This was the 3rd and final day of 220 miles of riding with this leg being 80 miles from Utica to Schenectady, NY. Strava Link.
This ride would take me through some of the most historic and beautiful parts of Upstate NY. I didn’t even know that until I made that ride! As I think back, this was one of my most incredible and memorable days on a bike!!!
Neapolitan Words of the Day – Sfogliatell and Pasticceria
In my last post, Upstate Pizza Mecca Tour – Day 2, I mentioned the words Pasticceria and Sfoglitell.
Pasticceria is the word for Pastry Shop. Unfortunately, like local pizza shops, the local pastry shops are now hard to find especially Italian ones.
For me, a pasticceria is much more than a bakery. Dunkin’ can be considered a bakery! Doughnuts and cookies are NOT PASTRIES…YIKES!!! A pasticceria makes edible works of art! Although a cake can be ornate, it’s not nearly as difficult to make as a complex pastry. And frequently, cakes are “one-offs” whereas a pastry is repeated, in quantities, daily!
Here in Rochester, we have some great Italian bakeries with bread and cookies. But, I can only get a sfogliatell on Wednesday and Saturday! (at Savoia).
My guess is that the difficulty in making quantities of complex, artistic pastries outweighs their return (profit), so most US Italian bakeries stopped. There’s a new local shop (Dolce Italy) that I plan to try this week. Here’s hoping that I find SFOGLIATELL!
The pictures below are of my favorite pasticceria in metropolitan Napoli, Salvatore DeRiso (award winning baker and author Sal DeRiso). In the final picture below, notice the display case of pastry that’s over 100 feet long, baked daily of complicated, well-decorated pastries. And that’s only one case!
Sfogliatell (Sfogliatella) is a ricott stuffed, flaky pastry. Many times the ricott is lemon-flavored. Sfoglitell are found in a pasticceria, but in Napoli, they are just about everywhere you can find espresso and eaten at any part of the day as a treat but primarily at breakfast.
Hey, don’t knock a sfogliatell and espresso for breakfast!
Upstate Pizza Mecca Tour – Day 3, Utica to Schenectady, 13 POs
Strava Link
I started this ride from Frankfort, NY, the small town just east of Utica. The route was primarily on US Cycle Route 5 and on the Erie Canal Bike Path. The entire ride was into the wind, but each town along my route was only 5 – 10 miles apart. So, slowing in each town to find and take a picture of the post office provided a welcome respite!
This 80 mile section of the tour was OUTSTANDING!!! Most of the 13 Post Offices were historic, the route was mostly on the historic Eric Canal, there were several historic Revolutionary War sites, AND IT ENDED WITH THE BEST PIZZA YET OF THE GREAT PIZZA SEARCH!!!
And the scenery was incredible!
Historic Revolutionary War Sites
and more PO’s
and FAMOUS MURALS INSIDE THE PO’S
The murals in PO’s were part of the public works projects of the New Deal in the 1930’s. As many of those historic PO’s were built, the government commissioned the art. There’s a great Wikipedia article about the murals here and a list of 1300+ PO murals here.
GPS # 35 – Perreca’s Bakery (Schenectady, New York)
The Great Pizza Search #35 was after a wonderful, sunny day of riding. As I made my way on an autumn Saturday afternoon into downtown Schenectady (Wikipedia Link), there was little traffic, making it great for a city exploration ride.
The Schenectady PO was massive; taking a full city block! Like Utica, it once had a population over 100k, and now is about 2/3’s of that as well as a large Italian immigrant population. We’d been here a few times before for Lil’ Spicy college soccer games, but it was my first time in search of TOMATO PIE from PERRECA’S BAKERY!
Perreca’s Bakery was recently rated as one of “The 101 Pizzas in America” (article here)
Perreca’s has been in business with the same family since 1914!!!! This is the kind of place that I envisioned since the start of the Great Pizza Search.
Ambiance and Presentation = GREAT, A JOINT!
The building IS MY VISION! Brick. On a corner. Center Entrance!!!! The inside was an OLD bakery with the counter in the back; though no tables (since there was a restaurant next store and outside tables).
We were waited on by a American-Italian looking woman (do I need to describe what we look like?) whom reminded me of a relative!
We called ahead and ordered two large (which are HUGE), 24 large square, TOMATO PIES.
She reminded us “Next time, please call a day or two ahead when you need Tomato Pie. You were lucky we had them!” I took due note – BECAUSE AS YOU WILL SEE, IT’S WORTH IT.
My only “nit” is that high quality box had no Perreca branding.
Dough and Crust = GREAT
The crust was THICK. Normally, I’d prefer thinner crust. BUT, this was just DIFFERENT! Though thick, it was light and airy, and had a slight pastry crust taste but without the pastry flakiness.
The dough style is one of the differences between Tomato Pie and pizza.
Like Pavlov’s dogs, my mouth is watering as I type this description!
Sauce = GREAT
Oh my, THAT SAUCE! Thick, rich, and tangy. A little hint of oregano and basil, and that’s it. Very simple, but AMPLE, AS IT SHOULD BE!
Cheese = GREAT
The cheese is another thing that makes a TOMATO PIE different from pizza. There’s no moozedell, just a heavy sprinkle of parmagian. The parmagian taste was sharp and salty. I didn’t miss the moozedell.
Overall Rating – GREAT, THE BEST YET!
When I read the 101 Best Pizzas article, I wondered, “can that be true?” Especially, if you read the article, the “journalists” did very little research…but I digress!
But, despite their lack of research, Perreca’s Bakery is the best pizza that I’ve had in the 4 months of the Great Pizza Search and 35 (yes 35!) pizzas!
So, for me, it’s #1 of 35.
Would I Go Back? CAN’T WAIT!
I’m already trying to create a new bike tour so that I can get there again! You may ask, “why bike there?” Well, if I continue to eat pizza at this rate, I’ll need another heart surgery very quickly! I don’t want that! So, I better get on the bike!
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