pizza

I've previously posted on Gaetano's bakery, about a year ago, but it was just for one slice, which didn't seem especially fresh, and I've long meant to go back for a freshly made pie.
In that prior post, I said that Gaetano's Sicilian pizza sounded tempting, and that's what I opted for on a recent visit. "Sicilian" here does not denote a rectangular, thick-crusted, pan pizza, which is what I usually think of as Sicilian pizza, but a regular pizza topped with oil (presumably olive oil), black pepper, fresh garlic, parsley, Romano cheese and basil.
I don't know why, but somehow I had come to expect Gaetano's Siciilan pizza to be a red pizza, i.e. with tomato sauce, similar to a Grandma's or traditional pizza with just sauce and a sprinkling of Romano. But it's a white pizza, no sauce.
OK, well, my fault in thinking otherwise. I like white pizza.
But I don't really like a soft crust, which is what this had. The underside was a bit oily to the touch, and though it wasn't wet-sponge soft, it was definitely on the soft side. As was my slice last October, the underside of this pie was dotted with small, pinprick puncture holes.
The medium-to-thick crust was also a little gummy on top, where it met the cheese. The cheese - which I'm pretty certain was mozzarella - was browned, and formed a uniform blanket over the crust. The Romano cheese overlaid a little sharpness, but the mozzarella certainly predominated.
Bits of chopped, browned garlic also dotted the surface, and this pizza definitely left a garlicky aftertaste. The black pepper was a background presence, and the bits of dried parsley added little, either visually or on the palate. (We need a word for that in English - what's the sense-of-taste equivalent of "visual"?)
This pizza tasted pretty good, but its major shortcoming was the crust. That was one of the things I disliked about my slice last year, and though I guess I had no real reason to expect it to be different this time, I was still disappointed, because Gaetano's bread is so damn good. On an impulse, I found myself getting a gorgeous loaf of bread with my pizza. It had a floury, crunchy crust and a soft, chewy interior. If only some of that had been present in the pizza. I had the sense, in eating the pizza, that the dough was just fine, but that it had not been baked in a way that would extract from it its optimal flavor and texture.
*Sigh* Well, there's still the mini pizzas, which I have yet to try, and Gaetano's also sells pizza dough, so you could always try it at home. Aside from that, I'll pick up the occasional loaf of bread here, but I doubt I'll give the pizza another shot. It tasted good, so I'm not going to give it a truly bad grade, but that soft crust drags it down, so I'm giving it a C-.
Gaetano’s Bakery, 1439 W. Ridge Rd. 865-7810
Mon. - Thu. 9 a.m. - 7 p.m., Fri. & Sat. 9 a.m. - 8 p.m., Sun. 9 a.m. - 6 p.m.

(photo: veganinbellingham.com)

(all other photos by Adam Lindsley)

Abba's Pizza is now open at the The Kessler Family Chabad Center For Jewish Life, near 12 Corners in Brighton. If my understanding of Jewish dietary laws is correct, that means you won't be finding any meat lovers' pizzas on the menu. But where else can you get corn on your pizza? I'll check it out sometime.
Abba's Pizza, 1037 Winton Road South, 360-9723
Mon - Thurs: 10:30 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.

I've done one previous post about Cordello's, concerning their location on Lyell Road in Gates. My slices from there wasn't bad, but they had some flaws, and I gave them a B-.
Recently I stopped at Cordello's on Chili Ave. in Chili. I got a cheese slice and a pepperoni slice.
These were a little better than the ones I got in Gates. They were about the same thickness, on the thin side of medium, and thinner toward the tip, getting gradually thicker toward the outer edge.
The undersides were charred and nearly blackened in some areas, but were also more evenly browned than the slices I got in Gates. They had a crackly exterior, and a toasty flavor and aroma. Despite the outer crispness, they were still reasonably pliable and foldable.
The interior of the crust was rather chewy, almost to the point of being "tough." I imagine that, like most pizzerias around here, Cordello's uses high-gluten flour, and the gluten in this crust seemed exceptionally well developed, which can give you a tougher, chewier texture. Between that chewiness and the exterior crispness, the crust on one slice tore apart when I took a bite.
The sauce was moderately applied, in good balance with the crust, and was just a little sweet, in a tomatoey kind of way. That was topped by a layer of mozzarella that was just barely browned. It was fairly thick, and in fact the cheese was thicker than the crust in many areas. All in all, though, there was a pretty good balance among the crust, cheese and sauce. The wide, thin slices of pepperoni were a little spicy.

As of now, there appear to be five Cordelllo's locations. I presume they share more or less the same menu, which you can see at the Irondequoit Cordello's Facebook page.
This pizza wasn't perfect, by any means, but it was better than what I got in Gates last year. The crust was too hard to chew, and as you can see in the photo, the cheese was a little unevenly applied, and only covered about two-thirds of the pepperoni slice.
But it did have several things going for it, including a crisp bottom with some nice toasty notes, good flavor, and pretty good balance. I'd say it rates a B.
Cordello's, 3774 Chili Ave. (at Union St.) 889-3333 Hours unknown, but the Gates location advertises very late hours.

One of my reasons for not reviewing chain pizzerias is that they are so ubiquitous. If there's not a Pizza Hut, Domino's or Papa John's (or Salvatore's, around here) near you, chances are there's been one in the past, and that you've sampled their wares at some point in your life. Unless you've been a vegetarian from birth, you've probably eaten a McDonald's hamburger at one time or another, and you hardly need some self-appointed food critic to tell you what they taste like. Same goes for pizza.
But if a chain only has one location in your area, that rationale doesn't apply. Such is the case with Carrabba's, which is on West Henrietta Road, near Marketplace Mall. So when I had dinner there recently, I tried their Margherita pizza, and took some notes.
Carrabba's advertises some entrees as cooked on a wood-burning grill, but the pizzas are said to be baked in a brick oven, so I take it that they are not baked in a wood-burning oven. The menu also states that the pizzas are baked at 600 degrees, which is not exceptionally hot.
Still, the crust on these was nicely charred, and comparable, if not better, than some pizzas I've had that were baked in wood-fired ovens. It was quite thin, with no real interior, and crisp on the outside but still very pliable. Interestingly, the underside was, apart from the charred areas, quite pale.
The menu describes the Margherita as topped with "vine-ripe Roma tomatoes, basil, extra virgin olive oil and mozzarella." Of those toppings, it was the cheese that predominated here. It appeared to be  fresh mozzarella, and was applied in chunks that had partially melted. It didn't have the almost liquid creaminess of some fresh mozzarella, but it hadn't turned rubbery either, and was somewhat stringy.
The "vine-ripe" tomatoes looked nice enough, but aside from a touch of sweetness, didn't seem to have much flavor. I wondered, this being a chain restaurant and all, if their tomatoes are trucked in from some distant location; at this time of year, I would think that locally-grown tomatoes would be much more flavorful.
The torn basil leaves were neatly arranged, one per slice plus one in the middle, though basil lovers might like a little more.
The entire pizza was also lightly dusted with what looked and tasted like black pepper. That's a bit unusual, but it added a nice flavor boost to what was otherwise a mild, even bland pizza. I don't know if fresh garlic is an option - I didn't see any toppings list on the menu - but it would've made a nice addition as well.
Carraabba's offers an array of Italian dishes, from standbys like chicken Marsala and lasagna to house specialties like penne with fennel sausage pomodoro and a number of meat and seafood dishes from the wood-fired grill. In general, my impression was that the food was of fairly high quality, and a notch above the standard Italian chain restaurant fare.
As for the pizza, it was pretty good. Not outstanding, but pretty good. The crust was nicely charred, and crisp but supple, yet it didn't have the toasted, bready flavors of a really great pizza crust. And as I mentioned, the overall flavor of this pizza was a shade on the bland side, and seemed to be lacking that little extra something to make it truly memorable. Still, it was enjoyable, with no significant flaws, and good enough to rate a B from me. Carrabba's Italian Grill, 3340 West Henrietta Road, 292-6120 Mon. - Thu. 4 p.m. - 10 p.m., Fri. 4 p.m. - 10:30 p.m., Sat. 3 p.m. - 10:30 p.m., Sun. noon - 9 p.m.

Noticed today that the Pizza Stop has reopened, after being closed for a few weeks due to building renovations. I'll stop by soon to check it out, see if there are any changes.

I've done a post before about Main Street Pizza in Brockport, but it seemed like a good time for an update. For one thing, I ran across a recent review that really trashed Main Street for having "strayed so far from its original NYC roots & recipe [that] it barely even resembles NYC style pizza any more." Wow. Really?
Second, I noticed that Main Street's website has a link to my earlier blog review, which gave them an A-minus. I'm OK with that, but I figured if they're using my blog to promote themselves, I should check back and see if they're still as good as before.
Unlike my last visit, when I just got a slice, this time I got a full pie, specifically an "extra large" (18 inch) New York style pie.
Contrary to what the aforementioned reviewer said, this did resemble NYC style pizza. It had a thin crust, which had some light charring on the underside. The bottom displayed some surface cracks, but it remained pliable enough to fold.
There were some differences from last time, though. Whereas before I wrote that the "sauce was applied lightly" and the "cheese was a tad on the thick side," here that was reversed. This was a sauce-dominated pizza. It wasn't doused with sauce, but there was a fair amount of it, and it had an assertive, complex flavor, with notes of both tomatoey sweetness and acidity, with some herbs in the background. The sauce had a medium-thick consistency, neither runny nor dried out. The pizza in general also had a certain black-peppery, spicy aftertaste, though I couldn't see any obvious source of that. My guess, however, is that it came from the sauce.
In contrast, the cheese was rather lightly applied, with a number of bare spots showing, and a thin layer of cheese where it was present. The cheese didn't have the greatest texture either - it was not smooth, creamy or stringy, but simply congealed, with a texture somewhat like that of melted plastic. I wondered if it was part-skim cheese, which I think doesn't melt as nicely as the full-fat stuff.
Consistent with the crisp crust, this pizza had a nice bready edge, whidch was formed into a medium-wide lip. It had a crunchy exterior and chewy interior.
Main Street also offers "traditional style" pizza, which I take to mean thicker crust. I may try one sometime, but it's hard for me to pass up a decent NY-style pizza when it's available.
And this is decent NY-style pizza. Not flawless, but not bad. On the plus side, I liked the crust, which struck the right balance between crispness, pliability and chewiness. On the minus side, I wasn't so crazy about the cheese this time around. I don't usually like a lot of cheese on my pizza, but this one seemed a tad skimpy. Worse than that, the cheese simply didn't add much, either in terms of flavor or texture.
That leaves the sauce, which really took center stage here. I liked it well enough, but some people may not (like my wife, for instance, who thought this pizza was too tomatoey). Maybe it was just this one pizza, or maybe as a cost-cutting move, they're going lighter on the cheese and adding a little more sauce to compensate. The problem with that is that it tends to throw things out of balance. Cheese, sauce and crust should work in harmony together, but here the sauce predominated.
Again, I didn't mind it much - my biggest complaint was the cheese itself - but I can see where some people might be less than thrilled with this pizza, especially if you like a cheesy pizza.
All of which is a long-winded way of saying that personally, I still like Main Street's NY-style pizza, though this one wasn't quite as good, I think, as the slice I had last time. So I'll bump it down a notch, to a B+.
Main Street Pizza, 82 Main St., Brockport 637-8760
Mon. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 10 p.m., Sun. noon - 10 p.m.