Fortina - Yonkers

Not exactly “chain pizza,” but this is 1 of 4 Fortina locations including 2 others in New York (Rye Brook & Armonk) and 1 in Stamford, Connecticut, which I reviewed a few years ago. Their regular cheese pizza is called the Original Famous Rays; but it’s nothing like any of the Ray’s pizzas in NYC. Fortina specializes in personal size wood-fired pies that are in and out of the oven in about 5 minutes. Like the typical wood-fired Neapolitan style pizzas, this pie is charred but not crispy, soft and very chewy, with a super tough and rubbery crust that actually hurt my jaw to chew. The other ingredients don’t do much to make up for the crispless & pedestrian dough. The sauce is somewhat sweet but dulled and completely overpowered by oregano. I remember the Margherita pie I had from the Stamford location being overloaded with oregano as well. The shredded mozzarella isn’t terrible but it congealed and got cold in transit. These pies are cooked so quickly but lose their freshness even faster, particularly takeout pies. Maybe this pizza needs to be eaten on-site; but for the most part, this is just another cookie-cutter, mass produced, wood-fired pie, similar to the Neapolitan Margherita pizzas made the same way. The should actually change the name of this pie to The Plain Jane cause it’s boringly banal and disappointingly mundane.