Pizzaz Pizza, Syracuse (SouthWest)

Pizzaz Pizza inhabits a small storefront on South Ave., near the intersections of W. Brighton Ave. and Valley Drive on Syracuse’s southwest side. I don’t know how long it has been at this location, but I believe it has been at least 15 years. This is strictly a takeout and delivery operation, with street parking only on the very busy South Ave.

I picked up a cheese slice at lunchtime on a weekday, which was 1/8th of an 18″ pie ($2.00 incl. tax). There really wasn’t any display of pizza, there were just a couple of pans up high on a pizza shelf, above some balls of dough that appeared to be in plastic bags. The pan baked crust averaged about 1/4″ thickness, and was barely thicker than that at the rim. This was an entirely average crust, with essentially no taste to speak of.

Sauce was virtually non-existent, likely because it was prepared far in advance, giving lots of time for the sauce to absorb into the cheese and crust. There was redness on the top that made it look like there was sauce below, but I couldn’t find any, just some tell-tale flakes of spice to indicate that there had once been sauce present. And of course, without sauce there was no sauce taste. Would the cheese save the day? Sadly, no. It was rather oily, salty, and tough.

In my opinion, this is one of the worst things about pan baked pizza: there is always the temptation to prepare many of them in advance and let them sit for hours before baking. Yes, it makes it possible for fewer people to manage a high-volume pizza operation at crunch time, but the taste suffers.

Overall, this was entirely average, even below average pizza. I think some amount of salvation could be found by fresh preparation, but I can only go by what I was served. On the Pizza Geek scale of 0 to 5, this rates 2.5 slices.

Summary – Pros: inexpensive. Cons: oily, salty cheese; absent sauce; tasteless crust.

What do YOU think? Have you tried Pizzaz Pizza? Are you a regular? If so, why? Click the comment link below and tell us about it!

Crust: ***
Sauce: **
Cheese: ***
Toppings: NA
Bang/Buck: ***
Overall:

Bear Country Pizza and Pastry, Chittenango

Follow Route 5 through Fayetteville, travel a few miles past Green Lakes, in to Madison County, and you’ll come to Bear Country Pizza & Pastry on Chittenango’s western edge (it’s “Bear Country” because that’s the Chittenango school mascot). There is minimal seating. When I visited on a Saturday evening, very few baked goods were displayed. I took home a medium supreme (your choice of 5 toppings), with sausage, mushrooms, olives, onions, and green peppers. At $15.99 for 14″, it was just a little more expensive than average. Crust thickness was about 1/4″.

Bear Country uses a large conveyor oven, with pizza baked on a screen. I think it is a little more common for conveyor baking to be done in a pan, which essentialy fries the dough in a little oil. So, you might think that using a screen in a conveyor oven would make for a crispier, drier crust because moisture could escape, but not so in this case. As you can see in the photos, the crust appears well-browned and looks good. However, when biting into it, I found little or no crispiness, and dough that flattened and squished into “goo” when pinched. “Poofy” is another word that comes to mind. I’m no oven expert, but I’m going out on a limb to guess that moisture from the gas heat prevents a good, hard crisping of the crust. On the other hand, stone-lined ovens that heat the dough by contact tend to provide crispier crusts. Aside from the oven and crispiness questions, I’d say that the crust on this pizza generally lacked personality, which is likely a function of the flour and how the dough was fermented.

Now that I’ve gotten my gripes out of the way, it is smooth sailing from here on out! The sauce was nearly perfect, with an excellent, slightly chunky texture (some bits of tomato peel were visible), mild spice load (with visible spice flakes and garlic chunks), and excellent fresh tomato taste that was slightly acidic and not salty. Also, it did not soak in to the crust or cheese. As I said, it was nearly perfect sauce! The cheese was excellent as well: soft, white, not oily, not browned, and not salty. Toppings were fresh and tasted great. While I would have liked a little more of some of the toppings, a five-topping pizza can get pretty soggy if you overdo the toppings.

All things considered, the quality of the sauce, cheese and toppings helps make up for the poofy, bland crust. I have no doubt that if you put this sauce, cheese and toppings on a better crust, you’d have a legitimate contender for a 4.75 or 5 slice rating! So, although it isn’t as good as it could have been, it was still a very tasty pizza, and the Pizza Geek gives it a rating of 4 out of 5 slices.

Summary – Pros: top-notch sauce, cheese and toppings. Cons: soft, poofy, bland crust.

What do YOU think? Have you tried Bear Country Pizza? Click the comment link below and tell us about it!

Crust: ***
Sauce: *****
Cheese: *****
Toppings: *****
Bang/Buck: ***
Overall:

Cicero Country Pizza, Cicero

Quite some time ago I drove up to Cicero at lunchtime, hoping to score some pizza at Cicero Country Pizza (on Route 11, just south of Route 31). What I didn’t know was that CCP isn’t open for lunch Monday – Wednesday. Fast forward many months to the first nice day after our monsoon season, and our office gang successfully made the trek to Cicero Country Pizza. There are two large dining rooms with capacity for around 100 people total – although it was pretty empty when we arrived. As near as I can tell, delivery is not offered (it isn’t mentioned on the menu); this is basically an eat-in and takeout operation.

We ordered a 12″ half cheese, half pepperoni, and a 16″ with sausage, peppers and mushrooms. They were delivered to the table on stands after about 15 minutes. The crust on these pizzas was about 1/4″ thin in the middle, gradually thickening to about 1/2″ near the edge, with a big, poofy thick rim. The texture was generally soft, while at the same time having a thin crisp layer on the outside. It seemed to me that the gluten level was probably a little lower than I sometimes see, because the crust had an easier chew and could be bitten off easily. Interior structure looked really good, with evidence of a good rise and careful handling that didn’t deflate the dough during prep. I can’t be sure, but my impression was that this was “same day” dough, probably mixed that morning. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing, just an observation. Dough that has risen, or fermented slowly overnight usually has a different, more complex texture and browning characteristics, whereas same day dough has a little different taste. Either way, the result here was pretty good. My only real suggestion for improvement would be a little more baking time to brown it and crisp it just a little more.

The sauce was a welcome surprise, at least on the 12″ pizza. It was plentiful, bright red, very fresh tasting and mildly spiced, with no rough edges. I don’t have a single complaint about this sauce; it is pretty much what I think of when I conjure up an image of the perfect sauce. On the other hand, the sauce on the 16″ pizza (with sausage, peppers and mushrooms) was rather bland. One of the other guys at the table pointed this out also. I went back and forth between pieces of the two pies, again and again, and had to conclude that indeed, something was different about the sauce on the two! Either there were two different batches of sauce used (seems unlikely), or something about the toppings on the 16″ had a mysterious chemical reaction with the sauce to neutralize the flavor.  The cheese was quite good – soft, white, not burned, not oily – although a little prone to sliding off in big sheets.  The toppings were very good, although the mushrooms were canned.

Overall, this pizza worked pretty well, with relatively minor problems. I guess we’ll never know why the sauce could seem so different on the two pizzas.  Please excuse me for spending so much time talking about that, because I don’t want to distract from the fact that this pizza had a lot going for it.  The all-important first bite impression was very good, with a very tasty, fresh character coming through.  It comes so close to being 4.5, but the others at the table concurred that it didn’t quite make it.  Fresh mushrooms might have pushed it higher, a little more baking time for the crust might have pushed it higher, and better sauce taste on the larger pizza would have helped too.  As it is, at a Pizza Geek rating of 4 out of 5 slices, I can recommend Cicero Country Pizza and its large, family-friendly dining areas as a good stop on your pizza tour.

Summary – Pros: excellent sauce, good crust and cheese. Cons: canned mushrooms.

What do YOU think? Have you tried Cicero Country Pizza? How was it? Click the comment link below and tell us about it!

Crust: ****
Sauce: *****
Cheese: ****
Toppings: ****
Bang/Buck: ****
Overall:

One Year of Pizza

I just realized that the Pizza Geek blog has reached its first anniversary! There is still a lot of work left to do, so as long as they keep making pizza, I’ll keep eating it and writing about it.

The early blog days saw relatively little traffic, which is to be expected. The single biggest event which drove traffic to these pages was the opening of CiCi’s Pizza on Erie Boulevard. Several thousand searches for CiCi’s (or some variation of the spelling) have been logged. Another popular search is for Extreme Pizza in Eastwood – I’m not sure why that particular shop gets so many searches. Another popular search that lands here is for “pizzageek.com,” even though that isn’t my domain! Some of the funniest things to show up on my search terms report are items like “don’t trust the pizza geek” and “who is the pizza geek”! At any rate, the current blog traffic averages 150 views per day.

Before I head out to celebrate this anniversary with – what else – pizza, I’ll answer some frequently asked questions:

Q. Why did you start the blog?

A. Like most people, I’ve tried lots of different pizza restaurants, and have been disappointed by many of them. While searching online for more pizza shops on a snowy Saturday afternoon, I stumbled on to the Rochester pizza blog, and decided to do the same for Syracuse. If I get you to stop and think about what you’re eating, and become a more discriminating pizza lover, then I’ll be happy!

Q. Why do you think you can pass judgement on someone else’s vision of pizza? What makes you such an authority?

A. I’m no authority. Whenever I do extensive reading about pizza, it becomes very apparent just how much I DON’T know. My goal is simply to get you thinking about what makes a good pizza, to pay attention to what you’re eating, and how it could be better. I try to describe the pizza accurately so you can decide if you want to try it.

Q. Do you have a financial or family relationship to any restaurant?

A. No, not in the slightest. Although I enjoy cooking (especially pizza), I’m an engineer to the core and don’t have any relationship to any restaurant.

Q. How do you choose which places to review?

A. Convenience (location) is a big factor. Some places were suggested by blog readers. Either way, it’s mostly an impulse related to what is going on that day, and where I am.

Q. Is it fair to judge a pizza restaurant by a single, stale slice? Shouldn’t you always buy a fresh pie?

A. Sure, when possible. But out of respect for my wallet and my waistline, I go with slices quite often. Time is also a factor. I believe that even when it has cooled off and dried out, you can generally tell whether the slice “had anything going on” in the first place. Finally, who wants to have whole pies of mediocre pizza sitting around after a bad review?

Q. Do you ever get “busted” or discovered while doing a review?

A. That has happened a couple of times. The giveaway is usually when I’m too obvious while taking pictures, so I’ve been making extra effort to be discreet. Once in a great while, after sampling excellent pizza, I’ve informed the restaurant personnel that I was reviewing the pizza and liked it.

Q. Have you gotten angry reactions from pizza shops when you gave them a negative review?

A. Oh yeah! Some of them can be seen in the comments to the reviews, others have been sent directly to me in e-mail. Human nature being what it is, we like our work to be praised, and anything short of an effusive, glowing review is considered “negative” by many restaurants. One shop owner was a fan of the blog, eager for me to eventually review their location. When I did, they were upset about my review and probably don’t read the blog anymore.

Q. What will happen when you run out of pizza shops to review?

A. That will take a LONG time in this area. According to UrbanSpoon.com, there are over 300 restaurants in the greater Syracuse area that serve pizza. Soon, I’ll start revisiting places to try other varieties, make more comparisons, etc.

Q. What’s your favorite, or “go to” pizza place?

A. There are 4 or 5 places on my “short list.” For reasons of quality, friendliness and convenient location, I most often get my non-review pizza from Gianni’s.

Thank you for reading the blog! I hope you’ll join me as I keep searching for great pizza in the Syracuse area!

Gregorio’s Pizza, Syracuse (West)

On Syracuse’s west side, Gregorio’s Pizzeria occupies a small corner spot at 1643 W. Genesee St. It could be easy to miss if you aren’t paying attention. However, based on some online comments I found, this is a family-run place that keeps the attention of faithful regulars. The menu includes typical pizzeria choices, and there is a tasty-sounding list of daily specials. There is no seating, not even a counter with stools; delivery is available ($10 minimum). Gregorio’s is open 7 days a week, but there is no lunch on Mondays.

Unlike most pizza restaurants, Gregorio’s uses sheet pizza for slices (12″ and 16″ round pizza is listed on the menu). My cheese slice ($1.50 incl. tax) measured about 6″ x 6″, and averaged 1/4″ to 1/2″ thickness. If you study the photo, it appears that the dough was allowed to rise for a while on the pan, resulting in the mottled browning pattern due to the buildup of CO2. Spiking the dough (pricking it with little holes) can sometimes alleviate this, but it didn’t seem to help much in this case. The bottom surface of the crust had the shiny, fried dough texture you usually get from a pan-baked pizza. It was a little bit crispy, very chewy, and generally bland.

Now, regarding the sauce – the Pizza Geek realizes that everyone has different preferences for how pizza sauce should be prepared. Personally, I believe that the less it is cooked, the better, because I prize a very fresh, tomatoey taste. I understand that at least some amount of cooking is usually necessary to remove moisture from the tomato product, but there comes a point when you leave behind the bright, fresh taste and begin to form a caramelized, orangey pastey sauce. Gregorio’s sauce is more like the latter, with a distinctly overcooked taste. The cheese absorbed some of the sauce and was rather orange as well, becoming a congealed sheet with spotty brown marks.

Overall, this pizza didn’t have anything notable to distinguish itself (in a positive way) from the majority of the other average pizzas I’ve reviewed. I understand that there are other, very tasty sounding items on the menu, and that regular customers will think it unfair for me to judge a restaurant by a single sample of just one item. But this blog is all about finding exceptional pizza, and this Gregorio’s slice comes in right in the middle of the average range, at 3 out of 5 slices.

Summary – Pros: inexpensive. Cons: overcooked, orangey sauce.

What do YOU think? Have you tried pizza from Gregorio’s? Are you a regular? If so, why? Click the comment link below and tell us about it!

Crust: ***
Sauce: ***
Cheese: ***
Toppings: NA
Bang/Buck: ****
Overall:

Twin Trees III, North Syracuse

What is the attraction to “all you can eat” pizza? When I was younger and could eat large quantities of pizza without physical penalty, it was all about getting maximum pizza for minimum money. Now, it is probably more about things like sampling a wide variety, making ordering easier, or getting hot pizza quickly. Whatever their individual reasons may have been, the guys from the office joined me for the Thursday all-you-can-eat lunch at Twin Trees III in North Syracuse.

I could spend a lot of time and space writing about the history of Twin Trees, but instead I’ll direct you to a story here, and to my review of another Twin Trees location here.  As I sit here thinking about it, I’m surprised that I have never been to TT III before, given my penchant for pizza and frequent travels through North Syracuse during 22 years living in this area. All of the gang from the office HAVE been to TT III before. My first impression was that the restaurant was bigger than I expected, with multiple dining rooms, clean and simple decor, and a separate entrance for evening pizza pickup. Lighting was rather dim, so I kept the flash turned off and did my best to adjust in Photoshop.

As I mentioned earlier, we chose Thursday for the lunchtime visit because of the weekly all-you-can-eat pizza special for $9.95, including a salad bar and chicken wings. Drinks are extra, of course. I thought I would save us from high traffic in the restaurant and directed the group to get there “early,” about 12:15pm. We didn’t have any trouble finding a table, but note the condition of the pizza buffet table at the time. Undeterred, I headed for the salad bar. After all, one of the rules of all-you-can-eat is that if you have a salad first, a certain amount of the pizza calories is cancelled out!

For a while, every time a pizza was brought out, people from various tables scurried to the buffet table to pick up a slice, and it was gone within a minute. Plates were also in short supply at times. However, as the clock moved toward 12:45 or so, many people left and the pizza supply caught up with the demand. Pizzas were all 16″, sliced in triangle style (rather than the cross-cut style typical of Twin Trees), probably because it makes buffet serving easier. The selection of toppings varied from cheese, to pepperoni, chicken bacon ranch, supreme, and other typical variations. It wasn’t always easy to tell which pizza had which toppings, because of the dim lighting and cheese on top of the toppings in most cases.

Many readers of this blog have experience with Twin Trees pizza, so much of what I’m going to say may be old hat. As far as I know, all of the Twin Trees locations prepare and bake pizza on a flat pan, resulting in the familiar slight “fried dough” effect. Average crust thickenss was about 1/4″, increasing to 1/2″ at the edge. It was evenly browned, didn’t droop much when held by the edge, and had a generally fine bubble structure inside. I’d say it was an above average crust. The sauce was also above average, applied in good proportion, with slight saltiness, and a very strong tangy and acidic character. The spice load was medium, with lots of spice flakes visible.

The cheese was a little oily, but not enough to puddle. It was also a little bit burned in spots, which I think does not add to the flavor or enjoyment of pizza.  Toppings were about average, and according to members of the gang they were a little more sparse than what you get when you order a pizza at other times. They speculated that quality may have been compromised slightly in order to produce the quantity needed for the buffet. If it is proper to compare TT III with other TT locations, I generally agree – I’ve had more plentiful toppings at other TT locations.

Overall, it was a very pleasant lunch. Table service was reasonably quick and efficient, with used plates removed frequently. Eating with real silverware and plates is a nice change from typical pizza shops.  Getting a taste of several different toppings combinations is a plus, as long as you don’t mind getting up repeatedly. Whenever the Pizza Geek is out with a group, he asks others at the table for their rating: one said 3.5, because it had a slight “mass-produced” character due to the volume required; another said 3.5 for the same reasons; another was more generous, rating it 4.25 to 4.5. Personally, I enjoyed it and can recommend it, and I waffled between 3.5 and 4 for a long time. I also looked back at the review of the rather similar TT Too, which was 3.5. Trying not to overanalyze it any further, I’m going with my gut and will give it a Pizza Geek rating of 3.5 out of 5 slices.

Summary – Pros: crispy crust, tangy sauce. Cons: unremarkable toppings, burned cheese.

What do YOU think? Have you tried the all-you-can-eat buffet at Twin Trees? Click the comment link below and tell us about it!

Crust: ****
Sauce: ****
Cheese: ***
Toppings: ***
Bang/Buck: ***
Overall:

Syracuse Style Pizza?

Here’s an interesting article that mentions some of the history of Twin Trees, Shuffles Pizza, and the love-it-or-hate-it square “West Side” cut: http://blog.syracuse.com/cny/2011/03/shuffles_pizza_is_that_the_model_for_syracuse-style_pizza.html

Pan-baked pizza (NOT deep dish, but thin pizza baked on a basically flat pan) is pretty common around these parts.   So, should we call it “Syracuse Style” pizza?

Gigino’s Pizzeria, Solvay

No, the Pizza Geek didn’t give up eating and reviewing pizza for lent! I will admit that most of my at-home computer time lately has been taken up with tax preparation. I’ve still been eating pizza, so it is time to start clearing the hopper and get the reviews written.

It wasn’t very long ago that I made a swing through Solvay to check out the area’s pizza shops. Since then, another has appeared: Gigino’s Pizzeria at 2409 Milton Ave., across the street from the Solvay Diner. This didn’t LOOK like a totally new pizzeria, so I’m going to guess that some sort of food operation has been here before. There is no seating; delivery is available for a fairly wide area on the west side. The menu lists a generally typical selection of pizzeria food.

I decided to “swing both ways” and sample both a traditional slice from a round pizza, and a thicker piece of sheet pizza, cut into a rectangle. The first slice was 1/6th of a 16″ pie, and the second was likely cut from a half sheet. I’ve gotten in to the habit of first noticing the crust and how it was baked, probably because I always flip it over first to take a picture. As you can see, the round slice was very brown, with the unmistakable sheen and crispiness of being baked on a lightly oiled pan. The splotchy white areas are usually caused by pockets of CO2 that form when the flattened dough is allowed to rise for a while on the pan. Contrast that with the other slice, which had very little bottom browning for some reason.

Thickness of the round slice ranged from 1/4″ to 1/2″, and the rectangle was 1/2″ to 1″. In both cases, the edge was well-browned and crispy, with a soft, well-structured interior. As pizza crusts go, it was pretty good. Sauce on the round slice was mostly absorbed into the crust and cheese, and although there was a tad more sauce on the thick slice, it was difficult to assess much about the flavor. All I can really say is that it was middle of the road, neither obviously bad or obviously good. Cheese was Grande, applied in good proportion to everything else, but congealed into a sheet. The pepperoni cupped and charred a little, and added a good zing. Some additional spice was apparently sprinkled on the top after the pizza was prepared. You can’t really see it, but some parmesan cheese was also added.

Overall, this pizza falls squarely in the middle of the scale. You probably wouldn’t go out of your way to get it, but it’s OK if that’s where you happen to end up. (By the way, it occurs to me that the absorbed sauce can possibly be explained by advance preparation. A family member who used to work in a pizzeria recently told me how they prepared for rush times by placing dough on pans, adding sauce and cheese, and letting them sit in a rack until it was time to add toppings and bake – sometimes hours later. That extra rise time can be good for the crust, but I think it would promote absorption of moisture from the sauce and create the vanishing sauce effect seen here. Disclaimer: I don’t know if this type of advance preparation is used at Gigino’s, I’m just having a rambling geek moment.)  For a rating, let’s call this 3.0 out of 5 slices on the Pizza Geek scale.

Summary – Pros: good bready crust. Cons: sauce absorbed and unremarkable.

What do YOU think? Have you tried pizza from Gigino’s? Click the comment link below and tell us about it!

Crust: ****
Sauce: ***
Cheese: ***
Toppings: ****
Bang/Buck: ****
Overall:

Daniel’s Grill, Marcellus

The vast majority of pizza I sample comes from restaurants with “pizza” or “pizzeria” in the name. And, in spite of their various unique features and styles of pizza, most of those places are more alike than they are different. For this review, I followed the suggestion of blog reader “Marcus” and headed over to Marcellus for something very different: Daniel’s Grill.  It’s not a pizza resturant, not even an Italian restaurant, just excellent fine dining with surprisingly modest prices.

The menu lists a Margherita pizza for $8.99, and “make your own,” also $8.99 for up to four toppings, and your choice of sauce and cheese. I stayed pretty mainstream with my choice: marinara sauce with fresh mozzarella, topped with pepperoni, sausage, onions and roasted red peppers. It was delivered in under 15 minutes, on a 10 inch plate.

It was tough to get good pictures with dim lighting above, and fading sunlight coming in a window. I did get daring and use the flash a couple of times. With the dim lighting, I couldn’t really discern much about the color of the crust, but the pictures do seem to show that it was rather yellow. It didn’t taste like a “traditional” pizza crust. There was somewhat less chewiness, and a finer “crumb,” if that’s the right word. My guess is that another kind of flour is mixed with wheat flour, and it is also possible that a little bit of milk and/or butter was used. I could be way off base, and if I am, I hope someone from the restaurant will eventually see this and post a comment to correct me. Crust thickness ran from about 1/4″ to 1/2″.

The sauce had good fresh tomato taste, but was not heavily seasoned and stayed mostly in the background. With four toppings, each with their own distinct and strong flavor, it was difficult to judge much more than that about the sauce. Cheese (fresh mozzarella) was wonderful, melted perfectly and not burned.

These were toppings with rather strong flavor. The pepperoni was larger than usual, with a pleasant spiciness and crisp edge from the oven. The sausage was in the form of crumbled bits that were perfectly cooked and moderately spiced. Onions were apparently sauteed enough that they, along with the roasted red peppers, imparted a rather sweet, caramelized component to the blend of flavors. Even though I ordered fresh mozzarella, there was a little bit of shredded parmesan on top, along with small bits of what was either fresh basil or parsley.

As I sat there eating the pizza, it occurred to me that it would be difficult to compare this to pizza from typical pizza restaurants. It was really in a different league, a different type of pizza experience. It was the vision and design of an experienced chef, and it seems almost an insult to rate it on the same scale, with the same criteria as other pizza. It had a wonderfully complex and satisfying blend of flavors, was served very hot and fresh, and I highly recommend it. For the sake of assigning a number, I’ll take into consideration the somewhat unusual crust, and rate it 4.5 out of 5 slices.

Summary – Pros: pretty much everything. Cons: none really.

What do YOU think? Have you made the trek to Marcellus for pizza from Daniel’s Grill? Click the comment link below and tell us about it!

Crust: ****
Sauce: *****
Cheese: *****
Toppings: *****
Bang/Buck: *****
Overall:

Roma Pizzeria, Chittenango

Long before I started this pizza review blog, I was a frequent customer of Roma Pizzeria in Chittenango. It was close to home and reasonably good. Still, I knew there must be something better, and the search that is this blog was born. I haven’t had pizza from Roma in over a year, so I figured it was time to go back and compare it to the dozens of pizza restaurants I’ve reviewed since then. (I also have a sentimental attachment to the name “Roma,” because the very first pizza I ever had came from the now-defunct Roma in Ithaca, about 40 years ago!)

Like many pizza restaurant locations, this one has seen some “churn” over the years. I first remember Roma Pizzeria, then a new owner with Little Jack’s Pizza Shack, then a truck mishap where a raised dump truck hit power lines outside the restaurant, sending a high voltage surge into the restaurant, causing a fire and much equipment damage. If I recall correctly, the insurance settlement was delayed and the owner at that time couldn’t survive the delay while waiting for the money to finish rebuilding. Eventually it was sold again, and reopened as the Roma Pizzeria we have today. (If anyone has a better memory of the timeline, please post more info in the comments section.) There is a large dining area, and delivery is available.

I bought a 16″ large with peppers, onions and mushrooms ($16.25 plus tax), and brought it home. It was actually a more photogenic pizza that usual. But looks can be deceiving. I was expecting a relatively thin crust. However, this one averaged 1/2″ to 3/4″ thick, so I’ll call it a medium. It was well browned, but not at all crispy – actually rather poofy, leathery and soft, with a gummy layer under the cheese. And most unusual and unexpected, it was noticeably sweet. Not the subtle “sweetness” you get with a yeasty, well-risen and fermented bread or crust, but just plain old sugary sweet.  (Tasting tip: when you get to the crust edge, rip it open and lick the inside – what do you notice?  Salt?  Sweet?  Nothing in particular?)

The sauce was lightly applied compared to the thickness of the crust, and most of the moisture was absorbed, making it difficult to guage the taste of the sauce. A small amount of tomato solids and spice flakes were left behind. From what I could tell, the sauce was generally average, and not salty.  Now that I think of it, when I had this pizza before, I used to order it with extra sauce.  This is why.

One very happy thing for this pizza was the excellent cheese. It was nicely melted, without any trace of oil separation, browning or oranginess (click the picture to see it enlarged, in all its glory). And, it tasted good! The mushrooms and onions were fresh, but the peppers’ color and taste indicated they were either canned, or partially cooked before being placed on the pizza – not really a taste problem in this case, just more of an observation.

Overall, this pizza went out of balance with the sauce/crust ratio. It was thick, soft and rather dry. Either thinner crust or more sauce might fix that. Also, the amount of sugar in the crust was unusually high. Maybe the other pizza joints in town have thin, crispy crust, and they’re trying to distiguish themselves.  If it were up to me (and fortunately it isn’t!), a thinner, crispy crust and a little more sauce would make this a top-notch pizza. As it was presented, though, the Pizza Geek rates it 3 out of 5 slices.

Summary – Pros: excellent cheese, toppings. Cons: absorbed sauce; super-sweet and soft crust.

What do YOU think? Have you tried pizza from Roma in Chittenango? Do you know any of the history? Click the comment link below and tell us about it!

Crust: ***
Sauce: ***
Cheese: *****
Toppings: ****
Bang/Buck: ***
Overall:

Roma Pizzeria, 800 E. Genesee St., Chittenango – 687-7662