Cold Cheese Pizza

Oneonta: City of the Hills. There's a plethora of various things that come to mind for me when reminiscing about this Upstate New York city.  In no particular order...

Brook's BBQ, The Southside Mall, SUCO (SUNY Oneonta), Hartwick College, Brooklyn Boy Hair, The Silver Bullet, Water Street, The Sip, Margaritaville, The Novelty Lounge, Artware, George Hamwey, Jamesway, Nichol's, Dan Dee Donuts, The One and Two Theater, The Showcase Cinema, and of course... Tino's Pizza. 

Tino's Cold Cheese Pizza, to be exact. If you love cheese and haven't had this amazingly simple delicacy, I urge you to try it. Mozzarella cheese most certainly has at least two distinct flavors; uncooked and cooked.  The combination of the two atop a thin, crispy slice of dough with just the right amount of sauce is simply delectable. Pro tip -- get it by the slice.  Maybe even ask for your cheese on a side plate.  Ordering more than two slices (e.g. an entire pie) will give time for the cold cheese to warm and melt, thus ruining the wonderfully cheesy experience. Add it as you go, either bite by bite or per slice.

A little FYI - Tino's claims to be the original home of the cold cheese slice (going back as far as the 1980's), but like most things (and I'm looking at you, Saratoga chips), they've likely been around a while longer in other places.  After doing a quick Google search, apparently cold cheese slices are popular in the Ohio Valley (referred to as Ohio Valley-style pizza, or Steubenville-style pizza) and could date back as far as WWII, according to DiCarlo's Pizza in Steubenville. Also, the name DiCarlo's conjures a much different image for people familiar with Albany, ha.

So if you're in Oneonta, grab a slice and try it.  Or, if you're feeling adventurous, ask for it at your local pizza place and struggle with explaining it to the perplexed pizzaiolo.