The newest location of Keste is also a pizza school that offers a menu of 20 variations of pizza — mostly Neapolitan since owner Roberto Caporuscio is the U.S. president of the AVPN (Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana), the Italian association that governs the standards for Neapolitan pizzas. In addition to pizza made from the standard and organic Caputo flour, he offers gluten-free pizza that he says accounts for ten percent of the business.Behind the bar, Enomatic dispensers store all-Italian varietals that run from $10 to $80 a glass.

Italophiles are visiting Zia Esterina, the pizza fritta and fried calzone spot from Naples' very own Gino Sorbillo. He's one of Italy's most public food figures, an Italian TV regular whose reputation was enhanced when he defied the Camorra when it allegedly torched his restaurant. And he was recently immortalized as a cartoon. Look out for his pizza shop opening on Bowery in September. And in the meantime order the calzone along with the smoked mozzarella pie.

Sauce has opened LES Pizza, a walk-up window offering after-hours eats when its sit-down sibling closes at 11 p.m. Look for thin-crust pizza with an emphasis on toppings. Though owner Adam Elzer is especially proud of the plain slice ($16 for a whole plain pie), the menu lists options you’d find in a pasta bowl on a pizza, like rigatoni with meatballs, or sausage and broccoli pizza.

This D.C. import offers customizable, fast-casual pizza that's long and skinny, with a semi-thin crust. To order, you walk down a line and pick toppings (or choose from preset options) and then, in front of you, the pizza slides into the conveyor belt oven and, 90 seconds later, emerges brown and bubbly and ready to go. Pies top out at $11 post-tax, with unlimited toppings.

The team behind Breads and Nur have been inspired by Gabriele Bonci in Rome to create Roman-style tray pizzas with creative pizza toppings that include ricotta, spinach, tuna, and even egg in the pizzeria’s version of shakshuka. A slice starts at around $7, or it's $21 for a slab. This is a street-food experience.

Apizza Regionale specializes in small pies baked in a red beehive oven in the Neapolitan style — though the name suggests more of an affinity with New Haven places like Frank Pepe, Sally’s, and Modern Apizza. The pizzas are wetter and far cheesier than most Neapolitan pies — though, apart from cheese, the other ingredients are sparsely strewn.

The newest location of Fornino resides in the vast space that used to be Cow & Clover, with a downstairs bakery and a menu that extends beyond pizza. Look for salads, meatballs, and brunch items, including breakfast pizzas and scrambles served on Saturdays and Sundays from noon to 4 p.m.

Vegan-friendly, Portland, Oregon import Sizzle Pie offers inexpensive pizza by the slice with options like "It's always sunny in Portland" with shaved beef steak, green peppers, white onions, and Italian provolone. For the non-meat-eaters, there's "Spiral Tap" with caramelized onion spread, marinara, and a dusting of nutritional yeast. This is the pizzeria of your youth, plus a heavy metal soundtrack.

With organic flour and zero commercial yeast, the pizzas at Ops are worth a detour, with crust that's exceptionally light and digestible. Pizzas range from minimalist marinara to a seasonal pie with Greenmarket ingredients. The menus are palm-sized, so you'll have to have a conversation with your server about the natural wine selection and the Fernet and beer cocktail.