pizza

From a story on CBS News:

After nearly 50 years, Domino's Pizza is changing its core recipe. A recent survey placed Domino's at the top of service and delivery among chain pizzerias, and at the bottom for taste. This new recipe changes their "classic" pizza in three ways:

1.) The crust will now be seasoned with garlic and parsley.

2.) The sauce will be sweeter and include red pepper flakes.

3.) The cheese will be a mix of shredded mozzarella and provolone.

Now, I've always found Domino's pizza to be an abomination, an affront to all things good about pizza. It's worse than Papa John's, Pizza Hut, Lil' Caesars...any of the chains, really. And worse than most frozen pizza. I'll still eat it if someone is clueless enough to order it, but probably not more than a slice or two. That crust is just too gummy for me, and the sauce too sweet (which really makes me question whether making it even sweeter is a wise decision).

I'm curious to see how the Domino's-loving public responds to this. In the CBS story, they allowed some random people to try it, and their reaction was quite positive. So were the reactions from the talking heads on the CBS Early Show. I just can't help but recall the disaster that befell Coca-Cola when they decided to change up their classic recipe in the '80s for "New Coke," and sure enough, CBS mentions it in their report.

Can you believe that survey? I for one find it very hard to swallow the idea that the #1 chain pizza people prefer comes from Papa John's. Over Godfather's? Please.

Anyway, there's a less-than-1% chance I'll be trying this new iteration of Domino's in the foreseeable future, so if any of you get your hands on their new pies, do write in and tell us about it.

So if you are from Southern California you know Shakey's and I don't have to tell you. This is for the people who relocated here and wonder what this place is all about. It's a hard place to describe. It's a chain, so it's clean, big, and somewhat generic in the food department. Comfort food in the form of mainly pizza. Though pizza is pretty comfortable no matter where you go. Everything

I always like to get pizzeria suggestions, and some time ago a reader mentioned Corn Hill Market. I followed up and tried their pizza, but the other day I realized that I’d never posted a review. I mention that to explain the presence of green grass in the photos, and to make clear that the lag time between my visit and review is typically not nearly that long.
Anyway - Corn Hill Market is not strictly a pizzeria, rather more of a grocery store and deli, but they do serve pizza made on the premises, you do see a fair number of people getting pizza there at lunchtime, and it’s also noteworthy as one of three places selling pizza within a stone’s throw of each other, the other two being Panzari’s next door and Tony D’s across the street.
I got a couple of pepperoni slices, which were fairly thick. The crust had a soft texture, though the underside had a bit of oily crunch. The outer edge was particularly crunchy, almost like fried dough. The slices weren’t exactly dripping with oil, but there was enough that it left my fingertips somewhat greasy. The dough had clearly risen a bit, as there were visible air holes in the interior, but it wasn’t particularly bready in character.
The cheese seemed to be straight mozzarella. It was a little browned on the surface, and separated easily from the crust. The sauce was lightly applied, and pretty much got lost between the crust and the cheese. From what I could tell, it seemed to have a mild, tomatoey flavor. The pepperoni was moderately applied, averaging about 3½ slices per slice of pizza, but was nicely crisp. The slices appeared to have been lightly dusted with dried herbs, though they didn’t impart much flavor that I could detect.
There is a little seating in the market, but this is mostly a place to grab something to go. CHM also offers everything you’d expect at a deli - sandwiches and such, self-serve coffee, and a range of grocery items, plus convenience store staples like Lotto, beer, and an ATM.
If you’re in the area, have a hankering for pizza, and not much time and/or money to spend, this’ll do. It wasn’t great, but it was okay overall. And I got two slices and a 20 oz. soft drink for five dollars, which makes it a pretty good value. I’ll give it a C-.
Corn Hill Market, 319 Exchange Blvd. 454-2708
Mon. - Fri. 7 a.m. - 8 p.m., Sat. 8 a.m. - 4 p.m. Closed Sun.
Update 12/17/09: according to this week's edition of City, Corn Hill Market closed earlier this month, so I guess I could've saved myself the trouble of posting this review. Though the pizza wasn't the best, Corn Hill could use a decent grocery/deli, it seems to me, so this comes as a bit of a surprise.

(Pizza Guy note: be sure and read the comments to this post for some updated information on this topic.)
In the course of doing this blog, I’ve been to some pizzerias dating back to the 1970s and even ’60s, and I got to wondering - what’s the oldest pizzeria in Rochester? So one afternoon I stopped by the Central Library downtown to do a little research among the old city directories.
Supposedly pizza’s widespread popularity in this country dates to the post-WWII years, with the return of GIs who had discovered it while serving in Italy. By the 1950s, it was enough of an American staple to show up on popular sitcoms like the Honeymooners, though it also took some pretty bizarre forms in those days (tuna pizza, anyone?)
So I started with the 1950 directory. No business heading for pizzerias - no surprise there - and none of the restaurant listings mentioned pizza, either. That’s not to say that pizza wasn’t served at any local Italian restaurants, but there’s no evidence of it from the 1950 directory.
Moving forward, the first place calling itself a pizzeria, by the name of Giuseppe’s, shows up in 1954, at 324 Lake Ave. I doubt if the building's even there today. Now there is currently a Giuseppe’s in Gates, and they do serve pizza, but at this point I don’t know if there’s any connection. The Giuseppe's website claims that Giuseppe's was "est. 1927," but it doesn't provide any detailed history.
The year 1958 brings us a Perri’s Pizza at 1899 East Main St., which now is the address of Main Place Tavern. Again, there are a few Perri’s in existence today, but can they trace their lineage back that far? I don’t know. The Perri’s website has a “Perri’s History” link, but it’s one of those “Coming Soon!” pages (why is it that when a web page says “Coming Soon!” you know that it’s not coming anytime soon?).
The first mention of a pizzeria that I’m sure is still in existence comes in 1961: Pontillo’s, at 3194 Lake Ave., an address that, according to Google, today is that of a vacant movie theater. Pontillo’s started out in Batavia in 1947 - unfortunately the original location closed a while back, due to unpaid taxes, I believe, though the building’s still there, vacant - so within 14 years Pontillo’s had reached Rochester, making it perhaps the first local pizza chain, if not the first Rochester pizzeria.
Also of note, Amico Pizza appears on Waring Rd. in 1965. Amico is now located on E. Ridge Rd. in Irondequoit, and it’s still in the family. Their website says that Amico Pizza was founded in 1962, but the first listing for it I could find in the directory was in 1965.
There’s also a mid-1960s listing for a Proietti’s Pizzeria at 1717 N. Goodman (where today you’ll find an insurance office), and these days Proietti’s Restaurant in Webster does serve pizza. Again, the connection, if any, is unclear to me as of now.
Finally, the year 1965 also brought us Mama Taccone’s at 495 Monroe Ave., the present-day address of Acme Bar & Pizza. I remember Mama Taccone’s, which closed in the early '90s, I'd guess, and this reminded me of the likely reason why Acme has always served pizza - it inherited the pizza ovens from Mama Taccone's.
So here’s how things stand right now: (1) Giuseppe’s, or Perri’s, might be able to lay claim to the title of oldest existing pizza purveyor in Rochester, but their connection to the originals by those names is not established. (2) If they’re not the oldest, then Pontillo’s is. They date back in Rochester to 1961. (3) Barring any claims by Giuseppe's or Perri's, the oldest family-run pizzeria originating in Rochester appears to be Amico. Proietti’s may be in the mix as well - again, the connection is uncertain - though today Proietti’s is a full-service restaurant rather than a pizzeria. (4) The geographical location with the longest history of serving pizza seems to be Acme.
When I have time, I’ll try to follow up on some of these leads with the current owners of some of the places mentioned. In the meantime, if anybody can shed any additional light or has any memories to share, please do.

Way up in Sylmar is a Italian restaurant that has been run by the same family for over 35 years. It is a pretty cool place with a big dinning area and a bar in the back. They have a great lunch special: a buffet with all kinds of food, from lasagna to sausage and everything in between, even pizza. It is all for around 10 dollars. For the long trip I brought a friend, connoisseur of anything

“Max” is a brand name for a local culinary mini-empire founded by chef Tony Gullace. There’s Max of Eastman Place, Max Chop House, Max at the (Memorial Art) Gallery, and Max at High Falls, making the pseudonymous Max something of a Rochester version of Emeril.
Then there’s Max Market in Pittsford, which combines a specialty/gourmet food store with a café and deli. Somewhere I noticed that they serve pizza, so I decided to give it a try.
The sign outside advertising brick oven pizza looked promising. Inside, I walked past shelves of sourdough bread (also promising), imported Italian tomatoes, and Pittsford Dairy ice cream to the counter in back, where I ordered a small Margherita. To me, the Margherita - traditionally, fresh tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, and fresh basil - is to “gourmet” pizza what the basic cheese, or cheese-and-pepperoni pie is to “regular” pizza, kind of a benchmark.
My order came up surprisingly quickly. Now a super-hot pizza oven can bake a pizza in a couple of minutes, but this was still pretty fast, making me think that the pizza had been at least partially premade. That inkling was somewhat confirmed by the relatively thick crust, since I don’t think it would’ve been possible to prepare and fully bake a pizza this thick in the time it took for my order to come up. Not that it’s a big deal, I mean if it’s good, that’s all I really care about, I was just a little surprised that it was ready so soon.
As I said, my pizza, which measured about 9½ inches in diameter, had a fairly thick crust. That was also a bit of a surprise, since a lot of upscale, brick-oven places seem to make a point of stretching their dough nearly to the gluten’s breaking point (which I don’t necessarily like, as it prevents the pizza from developing a chewy, bready interior). The underside was crisp, and baked to a mottled, medium brown. The interior displayed numerous small air holes.
Visually, the most prominent feature of the pizza was the large slices of fresh mozzarella - larger than on many Margheritas I’ve had, where the fresh mozzarella forms more of an island in a sea of crushed tomatoes. Closer inspection revealed that there were actually two cheeses here, as the fresh mozzarella lay atop a second layer of a yellower, more aged cheese, though I couldn’t identify the variety. Whatever it was, it was pretty mild, as there was not much cheese flavor here at all.
What did have a lot of flavor were the slices of fresh (probably Roma) tomato on top of the cheese. I imagine the cooking process, which would have caused some of the water in the tomatoes to evaporate, would have concentrated their flavor somewhat, but even so these were remarkably good tomatoes, especially at this time of year. If, in this age of year-round produce, you’ve gotten accustomed to tomatoes that are more decorative than tasty, these will come as a revelation. The smaller pieces of sundried tomato furnished comparatively less flavor, and seemed to have caramelized a bit in the oven. The shreds of wilted basil added an herbal note to the overall profile, but were not especially prominent on the palate.
That left the outer edge, which had a nice crunch. It seemed to me reminiscent of a good, French bread dough.
Max’s other pizza offerings are a pepperoni pie, roasted vegetable pizza, pizza bianca (white pizza), and rotating daily specials, in small and large sizes. Other food choices include salads, sandwiches, pasta, and various ready-to-go prepared foods, and desserts as well.
And of course, there are the packaged foods. I picked up some rarely seen, imported “00” flour, which supposedly is a necessity if you want to make “authentic” Italian pizza (I’ll let you know how it goes).
As far as my pizza is concerned, well, there were things I liked about it and things I didn’t. It seemed to have been made from good dough, but as my favorite bread guru, Peter Reinhart, writes, baking good bread is all about manipulating time and temperature in order to maximize the flavor and texture of the finished product. This crust lacked the high-heat charring and toasted aroma and flavor that marks the best pizza, so I’m not sure that Max fully realized this dough’s potential.
And though the tomatoes were very good, the tomatoes and cheese had proportionally been applied in reverse to what I would have preferred. I would rather have had those tomatoes used as a flavorful base for some melted, creamy mozzarella, rather than the thick, double layer of relatively bland cheese that I got here, with the tomatoes adding some teasingly good accents that left me wanting more.
Though I say it often, those are, of course, just my opinions. But since this is my blog, those are the only opinions I can offer. To me, this was good pizza, but it lacked a certain complexity, was not as well balanced as it could have been, and the components didn’t seem to mesh all that well. It struck me as more like upscale fast food than as truly great pizza. So I liked it, but not as much as I'd hoped for, and I’ll give it a C+.
Max Market, 2949 Monroe Ave. , 271-1210
Monday - Saturday: 8am -8pm, Sunday: 8am - 6pm