My Towns 2 – Good Lovin’

---

Table of Contents

1. Gene Cornish and The Young Rascals
2. Good Lovin’
3. Nebalatan Word/Phrase of the Day – Mannaggia Dial!
4. East Rochester, NY Post Office
5. Review – NY Pizza Chef, Fairport, NY

---

Gene Cornish and The Young Rascals

As with Cleveland, 1960-80’s Rochester had great music. As some know, Gene Cornish was an adopted son of Rochester. Gene was one of the leads of The Young Rascals in the 1960’s and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame way back in 1997 (see link).

In addition, Gene was inducted into the Rochester Music Hall of Fame. There’s a clip from Gene’s Rochester Hall introduction and the great Italian-American musicians in which he was surrounded (of course).

---

Good Lovin’

Likely their greatest of great hits was Good Lovin’. Check out those 1960′ stylin’ knickers in the video!

---

Nebalatan Word/Phrase of the Day – Mannaggia Dial!

In a previous post (see here), I defined the term Mannaggia (pronounced – maa-naa-juh or MO-NEDGE or MUH-NEDGE). 

• My mother (Grandma Joanne) said muh-nedge (Mannaggia) daily in her usual explosion of emotion.
• Alternately, my father (Grandpa Tony) used the term Mannaggia’ Dial (pronounced – muh-nedge-a de-owl). 
  • Unlike my mother, my father’s usage of muh-nedge-a de-owl was infrequent and typically in frustration. 
  • As a result, due to my father’s typical even “keel-ness,” his usage had much more meaning and umph.  I knew he meant business at that point.
• AmericanItalian.net says, “mannaggia dial – curse the devil (likely Italian saying – male ne aggia il diavolo) [MAA-NAA-juh-dee-owl].”

My mother’s family was from Metropolitan City of Napoli (Marigliano, see Italian Wikipedia site here) whereas my father’s family was from up in the mountains near Avellino in an area called Irpinia in Serino (Italian Wikipedia site here) and Solofra (Italian Wikipedia site here) about 40 miles from Napoli.  So, I’m unsure if the difference in usage was geography or just local family usage. 

BTW – in the Wikipedia article on Solofra, there’s an interesting tid-bit about the Solofran dialect. It says, “A feature in common with the spoken Nocerina is the pronunciation of the “e” almost always open: Nucær, cafæ, murtadæll (Nocera, coffee, mortadella).” From – https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solofra,

This is interesting to me. As you know, if you read frequently, it’s moozedell NOT mozzerella. This is similar to the “murtadæll” in the above paragraph.

East Rochester, NY Post Office

Upstate NY is loaded with architecturally significant Post Offices.  Another of these is in the village of East Rochester, NY just southeast of the city of Rochester.   East Rochester is another of MY TOWNS!

ER (East Rochester) is one of my favorite hamlets in our area. When I moved here 41 years ago, it was primarily Italian-American, it had a great Italian-American restaurant, the Northside Inn, the high school, though small, had a prolific football team similar to mine, AND THERE WERE LOTS OF BROWNS FANS!

As with most things, ER has changed, but not as much as others. There’s enough distance from Rochester city proper, and ER is surrounded by more affluent suburbs, such that it’s isolated from major change.

One thing that hasn’t changed is ER’s Post Office. This PO is a classic symmetric Louis Simon design with red brick and white windows, portico, and trim along the eaves.  The only deviation from his typical is that the windows are squared at top versus his usual rounded.

The interior is also “typical” in that it has all of his normal oak carpentry, but in this case, it is beautifully dark stained.

The mural is also deviates from that norm in that it does not depict workers at work as most others; the East Rochester mural depicts leisure activity. This is very interesting because East Rochester was/is a working-class burb surrounded by upper-crust burbs.

The creator of the mural is an artist named Bernar (Bernard) Gussow.  Though somewhat famous, my guess is that Russia born, NYC lived Mr. Gussow had little knowledge of the area when commissioned for the mural.

 

---

Review – NY Pizza Chef, Fairport, NY

Full table of 100+ reviews – click here

Date	August 11, 2023
Website	https://www.nypizzachef.com/index.html
Ambiance	Pick up, good cardboard stand up box, but generic
Dough	No taste, like white bread, but tasty cornicione, Crispy near cornicione, chewy other parts, not charred but burnt in major parts
Sauce	Almost none, no sauce taste on pepperoni part, some/little tangy sauce taste on cheese part
Cheese	regular moozedell, not special, greasy
Value	Low
Overall	Meh
Would I Go Back?	NO

When digging into their pizza, I couldn’t help but notice that the dough was missing that yeasty, comforting flavor that comes from long-fermented dough. It had the bland taste of white bread.

Likely, the dough at NY Pizza Chef was same day/short ferment. Although, I must admit the non-burnt parts had a pleasant chewiness that managed to salvage the experience a bit.

One surprise that stood out was the cornicione – that outer edge of the crust. It turned out to be quite good, adding a satisfying texture that I wasn’t expecting given its partial burnt-ness.

However, I couldn’t help but be disappointed by the lack of sauce on the pepperoni slices. It felt like an almost deliberate absence, leaving the flavors a bit unbalanced.

As for the cheese, there was a slightly more noticeable presence, yet it still fell short. While they didn’t hold back on the cheese quantity, it lacked that extra oomph that would elevate it to something extraordinary.  My guess it was just plain ole’ moozedell with little or no parmagian or provolone to add sharpness.

One thing I can’t ignore is the price point. It’s leaning towards the pricier side of things, which becomes a bit hard to justify, especially when there are much better pizza options just a stone’s throw away. For instance, places like TK’s offer a more satisfying pizza experience at a similar distance AND a better price.