The Pizza Stop Rochester, NY
Slice Rating
After trying some of the best pizza in Rochester, NY, at Tony D's Pizza, the Rochester Pizza Guy met me for lunch the following day, and we went to one of his local downtown favorites named The Pizza Stop for a slice or two. This was a perfect opportunity to try some of the local individual pizza slices that downtown Rochester has to offer. As the Rochester Pizza Guy said on his blog post about our encounters:
"Second, Lapp comes at pizza from a different background. He grew up downstate, where excellent pizza is practically a birthright, and world-class pizza isn't hard to find. And he informs me that South Florida is home to many terrific pizzerias as well, thanks in part to all the New York transplants down there. No knock on Western New York, where I was born and raised, but I think that the sum of my pizza experiences has probably led to my personal pizza bar being set a little lower than Lapp's. "
I was hoping that this statement wasn't entirely correct, since Rochester Pizza Guy was spot on about Tony D's, and it would make no difference where each of us grew up. It was great pizza regardless of geography. So, since he chose this locale, I was really optimistic that this would be an amazing slice.
I ordered one Regular slice and one Sicilian slice. After ordering, I couldn't help but notice the way the owner of The Pizza Stop has his oven adorned. He has it completely covered with thermal pads. I personally have never seen this technique before, so I wonder if it is unique to this location? Anyone seen it like this someplace else? If so please comment below. Maybe it even has a sleeper bed inside of it they use when not cooking.
The Pizza Stop was extremely busy on this dreary overcast, rainy cold day. From what I hear, the 40 degrees was actually mild for most of the residents in late October, so none seemed scared of the weather and came out to have some pizza. This was another great sign.... patrons brave the elements to come eat at The Pizza Stop. When my slices came out, I immediately noticed how perfect this regular slice was cut. There was almost no cheese overflow to pick off the plate. No dropping sauce, or oil to really speak of. It was like this slice of pizza was almost too perfect looking. Looks only go so far, but now for the taste.... This regular slice at The Pizza Stop in Rochester was cooked right. It was sliced perfect, and was really crisp. Pizza is subjective, but in my opinion a slice should always be crisp and hold up when it comes out after being reheated in an oven. This slice was phenomenally crisp. The sauce was sweet, but I found peel stuck to my teeth, which I really do not like. The cheese tasted ok, but didn't really seem top notch.
The Sicilian slice at The Pizza Stop was a bit better than the Regular slice in my opinion. Although the crust was not cooked perfectly, I liked the texture of it, and the dough tasted good. just way too much cheap flour on the bottom. You could taste the blandness of it, or watch it flake off my fingers when putting the slice down on the plate. I would suggest either using less flour when preparing the pie, or get a better quality. Sauce and cheese were the same as above.
So even though we come from different parts of the pizza worlds, it is fair to say that the Rochester Pizza Guy and myself seem to both agree that this was a good slice. He just thinks its a bit better then I do, and I can respect that.
The Pizza Stop gets 5 out of 8 slices.