WGRZ Channel 2 Unique Eats joins us for Pizza!

A couple weeks back we were joined by WGRZ Channel 2's Heather DuBose for her weekly segment, Unique Eats. She was only going to join us for one stop so we decided to meet her at Trattoria Aroma in Williamsville on Main Street. She had made the reservations and when we arrived they had a nice table setup for us and everything. It seemed they were as excited to have us as we were to be there. Also joining us this week was our friend Adam who has been with us a couple times and Shrew's wife Kim. Heather explained how this was going to work. She fitted us with a microphone and began her interview, in between questions she would film events as they were taking place. It was an interesting experience, but this is about the pizza so let's get to it!

Lights, camera, PIZZA!



Trattoria Aroma has a gas fired hearth oven, the menu is not what we expected at first and Shrew looked a little perplexed upon reading it. There was no choice for pepperoni and cheese. I didn't mind as they had some interesting concoctions to choose from. However we decided early on that we wouldn't be able to compare this place to any other due to their lack of the standard cheese and pepperoni. We ordered the closest thing we could to cheese and pep, cheese and sopressata. Sopressata is an Italian dry-cured salami which closely resembles large flat pepperoni when sliced. Heather ordered a Quattro Formaggio pizza, which is a fancy way of saying four cheese. Every pizza option was of the gourmet variety. Shrew wasn't feeling it from the get go. Shrew asked the waiter if they had bleu cheese and he said "no but we have Gorgonzola". I thought for sure he was gonna choke a bitch! Pizzas arrived and we took a break from the interviews to eat. Heather filmed us digging in and got a few choice words about what we thought. Shrew definitely choked on his first bite and coughed really loud causing the entire dining room to look over. Choking on the parsley really pissed Shrew off, and it was most certainly the parsley's fault! Good thing Heather got this on film HA! Kim used her knowledge of fine wines and paired our pizza with a nice Riesling. Since I can't judge this pizza fairly compared to other places we have gone I will give the general consensus we came up with about our experience at Trattoria Aroma. The pizzas where tasty especially being that they were gourmet. It was different to say the least and not what we expected to be honest. Going into this I expected there to be a vast array of premium toppings. I thought they would have some regular pizza toppings to choose from as well. They did not. The atmosphere and staff were wonderful. The quattro formaggio and cheese and sopressata pizzas were delicious for what they were which was a more traditional old world thin crust pizza which seemed like it should have been purchased from the streets of Tuscany or Naples. Make no mistake though, this was no Buffalo pizza. Tasty it may have been, it could not be judged the same. This was a foul ball, you hit the ball but it went high and out. Way to go. They also had gelato, DOMO ARIGATO, GELATO! This is a great place to take a date for sure as you could sit, talk, eat pizza and drink wine all night long.

Shrew is smiling, Kim's arms are crossed and Adam is covering his face. I smell a sharking comin on!!



After leaving there Shrew and I were still looking for a good piece of BUFFALO pizza. A few emails had suggested Imperial pizza on Abbott Road in South Buffalo. We quickly hit the highway and made our way down to Irish town. Pulling in we noticed it was primarily a take out place. Which was cool because at this point we definitely stuffed ourselves with lots of pizza from the previous joint. We each ordered a slice of pizza and a side of bleu cheese. Slices came out of the oven and we each received a box. Upon opening the box it looked like they sliced us off a quarter of a large pizza. HOLY SHIT! This slice was huge. Imperial is what Buffalo pizza is all about. Thick crust, thick cheese, thick pepperoni, sauce was delicious and plentiful, slices were huge and bleu cheese was great! This pizza was thick in all the right places. The sauce was very flavorful and sweet, a true pizza sauce. Not too much to bitch about it. We feel that this is probably going to be the beacon of hope in the South Buffalo area. As delicious as this pizza was we concluded that we would go back and recommend it if you were in the area but we probably wouldn't go out of our way to get it.

SRS BZNS!



How The Gods Kill!




You can check out the slick editing and well put together WGRZ Channel 2 segment "Unique Eats" by Heather DuBose here at this link. LOOK MA, I'M GONNA BE ON DA TV!!!!

http://www.wgrz.com/video/#/Unique+Eats%3A+Pizza+Club+716/75793242001

Joe's NY Style Pizza and Giangel's

We went out this week with two places in mind: Joe’s NY Style Pizza because it had been recommended to us from many people emailing in and Giangel’s, who we sampled at the Buffalo Pizza Bash. Although we tried Giangel’s at the Pizza Bash we really wanted to see how good it was fresh from the oven in their place.

Shrew and I were joined by our friend Gus again. It’s great to be accompanied by a well respected man about town.



We had been hearing for a while that this place Joe’s on Amherst Street was really good. It was exciting because there are very few places in the Buffalo area that serve authentic NYC style pizza. Even fewer are the places that serve good NYC style pizza. It’s located in the Tops Plaza at the corner of Grant St. and Amherst St across from The Sportsmen’s Tavern.

Walking in you could tell this was a NYC style pizzeria. It wasn’t just the food, it was the people. There was a large older gentleman screaming out pizza orders in a thick tri-state accent to a couple of girls attending the registers while manning the ovens. These girls then relayed the NYC slang gibberish to the customer standing there who then looked confused and handed money to them in an amount that was hopefully larger than what they owed and received change in return. Sound confusing? Yes it is. That is the ordering process at Joe’s. Once your food is ready you are handed a tray full of pizza with a smile. Confusing and almost comical the girls might be, definitely friendly they are.

We ordered some slices since trying to order a full pie just seemed confusing. They had the typical counter full of pre-made pies just waiting to be devoured and it looked delicious. Along with pizza they had a covered pizza, stromboli and pastelillos. The pizza was very, very tasty. I’m not generally a big fan of NYC style pizza but this was great. The dough was awesome; it was thin NYC style and firm. The large slice was crispy throughout despite not being that fresh. We are not sure if that’s an inherent quality with NYC style pizza or not. It seems that NYC style pizza keeps really well. The sauce was a flavorful red sauce. What is important about their sauce is that it’s there in proportion to the dough and cheese. Everything on this pizza was in great proportion. Nothing was too dominant, allowing all the distinct flavors to come through. The only complaint we had of this pizza is the pepperoni. It was the typical pepperoni used on most NYC style pizzas, thin sliced margharita style which we generally find bland. In addition to this it also seemed as though they had taken some slices of cheese pizza and thrown some pepperoni on them before putting it in the oven to heat. This suspicion was confirmed when I watched them do this while I was photographing the slice counter. This is something I have seen a lot with NYC style places. I suppose it makes sense to make use of what you have most efficiently. We also could have used a larger portion of bleu cheese, which was good by the way, but the two ounce cup wasn’t cutting it. Either way the bottom line was this pizza was great. We both unanimously agreed that we would go out of our way to come back. I walked up to the counter and spoke to the guy running the ovens and thanked him for his pizza and told him it was great. His face lit up; it looked as though I made his day. He told me, “It comes from the heart, the pizza comes from the heart, it’s my life. I appreciate it!”

That is the mark of a true craftsman. Pride in our work and perfection of one’s craft, something we seem to have lost in this day and age. I’m glad I was able to help him feel appreciated for his hard work.





For our second stop of the night we decided to go to Giangel’s (pronounced G-an-gels). We had sampled Giangel’s at the Buffalo Pizza Bash and were instantly blown away by the all around taste. With that in mind we wanted to see how well they did in their own place and felt it was worth another visit to expand upon that thought. It didn’t hurt that we really wanted to eat their pizza again too! Giangel’s is located on Seneca St. in Elma. It is about a half mile east of Transit Rd. on the right-hand side. A nice hidden gem, you notice this the minute you walk in. The dining room is cozy as it is dimly lit with tables draped in red and white checkered cloths. Gus noted that the server was very helpful and beautiful. They had the atmosphere thing down pat for sure.



We ordered a large cheese and half pepperoni. We let it cool for the standard 3-5 minutes while we scarfed down the bread that was served before our pizza arrived. Proper Gel Time must be attained before devouring. First bite into the fresh pie confirmed what we thought. This pizza is excellent. Without going any further, nothing else needs to be said but for the sake of writing I will continue... It is excellent. The sauce, cheese and pepperoni combined with whatever seasonings they top it off with make for one of the most delicious tasting pizzas we have had to date. It’s an amalgamation of everyday ingredients to produce one of the most unique tasting pizzas. It almost defies logic. You would think that with all of these standard ingredients you would get a typical flavor. Not here. Something about it, and we cannot put our fingers on it because we did try, is very unique. For once I won’t argue or try to analyze the shit out of it. I will take it for what it is and that is delicious. Only one thing stood out that could use some attention and that was the dough. The underside was a little greasy and probably could have used some extra time on the stone in the oven and put onto a different pan other than the one used to cook it initially as to avoid the grease already on the pan. Other than that, flawless victory! Only thing we can say is we will go out of our way for this. You should too!






Two wonderful pizzerias in one trip. We are happy to add more to the would go out of our way column! Keep it up Buffalo.

Gettin schooled by Professor Shrew.

Please study this equation and vocabulary words as you will be tested on them.






Vocabulary:

Gel Time: Allowed cooling time of a pizza that has been freshly removed from the oven as to permit proper adhesion of the cheese to the crust.

ex. Damn I just lost all the cheese off this slice when I tried to pick it up. I should have given it more gel time.

Pizza Hangover: The feeling of complete and udder uselessness following mass consumption of pizza.

ex. My pizza hangover left me feeling like total shit!

MMMM yyesss, both shallow and pedantic

Wow, where do we begin? Well I suppose I should tell you what we have been up to and apologize that this entry is a week late. As you see I am just recovering from a Pizza Hangover (we are so gonna trademark this), just in time to eat pizza this week!

March 21st shall go down as the Academy Awards of Pizza for us. To celebrate such an occasion we decided to strut our stuff. Behold!



As you see this was no mere pizza outing. This, dear friend, was The Buffalo Pizza Bash! Keith Wilson hosted 20 local pizzerias to show off their goods in hopes that they could walk away with an award for best dough, sauce, cheese, NY style pizza etc. Gentlemen, start your EATING!

Walking into Samuels Grand Manor, you could see the entire place was transformed into a large pizzeria with all the vendors strategically placed around eating areas. There were many spectacles abound to say the least. Characters, mascots, contests, performers and performances very amusing, very amusing indeed. Tickets were purchased at a central vending location and then they were traded in for wonderful slices of pizza! Portions of the proceeds went to benefit Kids Escaping Drugs. What those kids need is pizza instead of drugs!



Being that this is a pizza bash it would be logical to assume that each pizzeria was bringing their A game. In the hopes that they would, we are basing our reviews this week off of each slice we had from the vendors we tried. We could not eat all 20 but we managed to eat through 11. So here we go.

Eatza my pizza: We both ate a slice of this and the consensus was that there was not enough sauce at all. Shrew liked the crust the best, it was crunchy and flaky. It reminded me of pizza that sat around for a day that had been re-heated. I didn’t appreciate the crust at all. If the crust must be crunchy then it should have some fluff inside and there was none on this. The cheese was good and so was the pepperoni. I elected to have sautéed mushrooms on my slice and that was a nice touch. Overall it wasn’t bad and surely wasn’t the worst of the day. We would go along for the ride.






Mister Pizza (Niagara Falls Blvd): Certainly not the Elmwood one. It was similar but not as good. Sauce was great and there was a good amount. The cheese and toppings were tasty. It was a good example of what a pizza should be however was not by any means outstanding. Go along for the ride.



Deliberations continue...



Giangels: Holy Fuck this was awesome! Not only are we going to give this a will go out of our way to have it……We will go out of our way to have it again. This was amazing. There was simply not one bad thing to be said about this pizza as it sat there at the show. Crust, dough, sauce, cheese, pepperoni all made with a slice of heaven!!! This was hands down the best tasting and most flavorful pizza we had at this event and I have personally had in a long time. Would go out of our way and you should too.





Gianni Mazias: A good tasting slice, sort of common place. The slice was thin, dough was tasty, the sauce was tasty, the cheese was adequate and pepperoni was good. For being a thinner slice it was a little wiggly and that’s a no-no in Shrews book. Based on everything else we were having it was a Go along for the ride. On a side note I went here for lunch a few days after the event, they have one of the nicest atmospheres for a pizza place I have ever seen. Well done, gentlemen. We will probably make another trip out to see how it is for dinner.



Gr8 Pizza: Not that great. When you make claims like this in your name you create big expectations in that of your customer. They had some sort of wild Italian pizza that we were eying up along with their cannoli pizza but once we had the pepperoni we were turned off by it completely. First impressions are a bitch! We struggled to find something good about the slice and resolved that we just were not able to. I can’t pick it apart, all I can say is that the overall taste was not desirable, and I think that says it all. Maybe it’s the Kenmore curse. If you are thinking of opening a pizza place in Kenmore either don’t or make sure your pizza is the best in a 5 mile radius. Probably would not go back or recommend.



Johns Pizza & Subs: OMG DO NOT WANT. Nothing about this pizza was good at all. I mean it looked good but man were looks deceiving. The dough sucked, the cheese was undercooked as you could see individual strands and the pepperoni was forgettable. The sauce reminded us of a crappy pasta sauce more than a pizza sauce. The ass end of the pizza left much to be desired as it too was very fluffy, not what a crust should be. That was the worst of the day for sure. I used to like this when I was a kid. I was a stupid kid. Meh, at least they had bleu cheese.



That shirt should say “Creepster.”



John & Mary’s: Wasn’t that good at all. Everything was bland. Honestly I’m not sure why anyone would pay for this pizza. It’s like the kind of cold pizza you get when you are at a school or church function because some asshole in the head office thinks it’s great like everything else in their pathetic life. Like everything else from John & Mary’s, this sucks and is unimpressive. How have they been in business for this many years? What does that say for the tastes of the area? I’m not sure. Would not go back or recommend.



In between places we were approached by Shrew's brother, Newman, and some of our friends. Newman stated, “I walked in and thought, that guy looks like my brother in a top hat….THAT IS MY BROTHER IN A TOP HAT!!!” Priceless.

Governor Walker and Citizen Shrew



Johnny LaBellas: It’s not fair of us to include them in this. We did eat their pizza. However it was a loaded pizza. So I won’t say too much about it. It was good considering neither of us are fans of loaded pizzas, or olives for that matter. I know they wanted feedback but maybe some other time, sorry guys. Christine, our photographer and my girlfriend, liked it a lot as she can only eat the toppings and cheese seeing as she is gluten intolerant. Anything more than 3 ingredients on a pizza are too much in my opinion.



At this point we were starting to feel the grease and carbs hitting us like tranquilizer darts. Moving forward, we trudged on.



Russell's Gourmet Pizzas: It was shame that this guy only does catering because his pizza was pretty good and I have a feeling that if he had an establishment it would probably be pretty snazzy. They choose to cook their pizza on a BBQ grill. I like, different. The dough burned and carburized in all the right spots giving this pizza an interesting flavor. The sauce was really sweet and thick which was a nice change. The toppings were your standard cheese and pep but both were good and in ample supply. The crust was unique, which isn’t surprising since this is such a different method to cooking pizza. If he were open we would go out of our way for sure.





Sal’s Famous Pizzeria: Sal’s is a NY style pizza but since it’s here in Buffalo it gets tasted and reviewed. It was pretty good for NY style for sure. The only real complaint is the type of pepperoni that they used. Compared to other types of NY style pizzas we have had, it was a little bland. Not a big fan of very flat margarita pepperoni that is so prevalent in NY style pizza. Other than that it was pretty good, we would go along for the ride. However if you live in Kenmore, this is probably the place to go.



Ok, any more pizza and we were going to burst. We decided to take a walk out back get some air and hopefully move some of this mass through our intestines so we could continue being the gluttons that we are.





Back at it…..

Papa Leo’s: This was the last and final place for the day otherwise we were going to die. The seasonings they used added a nice flavor but otherwise nothing really jumped out at us. I did notice that the cheese was kind of undercooked. Nothing much can be said about this pizza. It wasn’t horrible but it wasn’t great. We’d go along for the ride, maybe.



Other than the Pizza Hangovers this was a great event for a great cause. And thus we come to the end of another pizza concluding this week’s episode of Masterpiece Pizza Club. Until next time!

Third Time's A Charm!

Well, we had to go to three places tonight to get it right. It was shaping up to be a very disappointing night indeed. Thanks to Mr. Pizza, it wasn’t a total loss.

Our night began with a challenge. A good friend Bobby U. asked me to try some places in Kenmore to see if we could find a place that was worth a damn! He informed me that he and his fiancé would go to Pizza Hut because that was the most consistent offering in all of the 1.4 sq mi of the Village of Kenmore. Seriously, this won’t do! We weren’t sure where to begin, a short trip up Delaware Ave. revealed pizzeria after pizzeria but nothing seemed to quite say “eat me.”

I remembered a recommendation from a girl we met at Mohawk the week prior when we were at the Chylde show. She emailed us a few recommendations and one of them was Mustachio’s. There are two Mustachio’s in the Buffalo area, one on Parkside in the city and the one we ended up at on Elmwood in Kenmore. We walked in and took a minute to order; Shrew needed to use the lavatory and was informed that there was none for customer use. This kind of baffled him because we thought that if you served food to customers that you had to have a bathroom for their use on site. Oh well, if you have to go that bad you could always just wiz on the side of the building. We ordered a small cheese half pepperoni pizza and two sides of bleu cheese. We opted for half cheese tonight because our friend, nicknamed Gus, who was joining us is a vegetarian.

Guy Drozd: A respectable man about town.



The pizza came out and if it tasted anything like it looked, man this was gonna suck!



We allowed for some gel time but really we should have just thrown it out. For sake of you, the people, we drudged through.



Each of us ate our respective slices without saying a word. We didn’t have to talk as the looks on our faces were enough. We finished our pizza (sort of) and cleaned our mess. The pizza might as well have looked like garbage in a box.



As we left Mustachio’s a collective diatribe was unleashed. What could we say about this pizza? Well we came to an early conclusion that we couldn’t say it was good. It was as far from good as good could get. The pizza must have been given a bath in grease before they decided to serve it to us in its cardboard box. This was evident as Shrew picked a pepperoni off the pizza and promptly took a shot of grease out of it. He stated,
“You watched me do a shot of grease out of the pepperoni. There was literally enough to pour a definite amount of grease into my mouth. Considering the fact that the grease is more viscous than water and that there was a flow into my mouth is just a testament to the volume of grease on that pizza.”

The dough was thin and soggy which was baffling considering you would get that if you baked a salad on a pizza but this was just cheese and pepperoni. The sauce sucked; we had no idea what the fuck it was but it wasn’t good. There was barely any and it was watery like Ragu. There wasn’t enough cheese on there to cover the pizza. It was just enough to make it seem like there was sufficient amount once it melted. This reminded us of the old west where you would have a nice façade on the front of a building but once you went in or looked behind it you saw it for the shit it truly was. The pepperoni was good but nothing special and surely did nothing to hide the fact that the slice was garbage. I don’t need to say much about this pizza because it was plain and simple bad. One phrase could be used to describe it and that would be “Dumpster Pizza.” Shrew once ate a large slice of pizza out of a garbage can at the corner of Delaware and Chippewa. He said that tasted better than this. So if anyone knows what dumpster pizza tastes like, it’s Shrew. This place got a unanimous OMG DO NOT WANT!!!

After leaving there we were really hoping for some good pizza at La Hacienda on Pine Ave in Niagara Falls. This place has been highly recommended from a reliable source. We were excited especially after this prior nonsense. We made it there 45 minutes before they were closing. The waitress made this explicitly clear when we walked through the door. Basically, order, eat and get out. Yes Ma’am. La Hacienda is an interesting place as it’s an Italian restaurant with a Mexican atmosphere. How the hell does that work? They have been around since 1947 so if anywhere was going to have a feel on how to make a good pizza we figured this place would. We were definitely hoping that it would live up to the “holy grail” status it had been proclaimed to be. We ordered another small cheese half pepperoni pizza and two sides of bleu cheese. Pizza was out in 10 minutes which was amazing. We looked at it and then looked at each other. It looked very similar to the pizza we just had at Mustachio’s. Could this be the same quality? Let’s hope not. After giving it a slight gel time we divided and conquered. It wasn’t horrible but sadly our hopes were deflated. Due to the time constraints I didn’t get a chance to snap any photos. However we really didn’t need to. In my mind the dough was the only saving grace of this pizza. They used corn meal on the bottom of the pizza which gave it a crunchy bite and interesting flavor and the crust was flaky and almost burned like you would expect from the type of dough normally used in NYC style pizzas. However this was far from a good example of NYC pizza. This was the same species of pizza as Mustachio’s, just a little higher on the evolutionary scale. The cheese was again greasy; the pepperoni was interesting but reminded me more of ham or prosciutto. The sauce combined with the cheese and toppings reminded us of a Tony’s Frozen Pizza. With all the hype that this place received we were really disappointed. The bleu cheese as alright but had a really tangy taste to it. Both of us agree that we would not go back or recommend it.

At this point the night has been a colossal failure. We realize that with the amount of pizzas we have to try that we are going to find that most places will fall into a bell curve-like area of mediocrity with some residing on the awful end of the curve and some on the excellent end of the curve. Defeated, we headed back to the city of Buffalo. At this point we weren’t going to let the night go to total waste. The executive decision was made to pick up Mrs. Shrew and head over to Mister Pizza for a night redeeming slice. For this portion I’m not going to rate them because we got slices that had been under a heat lamp for at least an hour or so and some bleu cheese. We headed back to the Shrew’s casa to chow down. For being slices that had sat for a little bit, they were glorious! This blew away what we had tonight and we look forward to reviewing them in the future with a fresh pie. Thank God for good pizza!

My Tomato Pie, Muscarellas and Chylde!

This week starts off with a few thanks.

First off we need to thank BuffaloRising.com for their efforts in supporting us in this quest. BuffaloRising.com put up a small article on their site informing those who might not have normally come in contact with us about our escapades. Since then we have been inundated with emails of support, happiness about what we are doing and suggestions of places to try.

Secondly I need to thank the people. To everyone who has been emailing us, we appreciate it. We started doing this as fun and we feel it’s great that people share the same kind of passions we do when it comes to pizza. So please by all means keep the suggestions and thoughts rolling.

This week Shrew and I set out to try a sit down and a take out. Many people have been suggesting we try My Tomato Pie. We have to plow through the entire phone book so we figured it as good as any. This would have been ideal considering our photographer has gluten intolerance and they serve many gluten-free options including PIZZA! OMG! Instead of going along for the ride, snapping great photos and enjoying our fine company she too could eat. However she was under the weather and decided to skip out for the evening. Instead we invited a couple of friends to join us as we were all heading down to Mohawk Place after the pizza gorging for Chylde. Who by the way is awesome! Anyhow, back to the pizza. We entered MTP and were greeted and seated quickly. We browsed through the menu and were kind of impressed. The offerings were plentiful and interesting. They had about a dozen or so specialty pizzas on their menu along with personal pizzas. The list of toppings was long and looked mouth watering. We ordered a large pizza with cheese, pepperoni, half caramelized onions and two sides of bleu cheese.



Our friend Cobra John (named for his sweet lady fetching cobra pendant that he wears everywhere) showed up late and sat down just as the pizza was coming out. What is the first thing he does? Grabs a slice of pizza and leaves all the cheese and toppings on the pan. Cardinal sin, any pizza that is fresh out the oven needs at least 3-5 minutes of Gel Time (trademark pending) so that the cheese can adhere itself to the crust like skin being grafted to old flesh. If you don’t allow for this time you usually end up with a pile of shit on the pan and a piece of piping hot dough and sauce on your plate. It seriously looked like someone pulled a table cloth out from under the dishes. Same thing kind of happened to our other friend John, better known as Bravo, behold.



We each had two slices and they were decent. Shrew wasn’t feeling it as much as I was and I can definitely pick a few things I wasn’t having but otherwise the consensus was good. When it came to the dough it was definitely under cooked. The dough under the cheese was very chewy and upon further inspection appeared to be light baked as you could maneuver it like play dough with your fork. It seemed as though the crust was brushed with some sort of oil because it was a little more flaky than normal as if it had been lightly fried. Shrew wasn’t feeling the dough as it reminded him of chewing gum. I liked it for the most part as I tend to like chewier pizzas but this was a little too chewy and could have been cooked a little further through. Sauce sucked badly, it was watery and tasted like something you could buy at Wegmans labeled “pizza sauce”, fuck that. Shrew was satisfied at the amount sauce but to be honest I think it would have been better to not have any at all. Prego style sauce FTL! (For The Lose, for the non-internet lingo savvy) I felt that the cheese was ok but nothing to write home about, it was a little greasy. Shrew likened the cheese to rubber bands because with every bite he had to stretch it and break it off. He stated “If I don’t stretch it with my teeth and then bite it off I feel like it’s all going to pull off or worse swing down and stick to my throat like a hot burning ball of napalm!” I don’t want to forget about the bleu cheese but I almost did, I think that really speaks for itself. The toppings were the highlight of this pizza for sure. The pepperoni was cup and burn a favorite of Shrews and the caramelized onions were quite tasty as well. They reminded me of eating French onion soup. It’s too bad they were under the cheese because it made figuring out which slice had onions or not difficult once we started spinning the serving pan to dish it out. The tastiness of the toppings was not enough to make up for the other downfalls of the pizza however. Overall this is a place we would go for the ride if someone wanted it. The one thing that Shrew was amazed with was the price. The large pizza started at $11.00! For that price in his mind he would up it from go for the ride to would go back but since this is about the pizza first and foremost it sticks to the original rating. Bravo and Cobra applauded the fine caliber of ladies working at MTP….ONWARD TO MORE PIZZA!

We didn’t have a place in mind to go for the second helping of delicious pizza so we decided to just wing it. We headed over to Cobra’s place in Williamsville to get some ear plugs for the show and Cobra suggested we try Muscarellas which was around the corner. We walked in there around 9:10pm and they closed at 10:00pm the reception wasn’t warm at first until we got to talking with what I would assume was the owner. We decided to just order a small because Cobra wasn’t going to have any. The owner asked if all four of us were going to split a small pizza with a confused look on his face. Shrew began to inform him of what we were doing. In hind sight we won’t be doing that again because we really just want to get an honest representation. Not that we didn’t but you know what we mean. You need to be incognito when doing this stuff, snky snky like. They made us up a small cheese pepperoni and half onion pizza.

Bravo and Cobra taking part in this most excellent journey



What time is it? Why it’s pizza time of course!





Being that this just came out it needed the proper Gel Time to prevent losing half the toppings and burning our mouths to high hell. Digging in was definitely enjoyable. Shrew and I agreed that the dough was good and crisp, not chewy even though I would have liked it a little crispier on the bottom but they use a conveyer oven here and it’s not like a Blodgett or Bakers Pride where you can deck a pizza for that extra crispness. Dough was made fresh in house as evidenced by the 60-80 qt Hobart mixer in the visible kitchen. The pizza was still piping hot and although they did have a good plastic knife, much better than the Bozanna’s debacle, they shared the dreaded melty fork. These forks just don’t hold up to hot pizza. Why won’t pizza places spend a little more and provide a decent stiff plastic fork for fucks sake!



At least we could eat it this time. Sauce amount was good not too much and not too little. Although a little watery it was very flavorful. The cheese was good and it wasn’t over powering, nothing really bad to note here so that’s always good. The toppings were what made this pizza. Holy shit! The pepperoni was great, so flavorful and it was cup and burn. The onions were cooked; they were hot and cooked as opposed to hot and still raw which sucks the big one. There must have been some sort of seasoning sprinkled on top of the pizza because it really was very flavorful. The bleu cheese again was forgettable. This really sucks because it would have been a great compliment to the decent pizza we had found. It probably wasn’t home made but we didn’t get that info from the owner while talking to him. He did inform us of the name and brand of the pepperoni which I will have to seek out when making pizza at home. Overall this was a really good pizza. I think we would go back. Price was reasonable as well. Very much inline with the pizza lover on a budget, they also served personal pizzas starting at $4.00

Thanks for taking the time to read this weeks entry. Stay tuned for more pizza gluttony. Up coming events include Buffalo Pizza BASH and Food Expo, March 20th and 21st. We will be doing some special coverage of this event that surely will not disappoint!

We start at the top. Pizza Junction and Bozanna's

At the inception of this idea, Shrew and I decided we would start out by going to pizzerias that we were unfamiliar with. This was a great idea in order to get a feel for what's out there and judge it against a background of prior experience. This didn't last too long, really we just wanted to take each other to our favorites in order to show each other what we thought was the best. At this time we have a month's worth of visits and half a heart attack of pizza down. I was going to write my reviews chronologically after each visit but screw that, that's boring. Instead for my first entry I'm merging two visits and kicking this thing off with a head-to-head clash of the titans!

I grew up in North Tonawanda, home to Pizza Junction. If you haven't heard of Pizza Junction then you are missing out on some real local pizza history. This place was recently featured on the Food Network show "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" hosted by Guy Fieri. Check it out here if you missed the episode. In the last 10 years Pizza Junction has grown from mere pizzeria to full service restaurant offering many unique specialties.

Shrew grew up in Lakeview, represent! Just kidding. Lakeview is a short ride from Bozanna's Pizzeria in Hamburg.

Both these pizza places are well known throughout WNY for having enough cheese to clog the arteries of a race horse and toppings vast enough to make you wonder if there was a pizza underneath at all. What you may not know about these two famous places is that they used to be one. Pizza Junction opened its doors in 1972 with two partners, Tom and John. As any partnership goes you get squabbles and differences of opinions. In 1981 they opened a Pizza Junction on Main Street in Clarence, NY. In 1982 after irreconcilable differences Tom and John dissolved their partnership and Bozanna's Pizzeria was born from the Clarence location.

First stop was Pizza Junction. This place was a full service sit down joint, something that Shrew values highly. After waiting for a little bit our waitress finally came over and took our drink order. Instead of taking the chance that she might not come back we decided to place our food order at the same time. Shrew and I ordered a small cheese, pepperoni and onion pizza lightly well done with a side of bleu cheese. Pizza took a little longer to bake than I remember from years ago. It might have been because it was near the end of the night and the kids working there didn't seem to share the same kind of discipline that this place was known for 10 years ago. That crew of seasoned pizza veterans has moved on. Pizza Junction was once a place where everyone knew your name....not to sound like an 80's sitcom title theme. All those veterans have either opened their own places or are working for the competition.

The first dig in was definitely good and like what I remembered. It has been at least 9 years since I have actually eaten there. Shrew and I pounded the first slices and dug into the bleu cheese. If you have never dipped your pizza in bleu cheese or at least the crust, you gotta try it. Especially if the bleu cheese is anything like the way it is at Junction. Mixed in house from fresh bleu cheese, it's very thick and creamy. Shrew looked like a friggen crack head as he smeared bleu cheese into his gums. I asked him if he wanted me to save the chunks so he could pack them in his lip like chew. He graciously declined. We both agreed that the mozzarella cheese was amazing. Taste was full and consistency was very solid. You can always tell when a place is using quality cheese like Sorrento (which they use). Anything else just tends to taste like plastic. Pepperoni was great as well. While it didn't curl or crisp up too much it was very flavorful. Surprisingly there was little grease floating on top of the pizza for the amount of cheese and pepperoni that blanketed it. The onion was good and not burned which is a plus (probably absorbed some of that grease). There was enough onion on the pizza to keep it sweet while not overpowering other flavors. The sauce is a little sweeter than I remembered it being and although I liked it, Shrew thought it a little too sweet. We agreed that the sauce amount was perfect. We tend to prefer a saucier pizza. The dough was great. Although the bottom wasn't as crisp as I like it, it would suffice. I suspect the pizza wasn't decked long enough before being pulled out of the oven (refer back to my comment on the staff). The crust was amazing and perfect for dipping in the bleu cheese which quickly disappeared. Shrew was blown away. There wasn't much he could find to pick apart. I grew up on this pizza so to be honest it's kind of a standard upon which all others are judged.

With one place down, we had one to go. Next up was Bozanna's Pizzeria.



For this one we went to the Clarence location. Oddly enough a 25 year veteran of Pizza Junction was working at this Bozanna's location, go figure. Russ was the head manager at Pizza Junction for as long as I could remember and I started going there 18 years ago. Russ was now a proud employee of Bozanna's and making pies just the same as they were years ago. I had a good feeling about this. Shrew and I ordered a large 1/2 pepperoni and onion, 1/4 pepperoni and 1/4 plain cheese pizza. Yeah, Russ looked at us a little stupid too, but it was Lent and we had a friend along who wasn't eating meat. The place allowed for sit down with a few modest tables and chairs. It was a little drafty in there which caused Shrew to keep his jacket on. Pizza was out in short order. Drooling, we could barely contain ourselves. Ugh, it smelled so good. One must use caution at this point. If you don't give pizza from one of these places a little gel time when it comes out of the oven you will lose almost all the toppings when you try to pick it up. Shrew did that and lost what would have been all the toppings and cheese of a regular slice of pizza from any other regular place. This was not any regular place. This was Bozanna's! After looking perplexed Shrew was wondering how the hell he still had what appeared to be a full slice of pizza left on his plate, toppings and all, when half of it had already fallen off. Clearly this is a good sign.



(Forgiveness for the picture quality, the regular photographer was off getting her hair did.)

The dough was crisp on the bottom, evidence that the pizza was decked sufficiently enough to allow for proper browning. The sauce was amazing and slightly bitter. It was of the same consistency as Pizza Junction and the perfect amount. The difference here is that the sauce relied more on its puree base for the flavor than a ton of added sugar and basil. It was great and in my opinion a little better than Junction. Shrew agreed. The only downside to having a ton of toppings on a pizza is that when it's hot it's necessary to use a fork and knife to eat it. This proved to be a challenge at Bozanna's. Along with the modest tables we also got the world's weakest plastic silverware and finest foam cups. Shrew was getting a little annoyed. He stated, "Cutting this pizza with this shitty fork and knife on this flimsy paper plate is like trying to perform heart surgery with a fucking Popsicle stick." Word.



Once he was able to cut and devour some pizza he forgot all about it. He was grinning ear to ear. The pepperoni had a much fuller taste and there was a greater amount of it than Junction if that is even possible. The onion was amazing and crisp. Grease, well there is always going to be a little grease when using this much cheese but really it was minimal. Honestly in this visit there was nothing we didn't agree on. The crust was amazing and the bleu cheese might as well have never been there because with Shrew, if it's good: now you see it, now you don't.



Overall the pizza was amazing. Based on the feelings and experiences with each place we were both extremely satisfied with the pizza. These are by far a gold standard that all pizza places in the Buffalo area will have to live by. For both Pizza Junction and Bozanna's we would drive out of our way and probably halfway across the state to get some. Shrew concluded if we were going to a pizza place looking for a sit down experience he would choose Pizza Junction because of the atmosphere and amenities. I don't disagree as using Fisher Price "my first silverware" makes for a frustrating eating experience. However at the end of the day the pizza is what we are here for and that is what we are judging the bulk of our evaluations on. Although both places are worthy of killing for, if we had to choose one on quality we would have to choose Bozanna's over Pizza Junction. Unanimously.

I have had both Bozanna's and Junction many times in my life, my waist line is evidence for sure. Shrew never had Pizza Junction before this visit. In my opinion, Bozanna's remains what Pizza Junction stopped being 10 years ago. Excellent. Bozanna's still has the focus of a pizzeria and as a result there is much more care in producing a quality product. Don't get me wrong here, they are both great but at the end of the day it's the pizza that matters. Bozanna's FTW.