One of the first restaurants that Alli introduced me to when we started dating was Gino and Joe’s in the Main Place Mall. Since then, in 2008, Joe opened up his own pizza place located in the Tops plaza off Grant Street (behind Buff State campus). In a unit that formerly was a Mighty Taco (I can’t think of any other MT that has gone out of business) which I knew well as the hang out spot after a concert at Showplace Theater.
I have been slightly “NY Style Pizza”-ed out lately, the newest Zetti’s location recently opened up a couple blocks away from my house and NY Style Pizza on Allen has really dropped off in quality lately. So I wasn’t really looking forward to trying a new Pizza place, especially one that served big/thin slices. However I had heard about Joe’s for quite some time now and since it was close to our Puppy Kindergarten Classes, it was a convenient dinner spot.
Alli and I ordered the pizza to go, so while we didn’t eat it “fresh” it was maybe a 5 minute drive back to my house to eat. The pizza was thicker then what I had been use to with other NY Style locations in the area, it almost seemed like a hybrid of Buffalo and NYC.
The fries were mediocre, obviously the amount of time that it took for us to drive from Joe’s back to our house had an impact on how “fresh” they would taste. But their fries had that texture of a Burger King fry with a crumbly seasoning that left an awkward feeling in my mouth after eating a couple. Maybe that style is your favorite but for me that’s not my ideal french fry.
The pizza was really good and I would say it would be my #2 NY Style Pizza place in the downtown area (the Elmwood Zetti’s location still holding the #1 spot). It probably is the thickest version out of any of the NY Style Pizzerias and a bit more “saucey”. So while purists maybe wouldn’t be thrilled, I really enjoyed it.
So if you are a Buffalo State student, are in the Grant/Amherst Street (Black Rock) area, or just looking to grab a slice of pizza from somewhere new, check out Joe’s. They have a pretty good seating area for those who want to eat there on the spot and we only had to wait about 15 minutes for take out.
