Burger time

I was recently invited to go on a local burger tour with the past Tournament of Pizza judges from All Over Albany. How can you say no to that?

For the past few years, I have tried to only eat our own beef. For the most part, I've been pretty good. When you get a side of beef, you end up with a lot of ground beef. I'd guess about 100 to 120 pounds of it depending on the year. That's a lot of meatloaf, tacos. nachos....and burgers. I've got to tell you, our beef makes a kick ass burger. I think a Prinzo's hard roll puts it over the top, but that's a minority opinion in the house. If you are looking for a cheap, white bun I'd recommend visiting a Stewart's.

Here's a summary of my thoughts on the four burger joints we visited one fun Saturday. The complete All Over Albany write up of the burger tasting is here and this is a link to the fries and kind of a wrap up.

BurgerFi
Bun: I'd never seen a bun branded before. The only think I can think of that compares is a toaster Darth Vader toaster that burns "Star Wars" into the slice. This was a toasted potato bun and had a little sweetness to it.
Meat: The burger was well done, not much beefy flavor to it but it had a nice amount of fat to it.
Toppings: Plenty of nicely melted cheese, there was also a French's style mustard taste that I'd skip if I were ordering for myself and the lettuce and tomato were there but nothing special.
Fry Texture: Nice and crispy on the outside and very soft inside. Kind of like a mashed potato.
Fry Flavor: I really liked these fries. I think I'd try to order them well done to compare.

So while this particular burger wasn't spectacular, it made me think that if I came and ordered a burger specifying my personal burger preferences, I could get a pretty good burger here. And the fries would be hard to stop eating.

Burger 21
Bun: I liked the bun. It was lightly toasted, but the  burger removed any toasted texture.
Meat: Well done but still juicy, fatty and very rich. I did a double take on my first bite. There is no mistaking this for lean.
Toppings: There was lettuce and a very good slice of tomato. There was also a lot of yellow mustard, ketchup and mayo that combine into a special sauce. Too much sauce that also took away from the bun.
Fry Texture: These are a McDonalds style fry with not much too them. They're just salt delivery device.
Fry Flavor: I thought they had a little bit of an off after taste.

I get that fat is flavor in a burger. That said, I thought the burger was too fatty and McDonald's does a better version of these fries.

Smashburger
Bun: Toasted, but very soft and didn't hold up
Meat: Good flavor but I didn't notice the crust they they are known for having.
Toppings: Lettuce, decent tomato, good pickle chips, ketchup, mustard and some incredibly strong red onion. With the onion on the burger, that was all you were going to taste. I like onion, but I took it off.
Fry Texture: Thin and very crispy, but a little greasy
Fry Flavor: not much there

I had heard good things about Smashburger. Maybe this was an off day. I liked the beef, but the overall burger was unimpressive. The fries were nothing special.

Five Guys
Bun: light toasting, good flavor, and I liked the sesame seeds. Only bun of the day with seeds.
Meat: Not much crust, but good flavor and juicy
Toppings:A lot of mayo (too much), best lettuce of the day, a decent tomato, ketchup, mustard and some very strong diced onion. Maybe I don't like raw onion as much as I thought.
Fry Texture: crispy but soft on the inside
Fry Flavor: Salt. There was a lot of salt on this batch of fries.

This was the only shop I had visited prior to this tour. I wasn't impressed at that visit and never understood why people liked Five Guys. I can definitely see the appeal of that burger now.

Out of these shops, where would I go back for a burger? BurgerFi would top the list for me. I liked the restaurant and I'd like to see how they build a burger to order instead of right off the menu. And eat more of their fries. Too bad you can't make a Franken-Burger and fries combo with the best aspects of each place.

When the tour was over, I popped into to Whole Foods for a few things - basil and mushrooms for pizza on Sunday plus a bottle of seltzer - then headed home. Once there, I proceeded to fall into a minor salt induced food coma that probably involved some loud snores. When I came to, we had been invited out to diner by another family. After a day of eating burgers, I drove the family to Red Robin.

I just had a small salad. Timing is everything.

Variations on a Theme

I like diners. They usually have huge menu's with something for everyone. Although, why some one would go into a diner and order a seafood and pasta dish is beyond me. Stick with the classics.

I'm fairly repetitive with my diner orders. If I am going for breakfast fare, it's usually two over easy with home fries and rye toast. Maybe some pancakes get thrown in there depending on the diner. When I'm not having a diner breakfast (which has nothing to do with the time of day), it's a turkey club with fries.

As luck would have it, I wound up in different diners on Friday and Saturday night. When I was eating on Friday, I had no idea I was going to have the same dinner on Saturday, so no pictures. And I wouldn't have given it much thought except the two turkey clubs were so different.

The sandwich construction was identical. Basically a BLT on the top half of the club and turkey on the bottom.

Toast: On the first club, the toast tasted like it had been salted. It was as if the fries got put on the plate and then everything got hit with salt out of a shaker. The second club had toasted white bread. Although, one time at this diner I didn't specify "toast" and it came out plain white bread. That's never happened anywhere else. I specify "white toast" now but that's the kind of thing that would make a veteran diner waitress look at you funny. "Of course it's toasted! We've been a diner for awhile now."

Turkey: The first club's turkey tasted like deli meat. The second club's turkey tasted and looked cooked in-house.

Lettuce: The first club had very pale looking iceberg lettuce. The second had nice, dark green leaves of lettuce.

Tomato: The first club had that food service Styrofoam tomato. The second one had juicy, red tomato which was actually a pleasant surprise  after having seen crummy tomato wedges in a side salad.

Bacon: The bacon on both sandwiches was your typical diner bacon. Club #2 was a little chewier than Club #1, but the difference wasn't as stark as the other components.

When I was eating the first turkey club, I knew it wasn't anything special. It really wasn't until I started eating the second one that I realized how bad the first sandwich was. Now granted, turkey Club #2 wasn't the greatest turkey club I've ever had. Not really close. That distinction goes to a long gone diner/cafeteria in Boston. There is a special place in my heart for Anne's Cafeteria-I loved that place. But Turkey Club #2 was definitely a decent representation of the form that brought shame and dishonor to turkey Club #1.

Turkey Club #2 come from Capital City Diner on Western in Guilderland.

Tournament of Pizza Finals

A good sized crowd gathered at Shmaltz Brewing for the finals. Both Marino's and DeFazio's brought two pizzas for the crowd and judges to eat. Both shops also took the Finals seriously and sent some great pizzas to Clifton Park. Their challenge: 1 vegetable pizza and 1 meat pizza.

The judges went for the vegetable pizzas first. Marino's sent in a pizza topped with sauteed green pepper and mushrooms. Defazio's sent in a smoked mozzarella pizza with red peppers and red onions.

Marino's Vegetable Pizza
This was the warmest slice we ate. The crust was nicely browned and had good color. It had gotten a little tough in transport from Schenectady to Clifton Park but nothing serious. The sauce was good, not as amazing as the sauce on their Margherita, and I thought the pizza could have used a little bit more of the sauce. Maybe they held back to avoid potential sogginess during shipping. The toppings were sauteed before going on the pizza. I thought the white button mushrooms were delicious. While I'm not a fan of green peppers, this is usually the only way I like them - sauteed down so they lose their bitterness. The cheese on the slice had a nice flavor too. A very enjoyable slice.

Marino's Vegetable Pizza
Crust:4, Sauce:4, Toppings:4, Overall Taste:7, Total:19.

DeFazio's Vegetable Pizza
The crust on this pizza was delicious. I don't know what they did differently, but I thought this was the best DeFazio's crust I've had that spent time in a take-out box. It was nicely browned and tender. Just the right bit of char. Wow. The sauce is the shops regular pizza sauce, which was added for the Finals - this pizza is usually white. The flavors of the toppings worked well together - smoked mozzarella, small bits of red onion and some roasted red pepper. Up to this point, I believe that this is the best slice of pizza I have had in the Tournament.

DeFazio's Vegetable Pizza
Crust:5, Sauce:4, Toppings:4, Overall Taste:8, Total:21.

Moving onto the meat pizza round,

Marino's Meat Pizza
Marino's went with a lot of meat. Pepperoni, meatball, sausage. The crust was a little lighter than the vegetable slice I had and still had good flavor but was a little chewy. They still have a good sauce and again there could have been a little more. But on the flip side, some more could have definitely soaked into the crust during transit. Their pepperoni was the same zippy pepperoni that was on their spicy pizza in the semi finals. Sausage was still excellent. I thought the meatballs were good, but not great. All in all, a very good meat lovers pie.

Marino's Meat Pizza
Crust:4, Sauce:4, Toppings:4, Overall Taste:7, Total:19.

DeFazio's Meat Pizza
DeFazio's brought a Bolognese pizza. The crust was topped with their Bolognese sauce (slow cooked pork and veal with little bits of pancetta) topped with cheese and then a little bit of crumbled sausage on top. The crust was pretty much the same as their vegetable pizza just slightly darker - delicious. I thought the sauce was well flavored but I thought the wine taste on the finish was a little off. All of the meat was excellent.

DeFazio's Meat Pizza
Crust:5, Sauce:3, Toppings:4, Overall Taste:7, Total:19.

Pre-Results Wrap Up
In a damn close decision, I gave the edge to DeFazio's 40 to 38. The crust was the difference for me. I brought the family to the finals. Allison thought the DeFazio's vegetable pizza and the Marino's meat were the best two pizza. If she were picking a slice from the two of those, she went with DeFazio's Vegetable. Casey would pick the same two pizzas also with a preference to DeFazio's. Amy concurred picking those two pizza's as her favorites. When asked which one she would go to for another slice she said, "There, I would have gone for the DeFazio's red pepper one because I couldn't believe how much I liked it. Right now, I think I'd go with the Marino's meat lovers."

Really, really close call. I'm not sure how the other judges scored it but I think DeFazio's narrowly won the veggie round and Marino's narrowly won the meat round. It will all come down to the margin of victory in each round. I'm writing this before the results are posted so we'll see if I'm right. The All Over Albany write up of the event is here.

The Results Have Been Posted Wrap Up
Well, the results are now up at All Over Albany. The People's Choice title went to Marino's meat pizza that barely beat DeFazio's veggie pie, 73 to 72.5.  The judges narrowly gave the Tournament Title to DeFazio's 167 to 164. That's really close. If you combine the pizza scores from the People's Choice, the people also gave the title to Defazio's  144.1 to 138.6. So it looks like I was mostly right, DeFazio's won the veggie round, Marino's won the meat round and it all came down to margin of victory. Anyhow, I've talked about pizza at work enough so our holiday party will be pizza trips to DeFazio's and Marino's.

The End of the Pizza Tournament
I was absolutely thrilled to be part of the Tournament. As a long time fan (I came up with an over/under and a points spread for last year's finals) it was a lot of fun to participate. It was even fun getting interviewed by some Saint Rose students covering the finals for a class. I learned a lot about pizza along the way. I knew eating it fresh out of the oven was important, but I didn't realize how important. I also learned that when you are hyper-analyzing pizza there isn't just the variation between shop to shop, there is also variation from slice to slice out of the same pizza. And lastly, if you had asked me if I thought some of the best pizza in the tournament would be meatless, I would have thought you were crazy. But they were. And the DeFazio's smoked mozzarella/red pepper pizza was, in my opinion, Best In Show. I'm going to have to try and copy that one.

TOP Semi Finals Part 2

Spicy (AOA link)

The judging moved on to the “spicy” pizzas. We had already sampled 4 large slices of pizza which was what we had been doing during Round 1. It was time to take a deep breath and double up because there were 4 more slices to be eaten. And they were needed, at least for me because my scorecard after the “Classic” round was essentially a dead heat.

5^th and 50 Spicy: Chicken Parmesan Pizza

There’s no nice way to put this. This pie was everything I didn’t like about 5^th and 50 from the first round. The rim of the crust was bready and tough. The rest of the crust acted as a stiff support to a layer of topping mush. What sauce you could taste had a really nice level of heat to it but the sauce had been absorbed into the rest of the topping of dry, flavorless ricotta and what seemed like breading that had come off the chicken. In looking around the room (not just the judges table), there were several plates with a slice of this pizza missing one or two bites. That said, one of the guests really liked it.  I don’t think 5^th and 50 makes it into the Finals.

5^th and 50 Spicy

Crust:2, Sauce:3, Toppings:1, Overall Taste:3, Total:9.

Marino’s  Spicy: Hot Sausage and Pepperoni Pizza

Marino’s went meat. And plenty of it. The crust was nicely browned but a little dense. The sauce was just ok and didn’t hold up to the zing of the meats. It was there, but you’re not going to be eating this pizza and think “mmm, delicious sauce” like on their Margherita. The heat of the zippy pepperoni and spiced sausage just overpowered the sauce. The cheese had good texture to it, but the flavor was also overpowered by the meats. The pepperoni had good bite to it and I wonder if this is a spicier pepperoni than their usual. This wasn’t pepperoni my kids would enjoy. The sausage was tasty too. And there was plenty of meat. The slice had a real heft to it. If you are into a spicy meat lovers kind of pizza, you will definitely enjoy this pie.

Marino’s  Spicy

Crust:3, Sauce:3, Toppings:4, Overall Taste:6, Total:16.

Marissa’s Spicy: Chicken Caccitore Pizza

I have no idea how Marissa’s did it, but on the night of the semi-finals, their crust traveled really well and was the closest to still being in the shop. I liked the sauce. It had a really nice depth of flavor and a slow burning spice/heat that came out after you were done with a bite. I thought there was a strong under current of kalamata olives to the sauce. I happen to like those olives, if you don’t I could see that as a turn off. The fresh mozzarella got a little tough in transport but the braised, shredded chicken was moist, tender and flavored by the sauce. I personally believe that the idea/concept of this pizza is inspired. I’ve never heard of it being done.

Marissa’s Spicy

Crust:3, Sauce:4, Toppings:3, Overall Taste:7, Total:17.

DeFazio’s Spicy: Buffalo Chicken Pizza

After this scored so well in past Tournaments, I had to go to the store and try it. And I enjoyed it. But tonight, something was off. The crust had nice color to it but it was a little bready and dense. The sauce is Franks Red Hot and there was a lot of it on this pie. I suppose that isn’t really a bad thing, but everything on the slice tasted like Red Hot.  The bites of chicken were moist, tender and tasted good if you picked them off the slice. Left on the slice, the chicken tasted like hot sauce. There was a little gorgonzola flavor in the back and I could see that melted mozzarella cheese I love, however the hot sauce was pretty much the only flavor. And it’s a shame because I know this pizza can be better. After all, this is one of the highest scoring pizzas in Tournament history, but not tonight. Any given pizza…on my scorecard, Down Goes the Champ.

DeFazio’s Spicy

Crust:3, Sauce:2, Toppings:4, Overall Taste:5, Total:14.

Here’s how I scored the eight pizzas in the Final Four with Marissa’s and Marino’s getting ready to fight it out for the title.

	Classic	Spicy	Total
Marissa’s	18	17	35
Marino’s	17	16	33
DeFazio’s	17	14	31
5th and 50	15	9	24

This is how I scored it, but this is a panel of judges so my points are just a quarter of the points available to any individual pizza. Looking at the All Over Albany write up of the semi finals, it looks like the other judges didn't like the flavor of Marissa's tomatoes on their Margherita as much as I did and depending on the person, I could see the kalamata olives in the Caccitore pizza taking a hit. Also, keep in mind that when you are totally nitpicking everything on a pizza, there is even variation between slices from the same pie. The crust is a little different, toppings not quite the same, a little more/less sauce here and there. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I certainly see how Marissa's got bumped out. Hell, on my score sheet, it's only a 4 point spread between the top three shops.

And if you want to nerd out on some numbers, Greg has kindly posted all of the tournament scores in the annual Crunching the Numbers post at All Over Albany. If you take a look at those stats, DeFazio's has put up some serious numbers in the tournament. DeFazio's, Marino's and Marissa's have the highest all time averages. Seems fitting that it came down to those three shops. It will be interesting to see what happens at the Finals this Saturday.

Tournament of Pizza Final Four: Part 1

I spent the day pacing myself so I could be ready for the Tournament Semi-Finals. Four shops each submitting two pizzas meant 8 slices per judge. Basically an entire large pizza. I started the day with a yogurt and banana. Had a peanut butter and jelly from Stewarts for lunch and then nothing else until the judging started around 6:30. Many thanks to the people at Keeler Mini for hosting and sponsoring these semi finals.

This tasting was kind of a sensory overload for me. Out of the 8 pizzas sampled, only two were similar so there were 7 very different kinds of pizza to eat. I think my note taking suffered during this tasting as I was trying to wrap my head around how much different the to-go pizzas were from the in-store pizzas. And there was just so much pizza. I didn’t step on a scale the morning after this tasting. Ignorance is bliss.

The four semi finalists were asked to submit a pizza they considered to be a “classic” and another they considered “spicy.” We started with four slices of classic.

5^th and 50 Classic: Greek Pizza

The pie was cooked on a screen (the only shop in the finals using one) and my slice didn’t have a rim that easily pulled off. Maybe they roll the rim of the pie over itself. The crust was nicely browned on the top and bottom but a little oily toward the center of the pie. I though the crust was bready and tough by itself but worked with the pizza. A significant improvement, in my opinion, over their Round 1 pizzas. It was a white pizza so there wasn’t really a sauce. As with the white broccoli pie, judges used the flavors and extra cheese for the sauce score. The feta was fairly mild. Nothing wrong with that, I’m not sure a strong feta would have worked well on this pie. The feta was combined with diced bits of ham, or maybe mild bacon or maybe Canadian bacon. I’m not sure which it was and while that is a little unsettling the flavor combined with the tomato pieces was good. Not a great slice, but certainly not a bad one.

 5^th and 50 Classic

Crust:3, Sauce:3, Toppings:3, Overall Taste:6, Total:15.

Marino’s Classic: Margherita Pizza

This was the slice where the difference between eating in the store and getting takeout hit me. The crust that I had really enjoyed in Round 1 still had good flavor but was tougher to chew. The color on the crust was nicely browned but the toasty notes seemed to have gotten lost in transit. The sauce though…I think this sauce was the best thing we tasted all night. Really good tomato flavor with delicious chucks of tomato spread out over the slice. What brand of tomatoes are they using? The cheese had a nice flavor but it was a little tough/stringy. I’m not sure there is any way around that with a fresher style of mozzarella being transported. While still a good slice here, this would be great ordered and eaten at the restaurant.

Marino’s Classic

Crust:3, Sauce:5, Toppings:3, Overall Taste:6, Total:17.

Marissa’s Classic: Margherita Pizza

I don’t know how they did it, but the crust on the Marissa’s Margherita travel better than the others. Definitely had more chew that when we were in the store but it never got that cardboard-y texture some pizza crusts get as the cool off. There was a very thin coating of sauce on the pizza but the tomatoes on the slice, while not looking like they would taste good, did taste good and really perked up the flavor on the slice. The freshly shredded basil was nice too. The fresher mozzarella had browned in spots and became like the Marino’s pie became tough/stringy but the flavor was nice. This slice tasted a lot better than it looked.

Marissa’s Classic

Crust:4, Sauce:3, Toppings:4, Overall Taste:7, Total:18.

Defazio’s Classic: Sausage with Peppers and Onions Pizza

The crust had good color and a little bit of char on the bottom. Once again, the impact of travel on the crust was clear. This crust would have clearly been better in the shop. The sauce had a good tomato flavor. The cheese was tender, flavorful/salty, and I still want to know the brand. The sausage was also good and well seasoned. It had much less of that paprika flavor that we had on their sausage pie in Round 1. Green peppers aren’t my favorite (they aren’t ripe) and this pie had a strong green pepper flavor to it, but it worked.

Defazio’s Classic

Crust:4, Sauce:3, Toppings:4, Overall Taste:6, Total:17.

After the classic round of the Final Four, I had this scored as pretty much a dead heat. In my mind at this point in the tasting, any of the shops could make it to the Finals. There was a little bit more spread when all of the judges scores were counted, but it is still anyone's round to win. The All Over Albany summary of the classic round is here. While the judges and I may differ on opinion here and there, one thing that stands out from looking at the summary is the score for the Marino's Margherita. Their sauce scored a perfect 20, 5 out 5 from each judge. It was really good.

TOP Round 1: DC's vs. Marissa's

I have no idea if there are still tickets available, but if you are interested in being a pizza judge, follow this link to see if you can still get a now FREE ticket to the AOA Tournament of Pizza Championship.  This is going online a little late. The official results for this pizza battle went up yesterday.

Round 1 Albany Bracket: DC’s versus Marissa’s (AOA link)

DC’s in Albany

I have a little bit of history with DC’s but only one visit to their shop. I thought their sausage was good, but the overall slice was lacking. But that was then, this is now and we are judging the slice in front of us. Starting with a slice of sausage pizza: The rim of the crust had a nice depth of flavor but the rim was a little bready. There was no char on the pizza, in fact the pizza was a little bit light in color, and the bottom had plenty of screen markings. The sauce had a pasta sauce quality to it and I think it would have been nice on some ziti. It would also work for pizza but there was too much of it here. The cheese pretty much slid on the sauce and the slice couldn’t support its own weight. The sausage was good, although I’d say it was better at my last visit. All the components combined to make a very middle of the road slice.

Sausage Pizza

Crust:2, Sauce:3, Toppings:3, Overall Taste:5 for a total of 13 points.

Moving onto the broccoli slice, I was surprised at how similar this crust was to the sausage pizza. I guess there is something to be said about the consistency of a screen. The only noticeable difference (and it is kind of a big one), was that without the tomato sauce, this slice was able to support its own weight. The cheese and ricotta worked well together, the ricotta was spread out nicely over the slice and I thought there was a nice seasoning to the pie. The broccoli was minced, I’m guessing frozen but without any large pieces there was no frozen broccoli texture. While I think I would prefer florets, minced is probably the way to go if you are using frozen broccoli.

Broccoli Pizza

Crust:3, Sauce:4, Toppings:3, Overall Taste:6 for a total of 16 points.

Marissa’s in Guilderland

I have had pizza from Marissa’s twice. Once was a whole pie to go (after a previous Tournament of Pizza) that was alright, but nothing that made me excited to return to the shop. The other time was a lunchtime visit for a slice when I was in the neighborhood. My takeaway from these two visits was that Marissa’s pizza was significantly better when reheated as a slice. That second cook really helped the crust out. I was looking forward to seeing how their pizza was fresh out of the oven.

Sausage pie first: no screen and some nice color on the bottom of the pie. The rim on my slice was a little pale but there were slices on the pizza that had nice little brown bubbles on the crust. The crust was surprisingly bland by itself but it worked well when combined with the flavors of the sauce and cheese. The sauce had a nice flavor and there was a proper amount of it on the pizza. The sausage was thinly sliced pieces a link sausage. It had a good flavor but was not especially eye pleasing. All in all, I thought the flavors combined nicely to make a good slice.

Sausage Pizza

Crust:4, Sauce:4, Toppings:4, Overall Taste:7 for a total of 19 points.

Marissa’s broccoli pie: The crust was darker on the bottom than it was on the top. There were some bubbles on the rim and the slice had a crisp snap when I folded it to take a bite. The drops of ricotta were well distributed but very plain and not seasoned. The broccoli was minced and very similar to DC’s. There was a lot of garlic on the slice. A lot…of what I’m guessing is purchased minced garlic. With fresh garlic and better ricotta, this could have been a much better slice.

Broccoli Pizza

Crust:4, Sauce:2, Toppings:3, Overall Taste:5 for a total of 14 points.

Analysis

In the days after this round, I really started second guessing my scores. I still do. This judging is hard. With 20/20 hindsight, I think I gave Marissa’s two points they might not have deserved. The toppings on the sausage pie sausage should have been a 3 and I probably should have given the toppings portion of the broccoli pie a 2. The crust at Marissa’s was bland on its own but I thought worked well with the overall pizza. It would have been nice to have a 3.5 scoring option there. With this 2 point adjustment and the impossible 3.5 scores taken into consideration, my scores for these two shops are even closer at 30 to 29 points with Marissa’s still on top. Based on these four pizzas, that seems right to me. On this night, I think Marissa’s was a little better than DC’s, but not by much. Almost a coin flip. I have spent a lot of time hoping that the other judges also slightly preferred Marissa’s and that these 2 or 3 points don’t impact the outcome of the tournament and luckily they didn’t.

Again, my feeling was that the pizza we sampled at Marissa’s was a little better than DC’s and the scores showed that on my scorecard (33 to 29). Looking at the total scores from all the judges for Marissa’s I gave the sausage pie 19 out of its 74 points (26%) and the broccoli pie 14 out its 60 points (23%). At DC’s I gave the sausage pie 13 of its 57 points (23%) and the broccoli pie 16 of its 67 points (24%). In a completely unscientific way, it would appear that the other judges and I agree on this match up.

Round 1: Albany Wrap Up

In another surprise to me, I liked the broccoli pizza more than the sausage pizza at DC’s. My main take away from the night was how important the marriage of individual components in a pizza is. The Marissa’s crust was a little bland, but got significantly better when combined with the sauce and cheese. I think the quality of the DC’s sausage got pulled down by their sauce. Too bad there isn’t a way to make a Franken-pizza combining the best parts of both shops. It was a very close match up and probably goes back to that “any given pizza” theory. Same pizzas ordered at a different time and the outcome of this round could easily be different.

TOP Round 1: I Love vs. DeFazio's

I have no idea if there are still tickets available, but if you are interested in being a pizza judge, follow this link to see if you can still get a now FREE ticket to the AOA Tournament of Pizza Championship.  This is going online a little late. The official results for this pizza battle went up yesterday.

 

Round 1 Troy Bracket: DeFazio’s versus ILove (AOA link)

DeFazio’s in Troy

Before becoming a judge, I was a tournament spectator that would download the spreadsheet of scores and make up my own statistics. Yeah, this pizza obsession isn’t healthy. Anyhow, a score somewhere in the low 70s seems to be the imaginary line in the sand the separates eh pizza from pizza worth seeking out. One of the stats I remember from looking over all the Tournament scores was that DeFazio’s had submitted the most pizzas with scores of 70 or higher in the tournament. Not too shabby.

Now DeFazio’s had a little bit of an advantage over all the other pizza shops - the group of tournament judges were recognized (and proudly shown pictures of a newly born but still unnamed granddaughter) before the pizza order was placed. I’m not sure if that helped or hurt (and my guess is that everyone that came into the shop that day saw pictures of the family’s newest addition), but when the pizza came out of the oven, they knew it was going to be judged. They also timed the delivery of the two pizzas to table a few minutes apart so both were fresh from the oven.

First up was the sausage pizza. No screen was used, the crust was nicely darkened, there was some char and the crust had good flavor. There were also a few crust bubbles. For the most part, the crust supported the weight of the slice, but the tip of the slice drooped so you had to be quick with the first bite. The sauce had a nice tomato flavor and there was the right amount of it on the slice - not too much, not too little. The sausage was seasoned all the way through and well distributed across the pizza but it wasn’t a standard salt/pepper/fennel Italian sausage. There was another flavor, paprika I believe, that might not be everyone’s favorite. The cheese on the slice was also really tasty and I’m curious about which brand it is. All-in-all, a very good slice that was better than my last visit to DeFazio’s when I ordered the same pizza.

Sausage Pie

Crust:5, Sauce:4, Toppings:4, Overall Taste:8 for a total of 21 points.

Moving on to the broccoli-ricotta pizza, I thought the crust was pretty much the same in appearance and flavor as the sausage pizza. The ricotta was very smooth and creamy. There was a nice garlic flavor to the slice. The garlic was there, but not overpowering. The broccoli was diced and spread nicely around the pizza but tasted like it had been frozen. This pizza also had the same, delicious mozzarella in the mix. It was a very good broccoli pie.

Broccoli Pie

Crust:5, Sauce:4, Toppings:3, Overall Taste:7 for a total of 19 points.

I Love

Where DeFazio’s may have had a slight advantage in recognizing us, I Love might have had a slight disadvantage in hosting a small crowd. Seating in the shop is limited. The broccoli pizza came out first and I think the sausage was ready at the same time, but there was no place to put it. So it sat in the back until we were mostly done with the broccoli pie. By the time the sausage pizza got to us, it was like we had ordered it to go and drove it home. It might have actually fared better in a cardboard box than waiting on a metal tray. Since the broccoli pizza came out first, this is in a different order than the rest of the Round 1 write ups.

The crust on the broccoli pizza was a little pale on top and light brown on the bottom. No screen was used. There was just a little, not a lot, of uncooked flour taste and the crust was crisp. The ricotta was smooth but seasoned with a ton of black pepper - to the point of almost being spicy. The mozzarella had good flavor and pulled into strings when you took a bite. The broccoli had been frozen and was cut into florets and there was a nice background of garlic to the slice.

Broccoli Pie

Crust:2, Sauce:3, Toppings:3, Overall Taste:4 for a total of 12 points.

The sausage pie had a crust with a little bit more browning and none of the raw flour taste. No screen was used and because the pizza sat a little while, there was a definite chew to the crust. The slice lacked any crispiness. The sauce was very sweet. Really, really sweet. The sausage was sliced rounds that had nice flavor but some toughness when chewed. The colder cheese had gelled up and lost all of the great stringy qualities that were on the broccoli slice.

Sausage Pie

Crust:2, Sauce:2, Toppings:2, Overall Taste:6 for a total of 12 points.

Analysis

I’d argue that the pizza we sampled at DeFazio’s was much better than I Love and my scorecard clearly shows that (40 to 24). Looking at the total scores from all the judges for DeFazio’s I gave the sausage pie 21 out of its 85 points (25%) and the broccoli pie 19 out its 81 points (23%). At I Love I gave the sausage pie 12 of its 54 points (22%) and the broccoli pie 12 of its 46 points (26%). In a completely unscientific way, it would appear that the judges and I are in near pretty close agreement with this match up.

Round 1: Troy Wrap Up

Maybe I have a little bit of bias since DeFazio’s is the closest I’ve found to my ideal pizza in the area. I think the final tale of the tape in this match up can be told by the leftovers. The pizzas at I Love were a little larger than DeFazio’s, but a quarter of each pizza was leftover. Nothing was leftover at DeFazio’s. When put head to head, I think I would always prefer a pizza from DeFazio’s to I Love but the two shops appear to be targeting different audiences. DeFazio’s doesn’t sell slices and I Love looks to cater to a late night bar crowd long after DeFazio’s closes for the night. So, if you are looking for a 1 am slice (and ok with really sweet sauce), I Love will do the trick. And maybe a quick reheat helps out the crust too. If you are just into the pizza, I’d head up the road to DeFazio’s.

TOP Round 1 - Mario's vs. Marino's

The All Over Albany Tournament Of Pizza moves on to the next battle. My pizza insanity has driven me to document each slice I eat as a judge in the Tournament. If you would like a chance at judging some pizza, ticketsare available for the finals. You’ll get the same pizza as the judges, some beer samples and a brewery tour. One thing I’ve learned on past pizza quests is that tasting things back-to-back or side-by-side can seriously impact your perception of what you are eating. If you are around on October the 11^th, come join me at Schmaltz Brewing to eat pizza and crown this year’s Tournament champ.

As a little reminder, here’s how the rounds were scored. Each judge had 25 points to award (or not award) a pizza. Crust, sauce and toppings were given up to 5 points each and then Overall Taste was allowed up to 10 points. After each round, I wrote up my thoughts on the evening within a day so that they would still be fresh in my mind. Here’s how I thought the second tournament match-up went.

Round 1 Schenectady Bracket: Mario’sversus Marino’s (AOA link)

Mario’s in Niskayuna

For consistency’s sake, I began with the sausage pizza. The crust has a little bit of browning and there were screen marks on the bottom of the slice. The crust was a little tough and dense, kind of bready. The sauce was decent but nothing special. The cheese was a little tough and rubbery. The kind of cheese that when you bite it, it all comes off the slice. The sausage was seasoned all the way through, but the flavor was just so-so. The pizza looked a lot better than it tasted.

Sausage Pie

Crust:3, Sauce:3, Toppings:3, Overall Taste:4  for a total of 13 points.

Moving onto Mario’s white broccoli pie. The first thing you notice looking at the pizza is how wet and runny the ricotta was, but it had an OK flavor. The crust was browned but looked oily - and it was. This crust was also cooked on a screen and a little bready. The rim was dusted with something. I took a taste of the dusting and that was a mistake; it tasted like a ton of granulated garlic. After the scores were in, another judge made a comment that was right on the money. His slice had an everything bagel taste with what he thought was some onion mixed in with the garlic. I didn’t catch any onion flavor on my slice, but a garlic bagel is a great description. The broccoli was cut into bite size pieces and tasted like frozen broccoli.

Broccoli Pie

Crust:2, Sauce:3, Toppings:2, Overall Taste:4 for a total of 11 points.

Marino’s in Schenectady

I had driven by a few times but never stopped at Marino’s. When you walk in, it has the feel of a nice family restaurant. Nicer than a hole in the wall with a very friendly feel to it. Sticking to the same order as last week, I began with a slice of the sausage pizza. The crust was nicely browned, no noticeable char on my slice (a few darker spots on the rim) and they don’t use pizza screens. I thought the sauce was nice and light. There was a good distribution of sausage clumps all over the pizza and it had the standard sweet Italian sausage flavor, but that flavor wasn’t very strong. On the way out, I asked if the made the sausage there and they do. The cheese had a nice flavor and a good amount of salt. All in all, I thought it was a good pizza.

Sausage Pie

Crust:4, Sauce:3, Toppings:4, Overall Taste:7 for a total of 18 points.

Next up was the white broccoli pizza. The crust was lightly browned with some delicious random bubbles on the rim and once again, no screen. I found nothing to complain about with the crust. There was a heavy garlic aroma coming off the pizza and small ricotta dots were spread out all across the pizza. The broccoli tasted like fresh, not frozen and cut into bite size pieces. A tiny bit of garlic got burned in the oven and I had one bite with the strong taste of burnt, bitter garlic. Other than that one bite, I thought this pizza was pretty much as good as a white broccoli pizza gets.

Broccoli Pie

Crust:5, Sauce:3, Toppings:4, Overall Taste:8 for a total of 20 points.

Analysis

In my opinion, the pizza we sampled at Marino’s was better than Mario’s and the scores showed that with Marino’s having a sizable lead on my scorecard (38 to 24). Looking at the total scores from all the judges for Marino’s I gave the sausage pie 18 out of its 74 points (24%) and the broccoli pie 20 out its 84 points (24%). At Mario’s I gave the sausage pie 13 of its 49 points (27%) and the broccoli pie 11 of its 46 points (24%). In a completely unscientific way, it would appear that the judges and I are in near perfect agreement with this match-up.

Round 1: Schenectady Wrap Up

If you told me that I’d taste 4 pizzas and like a white broccoli pie the best, I’d think you were dreaming. So I’m surprised to see a white broccoli pie with the most points I awarded to a pizza after two match-ups of pizzerias that have already proven themselves in the tournament. But I wasn’t alone. One thing that was mentioned as we left Marino’s was that all of the judges ranked the Marino’s broccoli pie higher than their sausage pie. Several years ago, I went to Mario’s for dinner. They offer a pizza on a long cutting board. Going on what’s left of my memory, that pizza (while more of a Sicilian style) was better than their round pizza. As for Marino’s, I’m going to bring the family there for dinner sometime. Seemed like a nice, family friendly neighborhood joint. The world needs more of those.