SUNDAY NEWS: Four aces back Buffalo’s bid for pizza town respect

Buffalo, New York, is one of America’s best pizza towns.

What’s that? You’ve been to Buffalo and don’t agree?

Well, I’m sorry. For you. Because you never made it to the right places.

You wanna bet? Let’s see your cards. Because Buffalo’s holding four aces.

Starting with Buffalo pizza, the homegrown champion. There is nothing quite like the classic Buffalo-style pie.

Buffalo style means a quick-rise dough rolled out relatively thick and baked in an oiled pan after being copiously covered with cheese. So much so that people from Noo Yawk ask “Why’d you order extra cheese?”

That’s not “extra cheese.” You’re in Buffalo now. These slices don’t fold.

The toppings must be significant, not artfully sparse. Cup-and-char pepperoni is first among them. Every salumi slice becomes a chalice holding a sip of pepperoni essence, communion for devoted acolytes of Buffalo-style pies.

Everyone has their favorites, and I’m not even going into factional disputes like sweet versus regular sauce. Bocce on Bailey still has what it takes

RECOMMENDED: Bocce on Bailey, Imperial, Lovejoy Pizza, Picasso’s.

New York style rolls dough thinner, adds less mozzarella, and is baked directly on an oven deck. Tomato sauce, also applied less lavishly than Buffalo-style pies, will peek through the melted cheese coverlet, by design. Thin enough to fold easily, which is recommended for one-hand consumption, because otherwise it’ll droop.

Extra Extra Pizza in Five Points is a worker-owned Brooklyn-style slice shop with a sit-down restaurant with a full bar – and no tipping. The price on the menu is the price you pay, no ending the meal tussling with your conscience.

Olisi’s is another favorite, part of the Albanian dominance of NYC-style places in Buffalo, like Gino & Joe’s. In an anodyne Sheridan Drive setting, Olisi’s puts out pies that students from downstate wreck first.

Neapolitan comes from Naples, Italy. Dough that’s left quite thick around the perimeter, stretched thin in the middle, so it can only handle minimal toppings. Fired in a much hotter oven – 600 to 800 F – Neapolitan pies cook in two or three minutes, creating dark patches, “leopard-spotting,” on the poofy cornicione. You can fold these slices, but the finished product is so tender and floppy you still need two hands.

Jay’s Artisan Pizzeria in Kenmore offers world-class Neapolitan pies. Sixth best in the U.S., according to the world-class Neapolitan nerds at 50 Top Pizza.

In a Sweet Home plaza next to the University at Buffalo Amherst Campus, Forno Napoli offers bigger pies with a more Buffalo heavy hand on cheese and other toppings.

In Hamburg, Grange Community Kitchen adds range to its Neapolitan pies with vegetable of the moment and potato pies.

You know the where of Detroit style. The what is thick but tender dough baked in rectangular pans with cheese applies so that it runs liberally over the pan edge, producing golden-brown cheese crisp frico in every bite.

Marble + Rye excels at the form, and also happens to have the best happy hour vegan snacks in Buffalo. Jay’s Artisan slays at Detroit style, with its gorgonzola pear, and cherry pepper red top among my favorites. BFLO Pizza Bistro, at 388 Porter Ave. between D’Youville and Kleinhans, and Buffalo Deep Dish, inside Briar Brothers Brewing Co., 50 Elk St.

*Buffalo Deep Dish has some of the heaviest pizzas in town.*

REVIEW: As the Sabres’ drought-breaking playoff run continues, Buffalo Deep Dish is helping make a table at Buffalo Brewing Co. one of the most sought-after game time perches in Buffalo. Fans circle the wagons and trade beverages while waiting an hour or two for Detroit-style and deep dish Buffalo pies that complete the feastday table. (For patrons, later this week.)

INDIAN 101 IN WEST SENECA: Join me Thursday May 28 at Alibaba Kebab in West Seneca to explore Indian cuisine with a supper seminar.

Sample what Indian cooks bring to their table, and learn how to bring those flavors home to yours. I’ll explain what’s in it, how it’s made, and where to get the right ingredients to make it yourself.

Eight dishes: chickpea curry, beef kebabs, butter chicken, fresh naan and garlic naan, bread, samosa pastries with tamarind-date chutney, basmati rice pilaf, tandoori wings, and syrup soaked gulab jamun for dessert.

Try anything you like. Ask all the questions you want. Get your tickets ($30 including tax and tip) here.

It’s 6 p.m. Thursday May 28, Alibaba Kebab, 1100 Southwestern Blvd., West Seneca.

LAST CALL FOR BURMESE 101: If you were thinking about joining Pattaya Street Food’s Elizabeth Sher and myself Thursday April 30 at International House, 617 Main St. in the Theater District, you can get tickets ($30 including tax and tip) here through Wednesday.

MORE SOCIOPATHIC CUSTOMERS: Since the pandemic, food service operators have reported a massive increase in sociopathic customer behavior. Last week Anastasia’s Artisan Bread noted sociopathic customer behavior.

Last Friday, a customer came into Miller’s Thumb Bakery & Café carrying an insulated mug, to sit at one of the 14 seats in the Tonawanda bakery. Again.

An owner told him no outside beverages were allowed, again. He retorted that they didn’t know health regulations, and he did.

“With the situation with this guest escalating, I asked Steve to come into the dining room and speak with this individual,” co-owner Jill Colella posted to Facebook.

“The individual swore and yelled that we are rude and are poor business owners and that he would tell everyone he knows and through Facebook not to come here.

He said he had been treated rudely in the past, and Steve asked, then why did you come back? He said he was never coming back.

Steve told him that he had the opportunity to speak his mind and now asked him to leave. He said ‘make me leave.’

We told him we’d call the police for trespassing if we need to. He’s still in the dining room now. And so it goes.”

Then just this Saturday at Marble + Rye, a man walked into the busy restaurant with eight people and asked to be seated. Told that would not be possible, he told the server to fuck off.

Then it got worse. He didn’t have the energy to make a reservation, apparently. But when he couldn’t sit down, he had time to tantrum out on Google Reviews and try to hurt the business.

After Marble & Rye owner Michael Dimmer talked to a member of the party, the Google Review was deleted. But the sting and the bewilderment remains: Why is this something a restaurant owner has to cope with?

Make no mistake: having to confront this behavior not only ruins the experience for other innocent customers, but can tip the scale to operators deciding “Screw this, there’s got to be easier ways to make a living.”

While Four Bites readers can be expected to behave themselves in restaurants, that unfortunately leaves a lot of people. If you see a customer who seems to have lost their way, backing up your friendly neighborhood server is something patrons do.

More reading from Michael Chelus of Nittany Epicurean: