The last two post focused on the Albany, NY area, and our returning to NY. The next few posts will be closer to home both in Rochester, NY and Northeast, OH because I need My Towns.
As much as we enjoy FL, the Great Lakes have been home for 64+ years and nothing says home to me like Michael Stanley Band!
Because of our success with our wood fired pizza oven at our FL home, we purchased a wood fired oven for NY and sold the gas one! Now, that’s cooking with gas…err, wood!
As usual, let’s start with our Nebalatan Word of the Day and an interesting Rochester Area Post Office.
Nebalatan Word of the Day – Prosciutt’
prosciutt’ (pronounced – PRAA-Jhoot) – italian ham (Italian word – prosciutto) from https://americanitalian.net/2009/04/14/italian/
- Used in context with Ma (Grandma Joanne) – this is a TRUE STORY
- Ma – “Michael, run to Nappi’s and get me a pound of prosciutt’.“
- Me – “But Ma, I’m only 4 years old“
- Ma – “Just watch for the cars on 9th Street when you cross and don’t be a scustumad!
- Me – when I get to Nappi’s, “Joe (Licate, the butcher), can I have a pound of prosciutt’?”
- Joe – “Sure. How’d your Dad bowl last night?”
- Me – “I don’t know. Thanks for the prosciutt’!”
- Me – at the cash register, “Frank (Nappi), just put it on Ma’s tab.”
- Frank – “Ok, Michael. How’s your parents?”
- Me – “Mannaggia!“
YES – THIS IS A TRUE STORY! Ma sent me to Nappi’s, 4 blocks away, across a busy street when I was 4 although some of the dialog is embellished! Can anyone image sending a 4-year-old walking to the store today?
Can anyone image running a tab at Wegmans? They have no clue who you are.
And, according to my wife, my conversation style and content hasn’t changed in 60 years!
Honeoye Falls, NY Post Office
Honeoye Falls is a small village southeast of Rochester, NY. It’s a fast-growing hamlet with a beautiful 1920’s era village. As a result of its age, Honeoye Falls has a nice Works Progress Administration (WPA) era Post Office.
It’s a Louis Simon design with all of his typical exterior design elements such as red brick with white round top colonial style windows and front door. But, unlike most of other designs, it’s not symmetric. This lack of symmetry could be because this PO is on the small side.
The smallness of this PO continues to the interior which has it’s typical oak carpentry and art deco stylings.
Conversely, the light fixture is not typical. Although, the light fixture is art deco, it is polished copper. Most other PO’s in the Northeast have polished brass fixtures inside and verdi burnished copper on the exterior.
Finally, there is the mural. This is also unusual for most of the country. This mural, “The Life of the Senecas,” is exclusively a Native American scene whereas most others are white families or a combination of whites and Native Americans.
Strangebird Brewery – Rochester, NY. 6/11/23
Full Purchased Pizza Table of 100! Pizzeria Reviews (click here).
| Style | Rating | Go Back? | Dough | Sauce | Cheese | Presentation | Notes |
| Neapolitan-ish | Good | Maybe | Semi airy, seemed like new dough since it lacked flavor, good char from gas fired oven | Not much, but the little that was there was pretty goof | Splotches of moozedell, a little thick and not fully melted | Aluminum platter, nothing special | Nothing special, Not nearly as good as Fiamma Centro, especially at $18 for a Margarita with pepperoni, good tasting pepperoni, Goes to show that anyone can buy an oven, but not everyone can make a Great Pizzai |
We tried Strangebird Brewing in the City of Rochester for the first time in early June. I’m typically skeptical of a new establishment that’s a brewery that happens to make pizza. I’ve mentioned in the past that the barriers to entry for pizza are low; anyone can buy an oven and ATTEMPT to make pizza. But, judging from Strangebird’s website, there are no overt pictures that show pizza which further enhanced my skepticism.
As you peruse down the pizza column of Strangebird’s menu, there is nothing that screams that they make wood-fired Neapolitan pizza, even though there’s a Neapolitan wood-fired (so, I thought) oven in the open kitchen set up. So, I ordered a Cheese with Pepperoni and wondered what would be delivered!
After a long wait, a “Neapolitan-ish” pizza arrived. The crust had a semi-airy texture, and due to its lack of flavor, it seems that the dough was fresh and not of the long ferment variety of a true Neapolitan. The one thing I liked, though, was the nice char. And it turns out after I talked to the chef, IT’S NOT WOOD FIRED, BUT GAS! THAT’S HEARASY!
Let’s talk about the sauce. There wasn’t much of it, but of the little there was, it was pretty good.
Moving on to the cheese, it was moozedell with maybe some provolone mixed in, but it was in splotches and a tad too thick. To top it off, it didn’t even fully melt! Not exactly what I expected.
As for the presentation, it came on a simple aluminum platter – nothing fancy, but the whole pizza looked pretty good from the outside; just too bad about the inside!
The pizza was good, not great, and I’m not likely to go back. It’s not as good as the other pizzeria the vicinity, Fiamma Centro. And here’s the kicker – Stangebird’s cost an artisan-like $18 for a Margarita pizza with pepperoni. Once again, it goes to show that just having an oven doesn’t guarantee greatness in pizza-making. Anyone can buy an oven, but not everyone can become a true Pizza artisan!
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