We New Yorkers love our thin-crust pizza almost as much as we enjoy arguing about who makes the best slice: You’re not really from here until you’ve traded arguments consisting solely of pizzeria names and profanity. (“Di Fara’s!” “No, you asshat, Bleecker Street Pizza!”) But here’s an open Bensonhurst secret: Way out near the end of the D line, there’s one — and only one — Sicilian slice worth cheating on Di Fara for. L&B Spumoni Gardens’ square pies are so legendary they inspire ungodly journeys, block-long lines, and, once, even an extortion trial related to alleged theft of their proprietary sauce recipe. One bite into this joyful square and you’ll understand why: With the perfect balance of sweetness and acidity, an ample bounty of tomato lusciousness sits proudly atop cheese melting directly into an inch of dough. The bottom of the slice has a buttery crispness to offset the dough’s unusual almost-but-not-fully-baked texture. Once you’ve made the trek, finish off the experience with a helping of creamy, tangy homemade spumoni, which L&B’s founder used to peddle from his horse-and-buggy in the Thirties.
2725 86th Street, Brooklyn
718-449-1230