly strong flavor, but because of the relative absence of sauce and cheese. Paying close attention, I could detect some some concentrated tomatoey notes in the background, along with a faint touch of herbs, but the pepperoni was really front and center.
Finishing off the slice was the outer edge, which was formed into a thick, puffy lip. It too was pretty soft-textured, although it did have a little outer chewiness, if not crispness.
Bernunzio's is a deli, of course, and it offers a full range of hot and cold subs, salads, and baked goods, as well as some pasta, basic groceries, and ice cream in season. They also do catering.
As for the pizza, well, I really wanted to like this one, I mean I love running across these little mom-and-pop places, but this didn't really do it for me. I don't know what a fresh, made-to-order pie from Bernunzio's would be like, but on the basis of this one slice, I wouldn't be inclined to go back there for pizza. A sub, some pasta, or an ice cream cone? Sure. In fact a couple of their specialty subs (the "Alex's" and "Michele's") sound downright mouth-watering, and I'm a sucker for Perry's ice cream too. But this slice of pizza was just too soft for me, and it also needed more sauce and cheese to counterbalance the thick, doughy crust. It wasn't bad, mind you, but I'd say it was a notch below average, so I'm giving it a C-.
Bernunzio's Deli, 745 Penfield Road, Penfield 14625
(entrance is on Colonial Village Road - look for the sign with the American flag on Penfield Road)
248-0310
Mon. - Fri.: 7:30 a.m. - 7:00 p.m., Sat. 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m., Sun. 9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.

The Humphrey House The Humphrey House has been serving food in Penfield for over 30 years now. It closed for a while in 2007, and reopened under new ownership in 2008.
Recently, the Humphrey House installed a wood-fired oven, which they use to create a variety of thin-crust pizzas. This of course necessitated a visit on my part.
I’ve had mixed results with wood-fired pizza around here, so I didn’t know what to expect. At one extreme are those pizzas that come out dry, thin, brittle and crackerlike. Me no like. At the other are pizzas that are so soft, chewy and pale that you wonder what the point was of baking them in a wood-fired oven. That’s kind of like buying a Ferrari and never driving it over 30 m.p.h.
But then there are the pizzas that fall in between, with a nice char on the outside, a whiff of smokiness, a crisp bottom and a chewy interior. Except for the smokiness, that can be done in any good pizza oven, but with the right technique, a wood-fired oven is perfect for achieving that result. So I was cautiously optimistic.
Of the seven pizza choices on the menu, I chose the Margherita, as I usually do for wood-fired pies. It’s a classic, and simple enough that the toppings won’t get in the way of the crust.
My pizza measured a foot across, and the crust was very thin, making it just about right for a satisfying lunch for one person. The crust was quite charred and heat-blistered on the bottom. The charring was a bit uneven, but was confined entirely to the underside - the edge was not charred at all.
As thin as the crust was, though, the charring was only on the surface of the underside. The crust was not burned through, and in fact it remained supple, even floppy, especially toward the tips of the slices. By all indications, then, this pizza had baked very quickly, at very high temperatures - long enough on the hot oven floor for the underside to char, but without burning the toppings or drying out the crust.
I’ve never been to Italy, sad to say, but that made me wonder if this was closer to genuine Neapolitan pizza than the really crisp pies turned out by a lot of wood-fired pizzerias in this country. Contrary to what I’d thought, I’ve read that most pizza in Naples has a rather soft crust, mostly because of the flour that they use, which is one reason that it’s typically eaten with a knife and fork. Again, I can’t confirm that from first-hand experience, but if that’s true perhaps this pizza was not too far from that mark, as far as the crust is concerned.
In more “American” fashion, though, this was a fairly saucy pizza. Instead of the fresh or crushed tomatoes found on some Margheritas, this was topped with a relatively generous layer of cooked sauce, which had a slightly sweet yet tangy flavor. It was almost too much sauce for such a thin crust, but I like sauce, so it was OK with me.
As I mentioned, the top side of the pie was not nearly as well-done as the bottom, and the fresh mozzarella slices were more softened than melted. The shredded basil was wilted enough to blend with the other components, but still green enough to retain its fresh flavor.
HH’s other pizzas include a “Traditional” pepperoni pizza, and yet another take on “Sicilian,” with pancetta, red onions, mozzarella and garlic sauce. You can peruse the rest of the menu on their website, but it’s wide-ranging, with steaks, seafood, chicken and pasta. A white-tablecloth dining room takes up most of the space, with a small, informal bar in a separate room in back.
It’s funny - in some ways, this wasn’t really the kind of pizza I like best - I like more of an interior in my crust, for one thing - but I think it was well executed, and I give credit to the pizzaiolo for not being afraid to make good use of the wood-fired oven, while avoiding the danger of simply burning the pizza and calling it “artisanal.” No doubt some people would take one look at the blackened underside and pronounce it inedible, but I found it well executed, and I’ll give it an A-.
The Humphrey House, 1783 Penfield Rd., Penfield, 267-7415
Mon. - Thu. 11:00 am - 9:00 pm, Fri. & Sat. 11:00 am - 10:00 pm, closed Sun.

Rigatoni's is a small Italian restaurant in the village of Penfield. It's not someplace I would've thought of for pizza until I ran across this article. A phone call confirmed that they do indeed serve individual-size pizzas, so I promptly ordered one with pepperoni.
The crust on my pie was medium thick, and 10 inches wide, with a mostly pale, screen baked bottom. It was a little unevenly cooked, with one section of the edge considerably darker than the rest. The crust had a soft texture, even along the edge. It had clearly risen fairly wall, but the interior was not particularly airy.
The sauce was applied somewhat thickly, though in good balance with the crust. It was tomatoey, but also had a noticeable herb flavor.
The shredded cheese was moderately applied, with some individual strands still visible, and a few bare spots here and there. I'm not sure, but it seemed to me that there might've been some provolone in there along with the mozzarella.
Rather than the typical, small round slices, the pepperoni on this pie appeared to have been cut from a relatively wide pepperoni that had been sliced and quartered. It had a good meaty flavor. The entire pie was lightly dusted with herbs and what appeared to be Parmesan.
Rigatoni's has all the Italian standards on the menu, like chicken and veal parm, greens & beans, and pasta, as well as more basic stuff like subs and wraps. They also do a substantial catering business. There's room for about 30 diners indoors, with some outdoor seating as well. No alcohol, but you're welcome to BYOB.
I wouldn't mind going back sometime for lunch or dinner, to check out some of those other items on the menu, but I'd probably skip the pizza. It was tasty, and was pretty well balanced, but the crust wasn't so great. To me, it was reminiscent of the kind of pizza you might expect to get off the kids' menu at a restaurant - nothing to complain about, but not something I'd take over a good dish of pasta. I'll give it a C.
Rigatoni's, 2133 Five Mile Line Rd., Penfield. 381-8550
Mon. - Sat. 10 a.m. - 9 p.m.

Note, Aug. 15, 2011: this establishment was formerly a second location of the downtown pizzeria, The Pizza Stop. It is no longer associated with the Pizza Stop and is now operating under a different name, although ownership and management remains (partly) the same as when it opened. The following review was written shortly after this pizziera opened and remains here as a historial record.
It took 24 years, but earlier this month the Pizza Stop finally opened a second location, on Empire Boulevard in Penfield (though most people probably think of it as Webster). Naturally I was eager to try it, although I pretty much knew what to expect:  the same, authentic New York style pizza served at the original on State Street. While consistency can be an issue when a pizzeria has multiple locations, I didn't expect that to be the case here, as the new Pizza Stop is run by the son of Pizza Stop co-founder Jim Staffieri. And sure enough, the pizza here was, to my palate at least, virtually indistinguishable from the original.
Ordinarily, I would go for a cheese or pepperoni slice, or one of each, but on this visit, fresh slices of the meatball parm pie were available, and I could not resist. And, just to change things up a bit, I got a white garlic slice as well.
The crust on both slices was, of course, thin, although the meatball parm slice was noticeably thinner than the white. And both were nicely charred underneath.
As I was eating the white slice, it occurred to me that one hallmark of a great crust is that you can fold it in half without breaking it in two, but when you do, small surface cracks should appear on the underside. That shows the proper balance of pliability and crispness, and the white slice had that exactly.
That slice was topped by a uniform layer of mozzarella that was dusted with dried herbs. The top was bit oily though I'm not sure if that came from the cheese or from the actual application of olive oil. It was also quite garlicky, in a good way. I couldn't see any garlic, so I'm assuming it lay under the cheese (I gobbled it down too quickly to stop and check). But I'm pretty certain from the flavor that this was chopped garlic, not garlic powder.
Oddly, the white pizza doesn't seem to be on the printed menu, so maybe it was a daily special. Or maybe it just got left off the menu for some reason.
As I mentioned, the meatball parm slice was quite thin. With the relatively heavy toppings, it almost had to be folded, though the underside still had some outer crispness. I've described Pizza Stop's meatball parm pizza before, and this was essentially the same, so I won't repeat myself here. But it was very enjoyable, a great blend of flavors, a bit spicy, and quite moist - almost "juicy" - without being sloppy. And despite its thinness, the toasty, crisp-yet-chewy crust made a great base for the toppings.
The menu here is pretty close to the State Street Pizza Stop's, with some variations. The most noticeable difference is that wings are available here. There are also a few specialty pizzas that don't appear on the menu at State Street (although you could probably special-order them there, as all the toppings are available).
The space here is not huge, but there's fairly ample seating. And although they were fairly busy when I stopped, there was not the mad rush that you sometimes see downtown, so the atmosphere was a bit less hectic.
To get down to specifics, the white pizza here was rather minimalistic, with little more than dough, cheese, garlic, some herbs and perhaps some olive oil. That's really getting back to pizza's roots - tomatoes didn't arrive in Italy until after Columbus, remember -  but it was almost too minimalistic for me. Still, it was executed well, and that's just a matter of my personal preferences. And the meatball parm slice was, as I said, very enjoyable.
In more general terms, Pizza Stop seems to have pulled it off - opening a second location that's as good as the original. So once again, a solid A rating from me.
Pizza Guy note: as a reader pointed out, Joe's Brooklyn Pizza, which opened last year in Henrietta, is in the same family, literally and figuratively, as the Pizza Stop. Although the sauce at Joe's is a little different from Pizza Stop's, the pizzas are pretty similar, so you might consider Joe's as a third, unofficial branch of the same pizza family tree.
Pizza Stop, 1773 Empire Blvd., Penfield 347-4050
Mon. - Thu. 11 a.m. - 9 p.m., Fri. & Sat. 11 a.m. - 10 p.m., Sun. noon - 8 p.m.
Pizza Guy note, 12/22/10:  The Empire Boulevard Pizza Stop is no longer affiliated in any way with the original downtown location.
Pizza Guy note, 4/26/11:  for a more recent review, go here.

Here's a place I never even knew existed until very recently: Bonafede's, which is on Linden Avenue, which is just off Rt. 441 in what I guess would be East Rochester. This particular stretch of road doesn't seem like a major artery, so I imagine Bonafede's is very much a neighborhood place.
My lunchtime pepperoni slice had a thin to medium crust with an attractively charred, non-greasy underside. The bottom crust and the outer edge had pretty good flavor, with some breadiness and a slightly chewy texture.
The cheese was melted without being browned. It seemed like basic mozzarella. The sauce was a tad sweet, with some herbs detectable in the background. Both were applied moderately, and in balance with the relatively thin crust.
Bonafede's has a decent list of pizza toppings - 17 by my count - and eight specialty pizzas, including a meatball parm pizza that may warrant a return trip. For some reason, their specialty pizzas are only available as a "large," so that will have to be a dinnertime visit.
In addition to pizza, Bonafede's has wings (five sauces, including a "Crazy Hot"), hot and cold subs, wraps, salad, grilled sandwiches, pasta, and fried fish and shrimp. (Fish fry is available on Fridays only, but fish & chips can be had anytime. I'm not quite sure that I get that, but I'm not that big on fish fry, so it doesn't matter.) Ice cream is also available in the summer months. There is some seating inside, though the atmosphere is pretty Spartan, just a basic fast-food type of setup, with a counter on one side, some tables on the other, and fluorescent lights above. Still, they had a reasonably good crowd on my workday visit.
All in all, this wasn't a bad slice of pizza. Bonafede's says on its menu that its "pizzas are hand tossed and cooked to perfection in (their) brick deck ovens," and while I'm not quite ready to say this was perfect, I did like the crust, the components were well balanced, and the flavor was pretty good. I'll give it a B+.
Bonafede's Pizzeria & Pasta Kitchen, 514 Linden Ave. 248-5040
Mon. - Thu. 11 a.m. - 8 p.m., Fri. & Sat. 11 a.m. - 10 p.m. Closed Sundays.

All Star Pizza, on Penfield Road across from Panorama Plaza, claims to "Specialize in New York Style Thin Crust Pizza," so this was high on my list of places to check out. The result was, well, pretty good, though I'm not sure it would make a City native feel as if he'd been transported back to the Big Apple.
I should note, first of all, that All Star does not just make thin crust. The flyer advertises a "Crust-O-Meter" with three options: "NY Style Thin," "Traditional Regular," and "Double Thick." Of course a lot of places will make the crust thicker or thinner on request, but since the flyer describes this as "New!" I'm guessing that thin crust was originally All Star's default or "regular" pizza, and that at some point they decided to explicitly offer three choices, though the emphasis remains on the thin version.
Anyway, I went with the thin crust, since that's my favorite and All Star's specialty. It certainly met the thinness criterion, not a bad looking pie. Checking the underside revealed that it had been baked on a screen (you can tell by the cross-hatching). I guess the theory behind a screen is that the the holes in the screen allow the bottom of the dough to cook by convection and radiant heat rather than by conduction as when the pizza lies directly on the oven floor. In theory that should result in a crisper crust, but it didn't here. Now I should point out that this pizza sat in the box in my car for a good 20-30 minutes before I opened the box, so maybe that had something to do with it, but the crust was not that crisp, and the slices were on the floppy side (ideally you should be able to fold a NY-style slice and have the pointy end stick out straight, without flopping down).


For all that floppiness, oddly, one slice cracked right down the middle when I folded it, but the rest passed the foldability test.
As might be expected, there was also no charring, which is not a huge deal to me, but the ideal NY-style pizza should have some char spots. The edge of the crust was on the crunchy side, in a way that a crust will get when it's got some grease on it or in it. In other words, a fried rather than baked kind of crunch. As you can see, the box also soaked up a fair amount of grease, which may be a good or bad sign depending on how you feel about grease. Frankly I think a little grease (I guess "oil" sounds better) isn't a bad thing, as fat helps convey flavor to your taste buds.
The toppings were pretty standard, with a moderate amount of sauce, and a fairly thick layer of mozzarella cheese that had a tendency to slide off the crust when you removed a slice from the pie or took a bite, unless you were careful to cut or bite cleanly through it. Maybe the fat in the cheese melted and created a barrier between the dough and the cheese, preventing the cheese from adhering to the crust.
I ordered this one half cheese, half pepperoni, although as the photo indicates, what I got was more like 2/3 cheese, 1/3 pepperoni. There's the usual list of available toppings, and some specialty pizzas, including chicken wing, "lasagna pizza," and Philly steak. They also do subs, wings (which are pretty decent), calzones, salads, and various fried sides. Takeout and delivery only. Ask about specials when you order; if I had, I could've saved myself a few bucks.
It may sound as if I really didn't like this pizza, but that's not the case. I enjoyed it. Most of what I said about it was intended only to describe it, not to criticize it. It had a good flavor and was thin enough that I could, and did, eat several slices without getting too full. It's just not, in my opinion, particularly close to what you would typically get at a pizza slice joint in NYC; I'd call it more of an interpretation than an exemplar of NY-style pizza. But measured on its own terms, it was enjoyable enough. I'll give it a B-.