pizza

This is a slightly fancy but casual Italian Eatery in Culver City. I try to stay away from Italian restaurants but this place specializes in pizza and I had heard from many that they had high quality pizza. I went a little crazy with the ordering, I got a large margherita which was a generous 14 inches for 12.25. Then I ordered a pizza that caught my eye despite not liking half the things on

It's nice to know that amid all the foolishness going on in Albany (which has now made a majority of us embarrassed to be New Yorkers), at least some of our elected officials are hard at work. Like Brooklyn Assemblyman Felix Ortiz, who's introduced a bill that would make it illegal for restaurants to use salt in their food. At all.
According to Mr. Ortiz, the salt ban would save lives. I suppose he's right. Traffic deaths would certainly go down, because a lot fewer people would be going out to eat.
Maybe I'm overly optimistic, but I hope that even the folks in the state capitol will recognize just how ridiculous this proposal is, and let it die a swift and early death. I can't even imagine what salt-free pizza would be like, nor do I want to find out.
Given the lack of consensus about whether salt is actually bad for you, perhaps a better public health measure would be to test the water in Albany to see what they're drinking in that town. It can't be good.

Not long ago, I reported on Proietti’s in Webster, an Italian restaurant/pizzeria with a history going back some 40-plus years. Under owner/chef Whitey Proietti, the son of founder Pat Proietti, they’re still turning out some very well-made pizza, which I imagine tastes much the same as it did back in the ’60s.
Recently I learned that another branch of the Proietti family tree has borne fruit, pizzawise, in Irondequoit. Earlier this year, Whitey’s nephew Tony Proietti opened his own place, “2 Ton Tony’s,” in the Titus Mall, near the corner of Titus and Hudson avenues. Though a completely separate enterprise from his uncle’s restaurant, 2 Ton Tony’s bills itself as “continuing the Proietti’s Pizza family tradition.” This obviously demanded investigation, so I got myself up there for a pie last week.
"2 Ton Tony" sounds like a nickname for a boxer, which is appropriate, because Tony's got some heavyweight competition in the area. Within little more than a stone's throw away you'll find at least five other pizzerias: Mark’s, Little Caesar, Cam’s, Bay Goodman, and Pudgie’s, not to mention Wegmans. But as far as I’m concerned, there’s always room for another pizzeria, as long as the pizza’s good, and if there’s not room, well, then may the best pizza win.
And 2 Ton Tony’s pizza is good. I’m not going to try to compare it to its nearby competitors or, for that matter, with the pizza I got at Proietti’s in Webster, although it does share some obvious similarities with the latter. I’ll try instead to describe and judge it on its own terms.
My large pie had a crust that was on the thick side of medium. The screen-baked underside was dark brown, and firm, though not really crisp. The crust had good flavor, but was not particularly chewy or bready.
This was a fairly saucy pizza, which was fine considering the thickness of the crust. The sauce had a tangy, tomatoey flavor. Some dried herbs were visible, but this wasn’t really an “herbal” tasting sauce or pizza. The cheese was moderately applied and lightly browned. The fresh onions and sweet pepper slices were quite generously applied on their half of the pie.
While I was picking up the pizza, I noticed that 2 Ton Tony’s also had slices available, which looked thinner, and more or less resembled New York style slices. So on a different day I headed back to try those too.
Not surprisingly, the slices turned out not to be NY-style, but simply a thinner version of the pie I had earlier. They weren’t super thin, more in the thin-to-medium range, about a quarter of an inch thick. Like the pie, they were screen baked, with a dry, non-greasy underside that was medium brown in hue.
Also like the pie, the slices were saucy, with a pronounced tomatoey flavor. The cheese was again a bit browned, and this time I detected a certain salty sharpness to it. They were just a little oily/greasy on top. The slices were foldable, and more firm than crisp, though they did have a little crunch along the edge. The edge was formed into a very narrow lip, so there was sauce and cheese right up until virtually the last bite.
2 Ton Tony’s offers 15 pizza toppings, though they don’t appear to have any specialty pizzas. At this point at least, the rest of the menu is fairly limited, with wings, Friday fish fry, the “2 Ton Plate,” and various, mostly deep-fried sides, including “macaroni & cheese wedges.” I’m not sure if those sound good to me, exactly, but I may just have to try them sometime. There are a few tables, but seating is rather limited, making this mostly a pickup and delivery spot.
As for the pizza, I liked it. Reflecting its heritage, it fits broadly within what I think of as Rochester style, with its somewhat thicker crust, ample toppings, and square cut. My one quibble might’ve been with the underside, which was pleasingly firm and non-greasy, but which was missing that little bit of crunch or crispness that I look for in my pizza. That aside, though, the pizza was well made, making 2 Ton Tony’s a worthy contender in the crowded pizza field in this particular corner of Irondequoit. I’ll give it a solid B.
2 Ton Tony’s, 545 Titus Ave. 266-TONY (8669)
Mon. - Fri. 11 a.m. - 9 p.m., Sat. noon - 10 p.m., Sun. noon - 9 p.m.

Back in December I did a post about Rochester’s pizza history, in which I noted that the first entry I could find for a pizzeria in the old Rochester city directories was in 1954 for an establishment named Giuseppe’s on Lake Ave. I wondered whether there might’ve been any connection to the current Giuseppe’s restaurant in Gates.

The other day I got an email from one of the owners of Giuseppe’s, with some details about its history. Turns out that yes, the Giuseppe’s on Lake Ave. was the ancestor of the current place. And that the Lake Ave. address wasn’t even the first location for Giuseppe’s. Here’s what he had to say:

My name is Marciano Chinappi and I am the fourth-generation chef and part owner of Giuseppe’s in Gates. My father Joe, my brother Joe Jr., and I run the day to day operations at the restaurant. We are a truly involved family. We watched our parents, and their parents, and their parents spend their lives in the restaurant.

In the early 1920s Giuseppe Petrillo and his brother moved here from Naples, Italy. They were both bread bakers by trade in their home town. They decided to start a bakery together here in Rochester. After a few years they decided that life would better suit them in their own separate eateries. My great grandfather then started Giuseppe’s and his brother started Petrillo Bakery on Lyell Ave.

Our first pizzeria/bakery was on State St. My grandmother Serafina has told me that the first pizzas served at our place were topped with just imported canned tomatoes, grated pecorino romano, and anchovies. We still sell quite a few of these simple pies, mostly to the old timers from our old neighborhoods.

Over the years the location of our restaurant moved around a bit. The first store was on State St., the second was in fact the location on Lake Ave. [that was referred to in the blog]. We have also run places in Brown Square, on Jay St., and eventually ending up on Lyell Rd. in the early '70s. About six years ago we had to move from that location to our current location.

Over the years the recipes and techniques have been passed down, first from Giuseppe and his wife Josephine to their children Serafina, Theresa, Rosie, Salvatore, and Tommy, to my father Joe, and finally to Joe Jr. and myself. The history of our restaurant always suprises me. A man in his mid eighties had lunch at our restaurant a few weeks ago. He told me that we catered his wedding in the 1940s.

Mr. Chinappi went on to explain that most of this history has been passed down by word of mouth, and that there's not much printed evidence left of Giuseppe's past: "My ancestors, and I'm sure many of the other pizzeria owners ancestors were more worried about slinging good pies then documenting it."

That's true, of course, of nearly all our forebears' lives. Oral history gets passed down from generation to generation, for a while, but all too often it eventually gets forgotten, and lost forever. I know; I can trace my ancestry back exactly two generations, to my grandparents. Everyone before them - who they were, where they lived, what they did - has been erased from our collective memory.

Well, if it's true that words in cyberspace will last as long as there are humans to read them, then this should help preserve one small slice of local history. I'm glad to be able to do that, and to share it with others, who I hope will find it as interesting as I do.

Savastano’s is another one of Rochester’s long-established Italian bakeries, and like most of its brethren, it’s on the West Side, in Gates. As explained on their menu, the owner began his trade at Gruttadauria’s in 1964, and opened his own pizzeria/bakery in 1974 on Spencerport Road, where it remains today. It’s a small place, and easy to overlook as you’re driving by, but it’s worth stopping by, as I did recently.
I got a small pepperoni pizza. Ordinarily I like to get at least a medium but, well, I just didn’t want that much pizza this time.
The crust on this one was about three quarters of an inch thick, putting it somewhere in the medium-thick category. The underside was dry, and lightly browned, something like the color on a typical loaf of Italian bread. It had some exterior crunch, and was in fact a bit crumbly, not at all pliable or supple. I found that the slices would break if I attempted to fold them (not that these really needed to be folded; I just wanted to see if I could). The edge was very crunchy, but this wasn’t a “fried” kind of crunch; it was more of a well-baked crunchiness, something like a breadstick.
In that sense, this crust was in some ways reminiscent of the pizza I had at Proietti’s recently. Although the texture here was not quite the same as Proietti’s, the crust at both places was not particularly chewy, or, to use my word again, “gluteny.” Both establishments have been around a long time, and I wonder if this type of crust is indicative of an older, local style of pizza.
At any rate, it was good, and I don’t mean to suggest otherwise. The crust was a little crumbly, yes, but not in a dried-out or stale kind of way. It just seemed to have less gluten development than some pizza doughs, and more “bite” than “chew.”
Moving on, or up, to the sauce, it was fairly ample, though not excessive, and had a bright, tomatoey flavor. The lightly browned cheese was actually more of a supporting player here, with a presence that was noticeable, but that stayed mostly in the background. The predominant flavors and textures overall came mostly from the crust, sauce, and pepperoni, which was of the wide and thin variety. There seemed also to be a sprinkling of parmesan or romano on the surface, which contributed a soupçon (there’s a word I’ve never used before in my life) of tanginess.
Savastano’s has a modest list of pizza toppings (though you don’t often see cauliflower as an option), but several specialty pizza, including BLT, steak and lasagna pizzas. Interestingly, the Sicilian pizza here is apparently not a typical “American” Sicilian pizza (if that makes any sense), i.e., a rectangular, thick, pan-baked pizza, nor does it sound like (from what I’ve read) “authentic” Sicilian pizza (no cheese, and all the ingredients baked directly in the crust, not on top). Savastano’s Sicilian is distinguished instead by its toppings: a blend of oil, garlic, salt, pepper, grated cheese and mozzarella.
I should also mention Savastano’s mini pizzas. They’re essentially the same as the regular pizzas, although when I tried them I found the crust rather soft and moist, which isn’t that surprising since they are stacked up in a glass case at the front counter, where I imagine the moisture in the dough, sauce and cheese tends to soften the crusts a bit. Still, they’re tasty, and at less than a buck apiece, you could easily put away several of these for a quick, filling and inexpensive lunch.
Savastano’s is a bakery, too, and you’ll find plenty to pick from, including several breads, rolls, cookies and pastries, and pies. Savastano’s will turn one of those rolls into a hot or cold sub for you, and in a nod to its Western New York location, they offer Buffalo wings as well.
Getting back to the small pie, this was pretty good pizza. Its most distinctive feature, to me, was certainly the crust, with its almost biscuitlike texture. Although my tastes tend toward bready, chewy pizza crusts, I found myself liking this one, and appreciating it for the very fact of its differentness from most other pizzas around here. I’ll give it a B.
Savastano’s Pizzeria & Bakery, 477 Spencerport Rd. 247-0448
Tue., Wed., Sun. 10 a.m. - 8 p.m., Thu. 9 a.m. - 9 p.m., Fri. 9 a.m. - 10 p.m., Sat. 10 a.m. - 10 p.m. Closed Mon.

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.

Charlotte Pizzeria opened last year on Lake Ave., in what had been a Piatza's. I think it was briefly operating under some other name as well. You would think this would be a good location for a pizzeria, especially a slice joint, but this isn't real close to the beach, and it's on the side of a building, facing a parking lot, so it's not especially visible from the street, even with the colorful paint scheme now adorning the facade.
I went there for a slice, thinking that it might be one of those deals where the name changes but the pizza remains the same - in other words, just like a Piatza's slice. But in fact this was a little different. Unlike Piatza's, these were not giant slices, just "normal" size. So I got two. They had just come out of the oven.
The slices were medium thick, with that telltale "fried" aroma and mottled brown underside that indicate the presence of cooking oil. The crust was soft and a bit spongy. As is often the case with this kind of pizza, the edge was somewhat crisp, if oily, and it had some faint but pleasant breadiness.
The sauce had a thick consistency, and tasted of cooked tomatoes. It was added in reasonable proportion to the crust. The cheese was browned, though not to the point of being dried out or hard, and was laid on in a uniform, slightly thick layer. It was straight processed mozzarella, I believe.
The cup and char pepperoni was crisp, and added some smoky spiciness, as well as a small pool of grease at the bottom of each pepperoni slice. (The cup or bowl shape of the pepperoni makes it relatively easy to sop up the grease with a napkin, though.)
Despite the name, Charlotte Pizzeria offers considerably more than pizza. There's a wide variety of grilled and fried foods, from burgers and fries to Jamaican beef patties and fried chicken. They also serve wings (which can be ordered as "whole wings") and hot and cold subs. Pizza toppings, in contrast, are relatively limited, with just seven available (eight, if you want to count "extra cheese" as a topping).
This really wasn't bad pizza, but it was not particularly good, either. I'd be inclined simply to call it average and give it a C, but for that soft, oily crust. It wasn't oozing grease or anything, but it did have a slightly oily feel and aroma, so I'm rating it a just-below-average C-.
Charlotte Pizzeria, 4410 Lake Ave., 621-9111
Open daily. 9 a.m. - midnight, Fri. & Sat. till 3 a.m.
Pizza Guy note, 4/19/10: The "new businesses" listings in today's D&C list a new place, "Little DS House of Pizza," at this address. I can't tell if it's open yet or when it might be.