Pontillo's on Groton Avenue in Cortland is the Cortland location of the upstate New York pizza chain that the people who grew up in this region treat as the standard against which other pizza is measured, which is a meaningful position in CNY food culture regardless of how it lands with people who don't have the frame of reference.
I've been coming to this location regularly enough to have preferences. The pizza is engineered for the specific upstate New York register: thin-but-not-cracker crust with the char pattern from a hot oven, fresh sauce at the right acidity, cheese coverage that holds through the slice. These are not small things. The people who talk about regional pizza in this state the way they talk about regional pizza in New York City have a point. The Cortland corridor has its own tradition and Pontillo's has been part of it for long enough to be institutional.
The Groton Avenue location runs the operation correctly. The service is fast and organized, the pizza comes out at the right temperature, and the atmosphere is what it is: a busy pizza house on a street that sees a consistent volume of campus-adjacent and city-center traffic. Five stars for a location that maintains the brand standard without coasting on it.
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August 19, 2023
