pizza

Trotto's is another one of those little family-type pizza joints with which Greece seems to be particularly blessed. It's in a small strip plaza on Fetzner Road near Maiden Lane.
The pizza at Trotto's is what I call "Rochester style" pizza - on the thick side, with healthy doses of sauce and cheese, nothing too fancy, and they're often "square" rather than "pie" cut.
Trotto's particular take on Rochester pizza is maybe a little thicker and breadier than average, and a little lighter on the cheese.
The underside was a uniform golden brown and not greasy, except for a couple spots where the pepperoni grease had soaked through between the slices. It had just a little exterior crispness, not much.
Eating this, the word that came to mind here was "bready." This was very bready pizza. And by that I'm referring to the kind of Italian bread turned out by your local bakery. Not some complex, airy, chewy "artisanal" bread, but not bland, characterless white bread either. Just a good, solid, straightforward Italian loaf.
If you like bready pizza, that's a good thing. If you don't, well ... I guess you could ask them to make it thin, but as I've said before, I believe in letting a pizzeria do what they do best. Personally, I'm a thin-crust guy, but I liked this, although to me the breadiness of this pizza nearly overwhelmed the toppings.
Speaking of which, the sauce was a basic, tangy tomato sauce, bright in color and flavor, with a medium consistency. The moderately-applied mozzarella was dotted with browned spots, and the wide-and-thin pepperoni was, well, pepperoni.
Trotto's is open from 4:30 till 10 Monday through Thursday, 4 till 11 on weekends, and 3 to 9 on Sunday. There's no seating, so this is a takeout and delivery place only. Pizza and wings are pretty much all that they do, although you can get some appetizers, mostly of the fried variety, including pizza fritta, which apparently is a kind of deep-fried mini pizza.
Like the pizza itself, then, Trotto's is a pretty down-to-basics kind of place, which I kind of like. Better to do one or two things well than to do 20 things poorly or inconsistently. And Trotto's pizza and wings are obviously neither poor nor inconsistent, because it's been in business, in the same location, for about 20 years.
I love Italian bread, and I enjoyed the bready quality of this pizza. Still, for my taste it seemed a tad out of balance, so bready was it. I'll give it a B-.
Trotto's Pizzeria, 861 Fetzner Rd. 227-4095

Sorry for the delay in posts, but I have been in Las Vegas, a crazy circus of a place.  It just so happened that I stayed in the New York, New York Casino.  So I thought I'd explore the N.Y. pizza options.  I am sure there are hundreds of places serving pizza on the strip, and probably another hundred off the strip and I'm sure, similar to L.A., they are mostly bad.  Of course I don't know this

I'd like to welcome my new, I guess you could say sponsor, The Pizza Butler.  An interesting alternative to the way you serve pizza.  Below you can read about the pizza butler, not in my words since have not yet used this.  So check it out.    Six years ago my family and I moved to Tampa, Florida where for the first time in my   life, I got involved in the restaurant business. As the owner of an 

Gallo's is a takeoput and delivery pizza place on Stone Road in Greece. It's in a small strip plaza that it shares with Frear's Garden Center, a very popular spot this time of year.
I went at lunchtime, and arrived just in time for a couple of pepperoni slices that had just come out of the oven.
The crust on these was medium thick, with a brown underside that showed that it had been cooked on a screen. The crust was fairly soft, with just a slight crispness on the bottom surface. (At this point I must mention that the more pizzas I try, the more I think that cooking a pizza on a screen is not a good thing. It just doesn't give the crust the same outer crispness that you get from cooking it directly on the floor of the oven. In physics terms, I suppose it involves the difference between convective and conductive heat.)
The edges had a bit of crunch to them and were thick enough to lend a bit more bready flavor, though this appeared to be a fairly fast-rising dough that was closer in flavor to white bread than to a slow-rising loaf.
The cheese, which seemed to be 100% mozzarella, was not browned at all, just melted, and very stringy, which was not surprising since the pizza had just come out of the oven. The sauce had a mild tomato/herb flavor. It was of a fairly thin consistency, and formed a water-based barrier between the crust and the fat-based cheese, so that the cheese would easily slip off the crust. The pepperoni was wide and thin, and added a healthy amount of grease on top.
Gallo's offers a few "gourmet" pizzas, including "FPC's Signature Pizza," which comes topped with spinach, artichoke hearts, alfredo sauce, roasted garlic, nutmeg (!) and quattro formaggi (four cheeses). There's also an "Old World Style" pizza with a "crispy crust, topped with fresh herbs & spices in a traditional red sauce and grated parmesan." Might be worth a try sometime.
Besides pizza, Gallo's has cold and hot subs, wings, salads, fried sides, and a few dinners, including chicken parm, several varieties of pasta, and a beer-battered fish fry.
Gallo's has been open since 1990, and appears to be a true neighborhood pizza place. Its sign and menu advertise it as being run by "John and Alfia," who I assume were the middle-aged couple behind the counter on my visit, making it a genuine mom 'n' pop joint in the best sense of the term. They turn out a solid, traditional Rochester-style pizza, and I hope the folks in the area continue to support them. I give Gallo's a B-.

Carbone's Pizzeria is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, which means they must be doing something right. They have three locations in the Rochester area, on Dewey Ave. and North Greece Road in Greece, and in Hilton, as well as a Buffalo-area location in Alden.
I made a lunchtime stop at the Dewey Ave. location, which is right across the street from Caraglio's.
This is not a "huge slice" place, but they do have pepperoni slices available at lunchtime, which right now go for $1.75 a slice or two slices plus a 20 oz. drink for $4.25. As I've said before, I don't love pepperoni, but if you want a slice pepperoni tends to move the fastest, so you can be pretty sure of a fresh one with the pepperoni.
This was a medium-to-thick slice, browned on the bottom and quite browned on top. The dough was pretty nondescript, with small air holes and not much flavor. It was a little greasy underneath, with a bit of greasy crunchiness along the edge.
Texturally, it was pretty chewy, both from the dough and the cheese, which was fairly thick, plus the cheese had been baked to the point that it became more chewy than stringy.
The sauce definitely took a back seat here, and provided more lubrication than flavor. I'm not saying I didn't like it, just that it was very much in the background, though I did pick up a bit of acidity, which was good, to cut through the fattiness of the cheese.
The pepperoni was, surprisingly, one of my favorite parts of this pizza. It was thick and flavorful, with a nice crunch. The slices weren't all entirely uniform, which also indicated that it had been sliced on the premises, not pre-sliced. Between the thick, browned cheese and the pepperoni, this was definitely a toppings-dominated pizza.
Carbone's has a pretty basic menu. No weird pizza toppings or gourmet pizzas here, unless you count white pizza, plus hot and cold subs, wings, fried sides, and salads. You can also order your pizza with "double dough" for an extra $0.75, but that would be way too much dough for me.
The Dewey location, at least, doesn't deliver, which is too bad but it also shows that they have a steady clientele of people who are willing to pick up. There was no seating, as far as I noticed.
So if you put me half way between Carbone's and Caraglio's across the street, what would I do? Well, get the hell out of the middle of the street, for one thing. But I'm honestly not sure which way I would go. Caraglio's has the thin crust, which I like, but Caraglio's crust was also a little too floppy for my taste, and I liked the toppings at Carbone's, even though it was a bit thick and too chewy/gummy. Like Caraglio's, then, Carbone's gets a C+ from me.

Caraglio's has three area locations, the one I visited on Dewey Ave., on W. Ridge Rd. in Greece, and on Main St. in Hilton.
They're another "big slice" place, and unlike some pizzerias, Caraglio's big slice isn't just two slices that haven't been cut in half, it's a big slice, probably at least a foot along the side.
It's a thin slice, too, very thin. The dough didn't seem to have risen much at all, except along the edge, although even that was pretty thin.
The underside was soft, a pretty uniform light brown, and showed that it had been cooked on a screen. The cheese was rather browned on top.
Biting into it, I picked up a
toasted-cheese flavor, which I didn't mind, and the cheese, which was nearly as thick as the dough, had an almost crunchy texture. The crisp slices of cup 'n' char pepperoni added to the overall pleasing texture.
This was a very foldable, even floppy slice, and it was a good thing that it came partially wrapped in foil, which allowed me to eat it like a burrito or gyro.
The cheese layer easily separated from the dough, from which it was separated by a thin layer of tart, tangy sauce with a flavor reminiscent of Campbells’ tomato soup. I also picked up a bit of herbal flavor that I would guess was oregano. The slice as a whole was a little greasy, but not too much.
Caraglio's has a pretty wide menu, with specialty pizzas (including a "garbage pizza"), wings, subs, burgers, hots and sides. The Dewey location is for pickup and delivery only. You can also ask for thick crust if you're ordering a whole pie.
Although my expectations of "big slice" places are always low, this really wasn't bad. It was a cheese-dominated pizza, but it wasn't the heavy, gloppy, gooey cheese that a lot of places use, and I kind of liked the browned, toasted flavor and texture of the cheese.
At the same time, pizza like this makes me think how close some of these places are to making really good pizza. My favorite part of this pizza was the edge, the only part where I was able to pick up a bit of genuine breadiness in both flavor and texture. A bit more time for the dough to rise, baking on the floor of a really hot oven instead of on a screen, and then you might really have something great.
I know I've said that I don't want every pizza place to be the same, and that I like individuality. But I don't like trying to cut corners or emphasizing quantity over quality, and, frankly, a lot of megaslice joints turn out pizza that isn't all that distinctive. I'd rate Caraglio's a little better than most as far as that goes, and since they've been in business for a while, far be it from me to give them advice. But to me, this pizza was juuust tantalizingly good enough to make me think about how good it could have been. I'll give it a C+.
Caraglio's, 2882 Dewey Ave, Rochester 14616, 663-8390 Sun. - Thu. 11 a.m. - 9 p.m., Fri. & Sat. 11 a.m. - 10 p.m.

Ralph & Rosie's Deli in Bergen, Genesee County, is a little farther away than I would ordinarily travel for a pizza, but I'd run across more than one online review saying how good their pizza was and I had to give it a try.
When I ordered, the guy asked if I wanted "regular" or "sweet" sauce. I wasn't expecting this question, so I asked what was more popular, and he said the sweet. Although the idea of a sweet pizza sauce wouldn't typically appeal to me, I figured if that's what the locals like, let's check it out.
I went to pick it up in Bergen, which is one of those sleepy-looking, Mayberryesque villages that makes you feels as if you've stumbled into a John Cougar Mellencamp video. It's the kind of place that has one of each "hometown" business: one bakery, one bar, one antique shop, and, of course, one pizzeria, Ralph & Rosie's. R&R's sits next to an American Legion post in the middle of the two-block long business district, which consists of a row of well-preserved brick buildings along the main drag, Lake Ave. (the lake in this case being Lake Ontario, about 20 miles north).
Well, you get the picture. Let's move on to the pizza. On first look, it wasn't too visually impressive. It had a puffy thickness, and the golden brown bottom showed that it had been cooked on a screen. The cheese was lightly browned here and there.
Taking a bite, one of the first things I noticed was the sweet sauce. Now admittedly I was paying extra attention to the sauce, but I think I would've noticed it right away even if I hadn't been. It wasn't super, sugary sweet, but it lacked the acidic tang of a typical pizza sauce. I guess "sweet" here is a relative term, then, as I would only call this sweet in comparison to most other sauces.
The sauce was a major player here, as was the crust. It was soft and doughy, with a dinner-roll-like texture, and a slightly oily crunchiness along the edges.
The cheese was applied moderately, and definitely took a back seat to both the sauce and the crust. The pepperoni was the wide-and-thin variety.
The verdict? Well, I wouldn't call this world-class pizza by any means, as I was not too crazy about the crust. Too soft, doughy and bland for my tastes.
But more important than that, this pizza was distinctive. I didn't drive half an hour just to get a generic pizza, and that's not what I got. In this era of homogenization and retail chains, it's important to hold onto some things that are unique, and to my mind pizza is one of the most important parts of everyday life that needs to stay that way. I can still remember vividly the pizzas I had from a number of pizzerias in my home town when I was growing up, most of which are now gone forever. And I can see why for Bergenites (Bergenians? Bergeners?), Ralph & Rosie's sweet pizza will always be their hometown pizza, like no other.
Trying to stay objective, I'll give this a C+, though I can understand why locals might consider it an A+.