Every time I order a pizza, one of my favorite parts of my experience is scoping out their establishment. It gives me such an insight into what makes a pizza place so special. Their culture, their people, their aesthetic, everything! Even if it’s a dingy hole in the wall – those places can sometimes be the best.

With my new find in Williamsville, LaPorta’s Pizzeria, I got to see what makes them so special. They did have a limited waiting area for customers to pick up their pizza and cash out, so due to COVID I had to wait outside until someone else was finished getting their order. No problem though! When I got inside, the people were honestly SO friendly. It reminded me of all the good things in life during this crazy time: community and kindness.

I did find out that the original owners recently retired after 30+ years with the pizzeria and is under new ownership now. This is great to see that the LaPorta family’s hard work and contributions to the community lives on. It’s such an important time right now to continue to support our local businesses, especially those who have so much of a legacy.

For this occasion, I was meeting up with a couple friends, so pizza was a necessity! We ended up going with half cheese and half pepperoni. The pizza was fresh out of the oven when I picked them up, so by the time I got to my friends house it had cooled off perfectly.

I was so pleased with LaPorta’s! My expectations weren’t high either, since I was mostly just looking to try somewhere new in the Northtowns.

This was a classic Buffalo-style pizza, but I’d say on the cleaner, more organized side. I find that most Buffalo-style pizzas are messy and oozing due to an excessive amount of toppings (cheese, sauce, pepperoni). And boy, do I sure love those messy ones too!

The dough across the board was really solid. The crust was medium thickness, not overly thin like NY-style, nor as thick as Buffalo-style pizzas can be. It was pretty standard tasting dough as well – it was exactly what you’d expect for this kind of pie. Buttery throughout, crunchy on the edges and super fluffy in-between.

I actually preferred the cheese-only slices over the pepperoni slices, which was rare for me! I usually always prefer to have toppings in some fashion. The reason I liked the cheese-only so much is because of how chewy the dough was with this pie. If it had leaned more crunchy and well-cooked, I think I would have preferred the pepperoni since the cup-and-char completes that texture a bit more.

All-in-all though, really solid experience! So glad to have tried somewhere new in the Northtowns and be able to support local businesses during this trying time.

Pizza & love,

Mandy