YORK ROAD PLAZA PIZZA SHOWDOWN

 Vito's Pizzeria, 6304 York Rd. 

Fortunato Brothers' Pizza, 6374 York Rd.

At the beginning of this month of April Pizza Club visited two pizza parlors in the strip mall around Wells Liquors on York Road: Vito's Pizzeria and Fortunato Brothers' Pizza. First we went to the liquor store. That was the best part of this experience.

I lost my grease spattered notes from these pizzas but I pretty much remember what happened. First, people recommended both of these places on Facebook. Each place had its partisans. The whole thing seemed intriguing, with accusations of abusive management and this one time someone drove their car into the front of Fortunato's. So we decided to pit the two pizza places against each other to determine the best pizza of the York Road Shopping Plaza.

The best pizza of the York Road Shopping Plaza is Fortunato Brothers'. It was pretty good. The green vegetables were not quite thawed and baked properly, so they got kind of burnt, but tomatoes were employed to great effect. Someone said to try their white sauce with broccoli pie, and aside from the broccoli being weird (spinach would have been smarter perhaps) it was satisfying in all regards. The cheese was real and tasty. The crust was thin but pillowy. A lady at the next table was really struggling to eat a cannoli with a fork.

Fortunato's: guarded optimism. See cannoli lady in background

Before we could reach the haven of adequacy that is Fortunato's, however, we had to pass through the purgatory of Vito's. Some people really like Vito's. I'm not taking an anti-Vito's stance here, but I would conjecture that their pizza probably is much better when it's first cooked for the lunchtime crowd and served by-the-slice.

By the time we got there at 7 or 8, the slices on display did not look appetizing, and we decided that it would be more fair to order a fresh pie. In this, we were sorely misguided. We got one plain pie and one with something on it, I don't know, mushrooms or something that comes from a can and you can't mess it up. Nothing was 'messed up,' per se, but the whole thing was kind of a slog. We wound up not finishing the cheese pizza because the cheese was not too edible. If anyone who was there remembers anything more specific, please contact me with this information.

It should be noted that both places were affordably priced for events such as birthday parties or office lunches, where you are on a budget but don't want to give up on life and order Papa John's. Don't give up, please.

the end of a long day

Also, Vito's reminded us very much of the place where your middle school boy/girlfriend breaks up with you. Like, after band practice. Not that Pizza Club was in the band or had a boy/girlfriend, but this is the kind of place where you go for such mundane but necessary functions as eating pizza and ending a two-day middle school relationship. But you could do much better at Fortunato's, so go there unless you're on a by-the-slice mission some day around noon and want to report back to us about it.

Vito's Pizzeria: 2/8 slices
Fortunato Brothers' Pizza: 3.5/8 slices