Ava’s Kitchen & Bar

Kind of a hipster, trendy joint, serving 12” wood-burning brick oven fancy personal pies. The dough is truly unique with A LOT that goes into the process including long fermentation, high hydration, naturally leavened using stone ground flour from New York state. As you can see, the pie is very well done, a rigid texture to the dough, unfortunately more burnt than charred on much of the crust, which is still incredibly crunchy and tasty despite the burned spots. Their version of a plain cheese pizza is called a “Red Pie;” however, it’s more orange colored from the oil & grease, giving the middle of the pizza a soupy & floppy consistency. There’s just not enough tomatoes involved in this pie; the sauce isn’t prevalent, lacking big time in taste & quantity. On the bright side, the mozzarella cheese is an outstanding blend with some grated Grana Padano (similar to Parmigiano Reggiano). The combo of the cheese and dough is excellent, top notch quality with a nice touch of fresh basil to class the pie up a bit; but sadly, the sauce drags the entire score down. I’m not sure if the quality of the sauce needs to be adjusted or just the quantity, but it’s clearly the one ingredient holding this pizza back from the 8s. Perhaps their specialty pies are the way to go cause the Red Pie certainly isn’t.