Cortese: The Follow Up...

After having a pleasurable experience with Cortese pizza I decided to go back for a proper dinner. I am going to make this brief because I don’t really have anything good to say about the food. The first problem is the menu…. It is WAY too long!!! Cortese has over 150 menu items… Not only is it difficult to choose what to order but I am sure it is difficult for management to keep all those ingredients fresh… I ordered the veal saltimbocca which is made with butter garlic, prosciutto, and mozzarella in a sherry cream sauce. I have had this dish at other Italian restaurants and always enjoyed it. Here, not so much… It came with a choice of side and a salad. The salad was made from typical ice-crutch lettuce and canned olives. I chose a baked potato as my side, which was fine. Although, It’s pretty hard to screw up a baked potato. The veal was served on its own plate quarantined from any other food on the table, it seemed to be drowning in a shallow puddle of sauce that the waitress (or kitchen) managed to spill over the edges of the dish on 3 sides. The veal was somewhat edible but there was an excess of sherry in the sauce and a lack of cream. It was incredibly sweet and not savory or rich at all. The presentation of the food was astonishingly bad and the waitress was overly enthusiastic. For $20 I was expecting more… Cortese is a nice place to sit and have a drink at the bar, watch sports and have a witty conversation with the bartender. But as for the food, I think I’ll stick to the pizza. 2 out of 5 stars…

Cortese Pizza

So after reading Bangchef’s comment, I had to see what Cortese’s was all about. First let me tell you about the atmosphere… If Tony Soprano lived in Binghamton you would probably find him at one of the dark corner tables in Cortese’s talking about someone who he is about to whack. The ambiance is very Italian with tons of wood low ceilings and waiters with red ties floating around the dining room. I sat at the bar and ordered a personal sized florentine pizza as chef sharron recommended. One thing to note is that Cortese’s is a pretty nice restaurant, it’s not a typical pizza shop where you walk in grab a slice and be on your way. Their pizza is all made to order and it takes time… It is also not cheap; my personal ‘square’ pizza was 7.25 which is equivalent in volume to 2 standard slices. .. In any event, the pizza came out 10 min after I ordered it nice and hot with small black splotches of burnt goodness. The nice thing about their pizza is that they bake the toppings underneath the cheese… so my spinach, onions and sour cream was all underneath a gooey layer of mozzarella. The pizza was pretty damn good, I will admit it. The dough was nice and sweet, the crust was thin and the cheese was perfectly melted. It was the first square pizza that I really enjoyed. My only complaint about it was that it was just a tad salty and difficult to eat, but this may have been due to its odd shape. Also it’s a little pricy for pizza. I still give my vote to Grande’s (New Yorkesk) but Cortese’s did impress me.

Here is a link to Cortese’s web site; their photos don’t give the place justice…
Cortese's

About Me

My love for food actually stems from my love for restaurants... I guess you could say it was one of those chicken and egg situations. My first exposure to the food industry was in high school. Like most 16 year olds I was flat broke and tired of going to the coin star to redeem my change just so i could buy my bacon egg and cheese sandwich from the food truck across the street from high school. So I started looking for a job. Fortunately, I stumbled across one relatively quickly. One of my old high school buddies got a job in a catering company in mid town Manhattan from one of his Russian mafia type acquaintances. He said that I would pretty much get a job if I walked in the office told "George Rizzo" that I was "Dan's" friend/schoolmate. So I stumbled over to 43rd and Lex one day after school went up to the 5th floor of one of those stark business buildings which have doorman desks but no doormen to be found. The lobby also had way too much marble and floor to ceiling mirrors.... I don't get it. Anyway, I entered the office of Star Staffing Services and asked for "George Rizzo". When I finally was able to go into his office, I was greeted by a large healthy looking man whose eyes seemed way too dark for the florescent lighting in the office. But once he opened his mouth I could see the charm and lovable nature of the guy. George is one of those gentle giant types.

Anyway, I told him my story and he asked if I owned a tux. Of course I didn't own a tux. At the time it was hard enough to find a button up shirt in my closet (though things have changed since then). George didn't seem surprised, he just handed me a card of some random place in queens and told me not to let the guy charge me more then 100 bucks and that he would hem the legs for me on the spot. Oh, and i forgot to mention that he told me that I would be working my first gig that upcoming weekend a t the New Jersey Preforming Arts Center (NJPAC) which just a short PATH train ride into Newark... For those of you who have never been to Newark its one of those cities where a skinny white kid from Queens feels kind of unwelcome... especially when he is wearing a cheap tux and his hair is slicked back with way too much gel. Anyway, I was fortunate to have gotten the job and for the next two years I catered in the tri-state area. Needless to say my pubescent eyes became exposed to many new and glamorous things. Plus I was eating pretty good food for free, staying out late with a bunch of older people from mostly other countries and I was making 15bucks an hour. After just two weeks I was able to afford bacon egg and cheeses with a coffee for the rest of my high school days. I felt like a king.

Since than I have worked in a few restaurants and have moved up to Binghamton for school. I am finishing my MBA and am currently working at the Lost Dog Cafe. It's a pretty cool spot if you have never been I am sure you will agree. Surely, I will talk about about the Dog (Dawg) some other time. Anyway, prior to going to sleep let me tell you about the best pizza place in Binghamton.

Hailing from the city I would like to boast that I have a slightly refined pizza pallet. Many say NYC pizza and bagels are the best on earth. New Yorkers have their theories on on why the city has become such a carb powerhouse, personally I blame the water or "wadda"(my co-workers constantly bombard my accent). NYC has some of the best water in the States because it comes from some very clean reservoirs in upstate new york. But for some reason upstate pizza is usually terrible and often SQUARE!!! Well its actually rectangle... Anyway it has one too many sides! I don't bother to ask why the pizza is square... sometimes its best not to ask. Pizza Square doesn't roll off your tongue as nicely as pizza pie... The best pizza place in Binghamton can be found at Grande's which is located on the south side of Binghamton. It's 2 minutes away from downtown and maybe 3 from school. There is also an Italian restaurant attached to the pizza shop but it isn't really worth going to. The pizza is really the star at this place. First of all it's round and served in triangular shaped slices! It has a standard sized crust that bubbles up nicely. Beautiful gooey air bubbles form in between the dough and cheese creating a nicely browned top. This pizza actually tastes like NYC pizza! In fact I wouldn't be surprised if the restaurant has tapped into one of those water lines that is headed before the city. Either that or they guys import water from the city... whatever they are doing to their dough they are doing it right. So go support some local Italians and eat some real pizza. Oh, and I forgot to mention that it is cheap $1.50 a slice... you can't beat it.

you can check them out at...

Grande's Bella Cucina
1171 Vestal Avenue
Binghamton, NY 13903-1606