Donna DiMarzo has been in the restaurant business for a long time. She started her restaurant career at 16 years old, when she took a job working in a pizza shop in Greece. Since then, she has owned or been involved with the opening of more than 11 restaurants and bars in Rochester, including the popular Veneto on East Avenue and its recently closed sister restaurant, The Social. DiMarzo's newest venture is a return to her roots. At Sully's, a bar and grill huddled underneath the 490 approach ramp on the South Avenue extension, she makes pizzas, simple pizzas, which she pulls from a tiny wood-fired oven in a microscopic kitchen at the end of the restaurant's long and welcoming bar. You won't find any roasted red peppers, goat cheese, caramelized onions, or any other fancy pizza toppings here (for that you'll have to head over to Veneto). Here, DiMarzo serves pizza the way it was when she was growing up, thin-crusted "with all that good bad stuff on it," she says.

Sully's, named for DiMarzo's niece, has been open since June 2009, attracting a steady stream of customers to its very pleasant, slightly gritty bar, and its gigantic patio where you can play a game of pool or foosball under the stars. The place has no taps, and only a handful of beers in bottles. But on a hot day, sitting in the breeze from the front door and listening to the steady moan, thump, and grind of traffic whipping up the onramp that looms outside the door, you might well find time slipping away from you, particularly once manager and bartender Janine St. George puts a burger in front of you and pops the cap on your second beer.

As complex and varied as the menus at DiMarzo's other ventures are, the menu at Sully's is simple: the trinity of pizza, wings, and burgers, with a couple of salads and a nod or two to other bar favorites thrown in for good measure. DiMarzo was among the first restaurateurs to bring wood-fired pizza to Rochester in 2001, and she remains near the head of the pack. Her crusts are thin but sturdy, just a bit sweet, and mottled with the sort of bubbles and deep-brown hot spots that are the hallmark of a pizza cooked just right - just long enough at high-enough heat to cook the dough without letting it turn into pizza-bread. Sully's wood-fired oven is small, producing pizzas that average 10" to 12" across - too small to be subjected to the three-finger fold that is the acid-test of a good crust, but I have every confidence that a bigger pie would pass with flying colors.

The toppings are as simple as they come, and all the better for it. Rich, meaty, and gloriously greasy, a Sully's Pie is loaded with crisped pepperoni, chunks of homemade meatballs, sausage, green peppers, and onions, along with a tangy red sauce and good mozzarella cheese ($10). Her white pizza combines garlic, oil, dollops of creamy ricotta, and mozzarella mixed with asiago, and arrives piping hot, a heady gust of garlic preceding it ($9). The crust and cheese blunt the impact of all that pungent allium, but you'll surely know it's there and be grateful to DiMarzo for not pulling her punches.

Pizza and wings were meant to go together. At Sully's they cook in the same oven. I've had oven-roasted wings before and not been impressed with the results, but DiMarzo has got it just right ($5 for six wings, $10 for a dozen). The wings are roasted right on the bricks of the oven, taking on a bit of char along with the tang of wood smoke. The meat shrinks up along the fire-blackened bones to conserve its juices, the skin rendering and thinning rather than merely steaming, as too often happens with oven-cooked wings. Tossed with a spicy and smoky wing sauce that's long on hot sauce and more than a little bit of butter, these drumettes and double-bones put the fried version to shame. They are juicy, saucy, flavorful, and not at all greasy. They come in half and whole dozens; a savvy diner will opt for the latter, particularly if you have to share.

The bar-food trinity of pizza, wings, and burgers is exceedingly well rounded out at Sully's. DiMarzo grinds her own beef daily, creating burgers with a loose texture that is a nice change from the usual dense patty. She serves the burgers on a sesame seeded bun - a bun, not a roll - that is neither too large nor too small, and an ideal sponge for the ample juices that seep out of the meat. A plain burger ($6) is very good, and a "Big Cheesy" - two massive patties instead of one - is even better if you don't plan to eat again for several days ($7). But the Volcano Burger is what you should really try when you finally pull up a stool at Sully's bar.

The Volcano Burger ($8) starts with more than a quarter of a pound of freshly ground smoked-paprika-seasoned beef formed around a stuffing of pickled jalapenos and pepperjack cheese. Grilled until it forms a fragrant crust, grill lines deeply seared into the meat, topped with even more cheese, and served with a side of chipotle ranch dressing, it may be the most decadent burger in Rochester. When you bite into it, the burger oozes juice and heat in equal parts, spicy, but not so spicy that it overwhelms the beef. A quick dunk in the ranch dressing made the whole thing even better, but left me an unpresentable mess by the end of my lunch.

My only complaint? There was nothing to sop up the juices and the excess sauce. Fries or even tater tots would be perfect with this, but DiMarzo has no room for more equipment in her closet-sized kitchen at the end of the bar. She says she's working on it.

To find Sully's Pub in City Newspaper's online Restaurant Guide - including a map, user reviews, and more - click here.

Sully's

240 South Ave.

877-805-3570, sullyspubonline.com

Bar menu Tue-Sat 3 p.m.-2 a.m., full dinner menu Thu-Sat 11 a.m.-9 p.m.