Pizza

Trattoria Aroma on Main in Williamsville does great NY-style thin-crust pizza, which is baked in a wood-burning oven. It's a really nice little place. Great food, great service. And good pizzas are few & far-between around here. So, I asked the waiter - "do you do takeout?" He replies, "yes, but with NY-style thin-crust pizza, you really need to eat it hot." I agreed, and remarked to him that they are one of the few places around here that know how to do real NY-style pizza. He thanked me, and mentioned Romeo & Juliet's on Hertel as also being good - I agreed. Then he startled me with this news: There is a guy from Westchester who opened a pizza parlor "in the plaza with the theater near UB". At first, I thought he meant the plaza at Maple & Sweet Home by UB North. I checked it out, and there's nothing there. (Except a Taco Bell). Then I tracked it down at the plaza across from UB South, and next to the Amherst Theater (corner of Main & Kenmore Aves.) Zetti's Pizza and Pasta 3500 Main Street Amherst 716-831-8000 Some UB students from the tri-state area comment on Zetti's at a bulletin board: http://www.chowhound.com/boards/tristate/messages/20360.html And a review from UB: http://spectrum.buffalo.edu/article.php?id=15552 Quotes from the owner:

According to Zetti's owner, John Fusco, there is definitely room for one more. "We thought this area could use a better pizza product and pasta product overall to be honest," he said. "The pizza here is like white bread with ketchup and cheese on it. It's a whole different product than what we serve."

OhmyGodOhmyGod. This is it!

"We get everyone. The menu has a wide array of dishes. We have veal dishes, chicken dishes, pasta dishes — so we have everyone from families coming in and sitting down to students," Fusco said. "Lots of students are from Long Island, and they come in because they recognize the product." But, the true test of any pizzeria is the quality of their cheese and pepperoni pizza, so I ordered a slice ($2.40). Growing up in this area, I have tried dozens of different pizzas over the years, but until trying Zetti's, I had no idea there was anything this much better to be had. Though the pepperoni could have been just a little better—I like mine to curl up a little more when it cooks—the crust more than made up for it. It was so crispy and light, even the burned stuff on the bottom tasted good.

I'm so there. If not today, then tomorrow. As a side note, the only good pizza in WNY is: Romeo & Juliet's (Hertel Ave, Buffalo) La Hacienda (Niagara Falls ONLY)(31st & Pine) Trattoria Aroma (Main St. Williamsville) La Dolce Vita (Hertel Ave, Buffalo) I grew up on NYC-style thin-crust pizza; that's the only good pizza, IMHO. Uno's is an encrusted, pizza-like casserole. La Nova is serviceable in a pinch. Great Northern Pizza Kitchen is pretty good. Bocce and Just Pizza? They just suck.